Humanity’s history has been affected by a variety of factors, some subtle and others quite overt. First are natural forces. Over the ages, countless famines, epidemics, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions have changed the course of history.
Discoveries of aspects of the natural world have also had significant impacts. The discovery of fire began a new era in human life on earth. The possibility of sowing and harvesting caused the agricultural revolution which led to the establishment of villages, towns and civilizations. Inventions like the wheel and the steam engine changed history’s path.
The founders of religions molded history in substantial, perhaps irreversible, ways: Such were the rishis of ancient India, Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius and Lao Tzu, the prophets of the Abrahamic tradition like Moses, Jesus Christ, and Mohammed. Invaders and conquerors, like the Huns, Normans, Alexander of Macedonia, Vandals, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan and the like have also charted history. / Of no less importance are the impacts of thinkers, philosophers, and their books. Their written works have influenced the thinking of vast numbers of people and the shaping of civilizations. Thus, the Vedas and their offshoots like the Mahabharata are the bases of Indic civilization. The Old and the New Testaments have been tremendous forces in forming the Western framework. The Holy Qur’an has etched Islamic world. /
On the scientific plane, the works of Nicolas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin are among those that have molded scientific worldviews. The Communist Manifesto authored by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels influenced political history in dramatic ways. Other books have influenced economics and our understanding of the human mind. It is often said that History judges. As Friedrich Schiller put it, Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht: The world’s history is the world’s judgment. However, history never actually judges, but historians often do.
Thus, history is a three-dimensional tale with countless ups and downs, joys and sorrows, that is ceaselessly working its way along the fourth dimension of time, translated periodically on to the pages of books. / Quite unconnected to the human condition, are astronomical histories, ranging from the history of the earth and of Mars to that of stars and galaxies and of the universe at large.
Spurts of Thought 