WHAT IS HISTORY?
Katie Booth
History of Mexico
“The facts of history are verifiable in the sense that one can often bring other records,
reliable witnesses, and acceptable logic to prove an event happened at a particular
time and place, was done by certain people, and caused unambiguous effects”
This is the quote that will be referenced as the definition of history.

HISTORY
History is something that is intrinsic to the human race.
The pursuit of history and the knowledge of not only
our own pasts, but that of others, is necessary for us to
know how our lives will progress.
History is a “systematic, written account of events,
particularly of those affecting a nation, institution,
science, or art, and usually connected with a
philosophical explanation of their causes; a true story, as
distinguished from a romance.” (BrainyQuote)

JOURNEY OF
MAN
Geneticist Spencer Wells has concluded through his evidence based on DNA in the Y-chromosome that all
humans alive today are descended from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 years ago. He is
attempting to make sense of our history.
Wells addresses certain evolutionary issues in a new book, The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey in a
straightforward way. He explores the exodus of early humans and uses amazing means to do so.
Many archaeologists disagree with Wells and his argument of our beginnings, saying the fossil record shows that
a first wave of migration occurred around 100,000 years ago, therefore disproving his hypothesis.
When asked about how other react to his research Wells says,
“In general, there is more and more agreement among paleoanthropologists, archaeologists, geneticists and
historians about the details of our past. I suppose one thing that some people still find hard to accept is that
we left Africa so recently, and blitzed our way around the world, but it does seem to have happened like that.
I urge them to read the book, where I discuss the archaeological, linguistic and climatological clues that fill in
the details of our journey. It is a synthetic look at the past, not simply a genetic tale.”

JOURNEY OF MAN
Virtually no one who studies human
origins disputes this: people who
looked a lot like us were roaming
Africa and the Middle East at least
115,000 years ago. Scientists usually
lump them together as “early modern”
humans, although a clearer description
might be “physically modern.” Unlike
their ancestors with jutting brows and
sloping foreheads, these people had
flatter faces and steeper foreheads like
ours.
What people who refute Wells need to
realize is that he is not giving just a
genetic narrative, disputing all of their
research, he is documenting history
through a synthetic view and in his
own way.

JOURNEY OF MAN
“Applying modern methods to the past is a growth industry. More and more, science and technology are
being used to answer, in some cases centuries-old, questions.” LA Times
Not only did Wells study the genetics of the blood samples but he also witnessed first hand the cultural
differences of the tribe in Namibia. Their warfare, their tools, their customs. He decided he was going to
structure his research and pursuit of our history in a very holistic way.

CATASTROPHE!
For five years David Keys has investigated, consulting with
more than forty scientists and scholars-astronomers,
physicists, climatologists and historians-experts on cosmic
collisions, volcanoes, epidemics and ancient wars.
The result is a book that tells the story of a catastrophic
climatic event, buried in the heart of the Dark Ages. An
event Keys believes, totally altered the course of world
history.
Ancient chroniclers recorded a disaster in that year that
blotted out the Sun for months (possibly years) causing
famine, droughts, floods, storms and an epidemic of bubonic
plague.

CATASTROPHE!
Critics have accused Keys of oversimplifying history with a "single chain of
causality".
"...this book must be taken seriously, if only as a reminder that survival in a
world threatened by real dangers hangs by a very slender thread." Malcom W.
Brown
Keys uses tree-ring samples, analysis of lake deposits and ice cores, as well as
contemporaneous documents to bolster his speculative thesis.

CATASTROPHE!
Keys is using verifiable research and “acceptable logic” to determine his theory. He
is changing our history though his own intellectual innovations, that is the essence
of humanity. The fact that we can unearth things about our past through time and
organic thought mixed with factual evidence makes us the intellegent human
beings were are today.

THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
The Columbian Exchange was a dramatically widespread exchange of animal,
plants, culture (including slaves), communicable diseases, and ideas between the
Eastern and Western hemispheres. It was one of the most significant events
concerning ecology, agriculture, and culture in all of human history
The Columbian Exchange greatly affected almost every society on earth. New
diseases introduced by Europeans (many of which had originated in Asia) to which
indigenous peoples of the Americas had no immunity, depopulated many cultures.
Data for the pre-Columbian population in the Americas is uncertain, but estimates
of its disease-induced population losses between 1500 and 1650 range between 50
and 90 percent.

THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
On the other hand, the contact between the two areas circulated a wide variety of new crops and
livestock which supported increases in population.
Even though the data for the Colombian Exchange is uncertain we can express these concepts regarding
our history through reliable witnesses, and acceptable logic
Explorers returned to Europe with maize, potatoes, and tomatoes, which became very important crops in
Eurasia by the 18th century. Many species of organisms were introduced to new habitats on the other
side of the world accidentally or incidentally. These include such animals as brown rats, earthworms
(apparently absent from parts of the pre-Columbian New World), and zebra mussels, which arrived on
ships.