1. HISTORY BASICS  

2. THE NATURE OF HISTORY History is the study of change over time.
The task of historians is to gather information from a particular time period when a significant change or development took place.
They try and answer two important questions:
Why did this change take place?
What effects did this change have on the people who experienced it?

3. Getting a complete picture
To create a complete picture of a particular time, the historian must gather material related to four specific developments:
Political- operation and decisions of the government
Economic- ways in which the people survived or made a living
Social- relate to people’s homes and their culture
Geographic- the ways in which the environment affected human actions or conditions
The farther back we go in our investigations, the more difficult the gathering of historical data becomes.

4. History Basics
When studying early humans and civilizations, we traditionally date from the birth of Jesus Christ (BC and AD)
What do BC & AD stand for?
BC = Before Christ
AD = Anno Domini (which means “in the year of our Lord," and is used for dates after Jesus's birth.
Now we use these two important expressions:
BCE = Before Common Era ( was BC)
CE = Common Era ( was AD)
Historians focus on putting things in chronological order - putting events in the order in which they happened.

5. Timeline Exercise – Put the following events in chronological order on a timeline
Japanese attack Pearl Harbour – CE
JFK assassinated – 1963 CE
World Trade Center attacked – 2001 CE
Battle of Thermopylae – 480 BCE
Korean War Begins – 1950 CE
Queen Elizabeth II is crowned – 1952 CE
Dinosaurs disappear – 65,000,000 BCE
Fall of Rome – 476 CE
Battle of Zama – 202 BCE
World War I begins – 1914 CE
Donald Trump becomes President of the United States – 2017 CE
Ms. Dowling is born – 1981 CE
Civilization begins in Mesopotamia – 12,000 BCE
Construction of Stonehenge begins – BCE
Hammurabi codifies laws BCE
Assassination of Julius Caesar – 44 BCE
Battle of Hastings – 1066 CE
Death of King Tutankhamen – 1323 BCE
Trojan War Begins – 1194 BCE
Newfoundland joins Canada – 1949 CE
Battle of Waterloo – 1815 CE
Canada becomes a country – 1867 CE

6. Basics continued…
Historians must find evidence to help them answer their questions.
There are two basic types of evidence:
Primary evidence – (primary sources)
They come from the time period being examined. They were created when the event took place. Ex. Artifacts (fossils, bones, arrow heads, tools), photographs, legal documents, diaries, and newspapers.
Artifacts – Human made objects such as tools, shards of pottery, or ruined buildings.
Fossils – the remains of a prehistoric animal preserved in rock

7. Basics continued… The second type is:
Secondary evidence – (secondary sources)
These are written documents created by experts who have studied a historical topic. Ex: history books, textbooks, websites

8. Historians and Bias
Since historians are rarely able to discover ALL the facts in their investigations, they must make educated guesses.
Historians call this bias.
Bias: making a judgment based on personal knowledge, experience, and attitudes, and not just on facts and data.
Reconstruction of history always involves some bias because they base their explanations on their interpretations of the evidence.
Historians attempt to recreate the past as accurately as possible so they research the past and examine evidence, often their findings are influenced by their own beliefs, values, experiences and point of view. 
Historians see and analyze from their own point of view. They interpret evidence according to their own perspective, experience, values and beliefs.

9. Branches of history
Historians – work primarily with written documents, letters, diaries, newspapers, laws, regulations, books etc… to answer their questions.
Archaeologists – they study the physical remains of ancient people and the materials they leave behind like pottery, buildings, garbage, etc… They work primarily with artifacts dug out of the ground as there are few written sources from these eras.

12. Branches of History
Anthropologists – study the origin, development, distribution, social habits, and culture of humans living.

13. Branches of History
Paleontologists- examine the fossil remains of animal and plant life.
Paleoanthropologists – combine the work of the paleontologist and the anthropologists to learn about how they affected early human civilizations.