Does the course of history demonstrate some progress of humanity?

The course of history has demonstrated many different types of progresses. Amongst these different progresses, is that of humanity. In this essay I plan to explore the progress of humanity in the course of history. One aspect that touches on the subject of history is change. This affects society in many different ways. People have evolved from prehistoric times to the twenty first century in a very obvious way. In prehistoric times we humans were unable to communicate clearly with one another face to face. Nowadays thousands of languages and dialects are used to communicate between people. This essay will be separated into three parts: Physical and hygiene, technologically and socially.

In the beginning of humanity, humans according Darwin, originated from apes then developed over the years into what we are today; Homosapiens sapiens. We rose. Though according to the bible we descent from Adam and Eve. Of course it has been scientifically proved that it is not the case. Over the centuries human’s body shapes have evolved. As we have migrated from continent to continent our skin pigments, quantity of body hair and many more body features have changes due the climatic diversity. Later on during the middle ages we have been able to notice that people were very short rarely reached 1m 60. This was due to lack of sanitation and nutritional patterns, this modified peoples highs. As time went on we were able to discover medicine, certain sanitation necessities to avoid getting sick. This was once bacteria were discovered. Before then people had no idea and didn’t take any notice, during the Middle Ages the aristocrats only bathed once a month. This is a simple example that demonstrates their lack of hygiene, due to the lack of awareness. The medical domain shows a very visible progress in humanity. Two hundred years ago people would die of flu. Today it’s seen as nothing serious. Many cures have been discovered and it shows a huge progress.

On the technological side, aspects have also altered. Communication skills have greatly developed as we can now use the telephone, email, airmail, instant messages, fax and sms. In the olden days messages would have to be personally delivered by men, pigeons or foxes. The reason that people have found the necessity to communicate abroad is due to transport facilities that been developed. Progress has come with the awareness of the existence of others. This leads us into the next topic of the technological stage, which is transportation. Transportation started when the Romans introduced a wide scale of the trading market. Destinations had to be more easily accessible, therefore roads had to be build. They started finding more rapid means of transportation. Since the beginning of trading time and quantity is money. Money is the push factor that leads people to want to develop. Today still people are looking to travel faster, an example of this is the Concorde, which is a huge progress from average airplanes because it halves the travel time. Even trains and boats now travel thousands of times than when they originated.

Human society has also broadened their horizons socially. Starting from the Greeks the mighty powers were held by one and only one person. The working class only did what they were told to do and never had a chance to think for themselves. There was a lack of possibility to educate oneself, which enhanced the chance of the church and monarchy to keep their power and avoid being overthrown. The Monarchy (church) were the truth keepers, they therefore had the power to control society by keeping them in an enclosed environment. Once Gutenberg invented the printing press, the bible was translated form Latin and books could be distributed to the public. Therefore, authors and philosophers could diffuse powerful messages. This marks the beginning of the Renaissance. Reading a variety of ideas broadened people’s minds. This how in France the French revolution snowballed. Strong personalities pushed the weaker into believing in their group power. This created democracy. In most nations veto power was removed, this is an example of a progress, we have moved on from one-man power to shared power. Society decided that veto-schip should not belong to one family. In France after the revolution the monarchy was abolished and leaders were voted into power. An ocean of personal choice is demonstrated through this example. Slowly but eventually everyone received the equal rights to choose and vote.

Through these three aspects that we choose to show progress in humanity through history, it is clearly shown progress is obvious. Physically if we look at point A, through to today, the change is clear. In the technological feature humanity has shown some remarkable evolution. As for the social side, we have gone from one-man power to a democracy: free speech, free thoughts and free will. Everyone is pushed to think and develop their own ideas for themselves. History demonstrates a long path which is yet to be fininshed.