Article 1: What is History?

What is History?

History is the study of everything that has happened before the present. There are multiple theories as to which way you should look at history. The four most well known theories are the Hegelian Theory, the Linear Theory, and Cyclic Theory. In my opinion, the best way to look at history is the Vortex Theory. This is the theory that everything in history grows, shrinks, and then grows again. There are many examples of this happening in history, and a very common and well known theory is that history repeats itself. This is evident in the Vortex Theory.

The Hegelian Theory is the idea of cause and effect. Everything is caused by something, resulting in an effect. The problem with this theory is that it is only focusing on one concept of a time period. It leaves out everything else out that happened. By just focusing on main events, events that were not as important could be missed. These events could have led to that large event happening.

The Linear idea of history is that everything happens in the order of a timeline. The problem with this theory is that the idea of time is something that man has created. It is not a natural concept. Time is not something that can be defined, since it is constantly changing. The Vortex theory does not take time into consideration. It only takes uses the idea of a civilization growing and falling.

Looking at history as Cyclical is saying that history is like a circle. This contradicts the Linear History theory, which states that history occurs in a certain order. Cyclical also uses the idea of history repeating itself. That makes the Vortex Theory and the Cyclical Theory somewhat similar.

A vortex is large at the top and shrinks. On the opposite side of a vortex, it starts out small and grows large. This is a very affecting way of looking at history. This can range from having a bad day to an empire rising and falling. If you wake up feeling great, and then found out a family member died in the afternoon, your day has “gone through a vortex.” It started out great, or at the beginning of the vortex, and then turned out to be terrible, at the end of the vortex. The Roman Empire is a perfect example of the Vortex Theory. It rose and ruled most of Europe for over a thousand years. After falling, Europe went into the dark ages. When it rose, it was starting to enlarge moving towards the larger end of the vortex. When it fell, the empire started going towards the smaller end of the vortex.

Another example in process is the United States. The United States started to rise when the European countries decided to colonize America. Some people might argue that America is starting to fall. With illegal immigration, the economy collapsing, and a recent, but questionable, socialist movement, America slowly declining. Like the Roman Empire, many foreigners want to live in America. The United States can only control a certain amount of people. If illegal immigration continues, the United States will fall.

An economic collapse is one of the worst things that can happen to a country. Their currency becomes worth less than the currency of other countries. This is bad because then the country theoretically has less money. Having less money could be detrimental to a country, especially when trading international. The socialist movement is a very questionable and argumentative topic. Socialism is when a government has complete control over the banks and money in the country. Socialism is not good for a country because if the government wants money, they can get it. This could cause the country to go into poverty.

Because time is something that man created, it is difficult to define exactly what it is, making history hard to define. The complex part of time is that the past, present, and future is always what just happened. While it may be easier to see things that are farther back in the past and far ahead in the future, it is more challenging the closer to the present you go.

While the Vortex Theory is the best individual way to view history, a combination of all of the theories is the most sensible to way to look at history. Civilizations do grow and shrink, but it happens in a certain order. They grow because of other things, or cause and effect. And all of these things repeat themselves. Not one certain way is the best way. Using certain parts from each of the ideas creates the best way to view history.

The reason as to why there is not an ultimate way to look at history is because they are all based off of time, as is history. As previously stated, time is impossible to define. This makes everything having to do with time difficult to deal with. The very idea of history is complex. Figuring out the best way to view it is even more complex. Combining all the most popular theories makes the problem a little less complex, although it is still not clear.

History has shaped the way we live today. Without it society would be nowhere. Looking at it the right way is crucial to what we do in the future. If we analyze it the wrong way, we could make the same exact mistake that ancient civilizations made. We could also analyze it correctly and fix mistakes that they made, allowing people to live longer and “empires” to last longer. We can learn from past mistakes, and because history repeats itself, we can use the knowledge to prevent the problems that other civilizations had. This can lead to thousands of scientific breakthroughs, governmental resolutions, and improve society overall. While the Vortex Theory is the best single theory, in my opinion, it would be more beneficial to incorporate all of the theories into one idea. This will give us the optimal chance for success.

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