Historical Stage Period Main Discoveries and Technical Developments Prehistory 2.5 million years ago 1,200 B.C. • Carved stone technology (to create spears, bows and arrows). • Power and control over the fire (allow the cooking of food and light). • Development of agriculture and animal farming. • Houses made out of stone, wood, straw or timber. • Metal utensils in the kitchen (for cooking). • Rudimentary looms and basketry. Antiquity 776 B.C. - 476 A.D. • Architectural constructions. • Improvements in agriculture and aqueducts. • Maritime and terrestrial transport. • Roman society was divided into social classes (Patricians, Plebeians, Slaves). Middle Ages 5th - 15th century • Construction of temples, monasteries and castles. • Development of the printing press, the windmill, the astrolabe, the compass for navigation and the compasses for navigation and drawing. • Use of natural resources such as gas and oil. • Creation of the silk spinning machines with pedal coils, the rudder, the spinning wheel, the pyrotechnics, the paper money, the mechanical clock, the seismograph, the fishing poles, the umbrella, and hanging bridges. • Iron plow and machines for the harvest. • Discovery that water mills could generate energy for their iron and steel furnaces. • Gunpowder and the cannon. Renaissance 14th - 17th century • New trade routes. • Maritime Travel. • The discovery of new areas. • Emergence of a new social class: the bourgeoisie. Modern Age 15th - 18th century • Steam engine designed by Thomas Newcome (1712). • Propulsion of ships, trains, mechanism of different machines, etc. • Mechanization of textile industries. • Construction of iron machines. • International business. • Textile and steel industry. Contemporary Age 1945 - present • Taylorism. • Capitalism. • Trade union movements. XX and XXI Centuries 1901 - 2001 • Scientific and technological progress. • Military industry. • Advancement of experimental sciences, mainly Physics. • Progress in new technologies, materials, and the computer field. • Rails, ships, cars and aviation. • Telecommunications, especially the Internet. • Globalization. • Consumerism.
