Browse by historical period
Six periods, from the earliest tools to the connected present. Each page lists the articles and milestones that belong to it.
Periods
Origins and Antiquity
to about 500 CE
The longest period in technical history runs from the first stone tools to urban societies and the great ancient empires.
8 articles →Middle Ages and early modern era
c. 500–1750
Between late antiquity and the threshold of industrialization, techniques traveled along trade and cultural routes linking Asia, Africa, and Europe.
2 articles →Industrial Revolution
1750–1880
Mechanization, the use of steam, and the organization of work in factories changed production, cities, and landscapes.
4 articles →Electric age and mass communication
1880–1945
Electricity left the laboratory for streets, homes, and factories.
7 articles →Electronic age
1945–1988
From the postwar years to the end of the 1980s, the transistor and the integrated circuit made electronics smaller, cheaper, and more reliable.
7 articles →Digital and connected age
1989 onward
From the late 1980s, digital networks began to connect people, organizations, and devices on a planetary scale.
2 articles →