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Sources Of Obtaining Historical Information Ways Of Dating Historical Events History Form One Full Notes Topical Based Questions And Examinations History Form 1 History Form One Topical Examinations

WAYS OF DATING HISTORICAL EVENTS

WAYS OF DATING HISTORICAL EVENTS

Dating Historical Events is the process of attributing to an object or event a date in the past, allowing such object or event to be located in a previously established chronology. This usually requires what is commonly known as a “dating method”.

Historians usually divide time into several categories, namely

1. Day is a duration of twenty four hours (24hrs)

2. Week is a duration of seven days (7days)

3. Month is the duration of four weeks (4 weeks)

4. Year is a duration of twelve months (12 moths)

5. Decade is a duration of ten years (10 years)

6. Century is the duration of one hundred years (100 years)

7. Millennium is the duration of thousand years (1000 years)

8. Generation is the average differences on ages between a child and his/her parent.

9. Age is the period based on ma’s economic activities and type of tools used e.g. stone age, iron age, industrial age, science and technology age, etc.

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10. Period is determined by one continuous event lasting for number of years E.g. Period of slave trade in East Africa, Period of long distance trade, and Period of colonial rule in Africa

Some points has chosen in order to divide time:

Year ZERO to present the year when Jesus Christ was born. It is known as Anno Domino (A.D) meaning the year of the Lord

All years before zero are called C meaning Before Christ (The years before the birth of Jesus Christ)

HOW TO DETERMINE DATES OF AN EVENT

Dates are instrument in a science of history; these historians divided dates into four ways/there are four ways of remembering dates of an event. These are:

1. Recalling events

Here important events are recalled/remembered e.g. drought, farming, floods, birth, eruption of diseases etc.

2. By studying languages

Some names helps people to remember dates of some events. E.g., Word “Karafuu” started when Cloves were introduced in Zanzibar.

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3. Carbon 14

Carbon 14 is a scientific method of determining dates. It used in the finding dates for remains of animals or plants, which died beyond 5000 years ago.

Carbon 14 is a gas found in carbon dioxide, which exists in the atmosphere.  It absorbed by plant and other living organisms. When died carbon 14 starts to decay at a fixed rate from the time of death.

4. Orders of events

Order of events refers to the ways showing order of events, period and ages, among of them are:

1. Time graph

2. Time chart

3. Time line

4. Family tree

S/N
PERIOD A.D
EVENTS
1 1884-1885 The Britain Conference
2 1914-1918 The first World war period
3 1939-1945 The second world war period
4 1961 Tanganyika become independent
5 1962 Tanganyika became Republic
6 1992 Introduction of multiparty system in Tanzania.

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