Stone Age technology -- Hydraulic civilizations (4000-1500 BCE) -- Iron, horses, and empires (1500 BCE-500 CE) -- Postclassical and Medieval revolutions (500-1400) -- An age of global interactions (1300-1800) -- The first industrial revolution (1750-1869) -- The acceleration of change (1869-1939) -- Toward a postindustrial world (1939-2007).