Legend taught that Quetzalcoatl would return to reclaim his title. The Mexicas subsequently embraced Topiltzin/Quetzalcoatl to persuade others that they were the legitimate successors of the Toltecs, and they constructed a temple to the god in Tenochtitlan. After a battle, Toplitzin/Quetzalcoatl left or was forced out of Tula. According to oral traditions, an ancient Toltec ruler, Topiltzin, became merged with the god. The Toltecs, who dominated ancient Mexico from the city of Tula long before the Mexicas took power, worshipped Quetzalcoatl, an ancient god of the sky and wind. Their notion of time contributed to the Mexica understanding of their history. Their history and sense of time, too, was culturally constructed. Other civilizations, including the Nahuas, understood history quite differently and understood time in a more cyclical way. ('after the common era') to secularize periodization. Historians now are more likely to name these two patterns of dating B.C.E. means 'before Christ.' AD means 'Anno Domini,' or after the birth of our lord. Moreover, our current system of dating events depends upon a Christian conception of time even though historians now believe Jesus was alive at the time A.D. Europeans tend to see historical change and periodization as a gradual move toward modernity and divide history into the history of the Ancient World, the Medieval (or Middle) period, the Early Modern Period (we're no longer middle but we haven't gotten into modernity yet), the Modern Period, and the Contemporary Period (generally history in the post-World War II period). Finally, students should begin to understand how the periodization of history is culturally constructed. Students should be able to analyze patterns of historical duration or continuity as well as to recognize historical change. Students should be able to interpret data presented in time lines.

Students should be able to use chronology in writing their own histories.

Students should be able to identify how events take place over time. Students should be able to distinguish between past, present, and future time. Historical Issues: Analysis and Decision-MakingĬhronological thinking is at the heart of historical reasoning.

What Skills Should You Have When You Leave a History Class?

Synopsis of history is all you left me