Thinking about time like a historian
Historians don’t just memorize dates. They ask: What happened, in what order, and why? Two big ideas help them:
- Chronology: putting events in the order they happened.
- Cause and effect: understanding why events happened and what they led to.
Chronology and timelines
Chronology means arranging events in time order. A timeline shows this visually.
Making a timeline
- Choose a topic and a time span.
- Draw a line and divide it into equal spaces, such as one space for each 10 or 100 years.
- Mark dates in order, earliest on the left.
- Add events with short labels, and maybe pictures.
Example: Canada’s growth
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1608 | Samuel de Champlain founds Québec |
| 1670 | Hudson’s Bay Company is created |
| 1867 | Confederation: Canada becomes a country |
| 1885 | the Canadian Pacific Railway is completed |
| 1949 | Newfoundland joins Canada |
| 1999 | Nunavut is created |
Units of time
| Unit | Length | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 12 months | 2026 |
| Decade | 10 years | the 1990s (1990–1999) |
| Century | 100 years | the 20th century (1901–2000) |
| Millennium | 1,000 years | the 3rd millennium began in 2001 |
Century tip
The century number is one more than the first digits of the year. The year 1867 is in the 19th century. The year 2026 is in the 21st century.
BCE and CE
Historians label years using BCE and CE.
- CE (Common Era) counts forward from year 1: 1608 CE, 2026 CE.
- BCE (Before Common Era) counts backward: 3000 BCE is older than 500 BCE.
- There is no year 0.
Older books may use BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini), which mean the same years.
Cause and effect
A cause is why something happened. An effect is what happened as a result.
Because the railway was built (cause), many settlers moved to the Prairies (effect).
Signal words
because, so, as a result, led to, therefore, since, due to
Chains of cause and effect
In history, one effect often becomes the cause of the next event.
Europeans wanted beaver fur for hats → The fur trade grew → Trading posts were built across the country → New relationships, and conflicts, formed between Europeans and First Nations.
Multiple causes
Big events usually have several causes. Confederation in 1867 happened because of:
- fear that the United States might expand north
- the need for a railway to connect the colonies
- political deadlock in the Province of Canada
- Britain wanting colonies to defend and pay for themselves
Short-term and long-term effects
- Short-term effects happen soon after an event.
- Long-term effects may last for many years.
Example: Building the Canadian Pacific Railway
- Short-term: jobs, towns along the route, British Columbia joining Canada
- Long-term: settlement of the West, growth of farming, and harmful effects on First Nations whose lands were taken
Try it yourself
- Make a timeline of your own life using years.
- Put these in chronological order: Nunavut created, Confederation, Champlain founds Québec, Newfoundland joins Canada.
- Which century is each year in: 1492, 1776, 1999, 2026?
- Create a cause-and-effect chain with four steps about a historical event.
Quick recap
- Chronology means arranging events in time order.
- Timelines show events in order, with the earliest on the left.
- A decade is 10 years and a century is 100 years.
- BCE counts backward from year 1, and CE counts forward.
- Historians look for causes, effects and chains of events.