BORROWED WISDOM

"History is a mystery."  I said that when I was in school.  Do you agree?  Here's some info historians use that may help you slot when other things happened.  

BC, the time before Jesus Christ was born - year 1.  AD, all the time after Jesus Christ was born

BCE and CE are the same as BC and AD for people who don't like to think Jesus existed or was all that important.  They call it the common era and it's based on the Georgian Calendar (we use the Julian Calendar)

Dark Ages - these were the early Middle Ages from about 476 to 1000 AD  It was more than dark, back then.  Sure, they didn't have light bulbs but they didn't have knowledge of science nor medicine, either.

Middle Ages - these are the years from about 500 to 1500 AD  Not sure if this is really a good name for the period, as time goes by we can't remember what it is in the middle of. 

Renaissance - these are the years from about 1350 to 1700 AD  This is the transitional period from the backward Middle Ages to the highly enlightened Modern Age.  I guess they thought they just about knew it all starting in 1700.  

The Renaissance overlaps the Middle Ages because not everyone was as advanced as others

The above refers to Europe and the Middle East.  The rest of the world was on their own and other lands have their own take on Ages.   

Here's something to slot:  America was discovered during the Middle Ages and the settlers started arriving during the Renaissance.  Our Revolutionary War occurred during the Modern Era.