Ancient history

Main article: Ancient history
Historiography proper emerges in Classical Antiquity, Chinese historiographyin the 6th century BC with the Classic of History and the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Greek historiography from the 5th century BC, with Herodotus Earlier historical records however allow the piecing together of at least sketchy histories of the states of the Ancient Near East to as early as the 3rd millennium BC.

[edit] Religion and philosophy
Main article: Axial Age
Main articles: History of philosophy, Development of religion, and History of religion

Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia, early 12th century.
New philosophies and religions arose in both east and west, particularly about the 6th century BCE. Over time, a great variety of religions developed around the world, with some of the earliest major ones being Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism in India, and Zoroastrianism in Persia. The Abrahamic religions trace their origin to Judaism, around 1800 BCE.
In the east, three schools of thought were to dominate Chinese thinking until the modern day. These were Taoism, Legalism and Confucianism. The Confucian tradition, which would attain dominance, looked for political morality not to the force of law but to the power and example of tradition. Confucianism would later spread into the Korean peninsula and Goguryeo[8] and toward Japan.
In the west, the Greek philosophical tradition, represented by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, was diffused throughout Europe and the Middle East in the 4th century BCE by the conquests of Alexander III of Macedon, more commonly known as Alexander the Great