We explain what a timeline is and what it can be used for. Also, the different steps to make one.
What is a timeline?
It is known as a timeline (ortimeline in English) to a sequential arrangement of events on a topic, so that the chronological order of these events can be appreciated. In simpler terms, it is a way to visually organize the information of an issue, so that the historical order in which the central milestones of the issue in question occurred can be appreciated.
It is a technique widely used in the educational context, either in history books or in exhibitions, since it allows the sequential ordering of information along a line or arrow that indicates the direction in which the course takes place. weather historical. Thus, the events further to the left will be the oldest, and those further to the arrowhead or to the far right of the line will be the most recent.
The timelines commonly organize the different eras or historical epochs of the humanity or a region or population determined; the specific events that took place within a given context (as in a war, a revolution, a government specific, etc.); or the determining historical moments in the particular history of a person, a technology or a knowledge.
Often, whatever the case may be, events of historical or universal importance are also located to provide context or establish comparative relationships with other different processes, whether it is a different country or region, or the universal history of humanity. . This is often referred to as a comparative timeline.
Steps to build a timeline
To develop a timeline, the following steps must be followed:
- Determine the scale of it. It must be decided what time period the graph will cover: if all human history, a specific government, a specific year, a specific century, or from a specific century to the present, etc.
- Determine the main milestones. The most important or transcendental events of the information that will be represented on the line must be located and previously organized, since these great milestones will be the main ones on the graph.
- Determine contextual information. What other milestones or events of general importance - not already specific about our topic to be addressed - should be highlighted in the timeline to give context? For example, if we want to represent the key moments of the French Revolution, we probably want to highlight historical events that accompanied it in other neighboring countries.
- Draw the line and locate the points. The line is drawn from left to right and the previously determined information is distributed on it, in chronological order, moving towards the present (or the end of the period of interest).