You may have thought how confusing it is to know which century a year is in. Is the year 1789 part of the 17th century or the 18th century? Did the 21st century begin in the year 2000 or 2001? there is an calculation easy to do to find the years in their respective centuries. This is what we will show in the lines below.
The reason for this is that historians need to work with longer time periods than those used by people in their daily lives. In everyday life, we use days, weeks, months and years much more than centuries or millennia. To study history it is necessary to divide time into centuries or millennia, since human history is over 5,000 years old!
Let's go to the calculation:
The first thing we need to know is that to indicate the centuries historians generally use Roman numerals (X, II, V etc.), not Arabic numerals (1, 10, 357 etc.). Thus, the 12th century d. Ç. is represented as 12th century d. Ç.
If the date being examined ends with two zeros, the century then corresponds to the first digit(s) to the left of that number. Examples:
Year 300 BC Ç.: The year 300 BC Ç. is inserted in the century III a. Ç., since cutting the two zeros, 300, the number remains 3.
Year 1700 d. Ç.: The year 1700 d. Ç. is inserted in the century XVII d. Ç., since cutting the two zeros, 1700, the number remains 17.
Year 2000 d. Ç.: The year 2000 d. Ç. is inserted in the century XX d. Ç., since cutting the two zeros, 2000, the number remains 20.
But when the number does not end in two zeros, just eliminate the unit and the ten that make it up, adding the remaining number(s) to the number 1. Examples:
Year 1450 BC Ç.: The year 1450 BC Ç. is inserted in the century XV a. Ç., since eliminating the unit and the ten, 1450, and adding the rest to 1, we have 14+1=15.
Year 736 d. Ç.: The year 736 d. Ç. is inserted in the century VIII d. Ç., since eliminating the unit and the ten, 736, and adding the rest to 1, we have 7+1=8.
Year 1895 d. Ç.: The year 1895 d. Ç. is inserted in the century XIX d. Ç., since eliminating the unit and the ten, 1895, and adding the rest to 1, we have 18+1=19.
Year 2001 d. Ç.: The year 2001 d. Ç. is inserted in the century XXI d. Ç., since eliminating the unit and the ten, 2001, and adding the rest to 1, we have 20+1=21.
This is because we do not count year zero in our calendar, starting dating from year 1. Thus, the 1st century d. Ç. it was only completed in the year 100 d. Ç., not in the year 99 d. Ç. The century XX d. Ç. ended in December 31, 2000 d. Ç., and not on December 31, 1999 d. Ç.
Finally, the acronyms The. Ç. and d. Ç. mean, respectively, before Christ and after Christ, because the calendar we use, the Christian calendar, has as its division the year of birth of Jesus Christ.
By Tales Pinto
Graduated in History
