Before, After, and Because: How One Event Leads to Another

Hi, I'm Atlas, and I keep timelines. A lot of people think history is just a list of dates to memorize, like 1066, 1776, 1969. But a date by itself doesn't tell you anything. History is a story, and stories have an order: something happens, then something else happens, and often the first thing helps cause the second. Let me show you four little words that do a lot of heavy lifting. Before and after show which event came first and which came second: "Rain fell before the river rose." During means two events overlapped at the same time: "During the storm, the villagers sheltered indoors." Because links a cause to its result: "The river rose because heavy rain fell." Now for the big idea: a cause is not just anything that happened earlier. A cause is something that came first AND directly produced or enabled the next event. A consequence is the result. Here is why the difference matters — a rooster crows before sunrise every day, but the rooster does not cause the sun to rise! Just because one thing came before another does NOT prove it caused it. Good historians look for a real connection, not just an order. And here is something worth saying out loud: knowing the date 1620 is less useful than knowing that a harsh winter that year directly led colonists to rely on their Wampanoag neighbors for food. The event — and what caused it — is the actual knowledge. If you ever feel stuck, ask two questions: "What happened first?" and "Did the first thing actually produce or enable the second thing?" That puts you right back on track.