Shake to Century Converter

A century is a unit of time equal to 100 consecutive years. The word derives from Latin "centum" (one hundred).

Duration in Other Units

1 century equals:

• 100 years (exactly)
• 10 decades (100 ÷ 10)
• 1,200 months (100 × 12)
• ~5,217 weeks (100 × 52.17)
• 36,524 days (100 common years) or 36,525 days (accounting for ~25 leap years)
• Average: 36,525 days (100 × 365.25)
• 876,600 hours (36,525 × 24)
• 52,596,000 minutes (876,600 × 60)
• 3,155,760,000 seconds (52,596,000 × 60)

Century Boundaries: The 1 vs. 0 Debate

Formal reckoning (technically correct):

• 1st century: 1-100 CE
• 18th century: 1701-1800
• 19th century: 1801-1900
• 20th century: 1901-2000
• 21st century: 2001-2100

Why? Because there was no year 0 in the Gregorian calendar (1 BCE → 1 CE directly), the first century was years 1-100, not 0-99.

Popular usage (dominant in practice):

• 18th century: "The 1700s" (1700-1799)
• 19th century: "The 1800s" (1800-1899)
• 20th century: "The 1900s" (1900-1999)
• 21st century: "The 2000s onward" (2000-2099)

Reality: Popular usage dominates. When people say "20th century," they typically mean 1900-1999, not 1901-2000. The millennium celebration happened January 1, 2000, not January 1, 2001, despite formal correctness.

of the Century Concept

1. Ancient Origins: Roman Centuria (509 BCE - 27 BCE)

Roman military organization:

• Centuria (plural: centuriae) = Roman military unit of approximately 100 soldiers (later reduced to 80)
• Led by a centurion (centurio)
• Latin "centum" = one hundred
• 6 centuries = 1 cohort; 10 cohorts = 1 legion (~6,000 soldiers)

Early timekeeping:

• Romans used Ab urbe condita (AUC, "from the founding of the city") dating from Rome's legendary founding (753 BCE)
• No systematic use of "century" for 100-year periods yet
• Time organized by consulships, reigns, dynasties

2. Calendar Development and Anno Domini Dating (1 CE - 1582 CE)

Anno Domini (AD) system:

• Dionysius Exiguus (c. 525 CE): Calculated years from Jesus Christ's birth
• Introduced Anno Domini (AD, "in the year of the Lord") dating
• Critical error: No year 0 (went directly from 1 BCE to 1 CE)
• This creates century boundary confusion still debated today

Julian Calendar (46 BCE - 1582 CE):

• Julius Caesar introduced 365.25-day year (leap year every 4 years)
• Provided stable framework for long-term chronology
• Enabled systematic dating of events over centuries

Gregorian Calendar Reform (1582 CE):

• Pope Gregory XIII corrected Julian calendar drift
• Established modern calendar system still used today
• Removed 10 days (October 4, 1582 → October 15, 1582)
• Century years divisible by 400 are leap years (1600, 2000), others not (1700, 1800, 1900)

3. Renaissance and Enlightenment: Historical Periodization (1400s-1700s)

Systematic historiography emerged:

• 15th-16th centuries: Renaissance scholars developed historical chronologies
• 17th-18th centuries: Enlightenment historians systematized century-based periodization
• Edward Gibbon (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776-1789): Used century-scale analysis

Why centuries became standard:

1. Generational scale: ~4 generations per century = intergenerational change visible but comprehensible
2. Administrative records: Tax records, census data, government documents accumulated over centuries
3. Pattern recognition: 100-year scale reveals structural changes invisible in decade-scale analysis
4. Round number psychology: Base-10 counting makes 100-year periods psychologically satisfying

Periodization labels emerged:

• "The 16th century" = 1500s Renaissance, Reformation
• "The 17th century" = 1600s Scientific Revolution, Baroque
• "The 18th century" = 1700s Age of Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution begins

4. 19th Century: Century as Historical Framework (1801-1900)

The "long 19th century" concept:

• Historians sometimes define as 1789-1914 (French Revolution to WWI)
• Captures coherent historical era despite not matching formal century boundaries

Major 19th-century transformations:

• Industrial Revolution (1760-1840): Steam power, factories, railroads
• Urbanization: Rural → urban population shift
• Imperialism: European colonial empires peak
• Scientific progress: Darwin, Maxwell, Mendel
• Political revolutions: 1848 Revolutions, unification of Germany/Italy
• Technological: Telegraph, telephone, photography, electricity

Century consciousness:

• People in 1800s increasingly thought in century-scale terms
• "The spirit of the 19th century" = common phrase
• Fin de siècle (end of century, 1890s-1900s) = cultural movement

5. 20th Century: Century of Extremes (1901-2000)

Eric Hobsbawm's "short 20th century" (1914-1991):

• WWI start to Soviet Union collapse
• Captures coherent historical narrative despite formal century boundaries

Major 20th-century transformations:

• World Wars: WWI (1914-1918), WWII (1939-1945)
• Ideological conflict: Fascism, Communism, Capitalism compete
• Cold War (1947-1991): US vs. USSR, nuclear arms race
• Decolonization: European empires disintegrate (1940s-1970s)
• Technological revolutions:
  • Automobiles, airplanes (early 1900s)
  • Nuclear energy (1940s)
  • Computers (1940s-1950s)
  • Space exploration (1950s-1960s)
  • Internet (1990s)
  • Mobile phones (1990s-2000s)
• Population explosion: 1.6 billion (1900) → 6.1 billion (2000)
• Medical advances: Antibiotics, vaccines, life expectancy doubled
• Environmental: Climate change, ozone depletion, biodiversity loss

Century labeling:

• "The American Century" (Henry Luce, 1941): US dominance of 20th century
• "The People's Century" (BBC, 1995): Mass politics, democracy spread

6. 21st Century: Digital Age and Beyond (2001-Present)

Millennium transition debate:

• Popular celebration: January 1, 2000 (Y2K)
• Formal start: January 1, 2001
• Most people celebrated 2000 despite pedantic correctness

21st-century defining features (so far):

• 9/11 attacks (2001): "War on Terror" begins
• Digital revolution: Smartphones ubiquitous (iPhone 2007)
• Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok
• Climate crisis: Accelerating global warming, extreme weather
• COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2023): Global disruption
• AI revolution: ChatGPT (2022), generative AI breakthroughs
• Geopolitical shifts: Rise of China, multipolar world
• Economic: 2008 Financial Crisis, wealth inequality

"21st-century skills": Digital literacy, critical thinking, adaptability

and Applications

1. Historical Analysis and Research

Century-by-century comparison:

• Economic growth: "19th-century industrialization vs. 20th-century information age"
• Warfare evolution: "19th-century muskets → 20th-century machine guns → 21st-century drones"
• Life expectancy trends: Analyzed century-by-century

Academic papers:

• "This study examines voting patterns across two centuries (1800s-1900s)"
• "Century-scale climate reconstructions"

2. Art, Literature, and Cultural Studies

Periodization:

• "18th-century literature": Age of Enlightenment, Voltaire, Swift, Johnson
• "19th-century novel": Dickens, Austen, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky
• "20th-century art": Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism

Art history courses: Often organized by century ("Art of the 17th Century")

3. Genealogy and Family History

Tracing ancestry:

• 4-5 generations per century = century scale ideal for family trees
• "My great-great-grandfather lived in the 19th century"
• Immigration records, census data organized by century

Life stages across centuries:

• Born late 1800s, died mid-1900s = lived through two centuries

4. Climate and Environmental Science

Century-scale climate patterns:

• Medieval Warm Period (10th-13th centuries): Warmer than average
• Little Ice Age (14th-19th centuries): Cooler than average
• 20th-21st century warming: Anthropogenic climate change

Projections:

• "By end of 21st century, sea level rise 1-2 meters"

5. Economic and Development Studies

Long-term economic trends:

• 19th century: Agricultural → industrial economies
• 20th century: Industrial → service/information economies
• 21st century: Digital/knowledge economies

Development indicators: Tracked over centuries (literacy, GDP, poverty)

6. Philosophy and Long-Term Thinking

"Think in centuries":

• Long Now Foundation: 10,000-year thinking
• Contrast with short-term thinking (quarterly earnings, election cycles)

Philosophical movements:

• 18th century: Enlightenment rationalism
• 19th century: Romanticism, existentialism emerges
• 20th century: Postmodernism

7. Legal and Property Rights

Land ownership records:

• Property deeds reference century-old transactions
• "Century farms": Farms in same family 100+ years

Copyright:

• Life + 70 years = often extends into next century after author's death