What are historical documents? Are those of today the same as those of the future?
Today, in modernity, we live in an era of technological innovation, cloud computing and massive use of software so that people in different parts of the world can communicate, but not long ago it wasn't quite like that. Only in the most promising dreams of those who were considered crazy - but who, in fact, were visionaries - was the automation of rudimentary activities possible. Roles shaped human history and sometimes they were more important than people.
Clicksign has talked a lot about automation here on the blog, but what about these historical documents, do you know what they represent for the aforementioned social transformation and what the documents that dictate the future look like today? We made a historical summary on this topic, including examples of historical documents that we will show you throughout the text!
What is the importance of historical documents?
History involves both the past, present, and future, and all of us have heard and/or studied at school and college some (historical) documents that they shaped humanity.How many deals haven't already been sealed on paper? How many truces have not been agreed between true enemies out of trust in a document written by hand and signed in ink? From there, we can begin to realize the importance of historical documents just by exemplifying the effectiveness of some of them. A document, by itself, without context, may not mean anything, but when problematized and studied thoroughly in accordance with the time and situation in which it was produced, it can provide unique opportunity to identify important moments in the formation of society. And that is still the case today!
How do you define a document as, strictly, historical?
Well, to historians, this term refers to everything that was produced and recorded by human beings over time. At the beginning of the systematization of the forms of philosophy, psychology, and even history as a scientific discipline in the 19th century and up to the middle of the 20th century, only those that had been officially written were considered noteworthy historical documents, either by the Church or the State. Thus, the other written traces ended up not being dispensable at that time. If it were to draw an analogy between the past and modernity, it would be possible to state that these Ignored documents were not legally valid, for example. Some things don't change, don't they? Well done! Fortunately, the world is in constant development and the understanding of historical documents has been expanded to what we know today: every document produced in a given era or society is considered historical, and therefore important and indispensable to bring out truths that only those people experienced. The knowledge of the world that we have today came from written historical vestiges, after all, history is “the science of men in time”, according to Bloch, that is, it is only possible to know what happened before our existence through these eternalized information. So, just so that there are no doubts left, remember when we said that the concept of historical documents had expanded? Well, we were referring to the information that Not only are written remains considered as historical documents, but also iconographic, material, visual, sound and oral vestiges.
4 important historical documents
It is believed that, throughout human civilization, countless documents were produced by the peoples that inhabited the Earth, and many of them even more than existed: they dictated the present and the future. How about meeting some of the most memorable ones?
1. Golden Law
On May 13, 1888, Law No. 3,353 can be considered as one of the briefest and most famous legal acts (therefore written and historical) in the history of Brazil: with only two articles This document carries the weight of many lives saved (700,000 slaves were freed, but many more had been subjected to inhumane situations) in its lines, given that through them, slavery was legally abolished in the country. At a time when Portugal exercised sovereignty over our lands, slavery was the center of concerns, this document was a Framework for political and social change in the country.
2. Nuremberg Code
The Nuremberg Code is a set of 10 ethical principles that regulate scientific experimentation on human beings, which had to be formulated after the end of the Second World War, in the year 1947, to prosecute Nazi doctors who acted absolutely abusively in concentration camps.
3. San José Pact of Costa Rica
If today you have inviolable and internationally protected human rights, know that it was on the occasion of 1969, at the American Convention on Human Rights, that they were consolidated. Brazil submitted its letter of accession to the Pact in 1992, when it became a signatory (signed) and brought the legislation into force in the country. Do you see how we just mentioned, on a single topic, two historical documents essential to humanity?
4. Federal Constitutions
We are not just talking about the seven Constitutions that Brazil had, but in fact about numerous Codes of Conduct that all nations of the world, without exception, had to draft and enact in their territories to enumerate and limit the powers and functions of the State and define the guarantees and duties of citizens. The texts created in each of the Constitutions contain in their drafting the clearest transcript of how society behaved at the time of its drafting and even glimpses of the future.
In the present day, what are the documents that will make history?
Certainly those generated on digital platforms! Nowadays, the Brazilian Senate already has a platform for digital archiving of digitized historical documents, then, why not hope that in the not too distant future, National and International Treaties and Agreements will not be able to be accepted through signature with digital certificate to guarantee legal validity? You can no longer risk losing important human development data, such as the multiple historical documents that will never be replaced, and even the top management bodies seem to already know this, so why don't you implement digital automation once and for all in your company? A Clicksign It helps you!
