I'm a big fan of history, sadly I'm not to well equipped with knowledge (especially early human history)

So, I was wondering, is there a global theory that organizes the human societal evolution? Specifically speaking, which steps are usually needed for a society to "evolve" and are there specific steps so important that they are logically arranged into "eras" that build up to the societies we are rocking today?

I developed this questioning trough the idealistic idea of human society logically having to develop into a global community with no incentive for war like we know today and different issues than what we're dealing with today, so as an add on, are there theories on how this could happen, which specific steps we're lacking today and what are potential set backs we'll encounter?

To anybody reading and hopefully answering, many thanks! And if I'm violating any sub-rules - sorry!