Time, when Jesus was born was counted locally. Countries tended to count time in relation to the reign of the king, or other ruler. SO that one country might be in year 5 of King Fred and their neighbour might be in year 10 of the reign of Queen Jane.
The early Christians began to refer to their history in relation to the birth of Jesus and, as Latin was 'the' language at the time, they used AD - Anno Domini (the year of Our Lord) to refer to years since his birth. They have no need to refer to things which happened before his birth.
Much later historians began to refer to Before Christ and as English was now involved BC became the generally used term.
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Political correctness dictates that because many people are not Christian but still wish to use the Christian era for convenience reasons, CE and BCE are more sensitive. Many still use BC and AD, including Wikipedia and other sources.
B.C. is generally agreed to mean "Before Christ"
A.D. is generally agreed to mean "anno Domini", which is Latin for "in the year of our Lord."
The event that marks the transition is the assumed birth year of Jesus Christ.
The politically correct versions of these now is B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) with the same defining transition point (birth of Christ)
BC changed to AD the year that Jesus Christ was said to be born. The word B.C. means "before Christ". A.D. means Anno Domini.
bc comes first because bc stands for before christ
700 BC came first then 900 AD BC is before AD
1776 AD means the year 1776 after christ was born, this year is 2011 AD. Forty years before Jesus was born it was 40 BC. BC: Before Christ AD: After Death
BC = Before Christ AD = Anno Domini (after the birth of Christ)
Russia was consolidated from scattered duchies in 14th Century AD, so the birthday of the term "Russia" referring to a single big State is in AD.