Oftentimes when we discuss history, we focus on wars or other major political events. We forget to think about the regular people and their daily lives. We don't think about what life might have looked like for us, had we been born in those times and places.

These 26 cool photos of five different cities and their streets in the late 1800s and early 1900s paint an awesome picture of what life might have been like for city dwellers around the world right before the outbreak of the world wars. But while these pics offer a cool perspective, it's important to take the given dates with a pinch of salt. For example, the first autogyro, (the flying machine shown here over New York), wasn't invented until 1923 and didn't make a flight in the United States until 1928. Therefore, despite a listed date of 1911, the photo is most likely from the pre-World War II era. 

Despite the inaccuracy, it's awesome to look back and imagine living day-to-day life in an old New York City. Check out the streets of China, Tokyo, New York, Mumbai, Paris, and Vienna in these down-to-earth early 1900s historical photos.