Following the establishment of critical historiography in the first half of the 19th century, historians finally also became interested in the material contained in official files. Along with the branch sciences of history, archival science was looked upon as a kind of science that provided guidelines on the description of archives. Immediately before the Second World War, but in most cases, shortly after it, a new era of archival science began in several countries when the archival activities started to be independent of the connection with history. The orientation of archival science shifted from serving the needs of historians only, to focusing on more general needs, and on more contemporary materials. As a result, the materials were more methodically, thoroughly, systematically and objectively selected, appraised, and described. This also facilitated the development of archival science as a science in its own right and gave rise to a new definition of its relation to historiography.