What is the proper tense to use when the sentence is listing different period of times from the past to present time

Question

This is the sample.

The ocean has been a challenge for a long time, since the ocean is a fearful and unpredictable place for mankind. It has encouraged a willingness to overcome the challenge for the purpose of food procurement and migration in prehistoric times, for exchanges, war and trades in historical periods and for industrial development and leisure in these days.

The sentence has different periods of the time when it is describing the purpose of overcoming the challenges for each period. Although I used present perfect tense because I thought it is covering present time from the past.

Is it OK to use like this ??

Answer 1

You want to use present perfect progressive (also called present perfect continuous). I would rewrite:

The ocean has been a challenge for a long time, since the ocean is a fearful and unpredictable place for mankind. It has been encouraging a willingness to overcome the challenge for the purpose of food procurement and migration in prehistoric times; for exchanges, wars and trade in later historical periods; and for industrial development and leisure in modern days.

The present perfect progressive/continuous is appropriate because you want to show that something started in the past and has continued up until now.

The present perfect, in contrast, means that the action of the verb was completed prior to the present, as I have eaten already.