Disentangling the formation history of the Galaxy: from RAVE and SDSS to Gaia and 4MOST

The Galaxy is the galaxy that can be studied in most detail. Wide area spectroscopic surveys play a key role in disentangling and thus understanding the formation history of the Milky Way. I will present how current large scale surveys like RAVE and SDSS have shed light on the structure of the Milky Way and what the prospects of future surveys will be, in particular the combination of Gaia astrometry with 4MOST spectroscopy