Featured
Definition
Gunpowder Plot - Guy Fawkes & the Plan to Blow up Parliament
The 1605 Gunpowder Plot was a failed attempt by pro-Catholic conspirators to blow up the English Parliament on 5 November and kill King James I of England...
Featured
Article
Ten Halloween Facts and Traditions You Need to Know - A Celebration of Transformation
Halloween is the most popular holiday in the world, after Christmas (based on level-of-celebration and consumer spending) and, increasingly...
Featured
Image
12 Royal Princes Who Never Reached the Throne - From Germanicus to the Black Prince & Franz Ferdinand
Royal heirs and princes expected to succeed to a throne occupied an unusually precarious position: close enough to power...
Featured
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12 Largest Contiguous Land Empires Before 1880 - From the Mongol Empire to Rome, Qing China & Russia
Land empires were expansive states whose rulers exercised authority over large, substantially connected territories and...
Latest Content
Article
Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld - Messages From the Afterlife
Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld is a Sumerian poem pre-dating The Epic of Gilgamesh and featuring its central characters. It is sometimes...
Definition
Army of Northern Virginia - General Lee's Army
The Army of Northern Virginia was the main field army of the Confederate States in the eastern theater of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Famously led by General...
Definition
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor - The Great Matchmaker
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459-1519), belonged to the imperial House of Habsburg, and the imperial electors made him King of the Romans in 1486 during...
Definition
James Longstreet - Civil War Hero and Lost Cause Villain
James Longstreet (1821-1904) was a Confederate general in the American Civil War, serving chiefly under Robert E. Lee in the Eastern theater. He was regarded...
Collection
First 16 US Presidents - From Washington to Lincoln
Since the founding of the United States, the office of the presidency – and the men who have occupied it – have had a profound impact on the hearts, minds, and...
Definition
Seven Years' War - The 18th-Century World War
The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) was a global conflict fought between the great powers of Europe in the mid-18th century. The culmination of several decades of conflict...
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12 Royal Princes Who Never Reached the Throne - From Germanicus to the Black Prince & Franz Ferdinand
Royal heirs and princes expected to succeed to a throne occupied an unusually precarious position: close enough to power...
Image
Map of the Latin Empire - A Crusader State in Constantinople - The Fourth Crusade and the Fragmentation of Byzantium
The Latin Empire (Imperium Romaniae, 1204–1261) emerged after the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) captured and...
Image
12 Largest Contiguous Land Empires Before 1880 - From the Mongol Empire to Rome, Qing China & Russia
Land empires were expansive states whose rulers exercised authority over large, substantially connected territories and...
For You
Article
Life in a Renaissance Artist's Workshop
The majority of great Renaissance works of art were produced in large and busy workshops run by a successful master artist and his team of assistants and apprentices...
Definition
Pottery in Antiquity
Pottery is the first synthetic material ever created by humans. The term refers to objects made of clay that have been fashioned into the desired shape, dried, and either fired or baked...
Definition
Georges Danton
Georges Jacques Danton (1759-1794) was a French lawyer who became a prominent leader of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Danton played a major role in the overthrow of the French monarchy...
Collection
20 Battles of the American Revolution
The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) was a long and bitter conflict fought between Great Britain and its rebellious thirteen colonies, which were struggling for independence...
Book Reviews
Book Review
The Army of Alexander the Great
The Army of Alexander the Great (2025) is a highly detailed and insightful examination of one of the most influential military forces in history. Rather than presenting Alexander...
Book Review
Capital of Mind: The Idea of a Modern American University
Nelson, the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Educational Policy Studies and History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, takes the title of...
Book Review
What Is Paleolithic Art? Cave Paintings and the Dawn of Human Creativity
Clottes' book, translated from the French, introduces the reader to current issues in the study of parietal art, the technical term for prehistoric...
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| 1,764 | articles |
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| 2,643 | videos |
| 415 | 3D images |
| 16,411 | translations |
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| 1,342 | contributors |
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| 62,421 | registered users |
Ancient Period
Interview
Interview: Bringing Down the Roman Empire in a Game
Today we are talking to Jon Shafer, lead designer of the computer game At the Gates, now available on PC, Mac, and Linux. In this game, you control a Barbarian...
Definition
Segesta
Segesta (or Egesta), located in the north-west corner of Sicily, was an important trading town from the 7th century BCE onwards. Situated on the strategically advantageous slopes of Mt. Barbaro...
Collection
Plagues in History
Plagues have swept through humanity ever since communities have gathered together in concentrated groups. In this collection of resources, we look at just some of the pandemics that raged...
Article
The Debate Between Bird and Fish - The Age-old Problem of Difficult Neighbors
The Debate Between Bird and Fish (written circa 2000 BCE) is a Sumerian poem dated to the Ur III Period (circa 2112-circa 2004 BCE) when the...
Definition
Artaxerxes II
Artaxerxes II (r. 404-358 BCE, also known as Artaxerxes II Mnemon) was the 10th monarch of the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550-330 BCE). He was the son of Darius II (r. 424-404 BCE) and Parysatis...
Definition
Samudragupta
Samudragupta (r. 335/350 - 370/380 CE) was the first significant ruler of the Gupta Dynasty. Having come to the throne, he decided to extend the boundaries of his empire to cover the multiple...
Definition
Hercules
Hercules (Herakles) was a hero of Greek mythology famous for his great strength and endurance. Celebrated as an extraordinary mortal, his success in seemingly impossible labours won him an immortal...
Definition
Mount Ararat
Mount Ararat (Armenian: Masis; Turkish: Ağrı Dağı; Kurdish: Çiyaye Agiri; Azeri: Ağrıdağ; Persian: Kūh-e Nūḥ) is a dormant, compound volcanic mountain, consisting of two ancient volcanic peaks...
Medieval Period
Article
William the Conqueror's March on London
William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087 CE) was victorious at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066 CE, and Harold Godwinson, King Harold II of England (r. Jan - Oct 1066...
Definition
Kachina Cult
The Kachina (also “Katsina”) cult refers to the specific religious practices centered on the kachina, which is a spiritual entity and divine messenger of the Puebloan peoples as well as the...
Article
Feudalism in Medieval Japan
Feudalism in medieval Japan (1185-1603) is the relationship between lords and vassals where land ownership and its use were exchanged for military service and loyalty. Although...
Definition
Europe
Europe is a continent forming the westernmost part of the land mass of Eurasia and comprised of 49 sovereign states. Its name may come from the Greek myth of Europa, but human habitation of the...
Definition
Joan I of Navarre - Queen Consort of France
Joan I of Navarre (1273-1305) served as queen of Navarre and countess of Champagne and Brie between 1274 and 1305. In 1285, she also became queen consort of France following...
Definition
King Egbert of Wessex
Egbert of Wessex (l. c. 770-839 CE, r. 802-839 CE; also given as Ecgberht, Ecbert) was the most powerful and influential king of Wessex prior to the reign of Alfred the Great (r. 871-899...
Definition
Piers Gaveston - The Rise and Fall of Edward II's Controversial Companion
Piers Gaveston (lived circa 1284-1312) was a Gascon-born English nobleman, famous as the favorite of King Edward II of England (reign 1307-1327...
Definition
Timur - The Brutal Conqueror of Central Asia
Timur (1336-1405), also known as Tamerlane, Temür, or Timur Leng, was the founder of the Timurid Empire (1370-1507), which had its heartlands in modern-day Uzbekistan...
Early Modern Period
Definition
William Howe
Sir William Howe (1729-1814) was a British military officer and politician, most notable for his role as commander-in-chief of the British army during the initial years of the American Revolutionary...
Definition
September Massacres
The September Massacres refers to a series of mass killings that took place in the prisons of Paris between 2 and 7 September 1792, during the French Revolution (1789-99). Sometimes known...
Definition
King Philip (Metacom)
Metacomet (also known as King Philip and Metacom, l. 1638-1676) was chief of the Wampanoag Confederacy between 1662-1676, best known as the leader of Native American forces during the...
Article
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown (28 September to 19 October 1781) was the final major military operation of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). It resulted in the surrender of British general...
Definition
Antoine Barnave
Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave (1761-1793) was a French lawyer, politician, and one of the most influential orators of the early stage of the French Revolution (1789-1799). He is notable...
Definition
Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just
Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just (1767-1794) was a prominent figure of the French Revolution (1789-1799). After his election to the National Convention in September 1792, he led the...
Article
Lakota Sioux Creation Story
The Lakota Sioux, like other tribal nations, had many versions of a creation story but all involved Wakan Tanka (Great Mystery or Great Spirit), the supreme creative power in the...
Article
Siege of Savannah
The Siege of Savannah (16 September to 20 October 1779) was a significant engagement in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Hoping to retake Savannah, Georgia, which had fallen...
Modern Period
Article
Lenin's New Economic Policy - Communism's Flirtation with Capitalism
The New Economic Policy (NEP) of Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), leader of Soviet Russia, was the introduction in 1921 of a limited form of capitalism...
Article
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) was the last major engagement of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), fought by a French army under Emperor Napoleon I (r. 1804-1814; 1815) against two...
Article
A Brief History of Tobacco in the Americas
The history of tobacco use in the Americas goes back over 1,000 years when natives of the region chewed or smoked the leaves of the plant now known as Nicotiana rustica...
Article
Battle of Białystok-Minsk
The Battle of Białystok-Minsk in Jun-Jul 1941, which involved the encirclement of entire Soviet armies positioned near each city in Poland and Belarus, respectively, was one of the...
Article
David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
David Walker (l. c. 1796-1830) was an African American abolitionist writer best known for his 1829 work An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World...
Definition
Buddhism
Buddhism is a non-theistic religion (no belief in a creator god), also considered a philosophy and a moral discipline, originating in the region of modern-day India in the 6th and 5th centuries...
Article
The Search for the Source of the Nile - Solving Geography's Last Great Riddle
The search for the source of the Nile River was one of the last great geographical mysteries of 19th-century European exploration. Men like...
Article
The Red Eagles
The Red Eagles is a Cheyenne hero tale featuring the popular champion Mok-so-is, the child hero best known from the legend Found in the Grass, popular among many Algonquin-speaking nations...
Prehistoric Period
Definition
Göbekli Tepe
“Göbekli Tepe” (“Hill with a Navel”, or “Potbelly Hill”) is found approximately 16 km (10 miles) northeast of Şanlıurfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey once named “Edessa” and known...
Definition
Neanderthal
Neanderthals are an extinct group of fossil humans that appeared in Western Eurasia in the mid-Middle Pleistocene and shared the stage with the first modern humans arriving in Europe from around...
Article
Early Human Migration
Disregarding the extremely inhospitable spots even the most stubborn of us have enough common sense to avoid, humans have managed to cover an extraordinary amount of territory on this...
Definition
Maeshowe - The Ancient Meadow Mound of Orkney
Maeshowe (pronounced `maze-ow' or `maze-oo') is a large Neolithic chambered cairn, dating from between 3000-2800 BCE, in the Stenness parish of Orkney, Scotland. According...
Definition
Clava Cairns - Monuments to Memory and More
Clava Cairns is an early Bronze Age site in Scotland, located east of the city of Inverness, consisting of three well-preserved cairns (two of which are passage graves...
Definition
Oldowan Tools
The appearance of simple stone tools, widely known as Oldowan tools or the Oldowan industry, marked the beginning of our technological revolution. To our knowledge, these artifacts appeared...
Article
Legends of the Rollright Stones, Oxfordshire
The Rollright Stones is the collective name for a group of enigmatic prehistoric monuments located next to an ancient ridgeway known as the Jurassic Way, on the border...
Definition
Homo Habilis
Homo habilis ("handy man") is an extinct species of human that lived in East and South Africa between 2.3 and 1.5 million years ago and plays an interesting role in the discussion surrounding...
