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
Definition
Ghosts in the Ancient World - The Return of the So-Called Dead
A belief in an afterlife was central to every major civilization of the ancient world and this encouraged the recognition of the reality of ghosts as...
Featured
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...
Featured
Image
Map of the Rise of the Delhi Sultanate: Mamluk Dynasty - State Formation and Conquest in Medieval India, 1206–1290
The Delhi Sultanate's Mamluk (or Slave) period (1206–1290) marked the emergence of a powerful Muslim-ruled state...
Latest Content
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...
Article
Top 10 Roman Sites in Bulgaria
Roman Bulgaria occupied an important position in the heart of the Balkans, between the Black Sea, the Aegean, and Asia Minor. In the north, the Danube River formed a heavily...
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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...
Image
Map of the Sasanian Empire at Its Height, c. 620 - Khosrow II and the Byzantine–Sasanian War, 602–628
The Sasanian Empire (224–651), also known as Sassanian Persia, was the last pre-Islamic Persian empire and one of the...
For You
Definition
Rumi
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (also given as Jalal ad-did Muhammad Balkhi, best known as Rumi, l. 1207-1273 CE) was a Persian Islamic theologian and scholar but became famous as a mystical poet whose...
Definition
Domesday Book
Domesday Book was a comprehensive survey and record of all the landowners, property, tenants and serfs of medieval Norman England. It was compiled in 1086-7 under the orders of William the...
Article
The Fall of the Alamo: Eyewitness Accounts - Created History and Forgotten Witnesses
There were around 15 non-combatants in the Alamo who survived the battle on the morning of 6 March 1836 and, among these, were two who...
Article
Silla Pottery
The pottery of ancient Korea stretches back to prehistory when simple brown wares were made and decorated with geometrical incisions and ends with the production of the superb celadons and...
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
Trafficking with Demons: Magic, Ritual, and Gender from Late Antiquity to 1000
Martha Rampton’s two primary goals with this book were to define in specific terms what “magic” meant and to examine how that meaning changed...
Book Review
The Food of Oman: Recipes and Stories from the Gateway to Arabia
While most people think of Middle Eastern cuisine, images of “Persian,” “Turkish,” or “Lebanese” food immediately come to thought. Set between the...
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| 1,764 | articles |
| 19,866 | illustrations |
| 2,643 | videos |
| 415 | 3D images |
| 16,380 | translations |
| 48 | languages |
| 1,342 | contributors |
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Ancient Period
Article
Chariots in Ancient Indian Warfare
The chariot was the elite arm of ancient Indian armies in the Vedic (1500 BCE – 1000 BCE) and Epic periods (described by the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, 1000-600 BCE) because...
Article
Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird - A Sumerian Hero's Journey
Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird is a Sumerian myth dated to the Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE) featuring the hero-king of Uruk, Lugalbanda, father...
Article
The Queen of the Night - The Mysterious Burney Relief
The Queen of the Night (also known as the "Burney Relief") is a high-relief terracotta plaque of baked clay, 19.4 inches (49.5 cm) high, 14.5 inches (37 cm...
Image Gallery
21 Images of Greek and Roman Charioteers
This gallery features images of Greek and Roman chariot racers. Chariot racing was the most popular spectator sport in ancient times. In Greece, chariot racing was important...
Definition
Thebes (Egypt)
Thebes was the capital of Egypt during the period of the New Kingdom (c.1570-c.1069 BCE) and became an important center of worship of the god Amun (also known as Amon or Amen, a combination...
Definition
Ancient Korean Architecture
The architecture of ancient Korea is epitomised by the artful combination of wood and stone to create elegant and spacious multi-roomed structures characterised by clay tile roofing...
Article
A Traditional Japanese House
The traditional house of ancient and medieval Japan (1185-1606 CE) is one of the most distinctive contributions that country has made to world architecture. While the rich and...
Article
Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Persia
A vision of the afterlife is articulated by every culture, ancient or modern, in an effort to answer the question of what happens after death. Ancient Persia had the...
Medieval Period
Definition
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson (also spelt Godwineson) reigned briefly as King Harold II of England from January to October 1066 CE, the momentous year which witnessed the Norman conquest and end of 500...
Definition
Zapotec Civilization
The Zapotecs, known as the 'Cloud People', dwelt in the southern highlands of central Mesoamerica, specifically, in the Valley of Oaxaca, which they inhabited from the late Preclassic...
Collection
Elite Warriors in History
Winning battles and forging empires was not just about numbers but also the quality of the troops at any commander's disposal. The best-trained, best-equipped and most experienced...
Definition
Illuminated Manuscripts
Illuminated manuscripts were hand-made books, usually on Christian scripture or practice, produced in Western Europe between c. 500-c. 1600. They are so called because of the use of...
Definition
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic-monotheistic religion based upon the teachings of Prophet Muhammad ibn Abdullah (l. 570-632 CE, after whose name Muslims traditionally add “peace be upon him” or, in writing...
Article
Maya Writing
The Maya hieroglyphic writing system was a sophisticated combination of pictographs directly representing objects and ideograms (glyphs) expressing more abstract concepts such as actions, ideas...
Interview
Interview: Queens of Jerusalem, the Women Who Dared to Rule by Katherine Pangonis
Join World History Encyclopedia as they chat with medievalist Katherine Pangonis, all about her new book Queens of Jerusalem, the Women...
Article
The Portuguese Colonization of São Tomé and Principe
São Tomé and Principe are islands located in the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. They were uninhabited before being colonised by the Portuguese from 1486. So...
Early Modern Period
Definition
Pietro Perugino
Pietro Perugino (c. 1450-1523), real name Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance artist who created frescoes for the Vatican's Sistine Chapel and was in demand across...
Definition
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent (1545-1563) was a meeting of Catholic clerics convened by Pope Paul III (served 1534-1549) in response to the Protestant Reformation. In three separate sessions, the...
Definition
Galileo Galilei
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and natural philosopher. He created a superior telescope with which he made new observations of the night...
Article
Robespierre & the Death Penalty
"I come to ask, not the gods, but legislators…to erase from the code of the French the blood laws that command judicial murders" (Robespierre, 6). These impassioned words, spoken...
Article
La Malinche - A Complicated Woman in Context
La Malinche, or Malintzin, was the primary interpreter in the retinue of Hernán Cortés during his conquest of Mexico in the early 16th century and has become one of...
Article
The Three Estates of Pre-Revolutionary France
Society in the Kingdom of France in the period of the Ancien Regime was broken up into three separate estates, or social classes: the clergy, the nobility, and the...
Article
Slavery in Colonial America
Slavery in Colonial America, defined as white English settlers enslaving Africans, began in 1640 in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia but had already been embraced as policy prior...
Definition
Conway Cabal
The Conway Cabal was a movement undertaken by American military officers and political leaders to remove General George Washington from command of the Continental Army during the winter of...
Modern Period
Definition
Guadalcanal Campaign - WWII's Brutal Fight to Control the Solomons
The Guadalcanal Campaign (aka Battle for Guadalcanal) in the Solomon Islands was a series of land, air, and sea battles between US and Japanese forces...
Definition
Casablanca Conference - The Call for an Axis Unconditional Surrender in WWII
The Casablanca Conference of January 1943, code-named Symbol, was a meeting between US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister...
Definition
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802) were a series of conflicts that arose from the tensions surrounding the French Revolution (1789-1799). The wars were fought between Revolutionary...
Definition
Russian Revolution of 1905
The Russian Revolution of 1905 challenged the absolute power of Tsar Nicholas II (reign 1894-1917) as ruler of the Russian Empire. Bloody Sunday in 1905 started the year disastrously...
Article
The Sioux who Married the Crow Chief's Daughter
The Sioux who Married the Crow Chief's Daughter is a legend of the Lakota Sioux about Chief Big Eagle who left his people to marry a woman of the enemy Crow nation...
Definition
Tsar Nicholas II - Last of the Romanovs
Tsar Nicholas II (reign 1894-1917) was the last of the Romanov emperors, murdered along with his family during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Insisting...
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
The Woodpecker's Mother-in-Law
The Woodpecker's Mother-in-Law is a Cheyenne tale which, like any other, is open to various interpretations but, among them, highlights the strength and autonomy of Cheyenne...
Prehistoric Period
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
Locmariaquer
Locmariaquer is a Stone Age site in north-west France distinguished by its two large stone tombs and massive granite standing stone or menhir. The monumental structures, all built within metres...
Article
Dynamics of the Neolithic Revolution
The Neolithic Revolution began between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago at several widely dispersed locations across the world, when our ancestors first began planting and raising...
Definition
Poulnabrone
Poulnabrone is a portal tomb in the region known as the Burren, County Clare, Ireland and the oldest dated megalithic monument in the land. The name means "Hole of the Quern Stones", but the...
Article
The Meaning of European Upper Paleolithic Rock Art
Rock art (also known as parietal art) is an umbrella term which refers to several types of creations including finger markings left on soft surfaces, bas-relief...
Definition
Barnhouse Settlement
The Barnhouse Settlement is a Neolithic village located in Antaness, Orkney, Scotland, which was inhabited between c. 3300 and 2600 BCE. The present designation of 'Barnhouse' comes...
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...
Article
The Megalithic Temples of Malta
The megalithic temples of Malta and Gozo rank amongst the oldest free-standing buildings in the world. Construction of these temples started c. 3500 BCE, an impressive architectural...
