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
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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...
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
James Longstreet's Account of the Battle of Gettysburg - Excerpts From the Official Action Report
At the Battle of Gettysburg (1-3 July 1863) Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet urged his commanding officer...
Article
Gilgamesh and Huwawa - The Epic Battle of the Cedar Forest
Gilgamesh and Huwawa is a Sumerian poem relating the expedition of Gilgamesh and Enkidu to the Cedar Forest and the slaying of the monster-demon Huwawa...
Article
Stalin's Five-Year Plans - Collectivising Agriculture & Industrialising the USSR
Joseph Stalin's Five-Year Plans (1928-50) were a series of state-led initiatives which aimed to grow the economy of the USSR, rapidly industrialise...
Curriculum Collection
AP World History Unit 6 - Consequences of Industrialization (c. 1750–1900)
With industrialization, a small number of states gained the ability to project power across the globe. Steamships, railroads, machine guns...
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...
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Map of the Vedic Age in South Asia, c. 1500–500 BCE - Indo-Aryan Migrations, Vedic Culture & Early States
The Vedic Age (c. 1500–500 BCE) was a formative period in the history of South Asia, named after the Vedas, a collection...
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The United States Constitution, 1787
The United States Constitution, drafted in Philadelphia in 1787, established the legal and political framework of the American republic, replacing the Articles of Confederation...
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Map of the Trade in the Indian Ocean 15th–16th Centuries - Monsoon Routes, Spice Trade, and European Expansion
Indian Ocean trade in the 15th and 16th centuries connected East Africa, Arabia, Persia, India, Southeast Asia...
For You
Article
Civil War Generals in the Mexican-American War - Friends Who Became Enemies
In 1846, graduates of West Point Military Academy were deployed to fight in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). Less than 20 years later...
Definition
Gideon
Gideon was a judge and military leader, whose story was recounted in the Biblical Book of Judges. “Judge” (Hebrew, shofet) in this book was not a circuit, court judge, but someone raised up by the...
Definition
Gaius Marius
Gaius Marius (c. 157-86 BCE) was an accomplished military commander and politician who was acclaimed for saving Rome from the brink of collapse. Yet, unfortunately, his name has only survived...
Article
The Divinity of Jesus
In the decades of the 20s and 30s of the 1st century CE, a Jew from the town of Nazareth in the Galilee began preaching that the God of Israel would soon intervene in history, restoring...
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
Institutionalizing Gender: Madness, the Family, and Psychiatric Power in Nineteenth-Century France
Jessie Hewitt’s Institutionalizing Gender: Madness, the Family, and Psychiatric Power in Nineteenth-Century France ties...
Book Review
Cleopatra: The Woman Behind the Stories
While Cleopatra is one of the most famous women in history, there are many myths and misconceptions about her life. This book tells the true story of Cleopatra’s life...
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| 2,643 | videos |
| 415 | 3D images |
| 16,438 | translations |
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Ancient Period
Definition
Kikuyu People
The Kikuyu people (aka Gikuyu or Agikuyu) are a Bantu-speaking people who occupied territory in what is today central Kenya in East Africa from the 17th century onwards. They established themselves...
Definition
Kykeon
Kykeon (from the Greek “to mix, stir”) was a beverage of water and barley (sometimes flavored with mint or thyme) popular among the working, 'lower' class of ancient Greece. In Homer's Illiad it...
Definition
Ahuitzotl
Ahuitzotl (Auitzotl) was an Aztec ruler who reigned between 1486 and 1502 CE. He was one of the greatest generals of the ancient Americas and he left to his nephew, Montezuma, an enlarged and...
Definition
Ancient Scotland
Scotland is a country which, today, comprises the northern part of Great Britain and includes the islands known as the Hebrides and the Orkneys. The name derives from the Roman word "Scotti"...
Definition
Pan Flute
The pan flute or panpipes (syrinx) was a musical wind instrument first used by the ancient Greeks. Most commonly played by shepherds, the earliest use was in the Cycladic islands in the third...
Article
A Gift from King Shulgi: A Pair of Gold Earrings
Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise. Christopher Columbus. On June...
Article
Top 5 Archaeological Sites in Lebanon
Home to some of the Middle East’s most majestic ancient ruins, Lebanon has a rich and varied heritage with over 5,000 years of recorded history. Over the millennia, different...
Definition
Tigranes the Great
Tigranes II or Tigranes the Great ruled as the king of Armenia from c. 95 to c. 56 BCE. Expanding in all directions, at its peak, Tigranes' Armenian Empire stretched from the Black Sea...
Medieval Period
Article
Maya Food & Agriculture
For the Maya, reliable food production was so important to their well-being that they closely linked the agricultural cycle to astronomy and religion. Important rituals and ceremonies...
Definition
Maya Government
Ancient Maya government was formed on the basis that rulers were thought to have been god-like, which to some might suggest one unified state. However, the consensus amongst anthropologists...
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...
Article
Chola Art & Architecture
Like many great civilisations, the origins of the Chola, a Tamil Hindu dynasty in southern India, are shrouded in the temporal mists of uncertainty and obscurity. It is however known...
Definition
Julian of Norwich
Julian of Norwich (l. 1342-1416 CE, also known as Dame Julian, Lady Juliana of Norwich) was a Christian mystic and anchoress best known for her work Revelations of Divine Love (Julian's...
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...
Definition
William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror (c. 1027-1087), also known as William, Duke of Normandy, led the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 when he defeated and killed his rival Harold Godwinson at the...
Definition
Chocolate in Mesoamerica
Chocolate was one of the most desired foods of Mesoamerica and was consumed by the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec civilizations, amongst others. Its consumption even spread via trade routes...
Early Modern Period
Article
Natural Rights & the Enlightenment
The idea of natural rights is the concept used in philosophy and legal studies that a person has certain rights from birth and which, because they were not awarded by a particular...
Definition
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (l. 1755-1793) was the queen of France during the turbulent final years of the Ancien Régime and the subsequent French Revolution (1789-1799). With the ascension of her...
Article
Ten Notorious French Pirates
Piracy has involved many nationalities over the centuries, but one of the prominent groups in the medieval and early modern periods was the French pirates, who terrorised the Atlantic...
Article
The History of Japanese Green Tea
The history of green tea in Japan goes back to the 8th century when it was a popular stimulant for meditating monks. In this article, we examine tea's origins and cultivation...
Definition
Numismatics
Numismatics the study of coinage, and is a wonderfully useful tool in the archaeologist's and historian's toolbox. One of the best things for an archaeologist to find while digging is a coin...
Definition
John Rolfe
John Rolfe (l. 1585-1622 CE) was an English merchant and colonist of Jamestown best known as the husband of Pocahontas (l. c. 1596-1617 CE). He is also known, however, for his successful cultivation...
Article
Clothes in the Elizabethan Era
Clothes in the Elizabethan era (1558-1603 CE) became much more colourful, elaborate, and flamboyant than in previous periods. With Elizabeth I of England (r. 1558-1603 CE) herself...
Article
Pirate Havens in the Golden Age of Piracy
The buccaneers who roamed the Spanish Main and the pirates who plundered the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean during the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730) needed a place...
Modern Period
Article
First Battle of El Alamein
The First Battle of El Alamein (1-27 July 1942) was a series of encounters during the Second World War (1939-1945) in Egypt between Allied and Axis forces. The battle, focussed around...
Article
Coyote Tales of the Shasta Nation
The Coyote tales come from the Shasta people who originally inhabited the regions of modern-day northern California and southern Oregon. Coyote is a popular trickster figure...
Definition
Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was an American impressionist painter who lived most of her life in France. She focussed on capturing women at their daily tasks in oils, pastels, and prints, and produced...
Definition
Pink and White Terraces of New Zealand
The cascading geothermal pink and white terraces of Aotearoa New Zealand were often referred to internationally and within New Zealand as the eighth wonder of the world...
Article
Eyewitness Accounts of WWI
The First World War (1914-18) was the first truly global conflict and the first to be fully mechanised. Armies clashed across continents on land, in the air, and at sea. Civilians...
Definition
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy (1868-1957) was a Hungarian admiral and statesman who served as regent for the Kingdom of Hungary from 1920 until his forced abdication in 1944. During the interwar period and...
Article
Oheka Castle
Oheka Castle, built by the industrialist Otto Herman Kahn (l. 1867-1934), is one of the best-known luxury hotels of Long Island, NY, USA today. In its time as a private residence, it was the...
Article
History of Juneteenth
Juneteenth is an annual event celebrating the end of chattel slavery in the United States in commemorating the issuance of General Order No. 3 (which included the line "all slaves are...
Prehistoric Period
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...
Definition
Paleolithic
The Palaeolithic ('Old Stone Age') makes up the earliest chunk of the Stone Age – the large swathe of time during which hominins used stone to make tools – and ranges from the first known tool...
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...
Definition
First Agricultural Revolution
The First Agricultural Revolution, beginning c. 12-20,000 years ago, was characterized by the emergence of different agricultural systems in different parts of the world, whose...
Definition
Hill of Tara
The Hill of Tara is an ancient Neolithic Age site in County Meath, Ireland. It was known as the seat of the High Kings of Ireland, the site of coronations, a place of assembly for the enacting...
Definition
Ice Age
An ice age is a period in which the earth's climate is colder than normal, with ice sheets capping the poles and glaciers dominating higher altitudes. Within an ice age, there are varying pulses...
Definition
Chauvet Cave
The Chauvet Cave (also known as the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave) is a Palaeolithic cave situated near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in the Ardèche region of southern France that houses impeccably preserved...
Definition
Neolithic Period
The term Neolithic Period refers to the last stage of the Stone Age - a term coined in the late 19th century CE by scholars which covers three different periods: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic...
