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
Federalist No. 10 - James Madison's Antidote to the Dangers of Factionalism
Federalist No. 10 was an essay written by James Madison, under the pseudonym Publius, and originally published in the New York Daily Advisor...
Article
Stalin's Collectivisation of Agriculture
Joseph Stalin's policy to collect private farms into cooperatives and wholly state-owned farms across the USSR began in 1928. Stalin hoped the process of collectivisation...
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...
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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
Causes of the Boer War
The causes of the Boer War (aka Second Anglo-Boer War, South Africa War, and Second War of Freedom, 1899-1902) stretched back to the early 19th century and competition for land and...
Definition
Aethelred I of Wessex - The Forgotten Victor of the Battle of Ashdown
Aethelred I ruled the Kingdom of Wessex (southern England) from 865 to 871 and led the English resistance to the Viking invasions of Britain. He...
Definition
Ardashir I
Ardashir I (l. c. 180-241 CE, r. 224-240 CE) was the founder of the Persian Sassanian Empire (224-651 CE) and father of the great Sassanian king Shapur I (r. 240-270 CE). He is also known as...
Definition
Battle of Mill Springs - The First Union Victory in the Western Theater
The Battle of Mill Springs (19 January 1862) was the first Union victory in the Western theater of the American Civil War and propelled Union...
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
A Noble Ruin: Mark Antony, Civil War, and the Collapse of the Roman Republic
Despite Tatum's best efforts, it is hard to call this book a proper biography of Mark Antony. As the subtitle suggests, Tatum attempts to...
Book Review
Julius Caesar in Egypt: Cleopatra and the War in Alexandria
The book's first three chapters reconstruct the background of the Alexandrian War from the perspectives of Pompey, Cleopatra, and Caesar. Readers unfamiliar...
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| 1,767 | articles |
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| 2,643 | videos |
| 415 | 3D images |
| 16,440 | translations |
| 48 | languages |
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| 15,635 | keywords |
| 62,757 | registered users |
Ancient Period
Definition
Ymir
Ymir is a primordial giant, closely linked to the creation myth and the beginning of the world in Norse mythology. A creature resulting from the dramatic encounter between ice and fire, he was fed...
Article
Pre-Inca Civilisations at the Tucume Museum
On 1 November 2015 CE, at the annual dinner hosted by the British Guild of Travel Writers at the Savoy Hotel in London, it was announced that the Tucume Museum in northern...
Definition
Volsinii
Volsinii (modern Orvieto), located in central Italy, was an important Etruscan town from the 8th century BCE when it was known by the name of Velzna. Representatives of the Etruscan League met...
Article
Jesus & the Law of Moses
New Testament studies now place Jesus Christ within the parameters of Second Temple Judaism in the 1st century CE, attempting to go behind the layers of later Christian theology and...
Article
Women in the Byzantine Empire
Women in the Byzantine Empire (4th to 15th century CE) were, amongst the upper classes, largely expected to supervise the family home and raise children while those who had to...
Definition
Alexander Severus
Alexander Severus served as the Roman emperor from 222 CE until his untimely death in 235 CE. At the urging of his mother, aunt, and grandmother, Emperor Elagabalus named his cousin Alexianus...
Definition
Roman Warfare
Roman warfare was remarkably successful over many centuries and across many territories. This was due to several important factors. Italy was a peninsula not easily attacked, there was a huge...
Article
The Island of Gla: A Mycenaean Mystery Solved?
The island of Gla, an enigmatic Mycenaean citadel in the north-eastern corner of the Copais basin lies 70 miles north of Athens, in the region of Boeotia. Lake Copais...
Medieval Period
Definition
Leo III
Leo III was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 717 to 741 CE. He founded the Isaurian dynasty which ruled until 802 CE. The emperor was a talented administrator, and he revamped the empire's...
Definition
Kingdom of Northumbria
The Kingdom of Northumbria (c. 604-954 CE) was a political entity in the north of modern-day Britain with Mercia directly to the south, the Kingdoms of the Welsh to the west, and the...
Definition
Salado Culture
The Salado culture is a term used by historians and archaeologists to describe a pre-Columbian Southwestern culture that flourished from c. 1200-1450 CE in the Tonto Basin of what is now...
Definition
Medieval Castle
Medieval castles were built from the 11th century CE for rulers to demonstrate their wealth and power to the local populace, to provide a place of defence and safe retreat in the case of...
Definition
Ragnarök - The Cataclysmic Battle of Norse Mythology
Ragnarök is the cataclysmic battle between the forces of chaos and those of order in Norse mythology, ending the world and killing most of the gods and their...
Definition
Flann Sinna
Flann Sinna (r. 879-916 CE) was a High King of Ireland from the Kingdom of Mide (Meath) and a member of the Clann Cholmain, a branch of the Southern Ui Neill dynasty. His name is pronounced...
Definition
Ridda Wars
The Ridda Wars or the Wars of Apostasy (632-633 CE) were a series of military engagements between the armies of the Rashidun Caliphate (632-661 CE) and the renegade tribes of Arabia. The rebels...
Definition
Natchez Trace
Natchez Trace is a historic site and park in the United States commemorated by the Natchez Trail Parkway stretching 444 miles (715 km) from Natchez, Mississippi, through northern Alabama...
Early Modern Period
Article
Hernando de Soto's Expedition to La Florida (1539-1542)
The Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto (c. 1500-1542) landed on the west coast of Florida on 30 May 1539, hoping to find wealthy kingdoms to conquer and plunder...
Article
The Bounty Mutiny - Sailors Seduced by the South Seas
The 1789 mutiny on the Bounty is an infamous tale of sailors being lured by the easy charms of the South Seas into casting adrift their commander and living...
Definition
Robert Clive
Robert Clive (1725-1774), also known as 'Clive of India' and Baron Clive of Plassey, masterminded the expansion of the East India Company in India. Best known for his victory at Plassey in...
Definition
Battle of Neerwinden
The Battle of Neerwinden saw the major defeat of a French republican army by an allied force of Austrians and Dutch during the War of the First Coalition (1792-97), part of the broader...
Definition
Edward Low
Edward 'Ned' Low was an English pirate active in the Caribbean and eastern Atlantic from 1721 to 1724 during the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730). Probably the most sadistic and cruelest of...
Definition
Diet of Worms
The Diet of Worms (January-May 1521) was the assembly convened by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor to address, among other issues, the works of the reformer Martin Luther (l. 1483-1546) who openly...
Article
Battle of Germantown
The Battle of Germantown (4 October 1777) was a major battle of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) in which General George Washington launched an unsuccessful assault on the...
Definition
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII of England ruled as king from 1509 to 1547. The second Tudor king after his father Henry VII of England (r. 1485-1509), Henry had inherited a kingdom which enjoyed both unity...
Modern Period
Definition
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
The Chesapeake-Leopard affair was an incident that took place off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, on 22 June 1807 when the British warship HMS Leopard fired on and boarded an American...
Definition
Battle of the Alamo - The Fall of Heroes
Of all the battles of the Texas Revolution, the Battle of the Alamo (6 March 1836) is the most famous. It is not only among the best-known and most widely studied in American...
Image Gallery
Gustave Caillebotte: A Gallery of 30 Paintings
In this gallery, we showcase 30 paintings by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), the French impressionist painter. The selection here is presented in chronological sequence...
Definition
Mitsubishi A6M Zero - From Finest Fighter to Kamikaze Fodder
The Mitsubishi A6M Zero-sen is the most famous Japanese fighter of the Second World War (1939-45). The single-seater aircraft was a leap forward for the...
Definition
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a Norwegian composer known for his songs, piano music, and the Peer Gynt suites. The composer was famous in his own lifetime, touring extensively to play and conduct...
Article
Mandan Buffalo Dance
The Mandan Buffalo Dance is a ceremonial ritual observed in the modern era to honor the spirit of the buffalo and preserve Native American cultural traditions and was performed in the...
Definition
Titus Andronicus - Shakespeare's Bloodiest Play
Titus Andronicus is the earliest tragedy by William Shakespeare (l. c.1564-1616), probably written sometime between 1589 and 1593, and first performed in 1594. Infamous...
Definition
Harriet Tubman - Visionary American Hero
Harriet Tubman (circa 1822-1913) was a former slave, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and famous conductor on the Underground Railroad. She served as a cook, nurse...
Prehistoric Period
Definition
Ҫatalhöyük
Ҫatalhöyük is one of the largest Neolithic settlements ever discovered. Built more than 9000 years ago in modern Konya Plain, central Turkey, it is known in archaeology as a proto-city, a link...
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...
Article
The Megalithic Funerary Art of San Agustín
Beginning approximately 2000 years ago, in a rugged stretch of southwestern Colombia where the Andes split into multiple ranges and the mighty Magdalena River is born...
Article
The Dolmens of Sicily
It is a well-known fact that Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean sea, went through a quite complex prehistoric period. So much so that it is difficult to navigate through...
Article
The Neanderthal-Sapiens Connection
In May 2010, after years of intense discussions surrounding possible fossils of mixed Homo sapiens and Neanderthal descent floating around the scientific community, a team...
Article
Rock Drawings of Valcamonica
The rock drawings of Valcamonica are prehistoric petroglyphs carved in the glacier-polished, grey-purple Permian sandstone of the Camonica valley that extends for 90 km in the...
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
Homo Naledi
Homo naledi is an extinct species of human discovered in Rising Star Cave in South Africa in 2013 CE in what has become the biggest single-species hominin find in Africa to this day, which is...
