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
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...
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...
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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
Definition
Chitrali Mythology
Chitrali mythology developed in the region of Chitral, the tallest portions of the Hindu Kush mountains, where the Chitrali people, at the juncture of South, Central, West, and East Asia...
Definition
Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE) was among the most culturally significant of the early Chinese dynasties and the longest lasting of any in China's history, divided into two periods: Western...
Article
Legions of Syria
The Roman legions of Syria served as a buffer, protecting the Roman Empire not only externally from such threats as Parthia and the Sasanian Empire but also internally during the Great Jewish...
Definition
Baba Yaga
Baba Yaga (Baba Jaga) is a witch or ogress from Slavic folklore who lives in a magical hut in the forest and either helps, imprisons, or eats people (usually children). She is among the most...
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 Strategist in Exile: Xenophon and the Death of Thucydides
Nickel begins by setting up the historical background for his narrative. He explains that Xenophon is invited on a journey to Persia by his friend Proxenus...
Book Review
Heavenly Warriors: The Evolution of Japan’s Military, 500–1300 (Harvard East Asian Monographs)
This is a fairly old book since it was first published in 1996, but it remains the best English-language introduction to the...
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| 1,767 | articles |
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| 2,643 | videos |
| 415 | 3D images |
| 16,440 | translations |
| 48 | languages |
| 1,345 | contributors |
| 15,635 | keywords |
| 62,757 | registered users |
Ancient Period
Definition
Leptis Magna
Leptis Magna (aka Lepcis Magna), located in western Libya, North Africa, was a Phoenician city founded by Tyre in the 7th century BCE. Continuing to be a major city in the Roman period, it...
Article
Hymn to Nisaba - A Praise Song for the Sumerian Goddess of Writing
The Hymn to Nisaba (circa 3rd millennium BCE) is a poem praising Nisaba, the Sumerian goddess of writing and accounts who also served as scribe of...
Article
Ghosts in Ancient China
Ghost stories were the earliest form of literature in ancient China. They were almost certainly part of a very old oral tradition before writing developed during the Shang Dynasty...
Definition
Ur-Nammu - Founder of the Sumerian Renaissance
Ur-Nammu (circa 2112-2094 BCE) was the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur in Sumer, who initiated the so-called Ur III period (circa 2112 to circa 2004 BCE), also...
Article
Minoan Jewellery
The jewellery of the Minoan civilization based on Bronze Age Crete demonstrates, as with other Minoan visual art forms, not only a sophisticated technological knowledge (in this case of...
Article
Paper in Ancient China
The widespread use of paper and printing were features of ancient China which distinguished it from other ancient cultures. Traditionally, paper was invented in the early 2nd century...
Definition
Zenobia
Zenobia (b. c. 240 CE, death date unknown) was the queen of the Palmyrene Empire who challenged the authority of Rome during the latter part of the period of Roman history known as The Crisis of...
Definition
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro (70-19 BCE), better known to most modern readers as Virgil, was one of the greatest poets of the early Roman Empire. His best-known work, the Aeneid, told of a Trojan prince...
Medieval Period
Definition
Merlin
Merlin (also known as Myrddin, Merlinus) is the great wizard of the Arthurian Legends best known from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur (1469 CE). The character was created by Geoffrey of Monmouth...
Definition
Jan Žižka
Jan Žižka (l. c. 1360 – 1424) was a Czech general and one of the most brilliant tacticians in military history. In the Hussite Wars (1419 to c. 1434), he was undefeated as the leader of the Hussites...
Article
The Civil Service Examinations of Imperial China
The civil service examinations of Imperial China allowed the state to find the best candidates to staff the vast bureaucracy that governed China from the Han Dynasty...
Definition
Emperor of Japan
The emperor of Japan is a position as the head of state which traditionally dates back to the 7th century BCE and the legendary figure of Emperor Jimmu (r. 660-585 BCE). Emperors came to...
Definition
Medieval Icelandic Government
Early medieval Icelandic government, or Viking Iceland, has been termed an incipient form of democracy or democratic parliamentarism, however, the system was actually nothing...
Definition
Inca Civilization
The Inca civilization flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE. The Inca Empire eventually extended across western South America from Quito in the north to Santiago in the...
Definition
David II of Scotland
David II of Scotland ruled as king from 1329 to 1371 CE. Succeeding his father Robert the Bruce (r. 1306-1329 CE) when still a child, his early reign was threatened by the pretender...
Article
Causes of the Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses (1455-1487 CE) was a series of dynastic conflicts between the monarchy and the nobility of England. The 'wars' were a series of intermittent, often small-scale...
Early Modern Period
Definition
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution of November 1688 saw Protestant William of Orange (l. 1650-1702) invade England and take the throne of Catholic James II of England (r. 1685-1688). There were...
Article
Mondamin
Mondamin (also given as Mon-Daw-Min, The Gift of Corn, and The Origin of Corn) is a tale from the Ojibwe Nation on how the people received corn from the Great Spirit through the vision quest of...
Definition
Colonel Tye
Colonel Tye (c. 1753-1780) was an African-American Loyalist leader who commanded one of the most effective guerilla forces of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Born into slavery, he...
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...
Definition
Portuguese Cochin
Cochin, located on the southwest coast of India, was a Portuguese colony from 1503 to 1663. Known to the Portuguese as Cochim, it was one of several important cities on India’s Malabar...
Article
Why the Industrial Revolution Started in Britain
The Industrial Revolution saw a wave of technological and social changes in many countries of the world in the 18th and 19th centuries, but it began in Britain...
Article
Excerpts from Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation
William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation is the first-hand account of the voyage of the ship Mayflower, founding of Plymouth Colony in modern-day Massachusetts...
Definition
Boston Massacre
The Boston Massacre, or the Incident on King Street, occurred in Boston, Massachusetts, on 5 March 1770, when nine British soldiers fired into a crowd of American colonists, ultimately killing...
Modern Period
Article
Cheyenne Legends of the Buffalo
Two popular Cheyenne legends are the Origin of the Buffalo and How the Buffalo Hunt Began (also known as The Great Race), both dealing with the importance of the North American...
Article
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein (Oct-Nov 1942) was a major battle in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaigns of the Second World War (1939-45). The British Eighth Army...
Article
Witwatersrand Gold & the Creation of South Africa
The discovery of gold at Witwatersrand in Transvaal in 1886, coupled with that of diamonds at Kimberley in 1867, transformed the entire region of Southern Africa...
Article
The Liberation of Jane Johnson - Her Famous Escape and Court Testimony
Jane Johnson (circa 1814/1827-1872) and her two young sons, Daniel and Isaiah, were slaves of one John Hill Wheeler of North Carolina, who brought...
Definition
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn (25-26 June 1876) is the most famous engagement of the Great Sioux War (1876-1877). Five companies of the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Colonel George...
Image Gallery
50 Stunning Photographs of WWII
This gallery of photographs tells the dramatic story of the Second World War (1939-45). The selection aims to reflect the global nature of the conflict and reveal many of its...
Article
How Christmas Was Shaped by 19th-Century Literature
How we celebrate Christmas today is largely shaped by a small group of authors who recorded festive traditions in the 19th century. These authors include Washington...
Definition
James Buchanan - The President Who Lost the Union
James Buchanan (1791-1868) was an American politician who served as the fifteenth president of the United States. He took office during a time of great crisis...
Prehistoric Period
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...
Definition
Homo Erectus
Homo erectus, or 'upright man', is an extinct species of human that occupies an intriguing spot within the human evolutionary lineage. These prehistoric hunter-gatherers were highly successful...
Definition
The Sweet Track
The Sweet Track is a Neolithic timber walkway, located in the Somerset Levels, England. It was originally part of a network of tracks built to provide a dry path across the marshy ground...
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
Homo Heidelbergensis
Homo heidelbergensis is an extinct species of human that is identified in both Africa and western Eurasia from roughly 700,000 years ago onwards until around 200,000 years ago – fitting...
Definition
Homo Rudolfensis
Homo rudolfensis is an early human species that lived in East Africa between c. 2.5 and 1.8 million years ago. It is known from a handful of skull, jaw and teeth fragments that remind alternatingly...
Article
The Stonehenge Burials
A great deal has been written about why the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, southern England, was constructed. Perhaps it was designed as a temple to the ancestors...
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...
