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Definition
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807-1814), also known as the War of Spanish Independence, was a major conflict of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) that was waged in the Iberian Peninsula by Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom against the invading First French Empire of Napoleon I (r. 1804-1814; 1815). It remains the bloodiest episode in the modern history of Spain. The war...
Featured
Article
Harrison's Marine Chronometer
John Harrison (1693-1776) invented an accurate marine chronometer after several decades of research and development. While the pendulum clock had already been invented in the...
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12 Women Rulers of the Ancient World - Queens, Regents & Empresses Who Exercised State Power
Political power in the ancient world rested on dynastic legitimacy, control of court and military institutions, religious authority...
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Die Like an Egyptian: How to Reach the Field of Reeds (Aaru) - An Afterlife Guide from New Kingdom Egypt (c. 1550-1069 BCE)
Ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife centered on the idea that death marked the beginning of...
Latest Content
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AP World History Unit 4 - Transoceanic Interconnections (c. 1450–1750)
This collection collates articles, definitions, and maps covering the voyages, empires, and exchanges related to Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections...
Article
How the Pacific War Changed Global Warfare
The Pacific War (1941-45) contributed many lasting innovations and developments to global warfare. This theatre of the Second World War witnessed the end of battleships...
Collection
WWII's Pacific War - A Collection of Resources
This collection of resources presents the Pacific theatre of the Second World War (1939-45), which saw the expansion of the Japanese Empire before the USA was brought...
Collection
AP World History Unit 3 - Land-Based Empires (c. 1450–1750)
This collection gathers articles, definitions, and maps covering the empires, rulers, and belief systems related to Unit 3: Land-Based Empires of the AP®...
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...
Article
A Supervisor's Advice to a Young Scribe - Words of Wisdom or Satire?
A Supervisor's Advice to a Young Scribe is a Sumerian composition relating a dialogue between an elder scribe and a young graduate from his school...
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12 Women Rulers of the Ancient World - Queens, Regents & Empresses Who Exercised State Power
Political power in the ancient world rested on dynastic legitimacy, control of court and military institutions, religious authority...
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Map of the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean Trade Networks - Trade, Diplomacy & Interdependence, c. 1400–1200 BCE
Between c. 1400 and 1200 BCE, the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean formed a densely interconnected system of exchange...
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Map of the Mediterranean Trade Networks, c. 700–350 BCE - Commerce & Colonization in the Archaic and Classical Ages
Between c. 700 and 350 BCE, the Mediterranean formed part of a broad and increasingly interconnected system...
For You
Definition
Shengavit
The Shengavit archaeological site is an ancient settlement occupied from c. 3500 - c. 2200 BCE and is located in a southern suburb of what is presently Yerevan, Armenia. The site is nearly 3...
Definition
Parthian Culture
Stretching between China and India in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, Parthia ruled over one of the widest expanses of empire in its time and Parthian culture flourished for 500...
Definition
Cerdic
Cerdic of Wessex (r. 519-534) was King of the West Saxons and the founder of Wessex. His influence was so profound that later genealogies of the English monarchy would claim that all the sovereigns...
Article
A Seminole Creation Story & Other Tales
The Seminole are a Native American nation of people descended from the Muscogee Creek nation, and others, who migrated to the modern-day State of Florida in the 1700s...
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
Ancient Mesopotamia (How'd They Do That in)
Elizabeth Scholl's work Ancient Mesopotamia is an excellent introduction to Mesopotamian civilization for children. Part of the How'd They Do That In...? Series, Scholl's...
Book Review
1368: China and the Making of the Modern World
Globalization is a current buzzword in business, communications, and politics, especially in this early part of the 21st century. Traditional American historical...
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Ancient Period
Article
The Shield of Heracles: The Complete Poem
The Shield of Heracles (also known as The Shield of Herakles and, in the original, Aspis Herakleous) is a poem of 480 hexameter lines written by an unknown Greek poet...
Definition
Vulci
Vulci (Velch) was an Etruscan city located 12 km from the western coast of central Italy by the banks of the Fiora River. Flourishing as a trading port between the 6th and 4th century BCE, it was...
Article
The Dragon in Ancient China
Dragons appear in the mythology of many ancient cultures but nowhere else in the world was the creature quite so revered as in China. There, in marked contrast to other world mythologies...
Definition
Emperor Taizong of Tang
Taizong (birth name, Li-Shimin, l. 598-649 CE, r. 626-649 CE) was the second emperor of the Tang Dynasty and is considered one of the greatest rulers in Chinese history for his reforms...
Definition
Second Intermediate Period of Egypt - The Era of the Hyksos
The Second Intermediate Period (circa 1782 to circa 1570 BCE) is the era following the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (2040-1782 BCE) and preceding the New Kingdom...
Definition
Aryan
Aryan is a designation originally meaning “civilized”, “noble”, or “free” without reference to any ethnicity. It was first applied as a self-identifying term by a migratory group of people from...
Definition
Ancient Egyptian Mythology
Egyptian mythology was the belief structure and underlying form of ancient Egyptian culture from at least c. 4000 BCE (as evidenced by burial practices and tomb paintings) to 30...
Article
Caesar As Dictator: His Impact on the City of Rome
Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) first assumed the role of dictator in 49 BCE, however, once he had secured his election as consul for the following year, he...
Medieval Period
Article
Hummingbirds in Aztec Culture - Warriors, Survivors, & the Namesakes of Gods & Kings
Hummingbirds, called huitzillin ("wee-TZEEL-een") in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs, are one of the most recognizable and striking...
Article
12 Best Historical Fiction Books to Read
The AHE team live and breathe history, but we all have our favourite historical periods and authors. We thought it would be fun for each of us to nominate one or two...
Definition
Bhubaneshwar
Bhubaneshwar (also spelt Bhubaneswar, Bhubanesar, and Bhuvanesvar) is a city located in the Orissa district of north-eastern India and flourished as a centre of Hindu worship from the 7th century...
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
Harsha
Emperor Harshavardhana, better known as Harsha, lived from 590 to 647 CE and was the last ruler of the Vardhana Empire, the last great empire in ancient India before the Islamic Invasion. He ruled...
Definition
Cahuachi
Cahuachi, located on the southern coast of Peru, was the most important sacred site of the Nazca civilization. The Nazca flourished between 200 BCE and 600 CE, and Cahuachi covers a similar time...
Article
Battle of Ad Decimum
The Battle of Ad Decimum near Carthage, North Africa took place in September 533 CE and was the first major battle of the Vandalic War (533 - 534 CE) between the forces of the Byzantine...
Definition
Medieval Tournament
The medieval tournament was a forum for European knights where they could practise and show off their military skills in activities such as jousting or the mêlée, indulge in a bit of...
Early Modern Period
Article
Assassination of Marat
The assassination of revolutionary activist and Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat on 13 July 1793 was one of the most iconic moments of the French Revolution (1789-1799), immortalized...
Article
Reformation & Repression under Bishop Briçonnet of Meaux
As the Protestant Reformation emerged in France in the early 16th century, the city of Meaux became one of the first centers of controversy. Bishop Guillaume...
Collection
The History of The East India Company
The British East India Company (EIC) was founded as a trading company in 1600. Run by a board of directors in London, the company employed a private army, first to protect...
Definition
French and Indian War - The Final Clash of Empires in North America
The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the last great colonial conflict waged between Great Britain and France in North America. Often considered...
Definition
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French scientist, mathematician, and philosopher whose work influenced both the Scientific Revolution and later European thought. Pascal is known for his practical...
Definition
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) governed Japan as the fifth shogun of the Edo period (1603-1876). He has often been ridiculed as the 'dog shogun' because of the laws he enacted to protect...
Definition
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn (c. 1501-1536) was the second wife of Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547). Anne, sometimes known as 'Anne of a Thousand Days' in reference to her short reign as queen, was accused...
Article
Capture of Fort Ticonderoga
The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga (10 May 1775) was a military operation that occurred early in the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). A small colonial expedition jointly led...
Modern Period
Article
Origin Tales of the Penobscot Nation
The Penobscot are a Native American nation of the modern-day State of Maine, also recognized as a First Nation of Canada. Along with the Abenaki, Mi'kmaq, Passamaquoddy...
Article
Discovery of Troy
In his epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Greek poet Homer (c. 750 BCE) told the story of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by an alliance of Greek city-states...
Article
Hidatsa Sun Dance Ritual
The Hidatsa Sun Dance Ritual (also known as Hidatsa Sun Dance) is a Native American story of the Hidatsa nation illustrating the practice of an individual initiating the Sun Dance...
Collection
British House of Hanover
The House of Hanover is a royal house that first ruled Hanover and then Great Britain from 1714 to 1901. The British Hanoverians began with George I when he succeeded the last of...
Definition
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American philosopher, writer, naturalist, and political activist. He is best known for his book Walden, published in 1854, which recounts his two-year...
Article
Battle of Austerlitz
The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805), or the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most significant battles of the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). It saw French Emperor Napoleon...
Definition
German-Soviet War - WWII's Bloodiest Front
The German-Soviet War, known in the USSR and today's Russia as the Great Patriotic War or, in Western Europe, as the Eastern Front of the Second World War (1939-45...
Definition
Henry Box Brown - The Man Who Mailed Himself to Freedom
Henry Box Brown (l. c. 1815-1897) was an enslaved African American who became famous as "the man who mailed himself to freedom" after he had himself shipped...
Prehistoric Period
Definition
Predynastic Period in Egypt - The Time Before History Began
The Predynastic Period in ancient Egypt is the time before recorded history, from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic Age and on to the rise of the First Dynasty...
Definition
Newgrange
Newgrange is a Neolithic monument located in the region of Bru na Boinne, County Meath, Ireland. The name is fairly modern and comes from the 'newer' grange (farm) of the monks of Mellifont Abbey...
Definition
Venus Figurine
The term Venus figurine is used to describe the more than 200 small statuettes of voluptuous female figures that have been found at Upper Paleolithic sites across Europe and some parts of...
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...
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...
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...
Article
Prehistoric Alpine Stilt Houses
Alpine stilt houses are a unique and fascinating aspect of prehistoric architecture in the Alps, which provide valuable insights into the lives and culture of the ancient communities...
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...
