Featured
Article
The 1918 Armistice with Germany - Allied Victory on WWI's Western Front
The armistice that ended the First World War (1914-18) on the Western Front was signed between Germany and the Allies on 11 November 1918. The...
Featured
Article
The Causes of WWI
The origins of the First World War (1914-18) are many and varied, with some even dating back several decades, but a political assassination in the Balkans in the summer of 1914 was the...
Featured
Image
The Four Intact Pharaoh Burials of Ancient Egypt - Tutankhamun and the Royal Treasures of Tanis
Ancient Egyptian royal burials were designed to preserve the pharaoh's body, identity, and status for the afterlife. Coffins...
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...
Latest Content
Definition
Pax Mongolica - Trade and Cultural Exchange in the Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire was the largest land empire in world history, at about 22,000,000 square kilometers (850,000 square miles). The term Pax Mongolica...
Definition
James A. Garfield - The Unlikely Rise and Tragic Assassination of a President
James A. Garfield (1831-1881) was an American politician from Ohio who served as the 20th president of the United States from 4 March 1881...
Article
A History of Modern Time - From Railroad Time to Atomic Clocks
The rapidly expanding 19th-century rail network not only 'annihilated space,' in the parlance of the day, but also altered the definition, use, and perception...
Article
Battle of Chickamauga - The Second Bloodiest Battle of the American Civil War
The Battle of Chickamauga (19-20 September 1863) was a decisive battle in the western theater of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Fought...
Curriculum Collection
AP World History Unit 7 - Global Conflict (c. 1900 to the Present)
At the dawn of the 20th century, a few Western powers dominated global politics. Within only 50 years, that order was remade by two world wars of...
Article
Stalin's Gulag System - The USSR's Labour Camps
Joseph Stalin's gulag system was a network of labour camps across the USSR, which were, from 1930, used to detain criminals and anyone considered enemies of the state...
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Map of the Western Front in World War I, 1914–1918 - Trench Warfare, Major Battles, and the Allied Victory
The Western Front (1914–1918) was the principal battlefield of the First World War in Western Europe, emerging from...
Image
Map of the Fertile Crescent and the Origins of Agriculture - Early Farming and Domestication in the Ancient Near East
The Fertile Crescent, a term coined in 1916 by Egyptologist James Henry Breasted, describes an arc of Southwest...
Image
Map of the Roman Empire under Septimius Severus, 193-211 CE - Civil War, Roman Expansion, and the Rise of the Severans
The reign of Septimius Severus (193–211 CE) marked a turning point in Roman imperial history. Rising to power...
For You
Article
Sammu-Ramat and Semiramis: The Inspiration and the Myth
Sammu-Ramat (r. 811-806 BCE) was the queen regent of the Assyrian Empire who held the throne for her young son Adad Nirari III (r. 811-783 BCE) until he reached...
Definition
Philolaus
Philolaus (l. c. 470 to c. 385 BCE) was a Pythagorean philosopher who claimed that fire was the first cause of existence and heat the underlying source of human life. He is best known for his...
Definition
John Winthrop
John Winthrop (l. c. 1588-1649 CE) was an English lawyer best known as the Puritan leader of the first large wave of the Great Migration of Puritans from England to North America in 1630 CE...
Definition
Flavius Josephus
Titus Flavius Josephus (36-100 CE), was born Yosef ben Matityahu and became a 1st-century CE Jewish historian. He was a member of a priestly household in Jerusalem through his father’s side...
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 Short History of the Saracens
Syed Ameer Ali's account of the rise of Muslim Arabs is a tantalizing read, to say the least, every page made we want to read it further, and although some phrases got a bit...
Book Review
The Problem of Immigration in a Slaveholding Republic: Policing Mobility in the Nineteenth-Century United States
In The Problem of Immigration, readers are introduced to a familiar historical struggle between the states and...
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| 2,647 | videos |
| 415 | 3D images |
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Ancient Period
Definition
Philip II of Macedon
Although he is often only remembered for being the father of Alexander the Great, Philip II of Macedon (reigned 359 BCE - 336 BCE) was an accomplished king and military commander in...
Interview
Interview: Ave Caesar! Romans, Gauls and Germanic tribes on the Banks of the Rhine
In ancient times, the Rhine was a major communications artery stretching right across Europe, allowing trade, contacts, and cultural...
Definition
Roman Gladiator
A Roman gladiator was an ancient professional fighter who usually specialised with particular weapons and types of armour. They fought before the public in hugely popular organised games...
Definition
Balhae
The Balhae (Parhae) kingdom in Manchuria (698-926 CE) was an important regional power which interacted both peacefully and otherwise with its neighbours the Unified Silla Kingdom of Korea and Tang...
Definition
Caesarion
Ptolemy XV Caesar “Theos Philopator Philometor” (“the Father-loving Mother-loving God”) (c. 47-30 BCE), better known by his unofficial nickname Caesarion or “Little Caesar” in Greek, was the...
Collection
Religious Beliefs and Practices of the Ancient Egyptians
Religion was interwoven throughout the life of ancient Egypt, and was connected to Egyptian mythology, science, and medicine to name a few. From the mightiest...
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
Atreus
Atreus was the mythical Greek king of Mycenae. He is perhaps best known for being the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, two heroes of the Trojan War, as well as for the terrible curse placed upon...
Medieval Period
Definition
Leo V the Armenian
Leo the V the Armenian was emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 813 to 820 CE. He was of Armenian descent and the last ruler of the Isaurian dynasty which had been founded by Leo III (r...
Definition
Greek Fire - The Byzantines' Seceret Weapon
Greek Fire was an incendiary weapon first used in Byzantine warfare in 678 CE. The napalm of ancient warfare, the highly flammable liquid was made of secret ingredients...
Article
Throne of Montezuma
The magnificent stone monument variously referred to as the Monument of Sacred War, the Teocalli of Sacred War, the Temple Stone or, more simply, the throne of Motecuhzoma II (Montezuma...
Definition
Foot-Binding
Foot-binding was a practice first carried out on young girls in Tang Dynasty China to restrict their normal growth and make their feet as small as possible. Considered an attractive quality...
Article
Norse-Viking Diet
In many depictions of Vikings, whether in film or other media, a group is often seen gathered around a flaming pit while an animal of some type – usually a boar – turns on a spit above...
Definition
Empress Theodora
Theodora reigned as empress of the Byzantine Empire alongside her husband, Emperor Justinian I, from 527 CE until her death in 548 CE. Rising from a humble background and overcoming the...
Article
A Visual Glossary of Hindu Architecture
Adisthana - the decorative raised platform on which a temple is built. Alasa kanya - a decorative female figure. Amalaka - a large fluted stone disc placed on top of...
Article
The Disappearance of Norse Greenland - A 600-Year-Old Mystery
From 985 until sometime in the 1400s, Greenland was the farthest, most isolated outpost of medieval Scandinavian society. For nearly 500 years, the Norse...
Early Modern Period
Definition
War in the Vendée
The War in the Vendée was a counter-revolutionary uprising that took place in the Vendée department of France from 1793 to 1796, during the French Revolution (1789-99). In response to the...
Definition
Plymouth Colony
The Plymouth Colony (1620-1691) was the first English settlement in the region of modern-day New England in the United States, settled by the religious Separatists known as the “pilgrims”...
Article
Thanksgiving Day: A Brief History
The United States holiday of Thanksgiving is generally understood to be inspired by the harvest feast celebrated by the citizens of Plymouth Colony (later known as pilgrims...
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...
Article
The Sixteenth-Century Massacre of the Waldensians of Mérindol
As the Reformation developed in France in the first half of the 16th century, there were several episodes of severe repression which preceded the Wars...
Definition
Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (l. 1747-1793) was a French noble of royal blood. He was the head of the House of Orléans, a cadet branch of the royal Bourbon dynasty...
Article
Battle of Tourcoing
The Battle of Tourcoing (17-18 May 1794) was a major engagement in the War of the First Coalition, the first phase of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802). It saw an army of the...
Definition
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian exchange is a term coined by Alfred Crosby Jr. in 1972 that is traditionally defined as the transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the Old World of Europe and...
Modern Period
Article
The Wyndclyffe Estate
There are many fascinating and forlorn ruins throughout New York’s Hudson Valley, and, among them, the tottering remains of what was once considered the grandest home in the area and...
Article
German Spring Offensive - Ludendorff's Last Chance to Win WWI
The German Spring Offensive, also called the Ludendorff Offensive after its commander, was the last major German advance of the First World War (1914-18...
Definition
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American author and poet, often credited as the father of the short story, a pioneer of science fiction, the inventor of the detective story, and the master...
Definition
Operation Gomorrah - The 1943 Bombing of Hamburg
Operation Gomorrah (aka the Battle of Hamburg or Hamburg Air Offensive) was a sustained area bombing campaign of the German port of Hamburg in four night attacks...
Article
The Pre-WWI Alliance System - Triple Entente v. Triple Alliance
The alliance system in Europe was one of the causes of the First World War (1914-18), although it did not make war inevitable. In the first decade of...
Definition
Romani
Romani is an umbrella term used to describe a diverse ethnolinguistic group of people with a historical presence in Europe and West Asia. The historically common term 'Gypsy' is based on the myth...
Article
Britain and the Suez Canal - 75 Years of Colonialism & Crisis
The Suez Canal in Egypt, which links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, was taken over by the British in 1882 and was only reluctantly released 75 years...
Article
Napoleonic Concordat of 1801 & Religious Pluralism
The Napoleonic Concordat of 1801 defined France's relationship with the Catholic Church for over 100 years. The Organic Articles were added in 1802 and provided...
Prehistoric Period
Definition
Denisovan
The Denisovans are an extinct group of fossil humans who, along with their sister group the Neanderthals, also share an ancestor with Homo sapiens. Thus far, they are known only from Denisova...
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...
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
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
Maeshowe - The Ancient Meadow Mound of Orkney
Maeshowe (pronounced `maze-ow' or `maze-oo') is a large Neolithic chambered cairn, dating from between 3000-2800 BCE, in the Stenness parish of Orkney, Scotland. According...
Definition
Dolmen
A dolmen is a megalithic structure typically formed from a large horizontal stone slab resting on two or more upright slabs. The oldest European examples are found in Brittany, northern France...
Definition
Lindow Man
The Lindow Man (officially Lindow III) is the top half of a male body, found preserved in a peat bog in Cheshire, England. The peat bogs at Lindow Moss date back to the last ice age and were...
Image Gallery
Prehistoric Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly are a small island group west of Cornwall. Despite their small size, they abound in prehistoric sites dating from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, including...
