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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
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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
Definition
Battle of Fort Henry - The First Ironclad Engagement on a Fortification
The Battle of Fort Henry (6 February 1862) is often referenced as the first major Union victory in the Western theater of the American Civil War...
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AP World History Unit 4 - Transoceanic Interconnections (c. 1450–1750)
Between 1450 and 1750, new maritime technology allowed European states to reach the Americas, Africa, and Asia by sea for the first time, linking...
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)
Between 1450 and 1750 CE, rulers across Eurasia built land empires on a scale not seen before, using gunpowder weaponry to conquer and intricate bureaucracies...
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...
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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
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...
Definition
Koh-i-Noor
The Koh-i-Noor diamond (also Koh-i-Nur or Kūh-e Nūr) is one of the largest and most famous cut diamonds in the world. It was most likely found in southern India between 1100 and 1300. The name...
Definition
Propylaea
Propylaea is the name given to monumental gates or entranceways to a specific space, usually to a temple or religious complex and as such they acted as a symbolic partition between the secular...
Definition
Taejong of Joseon
King Taejong of Joseon (r. 1400-1418) was the third ruler of the Joseon Dynasty in Korea. Taejong was a driving force behind consolidating and strengthening the king’s power, and while...
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
Hadrian's Wall (Penguin History)
This book is widely considered by scholars of Hadrian's Wall and the Roman frontiers in Britain to be the standard text on Hadrian's Wall, tracing its history and building on...
Book Review
Religions of the Constantinian Empire
Religions of the Constantinian Empire by Mark Edwards is a phenomenal book. He writes a very comprehensive book on the beginnings of and influences on Christianity in the...
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Ancient Period
Definition
Confucianism
Confucianism is a philosophy developed in 6th-century BCE China, which is considered by some a secular-humanist belief system, by some a religion, and by others a social code. The broad range...
Definition
Gaya
Gaya (aka Kaya or Karak) was a confederation which ruled central-southern Korea during the Three Kingdoms period from the 1st to 6th century CE. The peninsula was dominated by Gaya's more powerful...
Article
Prodigies: Earthquake Perception from Julius to L'Aquila
The beauty of being an archaeologist is having the good fortune to find something on an archaeological dig that remains in a relatively good state of preservation...
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 Government
Western Civilization is forever indebted to the people of ancient Greece and Rome. Among the numerous contributions these societies made are in the fields of art, literature and philosophy...
Definition
Tyrian Purple - The Super-Expensive Dye of Antiquity
Tyrian purple (aka Royal purple or Imperial purple) is a dye extracted from the murex shellfish which was first produced by the Phoenician city of Tyre in the...
Definition
Enki - The Tricky Sumerian God of Wisdom
Enki (also known as Ea, Enkig, Dis, Nagbu, Nissiku Nudimmud) was the Sumerian god of wisdom, freshwater, intelligence, trickery and mischief, crafts, magic, exorcism...
Definition
Carthaginian Coinage
The coinage of Carthage was first minted from the 5th century BCE. Initially adopting the drachma, the Carthaginians later minted silver shekel coins. Designs were instantly recognisable...
Medieval Period
Definition
Mansa Musa I - The Richest Man in History?
Mansa Musa I was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa from 1312 to 1337. Controlling territories rich in gold and copper, and monopolising trade between the north...
Article
Byzantine Icons
Icons, that is images of holy persons, were an important part of the Byzantine Christian Church from the 3rd century CE onwards. Venerated in churches, public places, and private homes...
Article
The Legendary Settlement of Iceland
It is said that the early Norse settlers of Iceland in the Viking Age (c. 790-1100 CE) believed it was the home of the gods because of the tale of the creation of the world...
Article
The Literary Development of the Arthurian Legend
The Arthurian legend begins with the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 - c. 1155 CE). Earlier history writers such as Gildas, Bede, and Nennius had already...
Definition
Minaret
A minaret is a feature of Islamic architecture and is the place from where the call to prayer is sent out. They are also known as a manār or manāra in Arabic, meaning place of fire or light (nar...
Definition
Stupa
A stupa (literally “heap” or “pile”) is a reliquary, a shrine containing the remains of a holy or sainted person and/or artifacts (relics) associated with them, originating in India prior to the...
Article
Daily Life in the Inca Empire
Daily life in the Inca empire was characterised by strong family relationships, agricultural labour, sometimes enforced state or military service for males, and occasional lighter...
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...
Early Modern Period
Definition
John Alden
John Alden (l. c. 1598-1687 CE) was a member of the crew of the Mayflower, serving as the ship's cooper (barrel maker), on the historic voyage of 1620 CE which established the Plymouth Colony...
Definition
William Dampier
William Dampier (1651-1715) was an English explorer, navigator, and naturalist, who was the first person to circumnavigate the world three times. He was also among the first Englishmen to...
Definition
As You Like It - Learning to Love in Shakespeare's Forest of Arden
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare (1564-1616), written in 1599 and likely first performed that same year. Indeed, it is thought...
Article
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (French: Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen) is a human rights document adopted in the early...
Article
Siege of Boston
The Siege of Boston (19 April 1775 to 17 March 1776) was the first major military operation of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). After the first shots were fired at the Battles...
Definition
Napoleon's Campaign in Egypt and Syria
The French Expedition to Egypt and Syria (1798-1801), led by Napoleon Bonaparte, aimed to establish a French colony in Egypt and to threaten British possessions in India...
Definition
Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace is the collective name for a series of rebellions in northern England, first in Lincolnshire and then in Yorkshire and elsewhere between October and December 1536...
Definition
Golden Age of Piracy
The Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730) refers to a period when robbery on the high seas and at colonial ports reached an unprecedented level. Although not all historians agree on the precise...
Modern Period
Article
The Ideology of the Holy Roman Empire
"The Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire," wrote Voltaire, and this interpretation still dominates the popular imagination, so the Holy Roman...
Definition
Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth (l. c. 1797-1883) was an African American abolitionist, women's suffrage advocate, and civil rights activist who famously "walked away" from slavery in 1826, sued in court...
Article
12 Key Women in Revolutionary Russia
Women were involved in all aspects of the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 when radical socialists and other sections of society challenged the authoritarian rule of...
Collection
The Steps to World War Two
The causes of WWII (1939-45) were many and varied, but there was a chain of international crises in Europe, which finally degenerated into a conflict that ultimately spread to engulf...
Article
10 World War I Poems
The First World War (1914-18) stimulated a great wave of literary output, not least in the field of poetry. In an era when photography and film were still in their infancy, poems, especially...
Definition
Frederick Douglass - American Visionary
Frederick Douglass (circa 1818-1895) was an abolitionist orator, minister, writer, editor, reformer, and statesman, who had been born a slave in Maryland, escaped to New...
Definition
Nazi-Soviet Pact
The Nazi-Soviet Pact, also called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact after the respective foreign ministers of the USSR and Germany, was a non-aggression agreement signed in August 1939. The pact...
Article
Battle of Chippawa
The Battle of Chippawa (5 July 1814) was a major battle in the War of 1812, in which a US army proved its newfound discipline by defeating British regulars during the Americans' third...
Prehistoric Period
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
Ness of Brodgar
The Ness of Brodgar is a Neolithic Age site discovered in 2002 CE through a geophysical survey of the area of land in Stenness in Orkney, Scotland, which separates the salt water Stenness...
Definition
Homo Habilis
Homo habilis ("handy man") is an extinct species of human that lived in East and South Africa between 2.3 and 1.5 million years ago and plays an interesting role in the discussion surrounding...
Definition
Carnac
Carnac, located on the north-west coast of France, is the site of the largest concentration of megalithic monuments in the world. Over 100 monuments, which include burial mounds, stone tombs, enclosures...
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
Migration Age
The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions or German: Völkerwanderung (wandering of the peoples), was a period of human migration that occurred roughly between 300 to 700 CE...
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...
Article
The Meaning of European Upper Paleolithic Rock Art
Rock art (also known as parietal art) is an umbrella term which refers to several types of creations including finger markings left on soft surfaces, bas-relief...
