Caste System: Did you mean...?

The island of Sri Lanka (formerly known as Ceylon) became a focus of European attention soon after the Portuguese entry into the Indian Ocean in the late 15th century. Large swaths of the island would come first under Portuguese control...

The encomienda was a system where Spanish adventurers and settlers were granted the legal right to extract forced labour from indigenous tribal chiefs in the Americas colonies of the Spanish Empire. In return, the Europeans were expected...

The Battle of the Pyramids (21 July 1798), or the Battle of Embabeh, was a significant battle fought during Napoleon's Campaign in Egypt and Syria. On a battlefield 15 km (9 mi) away from the Great Pyramid of Giza, Napoleon Bonaparte's French...

Galatia was the most long-lasting and powerful Celtic settlement outside of Europe. It was the only kingdom of note to be forged during the Celtic invasions of the Mediterranean in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. From its foundation, Galatia...

The idea that it was the Norse who discovered America first emerged in the late 18th century, long before there was any public awareness of the sagas on which such claims were based. In the course of the 19th century, evidence for a Norse...

The Celtic languages form a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. They derive from Proto-Celtic and are divided into Continental Celtic languages (Lepontic, Gaulish, Galatian, Noric, Celtiberian, Gallaecian) and Insular Celtic...

Archelaus of Athens (l. c. 5th century BCE) was a Pre-Socratic philosopher in ancient Greece who claimed the first cause of existence was the opposition of cold and heat which caused the separation of the universal essence to produce a plurality...

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 onwards (206 BCE - 220 CE). The exams were a means for a young male of any...

The Battle of Britain (July - October 1940) was a pivotal air campaign during World War II. It was fought between Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF) and the German Luftwaffe. As Adolf Hitler sought air superiority as a precursor to a potential...

Throughout the study of the past, historians have relied on broad conceptual shortcuts to categorize time, societies, and developments. While these models help structure historical analysis and provide useful comparisons, they can oversimplify...