History: Did you mean...?

Coins have been in use since their creation in ancient Lydia in the early 6th century BCE. Stamped by the state to guarantee value and be recognisable as genuine, coins allowed goods and services to be bought without the necessity of barter...

The Crusades were a series of military campaigns waged between Christians and Muslims, Christians and pagans (the Northern Crusades), and Christians against Christians (the Fourth Crusade and the Albigensian Crusade). This complex series...

In this collection of resources we look at the origins of Christmas and the story of the Nativity, the pagan traditions that have influenced how the holiday has been celebrated ever since, and how different eras have found new ways to add...

Plagues have swept through humanity ever since communities have gathered together in concentrated groups. In this collection of resources, we look at just some of the pandemics that raged throughout Antiquity and the Middle Ages, from the...

The Arapaho (/əˈræpəhoʊ/ ə-RAP-ə-hoh; French: Arapahos, Gens de Vache) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota...

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/history-vs-christopher-columbus-alex-gendler Many people in the United States and Latin America have grown up celebrating the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage. But was he an intrepid...

Tamerlane was one of history’s greatest conquerors— but was he a great state builder or a bloodthirsty tyrant? You decide. He was born in the 1330s in the Chaghatayid Khanate, formerly the Mongol Empire. On the steppe, he rose from a lowly...

View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/history-vs-henry-viii-mark-robinson-and-alex-gendler He was a powerful king whose break with the church of Rome would forever change the course of English history. But was he a charismatic reformer...

View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/history-vs-cleopatra-alex-gendler She was the most notorious woman in ancient history, a queen who enraptured not one but two of Rome’s greatest generals. But was she just a skilled seductress – or...

The Iliad covers not the entire Trojan War, but begins in the midst of events in the final year of battle, after nine years of siege, and only spans 52 days. By the time The Iliad was written down in the eighth century BCE by the epic poet...