Category: History Essay Examples
See our collection of history essay examples. These example essays are to help you understanding how to write a history essay. History is a fascinating puzzle with both personal and cultural significance. The past informs our lives, ideas, and expectations. Historians study the past to figure out what happened and how specific events and cultural developments affected individuals and societies. Also, see our list of history essay topics to find the one that interests you.
During the 1930s, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, alarmed by reports of domestic groups that were sympathetic to Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, sought to investigate subversive and “un-American” propaganda activities within the United States. In 1938 the House voted to create the Special Committee …
Hu Hanmin was a close political associate of Sun Yatsen, founder of the Chinese Republic. The Hu family were minor civil servants who settled in Guangdong (Kwangtung) province. A brilliant scholar, Hu supported himself and a younger sister by working as a tutor after his parents’ death. China’s …
Hu Shi was the son of an official of modest means. At 13 he switched from a traditional Chinese school to a modern school in Shanghai, where he was introduced to Western learning. In 1910 he won a scholarship to study in the United States, where he was …
Victoriano Huerta seized power to become the second president of postrevolutionary Mexico, serving from 1913 to 1914. These two years witnessed the most violent stage of the revolution and its downward spiral into full civil war. Huerta was born in Colotlán, Jalisco, in 1845. With a limited education, …
Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud was the first monarch of Saudi Arabia. He was born in Riyadh to Abd al-Rahman bin Faisal bin Turki al-Saud and Sara bint Ahmad al-Kabir al-Sudairi. In 1890 he and his family were exiled to Kuwait after the Rashidi tribe conquered their lands. Upon …
The first Government of India Act (1858, after the Sepoy Rising of 1857) abolished the British East India Company and put India under British government administration. A second act in 1909 introduced the concept of elected government. Still, Indian troops served in World War I because Britain, not …
World War I was important for India’s nationalist movement. Indians of all persuasions overwhelmingly supported Great Britain and the Allied cause during the war. Nearly 800,000 Indian soldiers plus 500,000 noncombatants served in Europe and the Middle East. Communal relations between Hindus and Muslims took several turns between …
During the late 19th century British-educated Indians began to demand a role in their government, which later developed into the independence movement. In 1885 an Englishman founded the Indian National Congress, although most of its members were high caste Hindus. The congress met annually to promote the goal …
The Indian National Congress (INC) was a leader of the Indian freedom movement against British colonial rule. One of the success stories of the nationalist struggle in Asia, the congress was established in 1885. A political consciousness was arising in the latter part of the 19th century among …
This 1934 legislation, also known as the Wheeler Howard Act, was a New Deal program that significantly reshaped, in mostly positive ways, federal policies concerning the Native American population. Spearheaded by reformer John Collier, the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) empowered tribal leaders, recognized the legitimacy of Indian customs …
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was a U.S. workers’ movement that had a significant impact on organized labor during the first two decades of the 20th century. IWW members were commonly known as Wobblies (one story holds that this moniker came from the wobble saw used …
The influenza pandemic of 1918 was, in terms of loss of life, the most catastrophic illness to have ever afflicted the world’s population. Nothing before or since has approached its effects in terms of the number of fatalities or in the speed with which it spread. From the …
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), often referred to as the World Court, is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations (UN) and was formally established by the Charter of the United Nations in 1945 under articles 92–96. The ICJ is the successor to the Permanent Court …
Well before the 1920s one of Iran’s greatest political obstacles was the imperial rivalry between Great Britain and Russia. Both imperial powers felt that Iran was of vital importance to their respective empires, and, spurred by economic interests, the British and the Russian czars followed by the Soviet …
The Iraqi rebellion of 1920 was a massive nationalist revolt against the British occupation of the country. In 1915 in the midst of World War I, British and imperial troops moved into southern Iraq and then north toward Baghdad, where they were defeated by Ottoman troops. In 1917 …
Constitutional nationalists had long worked to pass home rule bills that would achieve Irish independence from Britain. None had achieved a lasting self-government for the Irish people. In Dublin on April 24, 1916, the Easter Uprising changed the struggle for Irish independence, not because of its military success …
Isolationism played a dominant role in U.S. foreign policy in the first half of the 20th century. Particularly during the 1930s, the United States sought to retreat behind its ocean borders and decrease if not eliminate its international responsibilities. After World War II, isolationism became increasingly discredited and …
The U.S.-led occupation of Japan began at 8:28 a.m. on August 28, 1945, when U.S. army colonel Charles P. Tench of General Douglas MacArthur’s personal staff stepped out of a C-47 Dakota transport onto the battered runway of Atsugi Airfield outside Tokyo, becoming the first foreign conqueror of …
Japan surrendered unconditionally after its resounding defeat in World War II. It was occupied by the U.S. military from 1945 to 1951 under the supervision of General Douglas MacArthur, supreme commander for the Allied Powers. MacArthur undertook fundamental reforms of Japan, one of the most important being the …
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, pressure for control of the Japanese and Japanese Americans in their midst built among West Coast whites. Farmers who competed with Japanese Americans, politicians unwilling to take a stand against anti-Japanese sentiment, and ordinary citizens aroused by the …
