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.
General Douglas MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on January 26, 1880, the son of Arthur MacArthur, a Civil War hero and military officer, and Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur. His early years were spent in military postings throughout the western part of the United States, but he …
Herbert Macaulay was a Nigerian political leader, civil engineer, journalist, and musician. He was among the first Nigerians to oppose British rule in the African nation. Macaulay’s grandfather, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, was the first African bishop in Nigeria. Macaulay’s father, Thomas Babington Macaulay, was also a minister and …
The president of Mexico from 1911 until 1913, Francisco Indalecio Madero González was a prominent revolutionary who was from one of the richest families in Mexico. He was born on October 30, 1873, at Parras de la Fuente, Coahuila, in northeastern Mexico. His grandfather Evaristo Madero (1828–1911), of …
There was never unanimous consensus among military men about the lessons of World War I. When the adversaries of 1914–18 fought again in 1940, the Germans interpreted their experience as one that taught the need for a rapid and forceful offense. Interpreting that same conflict quite differently, France …
The Manchurian, or Mukden, incident occurred on September 18, 1931. It was a Japanese attack against China and resulted in the establishment of a Japanese puppet state, Manchukuo. This incident was, in fact, the opening of Japan’s quest to conquer China that culminated in World War II in …
The Manhattan Project was a secret U.S. weapons program that applied nuclear technology to create the first atomic bombs. Although other nations, including Great Britain, Germany, the Soviet Union, and Japan, had modest nuclear research programs during World War II, only the United States had the scientific talent, …
Mao Zedong was the son of a prosperous farmer from the Hunan Province in central China. After graduating from normal school he worked as a library assistant at National Beijing (Peking) University, where he came under the influence of intellectuals disillusioned with Western democracies and turned to Marxism, …
The October 1922 March on Rome entered into the mythology of Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party as the moment when the Fascists conclusively demonstrated their power over the Italian government and people. In fact, they had already displayed their collective ability to destroy law and order, to undermine …
José Carlos Mariátegui José Carlos Mariátegui was the founder of the Socialist Party of Peru, which was later transformed into the Communist Party of Peru. He was also one of the more influential social theorists in Latin America. José Carlos Mariátegui was born on June 14, 1894, at …
George Marshall (1880–1959) was one of the architects of the Allied World War II victory in Europe. In an attempt to prevent civil war in China after victory over Japan, U.S. president Harry S. Truman appointed Marshall special ambassador to China in November 1945. He was charged with …
Martí was born on May 5, 1893, in Teotepeque, El Salvador, a small town in the region of La Libertad. He was the sixth of 14 children born to wealthy landholding parents. His family estate consisted of two haciendas and five square miles of land. He was educated …
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (Thomas Masaryk in English) was a leading campaigner for Czech independence from Austria-Hungary both prior to and during World War I and the first president of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Masaryk was born in Moravia on March 7, 1850, the son of a Slovak coachman. Educated …
In 1919 a student-led protest movement became the catalyst for an intellectual revolution in China. On May 4th, 1919, thousands of university students in the Chinese capital city, Beijing (Peking), gathered outside Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) to protest the terms of the Treaty of Versailles that would …
To many modern Mexicans the Mexican constitution of 1917 is an important document in their history, one that embodies the values of the Mexican Revolution. It was the fourth constitution written for Mexico, and its inception occurred under the leadership of Venustiano Carranza, president of Mexico from 1917 …
In one of the most violent, chaotic, and consequential events in modern Latin American history, from 1910 to 1920 Mexico was convulsed in a massive social revolution and civil war. The first major social revolution in postcolonial Latin America, the Mexican Revolution arose from complex origins and bequeathed …
Before the conclusion of World War II, Mitsui and Mitsubishi were two of the four major zaibatsu (family-centered banking and industrial combines) in Japan; the others were Sumitomo and Yasuda. The term zaibatsu refers to a particular economic and social arrangement characteristic of large capitalist enterprises in Japan …
During the Q’ing (Ching) dynasty in China (1644–1911) Mongolia had been a part of the Chinese Empire under a theocratic government, with the ruler, the Jebtzun Damba (Living Buddha), acknowledged as the Bogd Khan (Holy King). During the Chinese revolution of 1911, the status of Mongolia was briefly …
There were two major crises involving France and Germany over the control of Morocco prior to World War I. France’s interest in Morocco steadily increased after it took over neighboring Algeria in 1830. Having not unified until 1870, Germany came late to the imperial game and had to …
The motion picture industry can be traced back to the 1890s, when Kennedy Laurie Dickson, the chief engineer at the Edison Laboratories, was credited with making celluloid strips containing a sequence of images that, when projected, would show movement. Thomas Edison himself developed this further, and in 1893 …
During the early 20th-century heyday of America’s progressive movement, many journalists published slashing articles that revealed problems and faults in U.S. business, government, and social conditions. Their exposés, most published in nationally circulated magazines, often helped to spark important reforms but arguably failed to change society in fundamental …
