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.
The Sarekat Islam (Islamic Association), established in 1911, was one of the earliest political parties to have broad appeal in Indonesia.There was need for an organized merchant association in the face of competition from the Chinese mercantile community. A religious motivation was also present because of increasing proselytizing …
The Schlieffen Plan was one of the most controversial military plans ever conceived. Devised as imperial Germany’s blueprint for victory in World War I, it ironically contributed to Germany’s defeat. The Schlieffen Plan was named after its creator, Count Alfred von Schlieffen (1833–1912), third chief of the German …
Often known as the “Monkey Trial,” this face-off between free speech and state educational prerogatives pitted “modern” science against “old-time” religion. A major fault line in U.S. society was exposed when two of the United States’ most famous figures—lawyer Clarence Darrow and three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan—clashed …
The Scottsboro Boys, as they were called by American newspapers, were nine young African-American men, all of them between the ages of 13 and 21, who became the defendants in an infamous, overtly racist criminal case. On March 25, 1931, a fracas broke out between white and black …
The term Southeast Asia came to be used during World War II, when the region was placed under the command of Lord Louis Mountbatten (1900–79). It includes the area to the east of the Indian subcontinent and to the south of China. In 2006 the countries of the …
Tafari Makonnen was born in Ethiopia in 1892, the son of a general who was a trusted adviser and grand-nephew of Menelik II. In 1911 he married Wayzaro Menen. As Ras (prince) Tafari, he quickly became a rival of Menelik’s grandson for the throne. The grandson was unreliable …
Leopold Senghor was born into a wealthy merchant family in 1906 in a small fishing village south of Dakar in present-day Senegal. He was educated in Catholic mission schools. Senghor studied in Paris on a state scholarship and during the 1930s taught in several French lycées. He was …
Shandong (Shantung) is a province on China’s northern coast. It is the birthplace of two great sages, Confucius and Mencius, and is therefore called China’s Holy Land. Dramatically weakened after its defeat by Japan in 1895, Germany set off the “scramble for China” in 1898 by seizing Jiaozhou …
Huda Shaarawi was a prominent Egyptian women’s rights activist and arguably the most important Arab feminist of the 20th century. She began her career of political activism by organizing lectures for mostly upper-class women of the harem and later became a member of the Wafd Party women’s committee, …
The Sherif Husayn–McMahon Correspondence was a secret agreement between Sherif Husayn, representing the Arabs, and the British over the future of Arab territories in the Ottoman Empire. Sherif Husayn was sheriff, or ruler, over the Muslim holy city of Mecca. A member of the Hashemite family, Husayn was …
Shidehara Kijuro was born in Osaka and educated at the Imperial University of Tokyo. He began his career as a diplomat in 1899; his postings included Korea, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. In his capacity as ambassador to the United States (1919–22), he argued …
The Nationalist government in China faced two major challenges after completing the Northern Expedition in 1928: domestically, the Communist rebellion, and internationally, Japanese aggression. While warlords ruled China Japan could exploit Chinese disunity by extorting concessions. Japanese militarists bent on preventing the formation of a strong China had …
Al Smith was born in Manhattan into a working-class family of partly Irish ancestry. He had no formal education past grade school because he had to go to work at age 12 when his father died. Smith took various jobs, including a well-paying job at the Fulton Fish …
Jan Christiaan Smuts was born on his family’s farm in the Cape Colony on May 24, 1870. The second child in the Smuts family, Jan grew up working on the farm and roaming the Afrikaner, the countryside dominated by Dutch-speaking colonizers in South Africa. At the age of …
Somaliland is an area along the northeast Horn of Africa bordering the Gulf of Aden, Djibouti, Somalia, and Ethiopia. It is roughly the territory formerly known as the British Somaliland Protectorate and has had a history of unrest and adversity. In the mid-19th century France gained control of …
Founder of the Somoza dynasty, which ruled Nicaragua for 43 years (1936–1979), Anastasio “Tacho” Somoza García became chief director of the Nicaraguan National Guard (Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua) in November 1932, despite his lack of military experience. His rise to political and military prominence can be attributed primarily …
The South African Native National Congress was the predecessor of the African National Congress (ANC). It changed its name in 1923 to reflect a growing demographic that included members outside of South Africa. The South African Native National Congress was founded on January 8, 1912, in Bloemfontein, Orange …
The Five-Year Plans (which existed from 1928 to 1990 with the exception of a break from 1965 to 1971) were the means by which the Soviet Union managed its centralized economy. Using the plans, the Soviet Union devised priorities, assigned resources, determined objectives, and then measured the results. …
Soviet purges were Joseph Stalin’s systematic elimination of dissenters and potential opponents when he was general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the 1930s. Stalin and the Politburo sought to ensure the adherence of the members …
Traditionally interpreted in “Western” and “Eastern” (i.e., Soviet and post-Soviet) historiography, the process of social and cultural development of Soviet society reflects the main phases of Soviet societal evolution and all its lacks and advantages. Strong ideology and total control by Communist Party authorities usually are identified as …
