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.
Muhammad Ahmad Abdullah was born on the island of Lebab on the Nile River. He had a traditional Islamic education and as a child committed the Qur’an to memory. Known for his fervent religious belief, as a young man he secluded himself in a cave to meditate. Following …
The period from 1750 until 1900 covered the European musical periods of the classicists and romantics. Most European countries had official orchestras, with smaller bands of musicians performing in stately homes, town halls, and other places, and folk music traditions existing throughout Europe, where performers would play at …
The three Muslim rebellions against the Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty in China in the 19th century were caused by economic, ethnic, and religious problems. The Xinjiang (Sinkiang) Rebellion also had diplomatic implications. The first was the rebellion in Yunnan, known in the West as the Panthay Rebellion, from a …
In 1790 the crew of the Her Majesty’s Armed Vessel (HMAV) Bounty and the Polynesians accompanying them arrived to populate Pitcairn Island. They found traces of earlier Polynesian settlements, but no indigenous people were resident at the time of their arrival. Over 2,000 accounts of the mutiny and …
Dadabhai Naoroji, known as the Grand Old Man of India, was a leading Indian nationalist and critic of the British economic exploitation of India. He was born into a Parsi (Zoroastrian) family in Bombay. The Parsi had fled Persia in the seventh century to avoid forcible conversion to …
Napoleon Bonaparte is regarded as one of the greatest military commanders in history, changing the map of Europe and developing new laws, civil codes, and educational systems that continue to the present day. He is recognized as one of the most famous men in history, being the subject …
Louis-Napoleon was born on April 20, 1808, at the apogee of the empire of his uncle, Napoleon I. Louis Napoleon was the son of Napoleon’s brother Louis, whom Napoleon had made the king of Holland, and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Josephine de Beauharnais. In April 1814 …
Napoleon I’s 1798 expedition to Egypt aimed to increase French imperial holdings and to prevent British overland communications with Asia. The Directory agreed to the mission because the conquest of Egypt would be a victory for France, while Napoleon’s possible defeat would prevent him from further meddling in …
Since the foundation of the first permanent English settlement in North America in Jamestown in 1607, the relationship between Euro-American politics and the continent’s indigenous inhabitants has comprised a major chapter in British-American, French-American, U.S., and Canadian history. Imperial, colonial, national, state, and provincial government policies toward Native …
The Netherlands East Indies was a political unit controlled by the Dutch, covering what is now Indonesia. Consisting of a vast archipelago of over 2,000 islands, it had been taken over piecemeal by the Dutch over several centuries. The center of their rule was on the island of …
John Henry Newman’s life can be divided neatly into two almost equal parts: as an Anglican from 1801 to 1845 and as a Roman Catholic from 1845 to 1890. Newman was born in London on February 21, 1801, to a conventional Anglican family, neither too high church nor …
Emerging almost simultaneously with the appearance in Europe of new forms of printed communication, Britain’s North American colonies propelled newspapers to new heights of political clout, popular appeal, and financial success in the 18th and 19th centuries. New technologies, including the telegraph and steam printing press, and an …
The word nian means “a band” and referred to the outlaw secret society bands or gangs along the lower Yellow and Huai River valleys in borderlands between Shandong (Shantung), Henan (Honan), Jiangsu (Kiangsu), and Anhui Provinces. This area had long harbored bandits and salt smugglers. Although they existed …
Florence Nightingale came from a wealthy English family and received a classical education in languages, history, and mathematics from her father. Much to her parents’ dismay, she rejected several marriage proposals and was determined to become a nurse, a profession that was held in low esteem by the …
A military leader who led Chilean forces against the Spanish, Bernardo O’Higgins won independence from Spain and became the supreme dictator of Chile from 1817 until 1823. Bernardo O’Higgins was born on August 20, 1778, in Chillán, Chile, the son of Ambrosio (Ambrose) O’Higgins and Isabel Riquelme. Ambrose …
Gentleman farmer, antislavery journalist, gold mine supervisor, and U.S. Civil War official, Frederick Law Olmsted is today best known for his design and implementation of New York City’s Central Park. He and the partners and sons who carried on his work were ultimately responsible for thousands of important …
The Omani empire in East Africa, which dominated the East African coast between Somalia and northern Mozambique, entered a new phase after 1800. It faced new challenges as Britain, the United States, France, and Germany abolished the slave trade in the 1800s. Yet, in the 19th century, the …
At the Battle of Omdurman the British, led by Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the sirdar or commander in chief of the Egyptian army, decisively defeated the Mahdist forces led by the Khalifa ‘Abdullahi. Kitchener’s force of about 25,000 mostly Egyptian soldiers with British officers met the Mahdist forces, also …
From the time that the Spanish navigator Vasco Núñez de Balboa stood and gazed in silence at the vastness of the Pacific Ocean in 1513, explorers from around the globe have been fascinated with its mysteries and sheer size. The discovery of the Pacific Ocean opened up new …
Thomas Paine, the English pamphleteer who helped spark the American Revolution and later played a central role in the French Revolution, remains a controversial figure, hailed by many as an “Apostle of Freedom” but disparaged by others as a drunken atheist and radical troublemaker. Paine was born in …
