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 dogma of papal infallibility was proclaimed at the Vatican I Council in 1870. The council fathers taught that when the pope speaks ex cathedra, that is, as pastor and teacher in an absolute final and irrevocable way concerning faith and morals, he receives the divine assistance that …
One of only a handful of major wars fought among the newly independent nation-states of 19th-century Latin America, the five-year war between landlocked Paraguay and an Argentine-Brazilian-Uruguayan alliance resulted in devastation for Paraguay while transforming the states of the three allies, especially Brazil, in important ways. The roots …
The Paris Commune was the name given to an uprising that lasted from March 18, 1871, to May 28, 1871. The Commune symbolized for anarchists, socialists, and communists an early 19th-century example of a heroic workers’ revolution. For forces of the Right, the Commune represented rebellion against property, …
Pedro I, or Dom Pedro, was the son of King João VI of Portugal. His family fled to the Portuguese colony of Brazil when Napoleon I threatened to invade Portugal in 1808. The arrival of the Braganza (Bragança) family, the royal family of Portugal, in the only major …
Emperor Pedro II, or Dom Pedro II, as he was commonly known, was related to most of the royal families of Europe. His father was Pedro I and his mother was Maria Leopoldina of Austria. Ironically, despite his royal pedigree, Pedro II is called the Citizen Emperor of …
Bibliography: Fausto, Boris. A Concise History of Brazil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999; Leuchars, Chris. To the Bitter End: Paraguay and the War of the Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy was responsible for the opening to Japan. During the late 18th and 19th centuries, European and …
Pope Pius IX was born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti at Sinigaglia on May 13, 1792, and died in Rome on February 7, 1878. As a young man, he desired to be a member of the papal noble guard, but was refused admission because he suffered from epilepsy. He instead …
The three partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which took place in 1772, 1793, and 1795 resulted in the end of independent Poland and the incorporation of its lands into Prussia, Russia, and Habsburg Austria. In the early 18th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was undermined by various European powers, …
The central European nation of Poland spent much of its history between the 17th and 20th centuries struggling for the right to exist as an independent nation. Yet, throughout this period, the rebellious spirit of the Polish people was never completely eradicated. In a series of agreements negotiated …
As the British Empire regrouped after the shock of losing 13 of its North American colonies in the American Revolution, Canadian politics began to evolve from rudimentary local and regional councils almost entirely dominated by royal governors-general and their lieutenants to genuinely competitive political parties that contested specifically …
From the nation’s earliest days U.S. leaders struggled over how to deal effectively with political disagreements. Many Americans feared that faction—what today would be called special interests—would distort the new republic, setting citizens against one another and encouraging attacks by hostile foreign powers. In April 1789 George Washington, …
The prazeros arose from Portuguese expansion in the late 15th century. Operating from the mercantile principle that wealth equals power, the Portuguese concentrated on a search for precious metals, especially gold and silver. After Vasco da Gama sailed from Portugal to India in 1498, Portugal sought to gain …
Public education has undergone a process of significant change because of religion, politics, economics, and immigration. The limited educational system in America led the first settlers, beginning in the New England colonies to push for an educational system similar to that of England. The northern, middle, and southern …
After ruling much of what is now Iran since 1501, the Safavid Empire was largely destroyed and occupied by invading Afghan tribes, who captured the imperial capital of Isfahan in 1722. Two years later, subsequent invasions by the Ottoman Empire and the Russians effectively ended centralized Safavid rule …
Emperor Qianlong was the fourth ruler of the Qing (Ch’ing) dynasty. He abdicated after 60 years on the throne so that his reign would not be longer than that of his revered grandfather Emperor Kangxi (K’anghsi). The Qing dynasty reached its zenith under him, as he was a …
The Qing dynasty (1644–1911) was the last of 24 dynasties in Chinese history and one of the most successful. The transition from its predecessor the Ming dynasty, was one of the least disruptive in Chinese history. In the territory it controlled the Qing was the second largest in …
Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the son of an English sea captain, joined the British East India Company as a clerk in 1795 and was sent to Asia in 1805. When the Netherlands became part of Napoleon I’s empire, Dutch overseas possessions became a prize in the Anglo-French struggle. …
The impact of railroads on the economic, political, social, and cultural history of North America was immense. These iron horses propelled by steam locomotives along ribbons of steel were integral to the 19th-century transportation revolution and the Industrial Revolution, binding together geographically disparate regions of the United States, …
Rama V, commonly known as Chulalongkorn, was one of the greatest Thai monarchs, noted for his foreign policy and modernization. The fifth king of the Chakri dynasty was born to King Mongkut and Queen Debsirinda in 1853. Mongkut was an enlightened ruler who employed Anna Leonowens to be …
The era of Reconstruction was from 1865 to 1877 when Americans tried to reunite a nation shattered by Civil War. It generated bitterness and controversy. The people who lived through Reconstruction viewed it from sharply different perspectives. Many white southerners saw it as a devastating experience, a time …
