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.
A significant amount of myth surrounds the life of the Zulu leader Shaka Zulu, as he is recognized as one of the more popular leaders in African history and is widely known for his conquests in southern Africa. It is difficult to assess when Shaka Zulu was born, …
Conflict between Siam and Burma was common in the 18th century the Burmese fought a series of civil wars against the Mons, who created their own state in 1740. The Mons’ success at achieving independence failed to ease tensions between them and the Burmese, and the Mons sacked …
The first Anglo-Sikh War was the result of British imperial expansion to annex the Punjab and remove the Sikh threat to British hegemony on the Indian subcontinent. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Ranjit Singh made use of war and diplomacy to unite the Sikh tribes into a …
Ranjit (also spelled Runjit) Singh founded a Sikh state in the Punjab (an area in northwestern India, now divided between India and Pakistan) and ruled from 1801 to 1839. In the 18th century most Sikhs lived in the Punjab, an ethnically diverse area whose population also included Muslims, …
This war and treaty between China and France concerned Annam (or Vietnam), an area that was ruled by China until circa 900 c.e., and a closely linked vassal state since. The government of Annam, modeled on China’s, controlled internal affairs; its kings received investiture by the Chinese emperor …
The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 was fought primarily over Korea. Korea was Qing (Ch’ing) China’s closest tributary state, evidenced by the three tribute missions the Li dynasty in Korea sent to China annually. Korea was vital to China because it acted as the bulwark of Manchuria, which was …
As an expansive literature attests, African-descended slaves in the Americas resisted their enslavement in myriad ways, including malingering, pilferage, temporary absence, sabotage, arson, and maroon age, as well as in music, dance, religion, and other cultural expressions. In addition to these day-to-day and less directly confrontational forms of …
Of the nations that participated in the slave trade, Britain had by 1750 the largest trade. The sugar islands of the Caribbean absorbed the bulk of Britain’s slave trade. Between 1753 and 1807 imports into Barbados totaled 104,800 slaves, though this number reveals nothing about the fluctuation in …
Adam Smith was the founder of the laissez-faire school of economics and traditional economic liberal theory. A graduate of Oxford University in 1746, he continued his studies in his home of Kilcaldy, Scotland. In 1751 he became a professor of logic at the University of Glasgow and in …
The term Social Darwinism emerged in the mid-19th century and came to be associated most closely with the philosopher/sociologist Herbert Spencer. Spencer was born in Derby in the English industrial heartland. He was a descendent of a family of religious nonconformists with strong individualist traits and utilitarian views …
Socialism was a term first used in the early 19th century in western Europe. Its exponents were primarily French and British. The Industrial Revolution changed Europe by making the aristocracy largely irrelevant, raising the capitalist bourgeoisie into wealth and power and moving the old peasant class into industrial …
The first encounters between Europeans and the Bantu(Xhosa, Zulu, among others) and Khoisan-speaking peoples of southern Africa occurred during the European race to discover sea trade routes to Asia in the 15th century. The first Dutch settlers, called Boers (Dutch for “farmer”), developed a colonial society that expanded …
Although the coast of Spain is only some 8.7 miles from that of North Africa, and it is possible to go by ferry in less than an hour, Spain has had few colonies on the African continent. Part of this is because until 1492, the Spanish government was …
In 1898, in a war marking the emergence of the United States as a major imperial power, the United States wrested from Spain its remaining colonies in the Caribbean and Pacific: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The short-term trigger of the war was the events in …
The Spanish Bourbons are the ruling dynasty, or family of rulers, of Spain. The dynasty was established by Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV of France, in 1700 following the death of the childless Charles II of Spain. The Spanish Bourbon (Borbón) dynasty has been overthrown and restored …
Since its 1886 installation in New York Harbor, where it was then the tallest structure, this 305-foot, 225-ton copper-clad statue of a stern-faced woman whose torch “Enlightens the World,” has become one of the world’s best-known symbols, as well as one of its more contentious. The idea of …
The rapidly expanding Russian Empire in Central Asia had reached the northwestern borders of the Qing (Ch’ing) Empire of China by the mid-19th century. Xinjiang (Sinkiang), as northwestern China is called, was mainly inhabited by Turkic speaking Muslims, who chafed under Manchu banner troops stationed in the region. …
Antonio José de Sucre fought against Spain and alongside Simón Bolívar for the independence of South America. More of a soldier than an administrator, he also served as the first president of Bolivia. Sucre was born on February 3, 1795, to Don Vicente de Sucre Urbaneja, a colonel …
After the British defeated the Mahdist forces at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 they debated how to govern the Sudan. Prior to 1895 the British government had maintained that the Sudan was res nullius, or ungoverned territory. With control over Egypt and the vital Suez Canal, British …
Ferdinand de Lesseps, a Frenchman with support from Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, was the major force behind the construction of the Suez Canal; he also subsequently pushed for the construction of the Panama Canal. The Suez Canal created a direct link between the Mediterranean Sea and the …
