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.
Ali ibn Abu Talib was the second convert to Islam. The son of Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib, Ali married his cousin Fatima, the daughter of the prophet Muhammad and Khadija. Ali and Fatima had two sons, Hasan and Husayn, who both played key roles in the history of …
North Africa’s Berber tribes began converting to Islam with the commencement of the Arab conquests during the second half of the seventh century under the al-Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates. Although Berber Muslims were active participants in the expansion of the Islamic state north from Morocco into Iberia, they …
Building on the economic, political, cultural, and ideological-religious developments that shaped Andean prehistory from the Lithic Period to the mid-Early Intermediate Period, the eight centuries between 600 and 1400 c.e. saw the continuing expansion and contraction of kingdoms, states, and empires across large swaths of the Andean highlands …
The Anglo-Norman culture resulted from the fusion of the culture brought over with William the Conqueror when he killed the last English king of England, Harold Godwineson, at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, with the culture that existed in England. In the 11th and 12th centuries …
The Anglo-Saxons were Germanic barbarians who invaded Britain and took over large parts of the island in the centuries following the withdrawal of the Roman Empire. They were initially less gentrified than other post-Roman barbarian groups such as the Franks or Ostrogoths because they had less contact with …
Following the decline of Roman power in Britain, political power rapidly decentralized, and several small kingdoms emerged to fill the political vacuum. These kingdoms, called the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, competed among themselves and with Danish invaders for power from the late sixth through the ninth centuries. Eventually they melded …
The An Lushan Rebellion (755–763 c.e.) occurred at the midpoint of the Tang (T’ang) dynasty, 618–909, and marked a significant turning point in the fortunes of the regime. The rebellion marked the Tang’s irreversible decline after one and half centuries of good governance, economic prosperity, and military success. …
Jewry suffered a reversal of fate during the High Middle Ages that can only be compared to the destruction of Jerusalem 1,000 years before and the oppression by Nazis 1,000 years after. The turning point in the Middle Ages can be located in the pogroms carried out in …
St. Thomas Aquinas was born at Roccasecca, Italy, to Count Landulf and Countess Theodora. From early on, Thomas was diligent in his studies and had a meditative mindset. He received his education from the monastery of Monte Cassino and the University of Naples. Thomas entered the Dominican Order …
Eleanor of Aquitaine was born in 1122 to William X, duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitou, and Aenor, daughter of the viscountess of Châtellerault. At the death of her younger brother, Eleanor became the wealthy heiress of Aquitaine. Groomed by her father, she frequently accompanied him on …
This shogunate saw the Ashikaga family dominate Japanese society, ruling for much of the period from their headquarters in the Muromachi district of Kyoto. As a result the shogunate, or bakufu (“tent government,” in effect a military dictatorship), with military power controlled by the seii tai shogun or …
Christian monasticism began in the eastern Christian world when St. Antony of Egypt, who exemplified the solitary form of monastic life, entered the Egyptian desert in the late third century c.e. Soon afterwards, Pachomius of Egypt and the Desert Fathers developed the communal life. From here, early monasticism …
Abu Al-Walid Muhammad Ibn Ahmad Ibn Rushd, Ibn Rushd for short, or Averroës, as he is known to the West, was born in Córdoba (Qurtuba), Spain, in 1126 to a family of distinguished Andalusian scholar-jurists. Ibn Rushd was to become a famous philosopher, theologian, physician, and royal consultant. …
The Avignonese papacy (1304–78) and the Great Schism (1378–1414) are regarded as two of the most dramatic events in the history of Christianity that further undermined and diminished the prestige of the papacy and the authority of the Western Latin Church. The first episode refers to the nearly …
The Fatimids established al-Azhar, one of the oldest universities in the world, in Cairo in 970. Built around a large mosque with an open courtyard surrounded by columned walkways where classes were taught, al-Azhar quickly became one of the premier educational centers in the entire Islamic world, attracting …
Known as doctor mirabilis (“wonderful teacher”), Roger Bacon was born to wealthy parents at Ilchester, Somersetshire, England in 1214. He was educated at Oxford and later went to Paris in 1235. Bacon was proficient in arithmetic, astronomy, classics, geometry, and music. After receiving his master of arts, he …
The Abbasid dynasty founded the city of Baghdad as a new capital in 762, shortly after the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty. This shift of the center of power in the Muslim world from Syria toward the Abassid support base in Persia allowed the young dynasty to establish …
The Bantu people of the African continent include some 400 different ethnic groups that cover most of sub-Saharan Africa and speak a tongue from a common language group. The first time the word Bantu (meaning “people” in many Bantu languages) was used in its current sense was by …
Bayezid I was declared sultan following the death of Sultan Murad on the battlefield at Kosovo in 1389. To ensure his uncontested succession to the sultanate, Bayezid had his brother Yakub assassinated; subsequently the practice of fratricide became commonplace among heirs to the Ottoman throne. To cement Ottoman …
Saint Thomas Becket was the archbishop of Canterbury in England during the reign of King Henry II. He was the son of Gilbert Becket, who was born in Rouen, but became a merchant in London. Becket received an excellent education despite his middle-class origins. He completed his degree …
