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.
Philip IV, also known as “Philip the Fair,” was born in 1268 to Philip III and Isabel of Aragon and succeeded his father as king of France upon the latter’s death in October 1285. As earlier Capetian monarchs, Philip enhanced the size of royal territory, adding the lands …
Pico della Mirandola was born to wealth and nobility in Mirandola, Italy, on February 24, 1463. After receiving a humanistic education at Mirandola, he studied canon law at Bologna. Dissatisfied with his studies, he left Bologna to pursue his lifelong interest, philosophy, at Ferrara, Padua, and Paris. Pico’s …
Christine de Pizan is one of the few women who had prominence as a secular writer during a time when women were neither educated nor independent. If a woman was literate, she participated in a religious order either as a nun, anchoress, or Beguine. Christine was born in …
The history of the kingdom of Poland is traditionally dated from 966, when the 31-year-old Mieszko I, of the Piast dynasty of the Polans tribe, was baptized into Christianity. The country derived its name from his tribe. He was married to Dobrawa, the daughter of Bolesław (Boleslas) I …
Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant, lived for many years in Mongol-ruled China and wrote about what he witnessed there. He is the best known of the many medieval European traders and priests who traveled in Asia beyond its Mediterranean and Black Sea ports. When he was a child, …
Were it not for the tireless efforts of the Portuguese throughout the 15th century in exploring the West African coast, the history of Europe, and the world, might have been discernibly different. The Portuguese impulse to explore and trade led eventually to the rounding of the African horn, …
Paper and printing were both invented by the Chinese, with immense importance for the advancement of civilization in China and worldwide. Papermaking was invented in China around 100 c.e.. The technology spread to the Muslim world in the eighth century by Chinese papermakers taken prisoners by Muslims in …
The puranas (ancient lore) are a genre of the religious literature of India. They were the scriptural basis for the development of many of the Hindu sects. The name purana is derived from a Sanskrit word meaning “old stories.” There are a great many puranas, but only 18 …
Quetzalcoatl evokes one of the great tales of Middle American (Mesoamerican) mythology. In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs of Mexico, the name Quetzalcoatl can be translated as “feathered serpent.” There is in fact a quetzal bird, prized for its plumage and highly priced on the international bird …
Today’s Quiché Maya live in Chichicastenango, Chichi for short, in the part of Quiché located in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. They survive as one of Mesoamerica’s (Middle America’s) earliest developed cultures, the Maya. According to Michael D. Coe in The Maya, the first organized agriculture in the …
The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, contains the revelations from Allah to the prophet Muhammad. The Qur’an was revealed in Arabic, a language that therefore holds a special place of respect and admiration for all Muslims. The Qur’an contains instructions for governing every aspect of human life. …
Rajputs were members of the approximately 12 million landowners of northern India who claimed to be descended from the Kshatriya warrior caste. The name derives from the Sanskrit term Raja-putra, or “son of the king.” Rajputs were particularly strong in Rajputana. However any ruler who could attain temporal …
In the decades after the prophet Muhammad’s death in 632 c.e., Islam spread rapidly across North Africa, and within a century was knocking on the doors of Europe. In 711 an invading Muslim army crossed the Straits of Gibraltar into Iberia, and by 718 had conquered most of …
Richard I (r. 1189–1199) was the third son of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Known as “the Lionhearted” because of his numerous military exploits, Richard became king of England and Normandy when Henry II died in 1183. Within a year he was leading forces …
The anonymous Song of Roland is the most famous Old French epic, or chanson de geste. It was composed c. 1090 but was not committed to writing until nearly 100 years later. The oldest written copy, discovered by Francisque Michel in 1835, survives in Oxford Bodleian MS Digby …
Medieval Rome lacked the structured government that was the norm in other Italian cities. The presence of the pope and the attending church bureaucracy meant a sometimes-uneasy relationship between the church and the state. What organized government that existed was centered on the senate. The number of senators …
The Renaissance popes comprise the series of Roman bishops between 1447 and 1484, best exemplified by Nicholas V (r. 1447–55), Pius II (r. 1459–64), and Sixtus IV (r. 1471–84), who ruled the Western Church according to the spirit of Renaissance literary culture. They have often faced criticism by …
Kievan Rus (860s–1238), the first state of the Eastern Slavs, received its name from its capital city Kiev, located along the middle Dniepr River (modern Ukraine). Founded and ruled by the Riurikid princes, during its height in the 11th and 12th centuries Kievan Rus spanned most of modern …
Of Kurdish ethnicity, Saladin was born in Tikrit, Iraq, and was raised in northern Syria. After a religious education, he served with his uncle, Asad ad Din Shirkuh, for Abu al-Qasim Nur ad Din (1118–74), who had inherited rule over Syria from his father, Imad al-Din Zangi (1084–1146), …
Salutati was born in Stignano, a village northwest of Florence. Educated in Latin grammar and rhetoric and certified as a notary, he was employed in secretarial and notarial duties in several communities in Italy and was a secretary in the papal curia in Rome. Access to Petrarch’s works …
