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 first wave of Muslim expansion into Iberia, present-day Spain and Portugal, began in 711 during the reign of the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik. Led by a Berber commander, Tariq ibn al-Ziyad, this expedition landed in Gibraltar and was followed by further Muslim expansion and the foundation of …
The Truce and Peace of God was an effort or movement by the Roman Catholic Church that applied spiritual sanctions to limit the violence of private war in feudal society. The year 1000 was a fundamental turning point in European history. The feudal system as it had evolved …
The Tughlaq dynasty was one of the dynasties ruling India collectively referred to as the Delhi Sultanate. Most historians mark the years of Tughlaq dynasty from 1321 to 1414. The Tughluq family was a Muslim clan that originated in Turkey. A number of alliances with Turks, Afghans, and …
Tului (or Tolui) Khan was the fourth son of Genghis Khan and his principal wife, Borte. He was a warrior and a heavy drinker and as his brothers he accompanied his father on campaigns and also commanded troops. To minimize tensions among them Genghis had divided his empire …
From the fifth century Turkic tribal groups under various names were found living beyond China’s northern borders from Korea to Central Asia. With China divided the Turks first preyed on, then conquered and ruled parts of northern China in many short lived dynasties. With the rise of the …
After Ali’s death and his son Hasan’s renunciation of the caliphate, Muaw’iya became the undisputed caliph of the Muslim world in 661. He established a hereditary dynasty with Damascus as its capital. However, unlike in most western monarchies, succession was not based on primogeniture; the ruler selected anyone …
The first medieval universities grew up in Italy, France, and England, beginning in the late 11th century. At that time Europe began to undergo the commercial revolution. More people made their living by manufacture of goods and trade, and currency started to develop. The commercial centers of Europe, …
Born in France to a noble family, Urban II was elected pope in 1088 when the papacy was still in exile from Rome. He did not enter Rome as pope until 1094. Urban had been educated in church doctrine and had served the church in France and Germany …
The origins of the city of Urbino in northern Italy begin with the Roman city of Urvinum Mataurense (the little city on the river Mataurus). The region is rich in Roman history. During the Second Punic War, during Hannibal the Carthaginian’s invasion of Italy, his brother Hasdrubal followed …
Erudite and unmatched in his pursuit of scholarly activities, Valla is regarded by many historians to be the outstanding humanist scholar of the 15th century. His criticisms of sacred documents, coupled with his acerbic style and his arrogance, gained him the enmity of fellow humanists and religious officials. …
The city of Venice with its famous canals traces its origins back to a small settlement in the Venetian lagoon where St. Mark, one of the authors of the Gospels and a friend of St. Paul, landed on his way to Rome. With the collapse of the Roman …
The Treaty of Verdun, which was signed in 843, was the second step toward the dissolution of the Carolingian dynasty. It created the idea of nation-states. After Emperor Charlemagne died in 814 his sole surviving legitimate son Louis I the Pious (778–840) inherited his vast empire and became …
The Vijayanagara Empire flourished in southern India from 1336 to 1565. It was a Hindu kingdom that left as its legacy a number of small, independent states that survived until colonial times. The city of Vijayanagara (or Vijayanagar), which means “City of Victory,” is located in modern day …
Norse immigrants from western Norway discovered and settled Iceland in the late ninth century. Servants and slaves accompanied these families; many of the indentured were Celts from Scotland and Ireland. Much of the history of Norse settlement in Iceland is derived from two Icelandic sagas. The Book of …
With the discovery in 1960–61 of artifacts and the ruins of eight buildings at L’Anse aux Meadows in Canada’s Newfoundland province, archaeologists and historians could at last replace centuries of fable and myth with hard evidence of Viking settlement in what, a half-millennium later, other Europeans would call …
Vikings were peoples of Scandinavia who raided, conquered, and colonized parts of Europe from the end of the eighth century to the 11th century. Their homeland was in the three modern Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The climate there caused poor soil conditions, necessitating seafaring, fishing, and …
Vikings (Rus in the Arabic and Varangians in the Greek sources), primarily from central Sweden and the Isle of Gotland, first entered northwestern Russia by way of the Gulf of Finland, the Neva River, and Lake Ladoga, in small exploratory groups in the mid-eighth century. By c. 850 …
Vladimir was a descendant of the ninth century Scandinavian chieftain Rurik, whose successors established control along the Dnieper and other river routes that connected Scandinavia to the Black Sea. Kiev became the political and cultural center of the new principality that was ruled by the descendants of Rurik, …
By 1276 and prior to the invasion undertaken under the reign of Edward I, Wales was divided into three separate zones. Despite the opposition of the Welsh to the presence of the Angevin kings (those who had entered Wales during the Norman Conquest of England), they remained powerful …
Wang Anshi was a well-known refomer and statesman of the Chinese Song (Sung) dynasty that ruled from 960 to 1279. Wang Anshi was a Renaissance man, who was equally at home in statecraft and in poetry. Wang was born into a landlord family in Linchuan, Jiangxi (Kiangsi) Province. …
