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 slave in ancient Greece in the sixth century b.c.e., Aesop was the creator or popularizer of the genre of fables that bear his name. Little about him is known: More than half a dozen places have claimed him as a native son, and although Herodotus records that …
The emergence of African city-states began in North Africa with ancient Egypt and then later the formation of the Carthaginian empire. These civilizations are both heavily documented by written accounts, as are the other North African kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania. However, apart from surviving secondhand accounts from …
Little contemporary written material has survived about religious traditions in ancient Africa, except in inscriptions by the ancient Egyptians about their beliefs and in accounts by Herodotus when he described the religions and folklore of North Africa. The Egyptian beliefs involved gods and the monarchs as descendants of …
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were the royal couple of Israel most vilified by later biblical writers, yet it is Ahab who made Israel and its army one of the strongest on the stage of Near Eastern nations and powers in the early ninth century b.c.e. He fortified …
Akhenaten, the pharaoh of the eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, was the second son of Amenhotep III (r. 1391–54 b.c.e.) and Tiy (fl. 1385 b.c.e.). His reign ushered a revolutionary period in ancient Egyptian history. Nefertiti was his beautiful and powerful queen. He was not the favored child of …
Mesopotamia’s first-known empire, founded at the city of Akkad, prospered from the end of the 24th century b.c.e. to the beginning of the 22nd century b.c.e. Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 b.c.e.) established his empire at Akkad; its exact location is unknown but perhaps near modern Baghdad. His standing …
Alcibiades was an Athenian who was influential in the creation of turmoil in his home city that went a long way to explaining the defeat by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War (431–404 b.c.e.). Alcibiades was a controversial and divisive figure, and his legacy in part continues to be …
Alexander the Great was born in a town called Pella in the summer of 356 b.c.e. His father was Philip of Macedon, and his mother was Olympias. Philip II ascended to the throne in 359 b.c.e., at the age of 24. Under Philip II, Macedonia thrived and emerged …
Alexandria, also known by its Arabic name al-Iskandariyya, was named after Alexander the Great. Alexandria was built on the Mediterranean Sea coast of Egypt at the northwest edge of the Nile Delta. The city lies on a narrow land strip between the sea and Lake Mariut (Mareotis in …
Alexandrian literature was very rich due to its multicultural heritage, as Alexander the Great’s empire encompassed Europe, Asia, and Africa. Alexander’s conquests opened up trade and travel routes across his empire, and Alexandria developed as a center of commerce between the Middle East, Europe, and India. The city …
Ambrose, bishop of Milan, was born in Trier of the noble Aurelian family. His mother moved the family to Rome after the death of his father. Educated in rhetoric and law, Ambrose was first employed in Sirmium and then in c. 370 c.e. as governor of Milan. After …
In order to impose temporal order on the variety of cultures and civilizations that emerged in the Andes in the millennia before the Spanish invasion (early 1530s c.e.), scholars have divided Andean prehistory into “horizons” and “periods,” with horizons representing eras of relatively rapid change and periods being …
The four Antonine emperors of Rome—Antoninus Pius (r. 138–161 c.e.), Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180 c.e.), Lucius Verus (r. 161–169 c.e.), and Commodus (r. 180–192 c.e.)—ruled over a time extending from the height of the Pax Romana to one where the Roman Empire was having increasing difficulty carrying its …
Anyang is the modern town where the last capital (Yin) of the Shang dynasty (c. 1766–c. 1122 b.c.e.) of China was located. The discovery of inscribed oracle bones there early in the 20th century and the scientific excavation of the site beginning in 1928 ended the debate on …
The scholarly use and understanding of the word apocalypticism has varied much in the history of research on these topics. The different words associated with apocalypticism each possess their own subtle connotations. The specific term, apocalypticism, and the many forms associated with it are derived from the first …
The word disciple is used most often in Greek philosophical circles to describe a committed follower of a master (such as Socrates). Jesus (Christ) of Nazareth had many such disciples, besides the 12 who became the apostles of the church. For example, Luke 6:13 hints at the existence …
Arabia, which spans an area of 1.25 million sq. miles, is a rugged, arid, and inhospitable terrain. It consists mainly of a vast desert, with the exception of Yemen on the southeastern tip, a fertile region with ample rain and well suited for agriculture. The southwestern region of …
The Aramaeans interest historians because of the two sources of information about them: the archaeological and the biblical. Part of the challenge in understanding the Aramaeans is in the effort to link both sets of data. According to the first citation, the people of ancient Israel and Judah …
The Archaic Period in Greek history (c. 700–500 b.c.e.) laid the groundwork for the political, economic, artistic, and philosophical achievements of the Classical Period. Perhaps one of the greatest gifts to Western civilization by the ancient Greeks was the beginning of democratic government and philosophy. The seventh century …
Arianism receives its name from Arius, a Christian priest of Alexandria who taught that the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, is not God in the same sense as the Father. He believed that the Son of God did exist before time, but that the …
