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.
Aristophanes was a leading dramatist of ancient Athens and, owing to the quantity and quality of his works that have been preserved, is customarily recognized as being the leading comic playwright of his society and age. Greek comic drama passed through two main phases, referred to as Old …
Aristotle is one of the greatest figures in the history of Western thought. In terms of the breadth and depth of his thought, together with the quality and nature of his analysis, his contribution to a variety of fields is almost unparalleled. His areas of investigation ranged from …
The political and cult symbol of Israel before the destruction of the Temple was the Ark of the Covenant. This cult object was constantly found with the Israelites and treasured by them from the time of Moses until the time of the invasion of the Babylonians. It was …
Located at the flashpoint between the Roman and Persian Empires, “Fortress Armenia” stretched through eastern Anatolia to the Zagros Mountains. Armenia was a kingdom established during the decline of Seleucid control. Its independence ended with its incorporation into the Roman Empire in the third century c.e. The region …
The Persian Empire reached its greatest strength under Darius I; under the reign of the three Artaxerxes it began and concluded its decline, ending with Alexander the Great’s conquests in 330 b.c.e. Artaxerxes I, third son of Emperor Xerxes I, acceded to the throne in 465 b.c.e. following …
The conquest and settlement of northern India by IndoEuropeans began c. 1500 b.c.e. The event marked the end of the Indus civilization and altered the civilization of the subcontinent. In ancient times seminomadic peoples lived in the steppe lands of Eurasia between the Caspian and Black Seas. They …
Ashoka (Asoka) was the third ruler of the Mauryan Empire. Under his long rule the empire that he inherited reached its zenith territorially and culturally. Soon after his death the Mauryan Empire split up and ended. He is remembered as a great ruler in world history and the …
The country of Assyria encompasses the north of Mesopotamia, made up of city-states that were politically unified after the middle of the second millennium b.c.e. Assyria derived its name from the city-state Ashur (Assur). This city was subject to the Agade king, Manishtushu, and the Ur III king, …
Probably first a deacon (311–328 c.e.) ordained by the bishop Alexander, and Alexander’s personal secretary at the Council of Nicaea (325 c.e.), Athanasius was elected bishop in 328 c.e. His tenure was marked by his conflict with the Meletian Church in Egypt, and with the pro-Arian bishops within …
Ancient Athens underwent a series of governments and reforms before it became the well-known democratic city-state that epitomized the ideals and the culture of ancient Greece. During the Archaic Period, a historical time period lasting from 8000 to 1000 b.c.e., Athens was a city-state governed by a king, …
Born in 354 c.e. to a pagan father and a Christian mother, (St.) Monica, in Tagaste in North Africa, Augustine received a classical education in rhetoric on the path to a career in law. During his studies at Carthage in his 19th year, he read Cicero’s Hortensius and …
Marcus Aurelius was the only Roman philosopher king, author of Meditations and last of the “good” emperors. The Pax Romana began its slow collapse during his reign. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was born on April 26 in 121 c.e. His father, praetor Marcus Annius Verus, died when Aurelius …
The Axial Age is known as a pivotal period in history that dates from 800 to 200 b.c.e. Coined in the 20th century by the philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883–1969), the Axial Age refers to the period of history when the following major figures, among others, emerged: Confucius; Laozi; …
Babylon was the most famous Mesopotamian city in antiquity, located along the Euphrates River, 55 miles southwest of modern Baghdad. Major excavations began in 1899 by the Germans and, in recent times, have been continued by Iraq’s Department of Antiquities. The city is first mentioned by the Agade …
Shortly after Murshili I, king of the Hittites, sacked Babylon in 1595 b.c.e., political intrigue in the Hittite court compelled him to return to Hatti. Two contenders filled the sudden power vacuum in southern Mesopotamia. In the southern marshlands was a kingdom later known as the First Sealand …
The modern-day Bamiyan Valley was part of ancient Indian culture. It is one of the 34 provinces of modernday Afghanistan and lies in the geographic center of the country. Its capital city is also called Bamiyan. Bamiyan became one of the largest cities along the Silk Road. Before …
The Ban family was famous during the first century of the Common Era under the Eastern Han dynasty in China for producing famous historians (one of them the most famous female historian and intellectual in ancient China) and a great general. Ban Biao, the father, began writing a …
The Bible portrays “Baruch, son of Neriah” as the companion and secretary to Jeremiah, the famous prophet at the time of the Babylonian deportation of Judah (587 b.c.e.). His dedicated service to Jeremiah brought him into the same ignominy and hardship as his master, though most likely he …
Basil attained a reputation in the early church for his efforts in liturgy, monasticism, and doctrine. The honors extended to him single him out among the greatest Christian teachers of his age: one of the “Three Holy Hierarchs” (the others are John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzus), one of …
Benedict was born in Norcia, Italy. What is known of this Christian hero is drawn almost entirely from his biographer, (St.) Gregory the Great, who records the life and miracles of the great monastic founder in the second book of his Dialogues. Although Benedict began higher studies at …
