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 Bhagavad Gita is regarded as one of the most beautiful and influential of Hindu poems. The translation from Sanskrit is the “Song of God.” It forms part of chapter 6 of the Mahabharata (epic of the Bharata dynasty). It was probably written in the first–second century c.e., …
There are two major parts to the Bible: the Jewish scriptures, or Tanakh (largely identical to the Christian Old Testament), and the New Testament (NT), the distinctively Christian scriptures. The ancient texts of these two parts developed in different ways, into the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. Hebrew …
Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius was a statesman and philosopher during the reign of Theodoric, Ostrogothic emperor of Rome. Boethius had a good classical education (educated in Athens and Alexandria) and was particularly influenced by Neoplatonism, Aristotle and Aristotelianism, and Stoicism. He was in the midst of a …
The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a collection of texts that were used to accompany the souls of corpses into the afterlife and assist them in finding a satisfactory resting place. It should be distinguished from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is a Vajrayana Buddhist …
Boudicca (Boadicea) was born into the aristocracy. Little otherwise is known of her—some researchers even say that her true name is unknown, that her followers named her Boudiga for the Celtic goddess of victory, which the Romans Latinized as Boudicca. Around 48 c.e., she became the wife of …
For centuries the legend of an Irish monk named Brendan (also called Brenainn, Brandan, or Borodan) circulated among explorers and navigators of late Middle Ages Europe. Some historians speculate that Christopher Columbus might have relied on maps with St. Brendan’s Isle on it, located somewhere in the Atlantic …
The practice of Buddhism spread in the centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha through the actions of pilgrims, wandering evangelists, and strong believers who wished to spread the faith to remote lands and also through observation of Buddhist practices by those who traveled overseas from India and …
After the death of Gautama Buddha (483 b.c.e.), monks and scholars concerned with practicing the lessons he taught met several times at formal councils at which the canon of Buddhist thought was established, the rules of monastic life were agreed, and matters of dogma and ideology were debated …
The site of ancient Byblos lies on the Lebanese coast about 25 miles north of Beirut. It has been continuously occupied since the late Neolithic Period (c. 5000 b.c.e.), and its tradition claims that it is the oldest city in the world. The Greeks gave the name Byblos …
In the third century c.e. the Sassanid dynasty replaced Parthian rule in the Persian Empire. Rome and Persia soon ran into conflict over disputed territorial claims, particularly in the Caucasus region. Diocletian stabilized the frontier by forcing the Persians from the region and establishing suzerainty in 299 c.e. …
Augustus was a title given to Octavian when he became the first emperor of the Roman Empire and established the institutional framework that would serve Romans for 300 years. Octavian was the adopted son and heir of Julius Caesar. His rule initiated the Pax Romana, a 200-year period …
Gaius Julius Caesar expanded the Roman Empire into a power that included half of Europe. According to legend, he was a descendant of Aeneas, the Trojan prince who founded Rome, himself the son of the Greek goddess Aphrodite or the Roman Venus. Early Life And The Politics Of …
Cambyses II was the eldest son of Cyrus II, the founder of the Achaemenid (or Persian) Empire, whose father was Cambyses I. The exact date of his birth is not known but is estimated to be around 560 b.c.e., and he was said by the Greek writer Herodotus …
Cappadocia, a Roman province from 17 c.e., became Christianized in the second century c.e. Cappadocia was a rural province, and its capital Mazica, later called Caesarea, was its only major city. Characteristic of theology in Cappadocia was the early influence of Origen on the third-century Cappadocian church leaders …
The Roman emperor Caracalla (or Marcus Aurelius Antoninus) issued the Edict of Caracalla, also known as the Constitutio Antoniniana or Edict of Antoninus, in 212 c.e. Prior to this Roman citizenship had been highly treasured and was extended only to people from Rome, children of existing citizens, and …
The city of Carthage in North Africa (modern-day Tunisia) was the capital of the Carthaginian empire that controlled parts of the Mediterranean from the seventh century b.c.e. until it was destroyed in 146 b.c.e. Tradition has the city founded by Queen Dido, from Tyre, a Phoenician city in …
Caste, or class, is English for the Sanskrit word varna, which categorizes the Hindus of India into four broad classifications. The Rig-Veda, the holiest text of Hinduism, mentions many occupations and divides the Aryan people into broad categories. For example, the Hymn of the Primeval Man in the …
The great-grandson of the legendary Marcus Porcius Cato (the Censor), the younger Cato, orphaned at an early age, received his education through his maternal uncle, Marcus Livius Drusus, and steeped his mind in Stoicism and politics. As a good practitioner of Stoic philosophy, he subjected himself to the …
The oldest known cave paintings were found in the Chauvet Cave, located in southeast France. Discovered in 1994, the cave was filled with images of diverse animal species, including rhinoceroses, cats, and bears. Radiocarbon dating showed the images to be more than 30,000 years old. Eliette Brunel Deschamps, …
The Celts were a tribal people of the Bronze and Iron Ages united by a common language, culture, and art. They lived throughout Europe. Most were eventually conquered by the Romans and became a part of the Roman Empire. Many unconquered areas have retained their separate language and …
