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.
Both Edessa and its successor, Nisibis, were in northern Mesopotamia, in an area known for its military and its religious importance. Edessa has been called the Athens of Syriac learning; but after its educational institutions were shut down in 489 c.e., Nisibis, a city less controlled by Byzantine …
In the middle of the fourth century c.e., a Christian woman took a journey lasting four years to the Middle East. She wrote a journal of her travels, and the manuscript lay dormant until the late 1800s. Other Latin writers made mention of her, so her accounts circulated …
The civilization of ancient Egypt lasted about 30 centuries—from the 30th century b.c.e. to 30 b.c.e., when it became part of the Roman Empire. Egypt was significant for its size and longevity, retaining a strong continuity of culture despite several periods of turmoil. Egypt developed along the valley …
The country of Elam encompassed the southwest of modern Iran. The Elamites designated themselves as Haltamti, from which the Akkadians derived Elamtu. Susa and Anshan were the two major centers of Elamite civilization. The proto-Elamite period (c. 3400–2700 b.c.e.) witnessed the emergence of writing at Susa. This proto-Elamite …
Eleusis was a city in Attica in Greece, located some 12 miles northwest of Athens. From early times Eleusis was associated with the Eleusinian mystery rites of Demeter, a Mother Goddess figure and maternal figure of power, and the development of a cult that existed since the early …
The third and fourth ecumenical councils held at Ephesus in 431 c.e. and at Chalcedon in 451 c.e., respectively, discussed and formulated how Christians were to speak of the relationship of Christ’s human and divine natures to one another. Whereas the earlier ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325) and …
Known as the Harp of the Spirit, Ephrem was perhaps the most creative voice of the Syriac culture and church and one of the most influential theologians of early Christianity. He was born in 306 c.e., just south of the holy region of Syriac monks and spirituality in …
Epicureanism is named after the philosopher Epicurus, who founded a school of teaching in Athens that continued for seven centuries after his death. Epicurus (342–270 b.c.e.) was a citizen of Athens, raised on the island of Samos. His contribution was aimed at the practical application of philosophy and …
The first part of the Era of Division that followed the Han dynasty, between 220 and 280 c.e., is called the Three Kingdoms period. It ended in 280, when the Jin (Ch’in) dynasty, led by the Sima (Ssu-ma) family, reunified China. But the unity was fragile because the …
Several ancient informants discuss the Jewish sect known as the Essenes. The most famous three are Josephus, Philo, and Pliny, whose writings date to sometime around the first century c.e. The etymology of the name Essenes remains uncertain. One theory proposed by the ancient Jewish philosopher Philo (c. …
The book of Esther tells the story of the Persian queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai, who foil the plot of Haman, a wicked Persian courtier, to exterminate the Jews. Haman is hanged on the very scaffold where he intended to hang Mordechai, and Mordechai replaces him as …
Ethiopia is known to be one of the earliest places inhabited by humans. Bone fragments found in November 1994 near Aramis, in the lower Awash Valley by Yohannes Haile Selassie, an Ethiopian scientist trained in the United States, have been connected with the Australopithecus afarensis, an apelike creature …
The Etruscans left no historical or written records other than tomb inscriptions with brief family histories. Other than this burial genealogy, most writing about the Etruscans is from later sources, including the Romans. Only recently has archaeology begun to unravel the mystery of the Etruscans. During the Renaissance, …
Euripides was one of the three great Athenian tragic dramatists, with Aeschylus and Sophocles. He was reputed to have been the author of some 92 plays and received a considerable level of public and critical acclaim. He was on 20 occasions chosen to be one of the three …
Born in Caesarea, Eusebius studied under the director of the theological school in that city, Pamphilus (a future martyr), whom he so admired that he adopted his name, calling himself Eusebius Pamphili. A devoted disciple of Origen, Pamphilus expanded the library that Origen had established at Caesarea and …
Abreha, also known as King Ezana, was a fourth century c.e. king who converted to Christianity and subsequently established this faith as the state religion in Axum (Aksum), part of modern-day Ethiopia. Scholars do not agree on the details of Ezana’s life, but several have documented information about …
Fa Xian was a famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who traveled overland to India in 399 C.E. and returned via sea in 413. All Chinese men and women abandon their original names and choose ones with religious significance when they join monastic orders. Fa Xian means “Illustriousness of the …
There is considerable controversy and little consensus on the questions of when, where, and how human beings first arrived in and peopled the Americas. For much of the 20th century (c. 1920s–80s) the views of Aleš Hrdlicka (1869–1943) of the United States National Museum dominated the discipline of …
The death of the Roman emperor Nero in 68 c.e. was followed by a period in which different Roman armies backed different claimants for the imperial throne. The winner, Vespasian (r. 69–79 c.e.), founded the shortlived Flavian dynasty of himself and his two sons, Titus and Domitian. Titus …
The distinctions among food gatherers and producers are traditionally used to reveal differences in subsistence strategies among prehistoric societies with different types of culture and livelihoods. Each kind of food gathering and production (and its variants) has a social, economic, cultural, ritual, and ecological implication. History Of The …
