History

Like the laws of today, Hammurabi's Code lays out specific punishments for specific crimes. This is meant to create equity in the way that punishments are meted out. Both the Babylonians and...

Renaissance art completely revitalized the entire concept of art in Europe. It branched out beyond the merely religious purpose of medieval artwork. It reflected a new humanist philosophy, and it...

The Byzantine Empire was the significant remnant of the Roman Empire that survived in southeastern Europe for a thousand years after the official fall of Rome in 476 CE. As noted, a key difference...

The Battle of Saratoga was a very significant moment in the Revolutionary War because it showed that the Americans were capable of defeating the British. In turn, this convinced Britain's enemies,...

The Elizabethan age is seen as a golden age because it was a long period of peace and prosperity in England in which the economy grew and the arts flourished. After a period of civil war, called...

Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream that all people would be judged on who each person was as a person and not on the color of that person’s skin. He dreamed we would follow the ideas in the...

Buying on margin helped bring about the Great Depression because it helped to cause Black Tuesday when the stock market crashed. Buying on margin is the practice of buying stock without paying the...

While the Jacksonian reformers and the Gilded Age reformers came from two different time periods (the 1830s and 1870–1900, respectively), they shared the perspectives that society had become...

There are a number of effects of imperialism on our world today. Let me detail a few of these effects for you. Firstly, you might want to mention that it is thanks to imperialism that there are...

Imperialism is the domination of a land and its people by an external power. It is the antithesis of self-determination. It is closely tied to colonialism, although scholars often distinguish...

Like John Locke, whom he openly admired, Voltaire believed that the purpose of government was to protect the liberties of the people. Religious liberty, freedom of the press, and the abolition of...

Ancient Greece is well known for its emphasis on physical education. In his writings, Plato expressed the need for physical education and survival skills, particularly for the mentors and leaders...

Broadly speaking, the "Great Rebellion" (known at the time as the "Sepoy Rebellion" because it was led by "sepoys," or Bengal soldiers serving under the British) was caused by the sense that the...

As the other educators have noted, the purpose of putting coins over the eyes of the dead was to pay passage across the Styx River. The very first reference to this practice comes from the work of...

The three organs of government are legislative, judicial, and executive. Also known as the three branches, they provide a system of checks and balances to make sure that there is a separation of...

In some respects, one could attribute the eventual decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Sack of Constantinople in 1204, when a large army of Crusaders entered the Byzantine capital and...

There are two essential points to consider when thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of freedom. The first is that freedom is a continuum, not an absolute. If you think about the degree...

In order to understand what Martin Luther King, Jr. is saying with this quote from his “I Have a Dream” speech, you will need to read the rest of the paragraph that starts with the quote....

Leonardo da Vinci is primarily famous as a Renaissance artist. He is especially remembered for two works of art: Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. However, he is also important as an overall genius,...

The Silk Road and Indian Ocean trading routes were similar in that they both served the purpose of moving luxury goods from East Asia to the markets of the Mediterranean and Europe via the Middle...

Florence was one of the primary cities in Italy during the Renaissance because of it prominence in banking and commerce, its leadership in the patronage of the arts, and its participation in the...

The Mesopotamian economy was based on bartering—that is, trading goods and services for other goods and services. Bartering was necessary for people in Mesopotamia to get the resources they lacked....

Traditionally, Christopher Columbus has been seen as a hero because of his role as an explorer, facing harsh conditions and the unknown as he made his famous voyage. He wanted to forge a western...

The quote is as follows: "We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope." It means that, in the short term, we may not achieve our goals, but, if those goals are noble, we will...

As other educators have clarified in detail the causal relationship between industrialization and economic colonialism, let’s start by looking at the distinction you make about the question of...

The Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 formalized the ongoing "Scramble for Africa." Since the 1870s, European powers like France, Germany, Belgium, and the United Kingdom had been exploring and...

Rosa Parks is a hero because she bravely took a stand for civil rights when it was dangerous to do so. Living in Montgomery, Alabama, she worked as a secretary at the local chapter of the National...

There are many more differences between school in the colonial period and the modern era than there are similarities. Schools taught different things in different ways to different people. The...

The colonists came to America: to build a better economic life for themselves and to have religious freedom. I will focus on the second reason and how it played out in the decision of the Mayflower...

Over the centuries, Latin directly and indirectly influenced the development of the English language, primarily by adding words to the English lexicon. Latin was the language of the Catholic...

The United Nations (UN) has had a long and somewhat controversial history. Its supporters laud its accomplishments. Its detractors, including the United States, have sometimes excoriated it....

The purchase of Alaska was called Seward's Folly because it was considered to have been a mistake. The U.S. Secretary of State at the time, William H. Seward, arranged the deal for the United...

Thomas Jefferson had several views regarding the economy. He believed the federal government should play a very limited role in the lives of the American people. This included having a limited...

Like all ancient laws, the laws contained within the Code of Hammurabi were written by men largely for the benefit of men. As such, women were placed in a subordinate position, lacking in the...

One similarity between the two systems is that they both tend to look at individual human beings primarily as economic units. For Marx, as with all Communists, each individual was defined by the...

Yes, Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists did generally support the idea of a loose interpretation or construction of the Constitution. They differed from the Democratic-Republicans, led by...

Louis XIV is significant for radicially altering the balance of power in French politics: centralizing power in the monarchy and establishing a system of patronage and despotism that survived until...

Constantinople was founded by Constantine to serve as a new imperial capital for the Roman Empire, and it would remain one of the great cities in Europe across the Middle Ages, long after the...

The minister represents the process of signing the League of Nations covenant, which was developed in the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 after World War I and signed by many world powers in 1920....

The imperial powers who dominated the developing world left their languages there. People all over the world speak such languages as English or French due to the colonial powers that ruled those...

The invention of the printing press had a huge impact on the past and continues to impact our lives today. Printing allowed ideas to curiculate quickly and cheaply. Oringinally, the printing...

The Constitution has survived for so long largely for two reasons. First and foremost, it is incredibly difficult to amend. As a previous educator has pointed out, the Constitution has only been...

Social reform is a general term that is used to describe movements organized by members of a community who aim to create change in their society. These changes often relate to justice and ways that...

India's Gupta and Maurya Empires did indeed have many similarities. Besides trivial similarities, such as both being founded by someone named Chandragupta and occupying similar territories, both...

Both the Roman Republic and Roman Empire had periods of instability which ultimately caused their demise. Interestingly, each lasted for almost the same amount of time, so it would be difficult to...

The British Crown and British Parliament officially took over India in 1858 after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. Before that time, the British East India Company controlled much of the Indian...

Primarily, the Renaissance began in Italy because this was the home of ancient Rome. The Renaissance was inspired by humanism, the rediscovery of ancient Western learning. During this period, many...

The Embargo Act of 1807 was largely Jefferson's response to the British impressment of American seamen on the high seas. The act stopped all trade between the U.S. and Europe and also prohibited...

Sparta, known for its military power, was generally in conflict with Athens, Corinth, and Thebes. During the existence of the Peloponnesian League (c. 505 to 365 BCE), Sparta formed an alliance...

Alexander the Great had many accomplishments that made his title of “The Great” a deserving one. His empire covered about 3,000 miles and he was able to establish this empire over a thirteen year...