In English history, there are a lot of monarchs who have made dramatic decisions that transformed the nation. However, few have been as controversial as King Henry VIII.

His reign, which has become famous for its romance, as well as political rebellion and religious revolution, forever changed the future of the English nation and its relationship with the wider world…

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Travel the historical sites of Japan!

We have a massive announcement to share with you! In June and July 2027, I am co-leading a history teachers’ professional development study tour of Japan with Libertas Travel.

We will travel from Tokyo to Hiroshima and on to Fukuoka, visiting the places where the most dramatic moments of Japanese history were made.

If you want to find out more and express your interest in joining us, check out the details here:

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The government of the ancient Roman Republic

When the Romans expelled their last king in 509 BC, Rome became a republic. What made a republic different from having a king is that no single person held all the power in society.

Instead of having a king that held power for life, the people voted on multiple people who shared the power. These officials were called ‘magistrates,’ and they were given political power for a limited period of one year.

Every year, the people would vote for new people to hold these positions. This system of voting and shared power in Rome is known as the Roman Republic…

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The difference between primary and secondary sources in history

Historical sources are central to your study of the past and are important to your success in History assessment pieces.

Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that you learn what they are and in what forms they come.

What is a ‘historical source’?

A source is something that provides information about the historical topic you are studying.

They can either be written (e.g., books or websites), or non-written (e.g., photographs or artefacts)…

Read on...

Historical sources on the ancient Olympic Games

The ancient Olympic Games were among the most important religious and athletic festivals in the Greek world, attracting competitors and spectators from across Greece to the sanctuary of Olympia.

These sources provide valuable evidence about the origins, religious significance, events, traditions, and social rules of the games…

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How to write a critical summary

As part of your Independent Source Investigation task, you are required to write a critical summary. This is a key part of demonstrating your ability to form and support a historical argument using evidence from a range of sources.

It is important that your critical summary must directly respond to your key inquiry question and show your understanding of both the content and perspectives of the historical sources you have selected during the research process…

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What were the Ancient Olympic Games?

For over a thousand years, a small sanctuary in the western Peloponnese drew athletes from across the Greek-speaking world to compete in contests held in honour of Zeus, the king of the gods. The ancient Olympic Games, first recorded in 776 BCE, became the most prestigious athletic festival in Greek civilisation, as victors earned a form of immortality that outlasted their physical achievements. The full significance of the festival can only be appreciated by recognising that every competition and sacrifice at Olympia was an act of religious devotion...

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The Roman Republic Lessons and Resources

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on the rise of the Roman Republic! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

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The Imperial Harems of ancient China have often seemed just living quarters for the emperor’s wives and concubines. In reality, though, they were small worlds of power and influence and cultural life, where politics and personal ties mixed.

Within its walls, women from different backgrounds lived together there with future heirs to the throne…

Read on...

The East–West Schism of 1054: Causes and Consequences

By the mid-1050s, tensions had been growing over many years across Christianity between the pope in Rome and the church leaders in Constantinople.

These tensions centred on specific wording of important religious documents, the extent of political power held by different church leaders, and conflicting interpretations of church rules.

All of these factors threatened to flare into open conflict when decades of diplomatic efforts failed to reach any kind of mutually agreeable compromise…

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What did ancient Romans wear under their togas?

In 46 BCE, Julius Caesar scandalised conservative Romans by wearing a loosely belted tunic with long, flowing sleeves beneath his toga: a style that many considered dangerously effeminate for a public man.

IN fact, Roman clothing works as a kind of ‘visible language’ of citizenship, and the garments worn under the toga also communicated a person’s social position…

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Just how rich were the Mughal emperors?

In 1665, inside the treasury of Emperor Aurangzeb, the French jewel merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier counted 108 rubies on the Peacock Throne, none weighing less than 100 carats, alongside 160 emeralds and an uncountable number of diamonds and pearls.

Tavernier had visited royal courts across Europe and the Ottoman Empire during six separate voyages to the East, and nothing he had ever witnessed came close to the concentration of riches he saw in Mughal India…

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How to find out when a source was created

When analysing a source, you need to be aware of when it was made. This will not only help you to determine whether you are working with a primary or secondary source, but it will also help you evaluate the information the source contains.

For example, a source written during an event captures the experiences of someone who did not yet know the outcome.

Meanwhile, a source written decades or centuries later may have been influenced by information and interpretations that were unavailable at the time of the original events…

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What was the Trojan War? Was it real?

For over three thousand years, the story of a Greek army besieging the city of Troy has perhaps been the most famous war story from the ancient world. However, the ancient Greeks treated the conflict as genuine history. They dated it to roughly around 1184 BCE, and made an effort to celebrate the heroes who fought and died on the plains beneath Troy’s famous towering walls.

But did the Trojan War really happen? What the historical evidence tells us might just surprise you...

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Teaching Medieval history?

Free worksheets, activities, quizzes, and more

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on medieval history! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

Explore the resources...

In school, college or university, when we study the subject called ‘History’, it is common to hear people use the terms ‘history’ and ‘the past’ interchangeably, as if the two mean the same thing.

In fact, when we talk about the past or history when we are not in class, most people certainly do use the terms as synonyms.

However, when undertaking History as part of your studies, these terms are used to mean two different things. It is important to know the difference so that you can use them correctly in your assessment pieces…

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The reasons behind England’s expulsion of the Jews in 1290

On 18 July 1290, King Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion and ordered every Jewish man and woman, as well as every child, to leave the Kingdom of England by 1 November of that year.

The decree affected approximately 3,000 people and was the first known instance of a European state permanently banishing its entire Jewish population.

Edward seemingly took this step thanks to a combination of economic exploitation and religious hostility, as well as the political calculation, that had built up over two centuries of Jewish settlement in England…

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Medieval justice: Crime and punishment in the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages, which lasted roughly from the 5th to the late 15th century, was a time when a person’s punishment for crime was based mostly on where they sat on the social structure.

In ways that seem unfair to us today, the length and severity of punishment could be much less if you were rich and powerful.

However, the goal of the justice system was still to punish offenders, keep order, and even scare others from breaking the law in the future…

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Chinese migration and goldfield life in 1850s Australia

The discovery of gold in Australia during the 1850s started one of the largest migrations in the nation’s history, which drew people from every corner of the world.

Among the most important groups were Chinese miners, whose arrival changed the goldfields and the local communities that grew around them…

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How to write a research rationale

When you are doing a research assessment piece in History, you’ll often be asked to write a rationale. This is particularly true for the source investigation assessment piece.

What is a ‘rationale’?

A rationale is a written explanation about your research task that helps your teacher understand the decisions you made before beginning your source research.

A research rationale is a statement that explains the reasons behind conducting a particular research study…

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The ANZUS and SEATO Treaties Explained

In the early 1950s, as communist forces fought United Nations troops to a bloody stalemate in Korea, Australia signed the ANZUS treaty with the United States and New Zealand, securing for the first time a formal American commitment to Pacific defence. Within three years, a second alliance called SEATO followed, drawing eight nations into a collective security arrangement designed to contain communism across Southeast Asia. The history of these two treaties explains how Cold War anxieties drove the creation of new military partnerships in the Pacific, and how those partnerships fared when put to the test…

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Teaching 20th Century Pop Culture history?

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on 20th century popular culture! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

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Want a humorous addition to your teachers’ desk?

Julius Caesar Pencil Holder Fun Caesar Pen Holder for Desk Teacher

A perfect present for history enthusiasts: The Julius Caesar bust design makes this pencil holder a thoughtful and unique present for anyone interested in Roman history or ancient civilizations…

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The fourth century BCE was a period when Greek city-states had long relied on citizen-hoplites carrying short spears and heavy round shields, and Philip II of Macedon had already converted that older system into a faster, longer-reaching formation that his son would use to conquer the largest empire in the known world.

The Macedonian phalanx owed its effectiveness to two connected advantages: the extraordinary length of the sarissa pike and the disciplined coordination between infantry and cavalry that Alexander applied across every major battle he fought…

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Ancient Chinese social structure explained

Ancient Chinese society was incredibly structured, with each person knowing exactly where they sat on the social hierarchy.

As early as the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046 to 256 BC), all of the people in China were assigned to one of four social groups, also known as social ‘classes’.

In Chinese, these groups were called the shi, nong, gong, and shang. Each of these is explained in more detail below…

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How did the first humans reach Australia?

Long before the tall buildings of Sydney or the busy streets of Melbourne, Australia had been home to its First Nations people.

Such Aboriginal communities have lived on the continent for at least tens of thousands of years.

But how did they get there, and how did they spread across such a large land?

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From concubines to empresses: The power dynamics within ancient China’s imperial harems

The Imperial Harems of ancient China have often seemed just living quarters for the emperor’s wives and concubines. In reality, though, they were small worlds of power and influence and cultural life, where politics and personal ties mixed.

Within its walls, women from different backgrounds lived together there with future heirs to the throne.

Understanding the Imperial Harems is key to understanding ancient Chinese society. In particular, their influence on the emperor’s choices…

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How to find out who created a historical source

The first step in creating an effective analysis of a source is to find out who created it.

While this might sound like a simple thing to do, it can often take significant time to find out all the required information about the creator of a source.

What is a source ‘creator’?

When we talk about the ‘creator’ of a source, we want to know who originally made it.

Different kinds of sources usually have a particular kind of creator…

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Major WWI Battles of 1916 Explained | Western Front, Eastern Front, and on the Sea

In 1916, the war that many had expected to end by Christmas 1914 entered its most destructive phase, as the battles of Verdun and the Somme consumed over two million casualties between them. For the generals on all sides, the year became a proving ground for the doctrine of attrition with the grim belief that victory would belong to whichever nation could absorb the most punishment without breaking. By the time the fighting season ended in late November, the conflict had transformed from a war of failed breakthroughs into an industrial killing process, and its consequences would haunt European society for generations…

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Teaching Aztec history?

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on Aztec history! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more..

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Petroleum largely defined the limits of Axis military power during the Second World War. From the oilfields of Ploiești to the refineries of Palembang, Germany and Japan identified specific fuel targets as essential for survival and expansion.

As their access narrowed and their supply networks collapsed, both nations committed to military offensives that unravelled under the weight of fuel scarcity and the strain of operations on too many fronts…

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Why Commodus’ own sister led an assassination plot against him

A young senator named Claudius Pompeianus Quintianus waited with a concealed dagger near the entrance to Rome’s amphitheatre in the spring of 182 CE, ready to kill the emperor Commodus as he arrived for a public festival.

The assassination attempt had been organised by Commodus’ own eldest sister, Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla, a former empress who had once held the prestigious title of Augusta and now found herself stripped of real influence at her brother’s court…

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The clever ways ancient Greeks communicated over long distances during wartime

In the opening scene of Aeschylus’ tragedy Agamemnon, performed in Athens around 458 BCE, a watchman perched on the roof of the royal palace in Argos scans the horizon for a single distant flame that will confirm the fall of Troy.

The scene recalls something essential about warfare in the ancient Greek world, which was that a geography of mountains and scattered islands meant that sending a message between two armies was one of the most difficult problems any commander faced…

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What happened when European colonists arrived in Australia?

In 1788, the British sent a fleet of ships to establish a penal colony in Sydney, Australia, under the leadership of Captain Arthur Phillip.

He would have to make a number of decisions that would have a long-term impacts on the Indigenous Australians…

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How to write topic sentences

Once you have sorted all of your quotes according to the sub-questions they answer, you are ready to create your Topic Sentences.

What is a ‘topic sentence’?

A topic sentence is a single sentence which appears as the first sentence of a body paragraph that states the main argument of that paragraph.

A good Topic Sentence answers one of your sub-questions…

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Julius Caesar’s Dictatorship and Assassination Explained

On 9 August 48 BC, Gaius Julius Caesar destroyed the senatorial army of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus at the Battle of Pharsalus in central Greece, breaking the military power of the Republican opposition in a single afternoon. During the four years that followed, Caesar accumulated constitutional powers no Roman had ever held, as he pursued the remnants of Pompeian resistance across three continents and restructured Roman society through sweeping legislation. His reward for these efforts was a conspiracy of sixty senators and twenty-three stab wounds on the floor of Pompey’s theatre on 15 March 44 BC...

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Teaching 9th Grade history?

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on Year 9 history! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

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In 1992, the High Court of Australia issued a landmark ruling in the case of Mabo v Queensland. This decision was pivotal as it acknowledged the concept of Native Title, affirming the legal rights of Indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands.

The decision reversed the long-standing terra nullius principle which had negated the land rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples…

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The remarkable discovery of the Amarna Letters, the personal correspondence of the pharaohs

Among the most valuable sources for understanding international diplomacy during the Late Bronze Age, the Amarna Letters have preserved the personal communications exchanged between the Egyptian pharaohs and the kings and rulers of neighbouring states.

Found at the site of Akhetaten, the short-lived capital city established by Pharaoh Akhenaten in the 14th century BCE, the tablets had survived beneath the sands of Middle Egypt for over three thousand years…

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Historical sources on ancient Roman gladiators

Gladiators are probably the most famous figures from ancient Rome, but the historical sources show that their lives were tied to training, social status, public entertainment, violence, and imperial control.

These extracts help explain where gladiators fought, who became gladiators, how they were trained, what equipment they used, and how Roman crowds influenced the fate of defeated fighters…

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History Skills is off to Japan and we want you to come with us!

History Skills is incredibly excited to announce that we are collaborating with Libertas Travel to offer a professional development study tour across Japan in June 2027!

The 11-day programme travels from Tokyo to Fukuoka, stopping in Hiroshima along the way, and traces Japanese history from Yayoi-period state formation and classical court culture to the Pacific War and post-war reconstruction.

Every site visit is tied directly to syllabus content, which means your subject knowledge and classroom teaching will both benefit.

It includes 32 hours of professional development. Places are limited, so register your interest early.

I would absolutely love to have you join us on the amazing experience. If you’ve ever wanted to see Japan and the most important historical locations you can discuss with your students on your return, be sure to check out the details and express your interest in attending:

Find out more...

The causes of World War I: Explained simply

In 1914, a chain of events set off by the shot of a lone assassin in Sarajevo plunged the world into its first truly global conflict.

However, the reasons of this catastrophe ran far deeper than just this single event. In fact, Europe had been simmering for decades, bound together by fragile alliances, fierce rivalries, and the ambitions of empires.

Every decision, every treaty, and every political move, the great powers edged closer to war…

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The difference between primary and secondary sources in history

Historical sources are central to your study of the past and are important to your success in History assessment pieces.

Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that you learn what they are and in what forms they come.

A source is something that provides information about the historical topic you are studying.

They can either be written (e.g., books or websites), or non-written (e.g., photographs or artefacts)…

Read on...

The life and achievements of Thutmose III, ancient Egypt’s ultimate warrior pharaoh

In 1457 BCE, an Egyptian army threaded its way through a narrow mountain pass near the fortress city of Megiddo, a gamble that was so reckless that the pharaoh’s own generals begged him to take a safer route. The pharaoh was named Thutmose III, and he would go on to lead an incredible seventeen military campaigns across the Near East to become the greatest commanders ancient Egypt ever produced…

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Teaching about modern German history?

Free worksheets, activities, quizzes, and more

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on German history! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

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In the summer of 1961, a resident of the Greek island of Mykonos struck something solid as he dug a well near the centre of town: a terracotta storage jar, standing 1.34 metres tall, with human bones sealed inside and scenes of warfare moulded across its surface.

The jar dates to approximately 675 BCE and belongs to the Archaic period of Greek art, an era when the Homeric epics were first being written down and artists across the Cyclades were beginning to depict mythological stories on pottery…

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Why Geiseric’s Vandals became the Mediterranean’s most feared naval force

North Africa in the fifth century was a region in crisis, as the Western Roman Empire’s authority over its provinces was collapsing under the weight of internal instability and external pressure from migrating peoples.

How the Vandals transformed themselves from a landlocked Germanic people into a formidable Mediterranean naval power helps to explain one of the most remarkable military adaptations of late antiquity…

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What Austria-Hungary’s ultimatum demanded from Serbia in 1914

On the evening of 23 July 1914, Baron Wladimir Giesl von Gieslingen, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Serbia, delivered a diplomatic note to Lazar Paču, the acting Serbian Foreign Minister, that contained ten specific demands and a forty-eight-hour deadline for compliance.

Almost a month had passed since the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June, and during that time, officials in Vienna had carefully drafted the document to impose conditions that no sovereign nation could accept in full…

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What was British colonialism and imperialism?

British colonialism and imperialism have been some of the most powerful forces in world history. They influenced the formation of modern nations and affected global economics, as well as continuing to influence international relationships.

This article will provide a detailed understanding of the reasons behind British colonial expansion and the impacts of imperialism on both the colonised and colonising nations…

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How to interpret propaganda posters

Interpreting a visual source, like a propaganda poster, is very different to interpreting words on a page, which is the case with written sources.

Therefore, you need to develop a different set of skills.

What is a ‘propaganda poster’?

Propaganda is an attempt to influence peoples’ opinions or behaviour through the use of specific images and words.

It usually gives limited information which is heavily biased in its presentation. Propaganda typically achieves its aims by generating an emotional reaction in the viewer…

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Relative Dating in Archaeology Explained

Archaeologists do not always work with precise dates. In many excavations, the clues left behind by past peoples, buried objects and layered deposits of soil and building ruins, must be studied carefully to reconstruct the order in which events unfolded.

While modern dating techniques can sometimes determine the age of a single object, much of the work still largely depends on relative dating methods, which allow archaeologists to establish sequences of activity by looking at how materials relate to each other across time and space…

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Teaching about the Vikings?

Free worksheets, activities, quizzes, and more

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on the Vikings! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

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On 26 July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, seizing an asset that British Prime Minister Anthony Eden regarded as essential to Britain’s position as a world power.

In the weeks that followed, Eden made a catastrophic miscalculation: he assumed that the United States, led by wartime supreme commander and now president Dwight D. Eisenhower, would either support Britain’s military response or stay silent…

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Who was the legendary Black Prince of England, and why was he both loved and feared?

Throughout the years of the Hundred Years’ War, Edward of Woodstock, better known by his later title, the Black Prince, became one of the most recognisable figures of 14th-century England.

As the eldest son of King Edward III, his reputation as a brilliant warrior, forged through hard-fought campaigns, earned admiration in England and terror in France…

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Henry VIII’s jousting accident: The injury that transformed a kingdom

In January 1536, King Henry VIII suffered a severe jousting accident at Greenwich Palace that left him unconscious for hours and permanently altered both his body and his mental state.

The effect extended beyond the tiltyard. It affected his mood, influenced his political choices, and sped up religious and family line changes that transformed England.

The incident happened during national uncertainty, when the Tudor succession remained unclear and the new Church was still weak…

Read on...

Join History Skills for a historical tour through Japan!

History Skills is incredibly excited to announce that we are collaborating with Libertas Travel to offer a professional development study tour across Japan in June 2027!

The 11-day programme travels from Tokyo to Fukuoka, stopping in Hiroshima along the way, and traces Japanese history from Yayoi-period state formation and classical court culture to the Pacific War and post-war reconstruction.

Every site visit is tied directly to syllabus content, which means your subject knowledge and classroom teaching will both benefit.

It includes 32 hours of professional development. Places are limited, so register your interest early.

I would absolutely love to have you join us on the amazing experience. If you’ve ever wanted to see Japan and the most important historical locations you can discuss with your students on your return, be sure to check out the details and express your interest in attending:

Find out more...

What do AD and BC mean, as well as CE and BCE?

For anyone who wants to understand historical timelines, the abbreviations AD, BC, CE, and BCE can be pretty confusing.

You will often find these terms in history books and museums, since historians rely upon these terms to divide human history.

Therefore, knowing what these labels mean helps us understand how they organize time, and gives us a shared way to talk about the past…

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How to analyse historical sources

When using sources for evidence, you need to be able to demonstrate your knowledge of them by identifying their historical background.

To do this, you need to analyse your sources.

Analysis is the ability to demonstrate an understanding of the elements that contributed to the creation of a historical source….

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How the Allies won the North Africa Campaign of WWII

When Italian forces crossed the Libyan border into Egypt in September 1940, they expected a swift conquest of the Suez Canal and a triumphant expansion of Mussolini’s African empire. Instead, the fighting in North Africa would consume nearly three years and hundreds of thousands of soldiers from across the Allied and Axis powers, and would produce some of the Second World War’s most dramatic reversals of fortune…

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Teaching about Alexander the Great?

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on the life of Alexander the Great! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more…

Explore the resources...

During the fourth day of the Six-Day War, on 8 June 1967, a United States Navy intelligence ship came under continuous deadly attack from Israeli forces in international waters.

Over the course of an hour, the USS Liberty was struck repeatedly by Israeli fighter jets and torpedo boats, which killed thirty-four crew members and seriously wounded 171 others, according to official counts…

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Historical sources on Indian Independence and the Partition

The independence of India in 1947 brought an end to British rule over the Indian subcontinent after almost two centuries, yet freedom arrived alongside the controversial partition of the region into the new nations of India and Pakistan.

The events of 1947 were accompanied by political negotiations, communal violence, mass migration, and the displacement of millions of people…

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The purple dye that made Tyre rich

In the ancient Mediterranean, a single gram of reddish-purple dye could cost more than a gram of gold, and the Phoenician city of Tyre controlled nearly all of its production for over a thousand years.

Known today as Tyrian purple, the pigment came from an unlikely source: the mucus glands of predatory sea snails that lived along the rocky coastline of modern-day Lebanon…

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Cities, smoke, and steam: The harsh reality of living through the Industrial Revolution

By the 1780s, textile mills, iron foundries, and steam-powered workshops had begun to take over towns across Britain.

As families abandoned rural parishes for factory work, they encountered crowded streets, dangerous machines, and housing that often lacked sanitation or privacy.

For those who lived and laboured under the demands of industrial production, each day presented new physical risks and pressures from their surroundings that made survival itself a task that exhausted them…

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Understanding historical empathy and motives

As you study History, you will encounter a vast array of people who thought, spoke and acted in ways that are foreign to you.

The world and culture which you’re used to is unique and simply judging another’s thoughts, words and actions based upon your own cultural norms shows a lack of empathy for their way of life.

Developing historical empathy is perhaps the most difficult, but one of the most important, skills you will learn as a student of History…

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Major WWI Battles of 1918 Explained

At an important moment in March 1918, Germany had one final opportunity to seize victory in World War One before American reinforcements could decisively tip the balance permanently against the Central Powers. Over the following seven months, a sequence of offensives and counter-offensives across the Western Front would produce what was arguably the most dramatic reversal of fortunes in modern military history.

The key battles of 1918 would end up killing or wounding over two million men, brought about the collapse of the German Empire, and ended the largest armed conflict the world had ever seen.

But, you probably never realised just how brutal and bloody the last year of World War One really was...

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Teaching Russian history?

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on the history of Russia! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

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Common logical errors students make when evaluating historical sources and how to fix them

Every year, students in senior history classes lose a lot of marks on source evaluation for some very common, and very frustrating, mistakes.

For us as teachers, the most disappointing part of this is the fact that most of these students are genuinely trying to engage with the material, but the problem is that they are relying on a handful of surface-level shortcuts that sound convincing, but quickly fall apart under scrutiny…

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Helpful resource for medieval history:

The Black Death: A Global History of Humanity’s Most Devastating Pandemic by Thomas Asbridge

Tracing the pandemic’s course across the medieval globe, The Black Death contrasts the experiences of different peoples, including Christians, Muslims, and Jews, charting this catastrophe’s transformative effects on diverse aspects of medieval life. And crucially, Asbridge demonstrates that the plague was often at its most destructive in the Islamic world, where it ultimately played a role in the collapse of the mighty Mamluk Empire…

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Imagine a man so notorious that when he passed through your region, it might vanish from maps for centuries. That is not poor map-making: it is Attila, who had a talent for destroying settlements.

Long before modern warfare, he gave the ancient world a terrifying demonstration of how quickly things could collapse when diplomacy rode on a warhorse…

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The bizarre rumours spread about Catherine the Great after her death

On the morning of 5 November 1796, Catherine the Great collapsed on the floor of her washroom in Tsarskoye Selo after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage, and she died the following evening without ever regaining consciousness.

Within weeks of her passing, scandalous stories began circulating through the courts of Europe, claiming that the 67-year-old empress had perished in ways that ranged from grotesque to absurd…

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Why Napoleon’s French fleet was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile in 1798

On the evening of 1 August 1798, a British squadron of fourteen warships descended on a French fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay, near the Egyptian coast, and within hours had reduced it to burning wreckage.

Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, commanding from his flagship HMS Vanguard, had spent more than two months hunting the French across the Mediterranean, missing them by days and sometimes hours, before finally locating them at anchor near the mouth of the Nile…

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History of Ancient Egypt. Before and after the Pharaohs: From the birth of the State (c. 3000 BCE) to the early Christian communities (4th century CE)…

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How to mummify a pharaoh: A step-by-step guide

Ancient Egypt was best known for its detailed burial practices, and one of the most famous of these was mummification.

Although Egyptians practiced basic embalming in the late Predynastic era, the fully systematic process of mummification was only formalized during Egypt’s Old Kingdom.

The exact steps involved in ancient Egyptian mummification fascinated people from many different cultures for centuries.

Even modern people loved the amazing skill of the mummification process. But how did they actually make their mummies? Let us show you…

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How to create a bibliography or reference list

A list of all cited source materials, known as a bibliography or reference list, must be included at the end of your essay.

They are divided into two sections: primary sources and secondary sources. Each of these sections need to be in alphabetical order.

Each bibliographical reference needs:

• the author’s last name followed by their first initial(s)

• the year of publication

• the name of the work (in italics)

• the publication details…

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Charlemagne’s Historical Significance in European History Explained

On Christmas Day in the year 800 AD, a Frankish king knelt down in prayer at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. When he stood up, he had suddenly become the first emperor of western Europe in over three hundred years. His appointment would be the origin story of many of today’s most famous European countries. That king’s name was Charlemagne, and he was a man whose military ruthlessness and genuine passion for learning, and the Christian religion, makes him one of the most contradictory figures of the early medieval world…

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Teaching Church history?

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on the history of the Christian church! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

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Ready-to-use digital resources for your classroom

Whether you are searching for ready-to-use classroom resources, student worksheets, revision tools, or complete teaching programs, this collection provides practical materials designed specifically for History classrooms. From source analysis guides and classroom posters to comprehensive annual access passes covering Years 7 to 10 and senior History courses, these resources aim to reduce preparation time and support effective teaching…

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Helpful resource for Russian history:

Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs by Antony Beevor

From one of our most acclaimed historians, a major new biography of one of history’s most disturbing, dubious masterminds, showing how a Siberian peasant, through his seduction of the imperial household, contributed to the collapse of the greatest autocracy in the world…

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Between 1914 and 1954, millions of soldiers died in battles that failed to meet their objectives and destroyed the confidence of commanders who had believed in quick victories.

During this period, military campaigns expanded in size, intensity, and technological scale, but many armies continued to repeat errors that had already proven costly…

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The train incident that changed Gandhi’s life forever

On the night of 7 June 1893, a 23-year-old Indian lawyer named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was physically thrown off a first-class train carriage at Pietermaritzburg station in South Africa, for no reason other than the colour of his skin.

As he sat shivering through the freezing winter night in the station’s deserted waiting room, Gandhi made a decision that would alter the direction of his entire life: he would stay in South Africa and fight the system of racial discrimination that had humiliated him…

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What happened at the Eureka Stockade in 1854?

In 1851, gold was discovered near Ballarat, Australia, and the resulting gold rush brought thousands of prospectors to the area.

Unfortunately, the miners were forced to live in squalid conditions, and they were subject to high taxes and other unfair treatment from the government.

Then, in December of 1854, a group of miners at Ballarat rebelled against these injustices. Twenty-two miners and six soldiers would be killed in the rebellion which would become known as the Eureka Stockade incident…

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Why the United States turned against Britain during the Suez Crisis

On 26 July 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal Company, seizing an asset that British Prime Minister Anthony Eden regarded as essential to Britain’s position as a world power.

In the weeks that followed, Eden made a catastrophic miscalculation: he assumed that the United States, led by wartime supreme commander and now president Dwight D. Eisenhower, would either support Britain’s military response or stay silent…

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How to interpret the meaning of political cartoons

Interpreting a visual source, like a political cartoon, is very different to interpreting words on a page, which is the case with written sources.

Therefore, you need to develop a different set of skills.

What is a ‘political cartoon’?

Political cartoons are ink drawings created to provide a humorous or critical opinion about political events at the time of its creation…

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Third Punic War | How Ancient Rome Finally Destroyed Carthage

What drives a state to destroy a civilization not for what it has done, but for what it might do again?

By the mid-second century BCE, the Roman Republic no longer wanted to simply dominate its enemies, but it now aimed to remove them permanently.

Their long-time rival, Carthage, had largely rebuilt its economy, restored its agricultural productivity, and resumed profitable trade networks across the western Mediterranean.

Although it posed no immediate direct military threat, Roman senators accused it of growing too strong…

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Teaching ancient Greek history?

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on Ancient Greece! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

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• plus, much more

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20 best YouTube channels for history lovers

YouTube has become a vast platform for sharing knowledge and entertainment. From makeup tutorials to cooking shows, there’s something for everyone. But have you ever thought about using YouTube to explore history?

There are some great YouTube channels for history topics, but they are often hard to find. The best channels cover a wide range of historical events and cater to different interests and learning levels…

Check them out...

Helpful resource for ancient history:

Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old by Mary Beard

Why the ongoing fascination with the ancient world? This witty, approachable book asks why—for better or (sometimes) worse—antiquity continues to exert such a powerful hold on the contemporary imagination. Recalling a formative childhood encounter with a four-thousand-year-old piece of bread in a museum, Beard introduces the idea of thauma, or wonder, that kick-started a lifetime engaging with classics. It was not the canonical “greats” of ancient literature and art that initially drew her in, she confesses, but rather the more intimate, messy, and humdrum evidence of daily life in the remote past…

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The Vikings travelled long distances for trade and exploration between c. 793 and 1066,. and their journeys brought them to North America in the west and to the Islamic world in the east.

With sleek longships and knowledge of the seas, they built incredible trade networks that changed their societies and the communities they met…

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Historical sources on the Australian Home Front in WWI

The First World War transformed daily life across Australia as governments, communities, families, and individuals responded to the demands of a global conflict fought far from Australian shores.

The sources collected here examine the experiences of Australians on the home front, including the enthusiastic reaction to the outbreak of war in 1914, the rapid creation of the Australian Imperial Force, the divisive conscription referendums, and the patriotic campaigns that encouraged enlistment…

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What were an Egyptian pharaoh’s roles and responsibilities?

The king of ancient Egypt was known as the ‘pharaoh’ and whoever held this position had absolute authority in the kingdom.

Not only was a pharaoh a political position, the ancient Egyptians believed that the pharaoh was also a living god on Earth.

This combination of political and religious elements in the pharaonic role meant that anyone who was pharaoh had many responsibilities to fulfil…

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What made Alexander ‘the Great’?

Alexander III of Macedon, who is better known as Alexander the Great, was born in 356 BCE in the city of Pella. His parents were King Philip II of Macedon and Queen Olympias.

He created one of the largest empires in history and is recognised as one of the only military leaders in history who was never defeated in battle…

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How to organise the results of your research

Once you have gathered lots of information and quotes from a wide range of sources, you can start preparing your essay.

Do not start writing your essay straight away! Taking some time to organise all of your information into the right order will save time in the end and will help you to develop a sophisticated argument…

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Emperor Vespasian | Rome’s Most Practical Ruler

How did a provincial tax collector’s son become emperor of Rome after one of the bloodiest civil wars in Roman history?

In this video, we examine the extraordinary life of Vespasian, the soldier-emperor who restored stability to the Roman Empire after the chaos of 69 CE, the infamous Year of the Four Emperors. From his early military campaigns in Britain and Judaea to his seizure of power and the founding of the Flavian dynasty, Vespasian rebuilt a bankrupt empire through discipline, questionable taxation ideas, and famous public building projects..

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Teaching History to 10th Grade?

The go-to source for Year 10 history classes! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

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21 of the best podcasts for history buffs

History is one of the most fascinating subjects in the world, encompassing everything from the rise and fall of empires to the daily lives of ordinary people throughout the ages.

Fortunately, in the age of the internet, there are a plethora of incredible podcasts available that cover just about every aspect of history you can think of…

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Helpful resource for ancient Rome:

Those Who Are About to Die: A Day in the Life of a Roman Gladiator by Harry Sidebottom

What did a gladiator feel when he stepped out onto the sand of the Colosseum, his life in the balance? What ran through the minds of the masses there to witness his likely execution? And how did this bloodthirsty ritual come to exist in the first place?

In Those Who Are About to Die, Harry Sidebottom pulls us into the arena, and into the homes and forums of ancient Rome, taking the reader on an eye-opening, twenty-four-hour tour through Roman life at the height of the gladiatorial games, from the first century BC to the second century AD…

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Ancient Rome began as a single city in Italy, called Rome. During the 5th, 4th and 3rd centuries BC, the armies of Rome gradually expanded and conquered most of Italy.

At this point, the Romans made contact with another powerful city that had also been growing in power but was located on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, known as Carthage…

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The Berlin Blockade and Airlift: How Soviet Russia tried to starve Europe into submission

In the years that followed World War Two, there was growing tension between Soviet Russia and the democratic states in Europe, and the city of Berlin in Germany became an economic battleground.

In an 11-month period between 1948-9, the Soviets would attempt to block western access to the city in order to control it. This blockade would become a key event in the early Cold War era…

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Détente in the Cold War and diplomacy in the shadow of nuclear annihilation

On 26 May 1972, during Richard Nixon’s historic visit to the Soviet Union, the United States President and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed the two agreements that made up SALT I in Moscow, which placed formal limits on the nuclear arsenals of both superpowers for the first time.

Nixon’s journey was the first visit to the USSR by a sitting American president, which gave the agreement unusual diplomatic significance…

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From concubines to empresses: The power dynamics within ancient China’s imperial harems

The Imperial Harems of ancient China have often seemed just living quarters for the emperor’s wives and concubines. In reality, though, they were small worlds of power and influence and cultural life, where politics and personal ties mixed.

Within its walls, women from different backgrounds lived together there with future heirs to the throne…

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Historical significance explained

Since human history covers a huge span of time and involved countless billions of individuals, there is no possible way that we could study them all.

Therefore, when we study the past, we have to choose only a few people and events to spend our time on.

When deciding what people, events and ideas to examine in our studies, we have to choose only those which we consider to be the most important…

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The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Crusades | The failure of the 12th century armed pilgrimages

In the decades after the First Crusade’s sudden capture of Jerusalem, European rulers began three more major campaigns to defend and win back territory in the Holy Land.

Unlike the earlier crusade, the Second, Third, and Fourth Crusades fell apart in war and in politics, and many people criticised the behaviour of those involved.

From the mistakes in Anatolia to the looting of Christian Constantinople, these campaigns showed growing splits within the Christian world, while Muslim forces continued to fight under strong leaders such as Saladin...

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Teaching civil rights history?

The go-to source for Year 10 history classes focused on Australian Civil and Land Rights! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

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Classroom posters for History teachers

Looking for some engaging history-themed posters for your classroom?

Check out the ‘History Teacher Wisdom’ series from History Skills, which are designed to be humorous discussion starters for students.

Or, there are a collection of assorted A3 posters that would fit perfectly in any location of your room.

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Helpful resource for WWII:

Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945 by Ian Buruma

In 1939, when Ian Buruma’s epic opens, Berlin has been under Nazi rule for six years, and its 4.3 million people have made their accommodations to the regime, more or less. When war broke out with Poland in September, what was most striking at first was how little changed. Unless you were Jewish. Then life, already hard, was soon to get unfathomably worse…

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Every year, students in senior history classes lose a lot of marks on source evaluation for some very common, and very frustrating, mistakes.

For us as teachers, the most disappointing part of this is the fact that most of these students are genuinely trying to engage with the material, but the problem is that they are relying on a handful of surface-level shortcuts that sound convincing, but quickly fall apart under scrutiny.

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We’re off to Egypt! Want to join us?

Very, very excited to share with everyone that I’ve just signed up for this incredible Ancient Egypt PD Study Tour in January 2027, and it looks like an amazing opportunity for other history teachers as well, if you would like to come along too!

We’ll be visiting Cairo, Amarna, Luxor, Aswan, and Abu Simbel, with an experienced teacher to help guide us on how to incorporate what we see into our classrooms.

For anyone who teaches History, archaeology, or the ancient world, this looks like a rare chance to walk through some of the most famous historical sites, alongside skilled guides and other passionate educators.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to be part of it. If you’ve always dreamed of doing Egypt for yourself, this might be the perfect opportunity for you!

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Why did so many Britons, known as ‘Ten Pound Poms’, leave home for Australia?

Between 1945 and 1972, more than one million British citizens boarded ocean liners and sailed to the other side of the world for just ten pounds.

The Assisted Passage Migration Scheme, launched under the Chifley government by Australia’s first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, promised affordable housing and steady employment to a population still living under wartime rationing years after the fighting had ended.

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Why did Peter the Great execute his own son, Tsarevich Alexei?

In June 1718, Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, the eldest son and heir apparent of Tsar Peter I of Russia, died in the Peter and Paul Fortress in Saint Petersburg after receiving forty lashes of the knout, a metal-reinforced whip capable of breaking a man’s spine.

He was twenty-eight years old, and his own father had authorised the torture that killed him.

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How the RAF won the Battle of Britain

In the summer of 1940, as Nazi forces swept across Western Europe, Britain formed the final barrier to Hitler’s control, which had spread across the region.

With France fallen and the United States still on the sidelines, the fate of the British Isles largely depended on the aircraft of the British Royal Air Force, known as the RAF.

British pilots, who were outnumbered and tired, flew into combat day after day and held the line against a constant Luftwaffe campaign designed to break the nation from the sky, or at least force it to negotiate.

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Teaching Australian history?

The go-to source for Year 9 history classes focused on Australian History! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

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How to create appendices for essays

Many primary sources are not in written form and trying to describe them in an essay is difficult.

This can often occur when you are referring to a particular building or artefact. In these cases, providing an image of the source is helpful for the reader.

Any images to which you refer in your writing need to appear in appendices. Appendices are put after the pages of your written essay but before your bibliography.

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Helpful resource for ancient Egypt:

Ramesses II, Egypt’s Ultimate Pharaoh by Peter Brand

Ramesses II was the most magnificent and iconic pharaoh in Egyptian history. His reign was the longest, the most “monumental” in buildings and artwork, the most innovative in diplomacy, and even the most procreative, with over one hundred royal offspring. Drawing on the latest research, Peter J. Brand digs deep into Egyptian culture and archeology, revealing the mindset and motivations of Ramesses II. We find what his grand monuments reveal, and equally what they conceal.

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Every morning at the Palace of Versailles, around one hundred courtiers filed into a gilded bedchamber to watch King Louis XIV wake up and get dressed, competing for the honour of handing him his shirt.

Many could assume that these were eccentric personal habits, but this daily ritual was designed to be part of a calculated system of etiquette that the king used to monitor and control the French nobility for over fifty years.

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Our first ever webinar! Helping students master historical research

In this webinar, teachers will learn how to guide students through each stage of historical research with clear, practical steps.It will set out clear methods that students can apply in class and assessment tasks.

This includes how to cover source evaluation, note-taking, and evidence selection in a way that builds confidence in forming arguments.

We will cover common student errors, such as weak research questions, the overreliance on a narrow range of sources, and the pros and cons of using AI in the process: all with direct strategies to address each issue.

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The League of Nations: Successes and failures in maintaining international peace

In the aftermath of the horrors of World War I, global leaders wanted a new way to try and achieve world peace. To do this, they created an organisation called the League of Nations in 1920.

Its aim was to prevent another devastating conflict through collective security and diplomatic dialogue. This ambitious project was a significant shift in international relations, which moved away from secret alliances and towards more open negotiation.

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Why the Black Death became medieval Europe’s recurring nightmare

By the late 1340s, entire villages across Europe were abandoned as a horrible plague had reduced large portions of the population.

In cities where overcrowding sped up its spread, the daily lives of the common people changed overnight under the weight of widespread fear and devestating personal losses of family members…

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Korean War Explained in 10 minutes | Overview, Causes, Key Events, and Consequences

In the early hours of June 25, 1950, artillery fire shattered the uneasy calm along the 38th parallel as North Korean troops surged across the border into the South.

Within days, what had begun as a civil struggle over reunification drew in global powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, and soon Communist China.

The Korean peninsula, divided hastily in 1945 after Japan’s defeat, had become the first major battleground of the Cold War…

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Teaching Tudor history?

The go-to source for Year 8 history classes focused on the Tudors! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

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How to interpret the meaning of photographs

Interpreting a visual source, like a photograph, is very different to interpreting words on a page, which is the case with written sources. Therefore, you need to develop a different set of skills.

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Helpful resource for the modern history of China:

Red Dawn Over China by Frank Dikötter

The history of modern China has long been portrayed as a tale of Communists fighting in the hills for freedom, gradually gaining popular support by taking land from the rich and giving it to the poor. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Red Dawn Over China reveals how unlikely the Party’s victory actually was, had it not been for financial and military support from the Soviet Union…

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The Vikings practised a polytheistic religion that blended ritual, myth, and community tradition. Their gods occupied a divine realm called Asgard, and they imagined it connected to the human world, Midgard, by the rainbow bridge Bifrost.

These beliefs had a significant impact on their daily decisions and gave meaning to natural forces, social duties, and life’s uncertainties.

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Book a history teacher professional development session with History Skills

Want to bring History Skills professional development to your school? I run PD sessions for history teachers and faculty teams, available both online and in person.

Each session is tailored to your department’s needs, whether that’s integrating digital resources into your existing curriculum, building student literacy through historical inquiry, or strengthening source analysis skills across year levels.

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What was the Edo Period of Japanese history?

The Edo Period was a period of Japanese history which extended from AD 1600 to 1868, during which, Japan’s ruling shogunate was officially established and the seat of power was moved from rural areas to more urbanised regions, most notably present-day Tokyo.

It is also known as the ‘Tokugawa Period’, which refers to the ruling shogunate family of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who seized power at around 1600.

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What really happened when Cortez met Montezuma: 4 lies we’ve been told

The encounter between the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés and the Aztec emperor Montezuma II on November 8, 1519, is one of the most consequential in history, affecting the welfare, beliefs and culture of millions of people living in the Western hemisphere.

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Otzi the Iceman | The 5,300-Year-Old Murder Mystery

In 1991, hikers in the Ötztal Alps made a shocking discovery that would change our knowledge of human history forever.

While they didn’t know it at the time, they would stumble across a remarkably well-preserved body of a person who had been alive more than 5,300 years ago.

This ancient person would later be named Otzi the Iceman and his remains have become one of the most important sources of information about what the lives of humans were like long before the invention of writing.

Teaching history to 7th Graders?

The go-to source for Year 7 history classes! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality, history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students.

Each lesson includes:

• downloadable student worksheets

• self-marking quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more

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How to research historical sources

Once you know what three sub-questions you need to answer, start finding primary and secondary sources that provide quotes that will help you answer these questions.

When finding good sources, you will need to do wide reading. Take the time to look through any of the following in order to collect a wide range of primary and secondary sources.

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Helpful resource for Pompeii and Herculaneum:

The archaeological park of Pompeii is one of the most famous sites of destruction anywhere in the world. From the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE until the eighteenth century, Pompeii and its neighbor Herculaneum lay preserved under a thick layer of volcanic material. Since excavations began three hundred years ago, Pompeii has been revealing the secrets of its victims and the ordinary shape of their lives prior to the catastrophe. But did anyone survive the disaster? (Affiliate link)

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Billed as the most luxurious ship of its time, the Titanic promised its passengers an exceptional experience as they journeyed across the Atlantic on their way to New York.

However, the experience onboard varied significantly based on each person’s social standing in Edwardian society.

Read on...

What was the July Crisis?

Even though the four main causes of World War One (militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism) had been present in Europe for a long time, it was actually one action by one person in July 1914, that ultimately started the war.

This act was an assassination by a young man from Serbia, who killed the person who was next-in-line for the throne of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.

Read on...

The 7 worst popes in the history of the Catholic Church

The papacy has long been linked to spiritual guidance and moral leadership for millions of Catholics around the world.

Yet history records periods when the men who occupied the papal throne acted in ways that shocked contemporaries and stained the Church’s reputation.

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Historical sources on the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War developed from a long chain of political and military events that followed the end of the Second World War.

In 1945, the Vietnamese nationalist and communist leader Ho Chi Minh declared independence from French colonial rule. French attempts to restore control soon produced a war with the Viet Minh.

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The First Punic War Explained | How Rome defeated Carthage on the sea

In the third century BC, tension between the growing regional powers of Rome and Carthage suddenly exploded into outright conflict as their spheres of influence collided over the island of Sicily.

What initially began with a call for help from a small group of warriors in the city of Messana quickly escalated into a confrontation that neither empire could retreat from without sacrificing valuable international prestige and the security of their capital cities.

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Studying American history?

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on America! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality, free history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students. Dive into our extensive library of resources, including:

• downloadable history worksheets

• self-marking history quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more.

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Helpful resource for the Iran conflict:

Iran: a very short introduction

Iran has rarely been out of the headlines. Yet media interest and extensive coverage has tended to hinder rather than help our understanding of Iran as an idea, an identity, and a people, leading to a superficial understanding of what is a complex and nuanced political culture and civilization…

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In 431 BC, two of the most powerful city-states in the ancient Greek world went to war in a conflict that would last nearly three decades and devastate an entire civilisation.

The Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta has been studied for over two thousand years, and it was the Athenian historian Thucydides who identified the underlying cause with considerable clarity: the rapid growth of Athenian power and the deep fear that it created in Sparta.

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Indian Independence and the Partition explained

On August 15th, 1947, India finally gained its independence from British rule after decades of struggle. This event is one of the most important in Indian history, and it had a huge impact on the region as a whole.

However, it was not a smooth transition. On August 14th, just one day before India’s independence, the Muslim state of Pakistan also gained its independence from British rule. India, by comparison, was predominantly Hindu.

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How the Treaty of Versailles punished Germany for the First World War

Military operations in World War One concluded at 11 am on November 11, 1918, but the war’s official end did not come until the Treaty of Versailles was signed over six months later.

This treaty would be considered the official document that would ultimately decide who was to blame for the war, and what their punishment would be.

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The incredible, yet tragic, history of Easter Island

Nestled and isolated in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Easter Island has become famous around the world, primarily for its mysterious stone faces.

These silent moai statues tower silently over the island’s rugged terrain.

But why are they there?

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Second Red Scare during the Cold War Explain | Fear, paranoia, McCarthy and the Rosenbergs

In the early years of the Cold War between capitalist America and Soviet Russia, paranoia spread like wildfire.

In the late 1940s and 1950s in the United States, senators accused neighbors, colleagues, and even government officials of harboring secret loyalties to Moscow.

As a result, careers ended overnight, families were torn apart, and the public grew ever more suspicious of those in power.

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Studying ancient Egypt?

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on the Crusades! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students. Dive into our extensive library of resources, including:

• downloadable history worksheets

• self-marking history quizzes

• extension activities

• plus, much more.

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On 18 July 1290, King Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion and ordered every Jewish man and woman, as well as every child, to leave the Kingdom of England by 1 November of that year.

The decree affected approximately 3,000 people and was the first known instance of a European state permanently banishing its entire Jewish population.

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7 of the weirdest and most disgusting jobs you could do in ancient Rome

Ancient Rome had some truly unusual jobs. The city was famous for its emperors and gladiators, but Romans performed tasks both strange and essential...

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Did Heinrich Schliemann destroy more than he discovered at Troy?

In May 1873, a German businessman named Heinrich Schliemann crouched inside a trench at Hisarlik in northwestern Turkey, where he frantically cut gold artefacts from the earth with a large knife as tonnes of soil threatened to collapse on him.

He had just uncovered what he called ‘Priam’s Treasure,’ a cache of gold jewellery, silver vessels, copper items, and other valuables that he believed belonged to the legendary king of Troy, and his desperate retrieval captured everything that defined his approach to archaeology: obsessive and reckless, as well as spectacularly destructive.

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The Roaring Twenties: A decade of social, economic, and political transformation

The decade of time from 1920 to 1929 is often described as a period of fun and enjoyment. After the horrors of World War One, people felt the need to celebrate and enjoy themselves.

The amount of money people had increased during this time, and they spent this money on new kinds of music, dances and even going to the cinemas.

Their cash was also spent on luxury items such as automobiles, radios and fashions, which were all made possible by the rise of mass production factories.

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New Kingdom Egypt explained | Pharaohs, golden empire, and its fall

For almost 500 years, ancient Egypt was the most powerful civilisation on earth.

From around 1539 to 1075 BC, a succession of pharaohs built an empire that stretched from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north, and they filled it with some of the most recognisable monuments ever constructed.

This was the New Kingdom, and it produced rulers like Thutmose III, Hatshepsut and Ramses II, whose names are still remembered thousands of years later.

Studying ancient Egypt?

Free worksheets, activities, quizzes, and more

The go-to source for senior history classes focused on Ancient Egypt! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students. Dive into our extensive library of resources, including:

• downloadable history worksheets

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• plus, much more.

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On 3 December 1872, a self-taught engraver named George Smith stood before the Society of Biblical Archaeology in London and read aloud from a 2,600-year-old clay tablet that described a catastrophic flood and a specially constructed boat, as well as the release of birds to find dry land…

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How Thutmose III achieved victory at the Battle of Megiddo in Canaan

In approximately 1457 BCE, Pharaoh Thutmose III led an Egyptian army through a dangerously narrow mountain pass to confront a coalition of rebellious Canaanite and Syrian city-states at the fortress city of Megiddo, in modern-day northern Israel…

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What was the Enlightenment and why did it change the world?

In the 17th and 18th centuries, a bold movement swept across Europe, which introduced the idea that you could challenge authority, tradition, and centuries of established thought…

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Historical sources on the Korean War

The Korean War began in a divided peninsula that had already experienced several years of political conflict after the end of the Second World War.

In 1945 the United States and the Soviet Union occupied Korea on either side of the 38th Parallel, which soon became the line that separated two rival governments…

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How Singapore Fell to the Japanese in 1941 | WWII Pacific Theatre documentary

In February 1942, the British stronghold of Singapore collapsed in just a matter of days, despite decades of planning and unquestioned confidence in its defenses.

As it was positioned at the centre of key imperial trade routes, the island had long been presented as a secure bastion guarding Southeast Asia from any perceived threat…

Studying the Second World War?

The go-to source for Year 10 history classes focused on the Second World War! We offer a treasure trove of high-quality history lesson plans and high school history resources designed to engage and educate your students. Dive into our extensive library of resources, including:

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