Portal:History

The ruins of Mesoamerican city Teotihuacan

The Age of Migrations in Europe was deeply detrimental to the late Roman Empire.

China – Erlitou

The Parthenon, a temple dedicated to Athena, located on the Acropolis in Athens

Cishou Temple Pagoda, built in 1576: the Chinese believed that building pagodas on certain sites according to geomantic principles brought about auspicious events; merchant-funding for such projects was needed by the late Ming period.

An 11th-century illustration of Gregory the Great dictating to a secretary

Measoamerica – Olmec

Map showing growth of Frankish power from 481 to 814

Battle of Vienna, 12 September 1683

Mesopotamia – Sumer

The Cross of Mathilde, a crux gemmata made for Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (973–1011), who is shown kneeling before the Virgin and Child in the enamel plaque. The figure of Christ is slightly later. Probably made in Cologne or Essen, the cross demonstrates several medieval techniques: cast figurative sculpture, filigree, enamelling, gem polishing and setting, and the reuse of Classical cameos and engraved gems.

Ferdinand Pauwels – Martin Luther hammers his 95 theses to the door

Ottoman Empire 1481–1683

Francis of Assisi, depicted by Bonaventura Berlinghieri in 1235, founded the Franciscan Order.

Map of the late Bronze Age collapse, c. 1200 BC

February scene from the 15th-century illuminated manuscript Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Geographical extent of Iranian influence in the 1st century BC. The Parthian Empire (mostly Western Iranian) is shown in red, other areas, dominated by Scythia (mostly Eastern Iranian), in orange.

Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, 1757 by Francis Hayman

Agricultural calendar, c. 1470, from a manuscript of Pietro de Crescenzi

Painting of Murong Xianbei archer, in Late Antiquity, nomads across Eurasia, began to use the stirrup. Horse riding warriors could be devastating in combat.

Medieval French manuscript illustration of the three classes of medieval society: those who prayed (the clergy) those who fought (the knights), and those who worked (the peasantry). The relationship between these classes was governed by feudalism and manorialism. (Li Livres dou Sante, 13th century)

Reconstruction of an early medieval peasant village in Bavaria

The Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct in France.

India – Indus Valley Civilization

Sénanque Abbey, Gordes, France

Terracotta Warriors from the time of Qin Shi Huang

John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence, showing the Committee of Five in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia

Joan of Arc in a 15th-century depiction

Map of the Islamic Gunpowders, the Mughal Empire being the orange one.

Gold fueled European exploration of the Americas. Explorers reported Native Americans in Central America, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia were to have had large amounts.

Oracle bone script from the Shang Dynasty.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, c. 1830 by Hokusai, an example of art flourishing in the Edo Period

Khafre's Pyramid (4th dynasty) and Great Sphinx of Giza (c. 2500 BC or perhaps earlier)

The Iron Age kingdom of Israel (blue) and kingdom of Judah (yellow)

Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830). The French Revolution inspired a wave of revolutions across Europe. Liberalism and Nationalism were popular ideas that challenged Absolute Monarchies in the 19th century.

Cossacks became the backbone of the early Russian Army.

Execution of some of the ringleaders of the jacquerie, from a 14th-century manuscript of the Chroniques de France ou de St Denis

Andean – Norte Chico

The Gothic interior of Laon Cathedral, France

Map of Europe in 1360

Egyptian soldiers from Hatshepsut's expedition to the Land of Punt as depicted from her temple at Deir el-Bahri.

The Mughal ambassador Khan’Alam in 1618 negotiating with Shah Abbas the Great of Iran.

A medieval scholar making precise measurements in a 14th-century manuscript illustration

A possible representation of a "yogi" or "proto-Shiva", 2600–1900 BCE

Technical drawing of Roman Ballista mechanism.

Engraved world map (including magnetic declination lines) by Leonhard Euler from his school atlas "Geographischer Atlas bestehend in 44 Land-Charten" first published 1753 in Berlin

A political map of the Mauryan Empire, including notable cities, such as the capital Pataliputra, and site of the Buddha's enlightenment.

Largest expansion of Kingdom of Armenia under Tigranes the Great

Model for the Three Superior Planets and Venus from Georg von Peuerbach, Theoricae novae planetarum.

The Ezana Stone records negus Ezana's conversion to Christianity and conquests of his neighbors.

The Persian Achaemenid Empire at its greatest extent, c. 500 BC

The Bayeux Tapestry (detail) showing William the Conqueror (centre), his half-brothers Robert, Count of Mortain (right) and Odo, Bishop of Bayeux in the Duchy of Normandy (left)

A mosaic showing Justinian with the bishop of Ravenna (Italy), bodyguards, and courtiers.

15th century Hanging Houses in Cuenca, Spain from the Early Renaissance, and the Early modern period.

A page from the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript created in the British Isles in the late 8th or early 9th century

13th-century illustration of a Jew (in pointed Jewish hat) and the Christian Petrus Alphonsi debating

Gutenberg reviewing a press proof (a colored engraving created probably in the 19th century)

Guy of Boulogne crowning Pope Gregory XI in a 15th-century miniature from Froissart's Chroniques

Waldseemüller map with joint sheets, 1507

A late Roman sculpture depicting the four Tetrarchs, now in Venice, Italy

Europe in 814

The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis, built of marble and limestone between circa 460-406 BC, is a symbol not just of Ancient Greek architecture, but for Antiquity in general

Europe and the Mediterranean Sea in 1190

Roman cast terracotta of ram-horned Jupiter Ammon, a form of Zeus 1st century AD. Gods, could sometimes be transferred or adopted by many civilizations, and then adjusted for local conditions.

The Romanesque Church of Maria Laach, Germany

Spices were among the most luxurious products, the most common being black pepper, cinnamon (and the cheaper alternative cassia), cumin, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.

Gold stag with eagle's head, and ten further heads in the antlers. From a Xiongnu tomb. 4th–3rd century BC

Charlemagne's palace chapel at Aachen, completed in 805

Pharaohs of Nubia

Nok sculpture of a sitted person

10th-century Ottonian ivory plaque depicting Christ receiving a church from Otto I

Roman Empire 117 AD. The Senatorial provinces were acquired first under the Roman Republic and were under the Roman Senate's control; the Imperial provinces were controlled directly by the Roman emperor.

Krak des Chevaliers was built during the Crusades for the Knights Hospitallers.

Bronze Mirror, from the Yayoi period of Japan

Clerics studying astronomy and geometry, French, early 15th century

Barbarian kingdoms and tribes after the end of the Western Roman Empire

Overview map in the 15th century BC showing the core territory of Assyria with its two major cities Assur and Nineveh wedged between Babylonia downstream and the states of Mitanni and Hatti upstream.

A painting depecting the Qing Chinese celebrating a victory over the Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan. This work was a collaboration between Chinese and European painters.

Byzantine Empire in 1265

"If there is something you know, communicate it. If there is something you don't know, search for it." An engraving from the 1772 edition of the Encyclopédie; Truth (center) is surrounded by light and unveiled by the figures to the right, Philosophy and Reason

The Territory of the Adal Sultanate and its vassal states circa 1500.

A coin of the Ostrogothic leader Theoderic the Great, struck in Milan, Italy, circa AD 491–501

Standing Greek-Buddha, Gandhara, 1st century AD.

Medieval illustration of the spherical Earth in a 14th-century copy of L'Image du monde

The Cantino planisphere (1502), the oldest surviving Portuguese nautical chart showing the results of the explorations of Vasco da Gama to India, Columbus to Central America, Gaspar Corte-Real to Newfoundland and Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil. The meridian of Tordesillas, separating the Portuguese and Spanish halves of the world is also depicted

Portrait of Cardinal Hugh of Saint-Cher by Tommaso da Modena, 1352, the first known depiction of spectacles

Map of the approximate political boundaries in Europe around 450 AD

Silver, valued as a precious metal, has been used to make expensive ornaments, fine jewelry, high-value tableware and utensils (silverware), and currency coins.

The Chinese Han Dynasty dominated the East Asia region at the beginning of the first millennium AD

World Colonization of 1492 (Early Modern World), 1550, 1660, 1754 (Age of Enlightenment), 1822 (Industrial revolution), 1885 (European Hegemony), 1914 (World War I era), 1938 (World War II era), 1959 (Cold War era) and 1974, 2008 (Recent history).