History Essay Topics — Best Ideas for Your Writing

History is a widespread subject for the majority of students from various schools, and this is why almost all of them at one point or another face the writing a history essay challenge. Thus it is crucial for anyone studying in college or university to familiarize themselves with the process of writing the history essay. But what is a history essay? You can always look up the definition in the dictionary, so let's not waste our time on that. Instead, let us try to explain it in simple terms: the history essay is an essay built around a thesis that relates to one (or more) historical event or personality. Topics for history essay writing are diverse, and in the majority of cases, they are assigned to students by their professors. Sometimes, professors even provide their students with a bunch of history essay topics they can choose from. However, some of them seek to stimulate their students' creativity and thus ask them to come up with a topic themselves. And the broader the researched timeframe is, the more challenging it is to come up with such a topic. Still, there are some crucial details to be kept in mind, such as citations, structure and checking for plagiarism and errors, which are similar for all history essays, regardless of their topic.

History Essay Writing: Structure and Format Peculirities

Every professor has their own requirements for history essays, and sometimes they can get very exotic. However, if there are no particular requirements, you should write your essay sticking to MLA style of citation. MLA citation style is subject to frequent changes and revisions. Thus it is reasonable to search for the most up-to-date version of MLA formatting guide. 12 point Times New Roman font, double spacing, one-inch margins on all sides.

When planning your essay's structure, it is always a good idea to develop an outline, even if your professor does not require you to have one. Creating it will make your essay writing process a lot faster and easier, letting you keep track of your progress. When your essay is ready, and you are about to submit it, you ought to invest some time in checking it for typos, grammar and spelling mistakes and, what is even more important, unintentional plagiarism.

Plagiarism is always a big deal for college and university professors, and you can easily get disqualified even if there's a single instance of plagiarism in your paper. Plagiarism is a common issue for history essays, and it's very easy to see why. The trouble is that working on a history essay involves doing a lot of research on reliable primary and pertinent secondary sources. However, research alone is not enough, and you'll need to cite them and even quote them sometimes. And if your quotation is too lengthy or not formatted properly, you risk being accused of unintentional plagiarism. Luckily, there are numerous plagiarism detection services online using which you can run a quick search and eliminate any traces of plagiarism in your paper.

Now that you know about the technical details involved, you can proceed to work on the content of your essay. The content you'll have will always depend on the essay topic, so if you haven't been given a topic, you will have to create one yourself. To spare you the trouble, we have come up with a list of history essay topics you can use as a source of inspiration:

World History Essay Topics

World history essays are related to events or personalities that played a major role in the history of the world, and not only over a limited timespan but also throughout an entire historical epoch. Let's take a look at some examples of such topics:

• The role of a geographical location in the growth of ancient Greece's geopolitical significance.
• How the outcome of World War I predetermined the outbreak of World War II.
• Non-economic reasons which caused the first meltdown of economics in the United States.
• The emergence of the state of Israel and the beginning of the conflict in Palestine.
• The role the US and USSR played in the splitting of Korea into two countries.
• How religious faith survived during the Soviet period.
• The space race between the US and the USSR: Winners and Losers.
• The French Revolution — the lessons not learnt. Historical parallels with the October revolution in Russia.
• Looking for the lost generation — the peculiarities of a post-war life.
• The role a bubonic plague epidemic played in the shaping of European history.
• The end of the Soviet empire. The emergence of new states on the world map.

The list can be easily expanded, but even its shorter version gives you some idea what world history essay topics are to look like.

US History Essay Topics

The US history essays do not necessarily have to be different from the world history ones, which is why a topic related to the US history may very well be used for writing a world history essay. But there may be topics which are more important for the US history but less for the world history. Check out a few below examples to understand what a US history topic should be like:

• The Great Depression and the impact it had on the world's largest economies.
• The history behind the US constitutional amendments.
• The war in Vietnam and the antiwar movement.
• The US invasion of Iraq and the influence it had upon the surge in global terrorism.
• War on Drugs — did it resolve the problems it was meant to resolve?
• The role of the United States in the development of Panama.
• The development of NATO: The role and the interest of the US.
• Moon Exploration — competition of space programs or national interest?
• How the modern Japanese constitution resembles the US one.
• Early 20th-century development of economics and its influence on the modern American lifestyle.
• The Civil Rights movement — its prerequisites and outcomes.

Try to practice making your own topics for the US history essays.

American History Essay topics

The US history essays can be related not only to the history of the United States but also to the history of Canada, Mexico, and Latin American countries.

• The history of the US-Mexico relationship.
• Canadian identity and its dependence on the political course of the United States.
• Colonization of South America and its outcomes.
• Economic development of Latin American countries in the late 20th century.
• How Latin American countries achieved decolonization and independence from Spain and Portugal.
• How the War of the Pacific shaped the political landscape of the region.
• The role of the Mexican revolution played in the shaping of the global political landscape.
• Cuba — a tool for the Cold War?
• The importance of the Panama Canal and the causes of its construction.
• The role Americas played in World War II.

Note that these are only some of the numerous possible topics for the US history essay.

Ancient History Essay Topics

It is self-evident that these topics need to be related to the history of the Ancient World. Let us try and consider just a few:

• Were gladiators pure entertainment or political necessity?
• The importance of ancient Greek colonies for the prosperity of Athens.
• The relations between ancient Greece and ancient Rome.
• The ancient history of the Slavic peoples.
• The importance of religion in ancient Roman daily life.
• The importance of the Peloponnesian War.
• Ancient Greece — the cradle of democracy.
• The phenomenon of Ancient Rome — the first super city.
• The secret of the Egyptian pyramids.
• The impact ancient Greek philosophers had upon political philosophy in ancient Greece.
• Ancient Chinese philosophy and its dependence upon agricultural practices.

After getting yourself acquainted with the list, you'll no doubt be able to think of your own ancient history essay topics easily.

African History Essay Topics

African history is full of events of global importance, and this is why there are many potential topics to choose from:

• The phenomenon of Apartheid — its influence on the modern South African Republic.
• African pirates — economic and cultural reasons for the phenomenon.
• Egyptian Faros — the roots of the personality cult.
• The factors which caused the genocide in Rwanda at the end of the 20th century.
• The role of religion in the political life of ancient Egypt.
• The development of modern Egypt, its historical relation to the ancient history of the state.
• The role of religion in the rise of African slavery.
• The relations of two Sudans: the role of the Darfur conflict.
• The role of Arab nationalism in the formation of the modern history of Egypt.
• The two Congos — the history of the conflict.
• The history of democracy in South Africa.
• The 8-year war in Algeria — the outcomes.

Note that the above topics can be useful not only for college but also for high school students. University topics are often more specific than the ones mentioned in this post, though it would be wrong to generalize since different professors use different approaches.

Thinking of a history essay topic and then preparing a paper based on it can be quite a challenge for any student. Therefore, letting someone far more competent, such as our professional writers, do the job for you is always a good idea. Our writers are extremely good at finding perfect history essay topics for high school students that will guarantee you only the best grades! We can help you with writing of any complexity regardless of your specialty or academic level. History essay topics for college students, high school academicians, and middle school pupils. Take the weight off your shoulders and let our professionals impress your professor!