History — Year 3 to GCSE

58 lessons, each with practice questions, a printable worksheet and an end-of-chapter test. Free to browse.

• What Is History & Why It Matters Years 6–11 · History is the study of the human past, built by historians who ask questions and use…
• Chronology & Timelines Years 6–11 · Chronology is the ordering of events in time, using dates, centuries and eras to build…
• Sources & Evidence Years 6–11 · Historians reconstruct the past from sources, which they divide into primary and…
• Bias, Reliability & Interpretation Years 6–11 · Sources can be one-sided, so historians test reliability and understand why…
• Cause, Consequence & Change Years 6–11 · Historians explain the past through causes and consequences, judging change, continuity…
• The First Civilisations Years 6–8 · How the first cities, writing, the wheel and written law appeared in Mesopotamia, the…
• Ancient Egypt Years 6–8 · The Nile, the pharaohs, pyramids, hieroglyphs, gods and everyday life in a civilisation…
• Ancient Greece Years 7–9 · City-states, the birth of democracy in Athens, philosophy, the Olympic Games, myths and…
• The Roman Empire Years 7–9 · Rome's rise from republic to empire, its army, roads, law and engineering, daily life,…
• Ancient India & China Years 7–9 · The Indus Valley, Mauryan and Gupta India, Han China, and inventions like paper and the…
• Early Civilisations of Africa & the Americas Years 7–9 · Nubia and Kush, Great Zimbabwe, the West African kingdoms, and the Maya, Aztec and Inca…
• The Rise of Islam & Early Muslim Civilisation Years 7–9 · How, from 7th-century Arabia, a new faith and civilisation spread rapidly, building…
• The Golden Age of Islam Years 7–9 · Baghdad's House of Wisdom and the great advances in maths, medicine, astronomy and…
• Al-Andalus: Muslim Spain Years 7–10 · Córdoba as a centre of learning; its libraries and architecture; the mix of Muslims,…
• Medieval Europe & the Feudal System Years 7–9 · Kings, lords, knights and peasants; castles and the Church; and the terrible Black Death…
• The Crusades Years 9–11 · The causes, key events and figures of the Crusades, including Salah al-Din, told fairly…
• The Mongols & the Silk Roads Years 7–9 · The vast Mongol empire under Genghis Khan and the Silk Roads that carried goods, ideas…
• The Ottoman Empire Years 8–11 · How the Ottomans rose, took Constantinople in 1453, peaked under Suleiman, and governed…
• The Mughal Empire of India Years 8–11 · From Babur to Aurangzeb: how the Mughals built a wealthy, cultured empire in India,…
• The Age of Exploration Years 8–11 · Why Europeans set sail after 1400, how Portugal and Spain led, and how Columbus's…
• The Transatlantic Slave Trade Years 9–11 · An honest look at the triangular trade, its grave injustice, the humanity and resistance…
• Empires & Early Colonialism Years 9–11 · How European powers built overseas empires, the rise of the East India Company, and the…
• Trade, Ideas & the Wider World Years 8–11 · How spices, crops, goods and ideas moved along global trade routes, weaving the…
• The Renaissance & the Age of Ideas Years 8–11 · Europe's rebirth of learning from about 1400: art, the printing press and the scientific…
• The Industrial Revolution Years 8–11 · From about 1750 Britain shifted to steam power, factories, coal and railways,…
• The American Revolution Years 8–11 · Between 1775 and 1783 thirteen British colonies rebelled over taxation and rights,…
• The French Revolution Years 9–11 · From 1789 France overthrew royal absolutism in the name of liberty, equality and…
• Abolition: The End of Slavery Years 9–11 · Campaigners of many backgrounds, including formerly enslaved people, helped end the…
• Causes of the First World War Years 9–11 · How alliances, empire, militarism and nationalism turned one assassination in 1914 into…
• The First World War Years 8–11 · The Western Front, trench warfare, new weapons and a truly global war, ending with the…
• The Treaty of Versailles & the League of Nations Years 9–11 · The 1919 peace settlement, its harsh terms and problems, and the League's aims,…
• The Rise of Dictators & the Causes of WWII Years 9–11 · The Depression, the rise of Hitler and totalitarian regimes, appeasement, and the…
• The Second World War Years 8–11 · A global war across Europe, North Africa and the Pacific, the Home Front, and its end in…
• The Holocaust Years 9–11 · The Nazi genocide of six million Jews and others, why it must be remembered, and the…
• The Cold War Years 9–11 · The USA–USSR rivalry, the Iron Curtain, the arms and space race, key crises, and the…
• The British Empire & Its End Years 8–11 · How the British Empire grew to rule a quarter of the world, then broke apart into…
• Independence & Partition: India and Pakistan Years 9–11 · The end of British rule in 1947, the creation of India and Pakistan, and the joy and…
• Migration & Multicultural Britain Years 8–11 · Post-war migration, the Windrush generation and Commonwealth communities who helped…
• Civil Rights & Equality Years 9–11 · The struggle for equal rights, including the US civil rights movement, women's rights…
• The Modern Connected World Years 9–11 · The end of the Cold War, the rise of the internet and globalisation, and the shared…
• Thinking Like a Historian (Year 3–6) Years 3–6 · Learn what history is, how to put events in order on a timeline, what BCE and CE mean,…
• Local History: How Your Area Changed (Year 3–6) Years 3–6 · Discover how the place where you live has changed over time, using clues like old…
• The Stone Age to the Iron Age (Year 3–5) Years 3–5 · Meet the very first people in Britain, from Stone Age hunters to the first farmers, and…
• Ancient Egypt (Year 3–5) Years 3–5 · Travel back thousands of years to Ancient Egypt, land of the River Nile, mighty…
• Ancient Greece (Year 4–6) Years 4–6 · Explore Ancient Greece, a land of separate city-states like Athens and Sparta. Meet the…
• The Romans in Britain (Year 3–5) Years 3–5 · Meet the mighty Roman Empire and follow it all the way to Britain. Discover roads, towns…
• Early Islamic Civilisation: Baghdad, c. 900 CE (Year 4–6) Years 4–6 · Over a thousand years ago, the city of Baghdad grew into one of the busiest and…
• Anglo-Saxons & Vikings in Britain (Year 4–6) Years 4–6 · When the Roman soldiers left Britain, new peoples called the Anglo-Saxons settled here…
• First Peoples of America Years 3–7 · Thousands of years before any European ship arrived, millions of people already called…
• Colonial America: The Thirteen Colonies Years 4–8 · In 1607 a shipload of hopeful English settlers landed at Jamestown; in 1620 the…
• Independence: The Birth of the United States Years 4–9 · How did thirteen loyal colonies turn into a brand-new nation? Follow the trail from…
• The Constitution & the Bill of Rights Years 5–10 · Winning independence was only half the job — now the new nation had to govern itself.…
• Moving West: A Growing Nation Years 4–8 · How the United States doubled in size with the Louisiana Purchase, sent Lewis and Clark…
• The American Civil War Years 5–10 · Slavery in the American South, the brave abolitionists who fought it, why the war…
• Immigrants & Industry: America Grows Up Years 5–9 · Reconstruction's promise and setbacks, the industrial boom, world-changing inventors…
• America Becomes a World Power Years 7–11 · How the United States stepped onto the world stage: the First World War, the Roaring…
• The Civil Rights Movement in America Years 6–10 · How Black Americans and their allies challenged segregation through courage and peaceful…
• How American Government Works Today Years 5–10 · A practical tour of American civics: federal, state and local government, the three…