The eHistory World History section includes content from all time periods across all geographic areas. Our comprehensive timeline section includes over 5,300 events from the ancient world to the 21st century.

The Labyrinth of World History
John Clarke Ridpath stated that his motive for writing "A History of the World" (1923) was: "A desire to bring within the reach of the average reader a concise and accurate summary of the principal events in the career of the human race. Recent historical works have nearly all been in the nature of special studies, limited in their scope to a particular epoch.

Estimates of World Population Population in millions
Year	Population
BC 10000	4
5000	5
1000	50
1 AD	170
600	200
1000	265
1500	425
1600	545
1700	610
1800	900
1900	1,625
2000	6,078
Sources: McEvedy, Colin and Richard Jones, 1978, "Atlas of World Population History." and U.S. Census Bureau

The result has been that the works in question are so elaborate in detail and so recondite in method, that the common reader has neither courage to undertake nor time to complete them. Before a single topic can be mastered, he finds himself lost in a labyrinth. The synthesis of different periods, treated by different authors, seems impossible; he turns in discouragement from the task; and to him the history of the past remains a sealed fountain."

Our goal is to help you navigate this "labyrinth of history", from the first great ancient civilizations in the Fertile Crescent and Egypt (both part of modern day Middle East) to the great changes of the Middle Ages to the world conflicts of the 20th century.

Explore our World History section by selecting a choice from the menu on the left-hand side of this page.