Guest Hollow’s Whirlwind World History Curriculum Online Textbook

Are you ready to learn world history?

Get ready to learn about world history in this absolutely FREE book! Why are we offering a free book? Have a look at our About Us page, and you’ll get a sense of who we are and why we care about homeschoolers like we do. Having said that, please consider using Guest Hollow, LLC as your source for other curriculums and materials. Despite being a tiny mom-and-pop, our company has a lot to offer, and it’s growing all the time. Please explore our site as well as our social media presence and let us know what you think!

This FREE book is designed to be used with Guest Hollow’s Whirlwind World History Curriculum, but anyone is free to use it. 

Reading tip: When reading the online textbook, you can click on some of the images to see them larger. This may be useful when you want to see the details on maps! Also, don’t forget that most browsers will allow you to increase the font size of the page you are reading (if that’s something you need to make the reading more comfortable). 🙂

Welcome to the Whirlwind World History online textbook! We used the word “whirlwind” because there is a LOT of material to cover, and we’re going to whip through it at a quick pace in Guest Hollow’s Whirlwind World History Curriculum! Think of this as an “overview” of world events – a year-long trip through thousands of years across the globe.

Note: Individual pages are listed in bold. Titles with a star are sections on a single page. Topics are listed for easier reference.

Video tip: You can change the speed of YouTube videos. You can click settings on the YouTube video player and pick a faster playback speed up to 2x the speed. I watched a lot of the longer informational videos at this speed with no loss in understanding or retention. You may want to try it as well if you are short on time and if you can process the audio at a faster speed. 😉

• Ancient Civilizations and the Rise of Empires (Prehistory to 500 CE)
• Agriculture Brings About Civilizations
  • The Fertile Crescent: Mesopotamia
    • ⋆ Ancient Mesopotamia
    • ⋆ Sumer (c. 4500- 1750 BCE)
      • ☆ Sumerian Achievements
    • ⋆ Sargon and the Akkadian Empire (c. 2334 – 2100 BCE)
    • ⋆ Hammurabi and the Babylonian Empire (c. 1792-1595 BCE)
    • ⋆ Life in ancient Mesopotamia
  • Ancient Egypt
    • ⋆ The Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BCE)
    • ⋆ First Intermediate Period (2181-2055 BCE)
    • ⋆ The Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BCE)
    • ⋆ Second Intermediate Period (1650-1550 BCE)
    • ⋆ The New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE)
    • ⋆ Life in Ancient Egypt
  • Ancient India
    • ⋆ Indus Valley Civilization (3300 – 1300 BCE)
    • ⋆ The Vedic Age (1700 – 600 BCE)
      • ☆ The Origins of the Aryan People and the Indo-European Hypothesis
      • ☆ The Early Aryan Settlement of Northern India (1700 – 1000 BCE)
      • ☆ The Later Vedic Age (1000 – 600 BCE)
    • ⋆ Transition to Empire – States, Cities, and New Religions (600 to 321 BCE)
      • ☆ The Caste System
      • ☆ The Challenge to Brahmanism: Buddhism
  • Ancient China
    • ⋆ The Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE)
    • ⋆ The Zhou Dynasty (1045 – 256 BCE)
    • ⋆ The Warring States Period (475 – 221 BCE)
    • ⋆ Philosophy in a Time of Turmoil: Confucianism and Daoism
      • ☆ Confucianism
      • ☆ Daoism (Taoism)
    • ⋆ The Qin Dynasty (221 – 207 BCE) and the Transition from Ancient to Imperial China
  • The Israelites and Ancient Israel
  • North America and Mesoamerica
    • ⋆ Mound Builders in North America
    • ⋆ The Olmecs (1400 – 400 BCE)
      • ☆ Early Farming
      • ☆ The Formative Period
  • The Phoenicians
  • The Assyrian Empire and the New Babylonian Empire
    • ⋆ The Assyrian Empire (c. 900-612 BCE)
    • ⋆ The New (Neo) Babylonian Empire (c. 626 – 539 BCE)
      • ☆ Nebuchadnezzar II (ruled from 605 to 562 BCE)
  • Greece
    • ⋆ Minoans and Mycenaeans
    • ⋆ The Greek Dark Age (1100-750 BCE)
    • ⋆ The Archaic Age and Greek Values (750-490 BCE)
    • ⋆ Greek Culture and Trade
    • ⋆ Military Organization and Politics
    • ⋆ Sparta
    • ⋆ Athens
• Persia and the Greek Wars
  • ⋆ Persian Expansion
    • ☆ Cyrus the Great (ruled from 590 to 529 BCE)
    • ☆ Darius I (ruled from 550 to 486 BCE)
  • ⋆ The Persian Government
  • ⋆ Zoroastrianism
  • ⋆ The Persian War
  • ⋆ The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE)
  • ⋆ The Aftermath
• Classical Greece (480 BCE to 338 BCE)
  • ⋆ Athens and the Ironies of Democracy
    • ☆ Women
    • ☆ Slaves
  • ⋆ Culture
    • ☆ Drama
  • ⋆ Science
  • ⋆ History and Herodotus
  • ⋆ Philosophy
  • ⋆ Art
• The Hellenistic Age
  • ⋆ Macedon and Philip II (Reign: 359–336 BC)
  • ⋆ Alexander the Great (Reign: 336–323 BC)
  • ⋆ Alexander After the Conquest of Persia
  • ⋆ The Hellenistic Monarchies (323 BCE-31 BCE)
    • ☆ The Antigonids
    • ☆ The Seleucids
    • ☆ The Ptolemies
  • ⋆ Philosophy
    • ☆ The Epicureans
    • ☆ The Cynics
    • ☆ The Stoics
  • ⋆ Science and Math
    • ☆ Euclid
    • ☆ Archimedes
    • ☆ Eratosthenes
    • ☆ The Library of Alexandria
• The Maurya Empire of India (322 BCE – 184 BCE)
  • ⋆ Chandragupta Maurya (ruled from 321 to 297 BCE)
  • ⋆ Ashoka (ruled from 268 to 232 BCE)
• The Celts
• Rome
  • ⋆ Origins
  • ⋆ The Republic (509-27 BCE)
    • ☆ Class Struggle
  • ⋆ Expansion
    • ☆ Roman Militarism
    • ☆ The Punic Wars (3 wars between 264 and 146 BC)
    • ☆ Rome’s Expansion into Greece
  • ⋆ Culture
  • ⋆ Society
  • ⋆ The End of the Republic
    • ☆ Julius Caesar
    • ☆ Marc Antony
• The Roman Empire (began in 27 BCE)
  • ⋆ Augustus (ruled from 27 to 14 BCE)
  • ⋆ The Imperial Dynasties
    • ☆ The Julian Dynasty (ruled from 14 to 68 CE)
      • ✤ Jesus and the Beginnings of Christianity
      • ✤ Tiberius (ruled from 14 to 37 CE)
      • ✤ Gaius also known as Caligula (ruled from 37 to 41 CE)
      • ✤ Claudius (ruled from 41 to 54 CE)
      • ✤ Nero (ruled from 54 to 68 CE)
      • ✤ Jewish Uprising (66 CE) and the Siege of Masada (73-74 CE)
    • ☆ The Flavian Dynasty (69 – 96 CE)
      • ✤ Vespasian (ruled from 69 to 79 CE)
      • ✤ Titus (ruled from 79-81 CE) and Domitian (ruled from 81 to 96 CE)
      • ✤ The “Five Good Emperors” and the Severans (98-235 CE)
  • ⋆ Beyond the Empire
    • ☆ Persia Under the Parthians (247 BCE to 224 CE)
    • ☆ Farther East and North
  • ⋆ Roman Society
    • ☆ Law
• The Han Dynasty in China (202 BCE – 220 CE)
  • ⋆ Social Structure
    • ☆ Family Life
• ⋆ The Empire Ends
• The Late Empire and Christianity
  • ⋆ Diocletian (ruled from 294 to 305 CE)
  • ⋆ Constantine (ruled from 306 to 334 CE)
    • ☆ How Constantine’s Conversion Changed Things
  • ⋆ The Roman Archbishop Became Known as the Pope
  • ⋆ Beliefs in the “Old Gods” Fade
  • ⋆ Orthodoxy, Heresy, and the Council of Nicaea
  • ⋆ Monasticism and Christian Culture
  • ⋆ The Fall of Rome (476 CE)
    • ☆ Roman Relations with Barbarians
    • ☆ Invasions
• The Indian Subcontinent
  • ⋆ The Kushan Empire (30-375 CE)
  • ⋆ Religious Transformations: Buddhism and Hinduism into the Common Era
  • ⋆ The Gupta Empire (320-550 CE)
• The Medieval World (400 -1450)
• The Americas
  • ⋆ North American Indians
    • ☆ Inuit
    • ☆ Pacific Northwest Coast Indians
    • ☆ Plateau Indians
    • ☆ Great Basin Indians
    • ☆ Plains Indians
    • ☆ Southwest Indians
    • ☆ Indians of the Northeastern Woodlands
    • ☆ Indians of the Southeastern Woodlands
  • ☆ Caribbean Natives
    • ☆ Taíno (Arawak)
    • ☆ Caribs
  • ⋆ Maya
• Byzantium
  • ⋆ East vs. West
  • ⋆ Justinian (ruled 527-565)
  • ⋆ Constantinople
  • ⋆ The Final Decline
• The Origins of Russia
• Islam and The Caliphates
  • ⋆ Islam
    • ☆ The Origins
    • ☆ Muhammed (b. 570, d. 632)
    • ☆ Islamic Beliefs
    • ☆ The Political History of the Arabs After Muhammad
  • ⋆ The Umayyad Caliphate and the Shia (661-750)
    • ☆ The Umayyad Government and Society
    • ☆ Other Faiths
  • ⋆ The Abbasids (750-1258)
    • ☆ The Seljuks Take Power (1055)
  • ⋆ Part of Europe Under Muslim Rule
• Early Medieval Europe (500 to 1000)
  • ⋆ The Latin Church and Medieval Christianity
    • ☆ The Papacy
    • ☆ Characteristics of Medieval Christianity
  • ⋆ Medieval Politics
  • ⋆ France
    • ☆ Clovis (ruled from 481-509)
    • ☆ Charles Martel (ruled from 718 to 741)
    • ☆ Charlemagne (ruled from 768 to 814) and the start of The Holy Roman Empire
  • ⋆ Anglo-Saxon England
    • ☆ Alfred the Great (ruled from 871 to 886), Wessex, and the Danelaw
  • ⋆ Invaders
    • ☆ Vikings
  • The High Middle Ages and Europe (1000 to 1250)
    • ⋆ The Normans
      • ☆ Rollo settled in Normandy (911)
    • ⋆ Meanwhile, in England…
      • ☆ Æthelstan (ruled from 924-927)
      • ☆ Æthelred (ruled from 978-1013 and 1014-1016), Sweyn Forkbeard (ruled England from 1013-1014), and Cnut (ruled England from 1016-1035)
      • ☆ William the Conqueror (ruled from 1066 to 1087)
    • ⋆ The Crusades (1095 through 1271)
      • ☆ The First Four Crusades Including the Reconquista
      • ☆ Consequences of the Crusades
      • ☆ The Northern Crusades and the Teutonic Knights
    • ⋆ The Middle East After the Caliphates
    • ⋆ The Turkic Migrations and Ottoman Origins
    • ⋆ The Emergence of the High Middle Ages in Europe
      • ☆ The Medieval Agricultural Revolution
      • ☆ Cities and Economic Change
      • ☆ Politics
        • ✤ Magna Carta
      • ☆ Men and Women’s Roles
  • ⋆ Monasticism
    • ☆ Corruption
  • The Late Middle Ages and Europe (1250-1500)
    • ⋆ The Crises of the Middle Ages
      • ☆ The Great Famine (1315–1317)
      • ☆ The Mongols
        • ✤ The Mongols in Eastern Europe
      • ☆ Black Death (1346 to 1353)
      • ☆The 100 Years’ War (1337 to 1453)
      • ☆ The Babylonian Captivity and the Great Western Schism (1378 to 1417)
• Africa in the Middle Ages
  • ⋆ The Ghana Empire (c. 300 until c. 1100)
  • ⋆ The Mali Empire (c. 1230–1670)
    • ☆ Mansa Musa (ruled from c.1312 to c.1337)
• Asia in the Middle Ages
  • ⋆ China
    • ☆ The Tang Dynasty (618-907)
    • ☆ The Song Dynasty (960-1270s)
    • ☆ The Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368)
    • ☆ Marco Polo and the Silk Road (1271–1295)
  • ⋆ Japan
    • ☆ Classical Japan
      • ✤ Asuka period (538–710)
      • ✤ Nara period (710–794)
      • ✤ Heian period (794–1185)
    • ☆ Feudal Japan
      • ✤ Kamakura period (1185–1333)
      • ✤ Muromachi period (1333–1568)
  • ⋆ India
    • ☆ Delhi Sultanate in the North (1206–1526)
    • ☆ Vijayanagara Empire in the South (1336–1646)
  • ⋆ Southeast Asia
    • ☆ Khmer Empire (802–1431)
• The Early Modern World (1420-1700s)
• Early Modern Europe
  • ⋆ The Renaissance (1400-1600)
    • ☆ Political Setting
    • ☆ The Great City-States
      • ✤Venice
      • ✤ Florence and Rome
  • ☆ The Printing Press (1440’s)
  • ☆ Patronage
  • ☆ Humanism
  • ☆ Important Thinkers
    • ✤ Dante (1265 – 1321)
    • ✤ Petrarch (1304 – 1374)
    • ✤ Christine de Pizan (1364 – 1430)
    • ✤ Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536)
    • ✤ Niccolo Machiavelli (1469 – 1527)
• ☆ Art and Artists
  • ✤ Botticelli (1445 – 1510)
  • ✤ Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
  • ✤ Michelangelo (1475 – 1564)
• ⋆ Politics: The Emergence of Strong States
• ⋆ War and the Gunpowder Revolution
• ⋆ Financial Revolution
• ⋆ The New Kingdoms
  • ☆ Spain
  • ☆ England
    • ✤ War of the Roses
    • ✤ The Tudors
  • ☆ France
  • ☆ The Holy Roman Empire
    • Charles V
• The Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia
  • ⋆ The Ottoman Empire
    • ☆ Vlad III (Dracula)
  • ⋆ Safavid Persia
  • ⋆ Middle Eastern Economics
• Exploration and Conquest
  • ⋆ Africa and India
  • ⋆ Spain, Columbus (1492), the Great Dying, and the Columbian Exchange
  • ⋆ The Conquistadors
    • ☆ Cortes and the Aztecs (1519-1521)
    • ☆ Pizarro and the Incas (1532)
  • ⋆ New World Wealth
• Reformations
  • ⋆ Indulgences
  • ⋆ Lutheranism (started in 1517)
  • ⋆ Calvinism (started in 1519)
  • ⋆ The English Reformation
    • ☆ The Effects of the Reformation
  • ⋆ The Inquisition (started in 1473) and the Council of Trent (1545-1563)
  • ⋆ The Jesuits
• Religious Wars
  • ⋆ The Little Ice Age
  • ⋆ The French Wars of Religion
  • ⋆ Spain and the Netherlands
  • ⋆ England
  • ⋆ The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)
• Early Modern Asia
  • ⋆ Mughal Empire in India (1526-1857)
  • ⋆ China’s Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
  • ⋆ Chinas’s Qing Dynasty (1636-1912)
  • ⋆ Japan and the Tokugawa (Edo) Period (1603-1867)
• Absolutism
  • ⋆ France
    • ☆ Richelieu (r. 1628 – 1642)
    • ☆ Louis XIV – the Sun King (1643 – 1715)
  • ⋆ Prussia
  • ⋆ Austria
  • ⋆ Spain
  • ⋆ The Stuarts and the English Civil War (1642–1651)
  • ⋆ The Glorious Revolution (1688)
  • ⋆ The Overall Effects of Absolutism
• Trade Empires
  • ⋆ Early Capitalism
  • ⋆ Overseas Expansion
    • ☆ The Netherlands
    • ☆ Britain and the Slave Trade
    • ☆ Around the Globe
• The Scientific Revolution
  • ⋆ Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626)
  • ⋆ Astronomy
    • ☆ Copernicus (1473 – 1543)
    • ☆ Kepler (1571 – 1630)
    • ☆ Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642)
  • ⋆ Isaac Newton
  • ⋆ Medicine
  • ⋆ The Philosophical Impact of Science
    • ☆ Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650)
    •  ☆ Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662)
• The Enlightenment
  • ⋆ Enlightenment Philosophes
    • ☆ John Locke: 1637 – 1704
    • ☆ Voltaire: 1694 – 1778
    • ☆ David Hume: 1711 – 1776
    • ☆ Adam Smith: 1723 – 1790
    • ☆ Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778)
  • ⋆ Politics and Society
  • ⋆ Implications of the Enlightenment
• The Age of Revolutions (Mid 1700’s-1800’s)
• The Society of Orders
  • ⋆ Social Orders and Divisions
    • ☆ The Nobility
    • ☆ The Common People
  • ⋆ The Great Powers
    • ☆ France
    • ☆ Great Britain
    • ☆ Austria
    • ☆ Prussia
    • ☆ Russia
  • ⋆ Wars
    • ☆ War of the Spanish Succession (1701 – 1713)
    • ☆ Seven Year’s War (1756 – 1763)
    • ☆ American Revolution and the Birth of a New Nation (1775 – 1783)
• The French Revolution (1789 – 1799)
  • ⋆ The Causes
  • ⋆ Events
    • ☆ Equality
    • ☆ The Radical Phase and the Terror
• Napoleon (Emperor: 1804-1814, March-April 1815)
  • ⋆ The Rise of Napoleon’s Empire
    • ☆ Military Strategy
    • ☆ Civil Life
  • ⋆ The Fall
    • ☆ Russia, Elba, and Waterloo
  • ⋆ The Aftermath
• The Industrial Revolution (approx. 1760 – 1830)
  • ⋆ Geography of the Industrial Revolution
  • ⋆ Transportation and Communication
  • ⋆ Social Effects
    • ☆ Gender
  • ⋆ Cultural Effects
• Political Ideologies and Movements
  • Conservatism
  • ⋆ Ideologies
    • ☆ Romanticism
    • ☆ Nationalism
    • ☆ Liberalism
    • ☆ Socialism
  • ⋆ Social Classes
• The Politics of the Nineteenth Century
  • ⋆ The Congress of Vienna
  • ⋆ Revolts and Revolutions
    • ☆ Latin Revolutions
  • ⋆ China’s Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860)
  • ⋆ The Revolutions of 1848
  • ⋆ National Unifications
    • ☆ Germany
    • ☆ Russia
• Culture, Science, and Pseudo-Science
  • ⋆ Victorian Culture
  • ⋆ Scientific and Pseudo-Scientific Discoveries and Theories
    • ☆ Louis Pasteur
    • ☆ Darwin
    • ☆ Social Darwinism
  • ⋆ Mass Culture
• Australia
• Wars, Threats, and Rebellions
  • ⋆ The Taiping Rebellion in China (1850-1864)
  • ⋆ Commodore Perry Forces the “Opening” of Japan (1854)
  • ⋆ Meiji Restoration (1868-1912)
  • ⋆ Civil War in America (1861-1865)
  • ⋆ The Boxer Rebellion in China (1899-1901)
• Imperialism (1870-1914)
  • ⋆ Technology
  • ⋆ The Second Industrial Revolution
  • ⋆ The British Empire
  • ⋆ Africa
  • ⋆ Effects
  • ⋆ The Decline of the Ottoman Empire
  • ⋆ Qajar Persia
• The Modern World (1914 to the present)
• World War 1
  • ⋆ Background to the War
  • ⋆ The Start of the War
  • ⋆ The Early War
  • ⋆ The Evolution of the War
  • ⋆ The Eastern Front and the Ottoman Empire
  • ⋆ Women in the War (and Afterwards)
  • ⋆ The Late War
  • ⋆ The Aftermath
• The Early Twentieth Century
  • ⋆ Russian Revolutions
  • ⋆ Cultural Change
  • ⋆ Modernism
  • ⋆ Freud
  • ⋆ The Great Depression
• Fascism
  • ⋆ Italian Fascism
  • ⋆ The Weimar Republic
  • ⋆ The Nazis
  • ⋆ The Spanish Civil War
• World War II
  • ⋆ Leading up to War
  • ⋆ The Early War
  • ⋆ The War in the East
  • ⋆ The Home Front
  • ⋆ The Turn of the Tide
  • ⋆ The Aftermath of the War
  • ⋆ The Holocaust
    • ☆ Before the Holocaust
    • ☆ The Holocaust Begins
    • ☆ The Peak Killing Period
    • ☆ The Aftermath of the Holocaust
• The Soviet Union and the Cold War
  • ⋆ Stalinism
  • ⋆ World War II and its Aftermath
  • ⋆ The Cold War
    • ☆ The USSR During the Cold War
    • ☆ Cuban Missile Crisis
  • ⋆ What Went Wrong with the USSR
• Postwar Conflict
  • ⋆ Major Cold War Conflicts
    • ☆ Korean War (1950 – 1953 de facto)
    • ☆ Suez Crisis (October 1956 – November 1956)
    • ☆ China and Mao (in Office from 1943-1976)
    • ☆ Vietnam War (1955 – 1975)
    • ☆ Cambodian Civil War (1968-1975) and the Cambodian Genocide
• Independence Movements and Decolonization
  • ⋆India
  • ⋆ Israel
  • ⋆ Africa
• Postwar Society
  • ⋆ Social Democracy
  • ⋆ The Postwar Boom and Cultural Change
  • ⋆ Philosophy
    • ☆ Existentialism
  • ⋆ The Youth Movement, Cultural Revolution, and Protests
• Toward the Present
  • ⋆ The Collapse of the USSR and the Soviet Bloc
  • ⋆ Eastern Europe
  • ⋆ The Middle East
  • ⋆ Globalization

Credits, Attribution, and Copyrights

This text was adapted (with permission) from:

• Western Civilization: A Concise History – Volumes 1-3
  by Dr. Christopher Brooks
  CC BY-NC-SA
• World History Cultures, States, and Societies to 1500
  by Eugene Berger, Ph.D, George L. Israel, Ph.D., Charlotte Miller, Ph.D., Brian Parkinson, Ph.D., Andrew Reeves, Ph.D, and Nadejda Williams, Ph.D.
  CC BY-SA
• Modern World History
  by Dan Allosso, Bemidji State University and Tom Williford, Southwest Minnesota State University
  CC BY-NC-SA

I’ve taken excerpts from the above-mentioned resources and heavily edited and added to them for my intended audience. While I’ve received permission to use/adapt these books, none of the above endorses Guest Hollow or my use of their materials.

Information was also taken from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License and other resources (listed in the individual page credits).

This online book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Beowulf the Fox Terrier dog and the Greek & Latin roots graphic © Jennifer Guest