Western Civilization
How we got here, one turning point at a time. Free to read, practice and play, with no sign-up.
14chapters
70interactives
Study tools
Play
On the wayWestern CivilizationWestern Civ Time TravelerJump between eras and pick the right artifact for each age.Advertisement
Chapters
- 1Foundations: Mesopotamia and EgyptBefore Cities: Farming, Sedentism & the First Big Buildings, Sumer: Irrigation, the First Cities & the Invention of Writing, Empire & Law: Sargon, Hammurabi, Assyria
- 2Ancient Greece: Polis, Philosophy and DemocracyFrom Palace to Polis: Collapse, Recovery and the Invention of the City-State, Two Answers to One Problem: Sparta and Early Athens, Athenian Democracy: How It Worked and Who It Left Out
- 3Rome: Republic to EmpireFrom Village to Republic, Conquering Italy and the Mediterranean, The Republic Destroys Itself
- 4Late Antiquity and the Rise of ChristianityThe Third-Century Crisis and the Remaking of the State, Constantine and the Christian Turn, Building a Church: Canon, Creed, Clergy and the Desert
- 5Byzantium, Islam and the Early Middle AgesThe Empire That Refused to End, Revelation and Community: The Rise of Islam, Damascus, Baghdad, Cordoba: The Caliphates and Their Civilization
- 6The High Middle AgesThe Great Expansion: Land, Climate and Labour, Lords, Peasants and the Return of the Town, Popes, Kings and the Invention of the State
- 7The RenaissancePlague, Money and the Italian City-States, Humanism: Reading the Ancients Again, Making the World Visible: Art and Technique
- 8Reformation and the Wars of ReligionA Church Under Strain, Not a Church in Decay, Luther: From Debating Points to Schism, The Reformation Multiplies: Peasants, Swiss, Radicals, Calvin
Show all 14 chapters
- 9Exploration, Encounter and EmpireWhy Europe Went to Sea, Portugal, Spain and the First Voyages, Conquest, Collapse and the Columbian Exchange
- 10Absolutism, the Scientific Revolution and the EnlightenmentThe Sinews of Power: Absolutism and Its Limits, The Other Path: England, the Dutch and the Politics of Consent, A New Way of Knowing: The Scientific Revolution
- 11An Age of Revolutions: American, French and IndustrialThe Atlantic Crisis and the American Revolution, 1789: The French Revolution and the Republic, Napoleon, Haiti and the Revolution Exported
- 12Nationalism, Imperialism and the Nineteenth CenturyThe Nation Imagined: Restoration, Romanticism and 1848, Made by War: The Unifications of Italy and Germany, Steel, Cities and the Politics of the Masses
- 13The World Wars and TotalitarianismThe Great War, 1914–1918, Revolution, Versailles and the Fragile Peace, Depression and the Totalitarian Turn
- 14The Cold War and the Contemporary WorldFrom Grand Alliance to Iron Curtain, 1945–1950, Living with the Bomb: Crises, Deterrence and the Frozen Order, The End of Empire and the Making of a Third World