200+ History Essay Topics

History essays are among the most controversial assignments that students can get. Some say that historical studies definitely are the most exciting challenges they’ve ever experienced, while others consider them to be an absolute boredom quintessence.

Still, when you receive a paper assignment on history, there is nothing you can do but complete it. But first, if your professor is fine with offering their students some freedom of choice, you’ve got to come up with a topic. And that’s the point where most students get stuck.

Here below, you’ll find some relevant tips and suitable history research paper topics for college students. Additionally, these themes will fit your essays, term papers, and other academic assignments. The only difference between those paper types can be a topic detail level when writing a descriptive essay, a research paper, or even a thesis. The higher paper requirements mean more in-depth research, and that’s it.  

History Essay Topics: Nothing to Be Afraid

Considering the history topics to write about, one may feel it to be too challenging to find something they might cover well in an essay or research paper. However, that’s a delusion. You will be able to come up with a topic worth the top grade, no matter which of them you’re going to choose. Why so?

It’s because they all are relevant for college studies. Like, when you are free to choose any topic touching on the history subject, the entire civilizational development timeline is at your disposal. You just need to think about which period and aspect you like the most, and that’s it. It’s clever to choose among the times, places, and subtopics you personally admire. 

That’s how you get yourself involved in an essay writing process and, consequently, receive better chances to craft a paper worth the highest grade.

Now, let’s review over two hundred history topics divided into several categories according to places, timelines, and events. Choose one of those available on the list as it is given, or use them all as inspiration sources and references to generate something original. 

US History Essay Topics

We will start with the essay theme concepts on US history. In fact, all of them can easily be used as American history research paper topics as well. Here are the prompts:

1. Native American culture: a historical retrospective
2. First colonists in North America
3. The impact of Columbus’ expeditions on the history of different civilizations
4. Civilizational gaps: why Native Americans fell back before European conquests
5. The rise and fall of the Aztec Empire
6. The precursors of American nation’s arising
7. The evolution and death of the American dream
8. The US war on independence: key battles and events
9. The Civil War in the United States: reasons and outcomes
10. Racial segregation in the US: history, impact, results
11. The history of American military interventions
12. Leading war chiefs throughout the US history
13. Braxton Bragg: a biography of the Confederate Army general
14. Life and death of Abraham Lincoln
15. The Founding Fathers: the historical scale of personalities
16. John Kennedy’s impact on the US politics
17. Reasons of the American political dominance in the 1990s
18. Main failures of the US foreign policy
19. The United States in the Great War
20. US casualties in World War 2
21. The US national idea throughout history
22. Watergate scandal explained
23. Biography of George Washington
24. The Declaration of Independence: historical meaning
25. The battle of Normandy: US contribution to defeating the axis in WW 2
26. The US in the Cold War: achievements and failures
27. The US Army special forces history
28. The greatest military defeats of the United States
29. Reasons and results of the Vietnam War
30. The 9/11 and war on terror: a direct response to terrorist attacks
31. The Bay of Pigs invasion: reasons of the US military failure
32. Operation Desert Storm: substantial analysis of American success
33. The Great Depression: most severe economic crisis of the US explained
34. BLM movement and its historical basis
35. Reasons of Confederate defeat in the Civil War
36. Cuban Missile Crisis: the Cold War apotheosis
37. US vs. USSR space conquest: the history of the competition
38. The development of the American Space Program
39. Moon landing: the historical meaning of Neil Armstrong’s step
40. The US nuclear weapons: invention, tests, and use

History Research Paper Topics

The choice of historical research paper topics is almost unlimited. However, to come up with good history research paper topics, you need to think a lot of topics over. Here are 40 of them to choose from:

41. History of Great Britain
42. The development of Christianity
43. Muslim countries: the period of Arabic domination in science
44. Christian terrorism: main cases throughout history
45. The First Crusade: conditions, reasons, and results
46. The golden age of piracy: how and why it happened
47. The historical analysis of Russian civil war
48. The rise and fall of the Soviet Union: a historical retrospective
49. History of post-soviet countries
50. Mexico: main historical events
51. Greatest battles in human history
52. Operation Bagration: the process and outcomes of Soviet victory
53. Blitzkrieg failure: why the axis forces didn’t win the Battle of Moscow
54. World War 2: the impact of the USSR on the beginning of the conflict
55. The Battle of Kursk: the last offensive of Nazi Germany
56. The Eastern front casualties during World War 2
57. The French Foreign Legion: appearance and history
58. The Russian invasion in Syria: how the Russian Army changed the conflict tides
59. History of Poland from ancient times till our days
60. Germany during the interwar period: reasons for the economic and patriotic rise
61. The political situation before World War 1
62. The history of China
63. Indian religious history
64. The Roman Empire: achievements of Octavian Augustus’s reign
65. Soviet invasion in Afghanistan: cause and effect research
66. Main French Army victories
67. Medieval Europe: War of Roses explained
68. Vikings: historical impact of Norman tribes
69. Mongolian Empire: reasons of successful conquests
70. Canada: historical development description
71. Spanish conquistadors and their wars against Native American tribes
72. The British colonization of North America
73. Witch hunts: Catholic church’s impact
74. Women in World War II
75. Holocaust and the world’s reaction to it
76. Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and how the strikes changed the world
77. History of democracy
78. Arabic terrorism and main radical Muslim organizations   
79. Modern world and cultural changes
80. Globalization: pros and cons

Ancient History Research Paper Ideas

If you think of coming up with something original, a research paper devoted to ancient history topics is exactly what you need. Check 40 more theme concepts to choose from:

81. Ancient Egypt symbolism
82. Paleolithic cults and religions
83. Pagan beliefs of ancient Europeans
84. Ancient Greece: how its cultural achievements determined humanity’s civilizational development
85. Ancient Greek myths
86. History of Palestine
87. Ancient Egypt religion: death, immortality, rebirth
88. Iron age: social role distribution in ancient societies
89. Prehistoric Europe and the role of women in historical processes
90. Mesolithic period: reasons and threads of civilizational progress
91. Ancient astronomy research
92. Sumerian civilization: traditions, culture, achievements
93. Ancient Greek legacy in modern European cultures
94. The impact of the Roman Empire on human history
95. Primal tribes: beliefs, social organization, power
96. Ancient China as the most scientifically advanced region of its time
97. Philosophy development in Ancient Greece
98. Mesopotamian art history
99. Battle of Thermopylae: the result of the second Persian invasion for Greece
100. Most famous ancient last stand battles
101. Ancient military fleet development history
102. Advantages of Nomad civilizations
103. Ancient Vikings: weapon and armor technologies
104. Alexander the Great: biography and achievements
105. Jesus Christ as the historical personality
106. The fall of the Roman Empire as the end of ancient history
107. Atilla the Hun: the barbarian destroyer of Rome
108. The role of iron weapons in ancient war victories: advantages before copper and bronze
109. Biography of Cleopatra
110. The great library of Alexandria: how knowledge of generations burnt
111. Wonders of the ancient world: Pharos of Alexandria
112. Ancient Rome architecture
113. Prehistoric civilizations of Africa
114. Ancient India: culture and religion
115. Pre-Muslim Arabia: polytheistic beliefs
116. Ancient martial arts: Greek wrestling
117. Most effective military tactics before the fall of Rome: evolution of ancient warfare
118. Cultural development difference: ancient civilizations of Greece and china
119. Roman legions: solutions leading to ultimate warfare dominance
120. Craftsmanship in Mesopotamia

World History Topics

The fourth section of our list of 200 history topics is devoted to the entire world. Here, you will see 40 more themes not limited by periods, locations, or cultures. See that the choice of potential topics for your history essay is almost endless:

121. Historical conflicts in modern Russia
122. Somalia: the chronology of one of the world’s poorest countries
123. Slavery: how it looked like in different parts of the world throughout history
124. The impact of globalization on historical memory
125. The role of history in modern international conflicts
126. Historical bias: how it affects the development of nations
127. Strengths and advantages of communist ideology: historical analysis
128. The Ottoman expansion and the fall of Byzantium
129. The review of Russian-Turkish wars
130. Australia before colonization
131. Decolonization of Africa
132. Role of women and children in Soviet victory over Nazis
133. Battle of Berlin: the last days of World War II in Europe
134. Kwantung army defeat in 1945: impact on the surrender of Japan
135. Kamikaze warriors as the historical phenomenon
136. Napoleon invasion: how Russians defeated the Great Army
137. Superpowers before the USA and USSR
138. Cultural leaders of medieval Europe
139. Historical portrait of Catherine the Great
140. Winston Churchill’s impact on WW2 results
141. “Iron Curtain” speech as the Cold War trigger
142. The final countdown: cases when the world stood one step away from the nuclear war
143. Development of artillery
144. Firearms: how gunpowder changed warfare forever
145. Russian-Georgian war of 2008: reasons and outcomes
146. The Crimean crisis of 2014: world reaction and historic consequences
147. Overview of conflicts between England and France
148. German defeat in World War I: how it caused the Third Reich to appear
149. Lauri Allan Torni: the portrait of the dedicated anti-communist
150. The Eastern Front of World War II: Red Army tactics and strategies
151. Royal dynasties of Europe
152. Northern Crusades: goals, achievements, and defeats
153. The battle on the ice and the impact of its results on the medieval history
154. Sweden of the early 18th century as the European superpower
155. World’s first civilizations
156. A bipolar world definition
157. Roman Empire engineering
158. Cold War espionage: main victories and defeats of the USA and USSR
159. The Babylonian Empire rise
160. The history of Olympic games

History Argumentative Essay Topics

Argumentative extended essay topics on history are challenging but exciting when you pick them right. Check the 40 options below and decide which one you would like to explore the most.

161. Was the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan a failed military campaign?
162. Martin Luther King’s main historical impact
163. What were the reasons for the Third Reich to lose World War II?
164. Could communism really become an alternative to capitalism?
165. Can the Holocaust be justified?
166. The impact of the Borgia family on Italian Renaissance
167. The cause of the American revolution: what was it?
168. Could the Cold War be avoided?
169. What was the positive effect of the USSR vs. USA competition?
170. What are the key elements of civilization?
171. Age of discovery: what are its main outcomes?
172. Can nationalism be for good?
173. The French Revolution: main results
174. Was the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact a success or failure for the USSR?
175. Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear strikes: were they necessary to end World War II?
176. How would you describe US history in one word? Why?
177. Main failures of the US foreign policy during the Cold War
178. Reasons for the growth of China’s power in the 21st century
179. Could the Confederate states win the Civil War? Why?
180. What were the reasons for the German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad?
181. What would you call the best quality of Winston Churchill and why?
182. Who to blame for World War II to begin?
183. Major history lessons throughout the 20th century
184. Should people know world history?
185. Islamic terrorism: how to counter it?
186. The historical meaning of the Internet
187. Main achievements of Charles XII of Sweden
188. Is Vladimir Putin a progressive politician?
189. Reasons for the industrial revolution in Britain
190. Is it right to call France the World War II winner?
191. Are BLM protests constructive?
192. What were the historical reasons for racism in America?
193. Was World War I inevitable?
194. Do you agree that appeasement was an incorrect diplomatic solution during the interwar?
195. Why did Americans win the War on Independence?
196. What was the American dream? Is it still relevant?
197. Historical reasons for police violence in the USA
198. What’s the key cultural difference between East and West?
199. Can war become a civilizational progress catalyst?
200. Are nuclear weapons unnecessary?
201. Did the USA win the space race?

Afterword

You’ve got over 200 good history essay topics above. Most probably, you’ve found the one that suits you the most. If you didn’t, just use all the suggestions above as references, and do your best to come up with something original.

Or you can ask professional writers for assistance. What is a custom essay writing service? Our experts are ready to help you with historical essay writing at an affordable cost and with 100% anonymity.