World History Encyclopedia

Joseph Stalin's Five-Year Plans (1928-50) were a series of state-led initiatives which aimed to grow the economy of the USSR, rapidly industrialise what was still a largely agricultural state, and collectivise farms to both increase productivity and reduce anti-Communist elements in the countryside. Partially successful in their aims, although never achieving the ambitious targe...

With industrialization, a small number of states gained the ability to project power across the globe. Steamships, railroads, machine guns, and anti-malaria drugs allowed European powers, along with the United States and Japan, to seize territory in places they had previously traded with. Philosophers justified the land grab with ideas about civilization and racial hierarchy. By...

Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and the Netherworld is a Sumerian poem pre-dating The Epic of Gilgamesh and featuring its central characters. It is sometimes included in modern-day translations as Book 12 but is usually omitted as it does not fit the narrative form of the epic's storyline. It is famous for its depiction of souls in the afterlife.

The Army of Northern Virginia was the main field army of the Confederate States in the eastern theater of the American Civil War (1861-1865). Famously led by General Robert E. Lee for most of its existence, the army numbered 90,000 men at its peak in 1862, and fought in some of the bloodiest, most important battles of the war, including the climactic Battle of Gettysburg (1-3 Ju...

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459-1519), belonged to the imperial House of Habsburg, and the imperial electors made him King of the Romans in 1486 during his father's lifetime, thus establishing him as his successor. He jointly ruled with his father until the latter's death in 1493, then steadily gained power until he was appointed Holy Roman Emperor in 1508. A unique emper...