World History Resources

Teaching the Colorado Academic Standards in social studies is supported through a wide array of free instructional resources. This webpage lists just a few of these resources and will be updated regularly.

If you are an educator in Colorado and have suggestions for a great free resource please email Stephanie Hartman.

The resources provided on this website are intended to provide a quick access list for educators to use in a way that supports their instructional planning. Provided resources should be previewed and used with teacher discretion. Because this page contains resources outside of the CDE website, CDE cannot control changes in outside content and listing these resources does not indicate an endorsement by the Colorado Department of Education. 

The Avalon Project
A collection of law, history, economic, and political primary source documents. The documents span from ancient history through the 21st century. This site is a project of the Yale University Goldman Law Library.

Best of History Websites
This site provides an extensive listing of outstanding history websites found on the Internet.

Collapse: Why do Civilizations Fall?
An interactive online media exhibit from the Annenberg Foundation on various civilizations such as the Maya, Mesopotamia, Mali, and Songhai.

Eyewitness to History
Primary source documents, photos, and audio clips for thousands of historical events ranging from the Ancient World through the 20th century.

Fordham Hall Internet History Sourcebooks
A collection of historical texts (primary sources) from ancient history through modern history. Also includes historical texts from African, East Asian Global, and Islamic texts.

Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center 
Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center offers a wide variety of virtual educator resources, including Virtual Field Trips, Virtual Teaching Trunks, Virtual Professional Development, and online classroom lessons. IHMEC supports educators in creating a meaningful and effective Holocaust and genocide studies unit. 

Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS)
The Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS) is dedicated to improving the accuracy of K-12 instruction and instructional materials on Jews, Judaism, and Jewish history. ICS does this by providing free standards-aligned curricula, lesson plans utilizing primary sources, and providing professional development to teachers around the country.

The Sikh Coalition - Educator Resources
The Sikh Coalition has created lesson plans, compiled reading lists, case studies, media articles, and video resources to make it even easier to teach about Sikhism in classrooms. In addition, they have important anti-bullying resources for administrators.

The History Channel
This site provides numerous maps, audio clips, a world timeline of events, a women’s history exhibit, and much more!

The Middle Ages
An interactive online media exhibit from the Annenberg Foundation focusing on life, religion, health, clothing, etc. of people during the Middle Ages.

Renaissance
An interactive online media exhibit from the Annenberg Foundation focusing on various aspects of the Renaissance including exploration, trade, printing, thought, etc.

Rethinking the Region: New Approaches to teaching the Modern Middle East and North Africa
A curriculum resource of 15 lesson plans (with appended and accompanying resources) to help U.S. and world history high school educators teach about the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in their classrooms. The curriculum is framed around the following themes: women and gender, plural identities, political and social movements, empire and nation, and arts and technology. The lessons draw heavily on primary source materials.

Teach Mideast
TeachMideast is a website designed for K-12 educators featuring numerous innovative resources for teaching about the Middle East and Islam. The site includes essays, classroom activities, downloadable multimedia content and interactive Google Earth tours. The website is broken down into eight themes: Stereotypes and realities, geography, history, people & languages, religion, culture, and current issues. In addition, Google Earth tours have been designed for each theme.

Time Map
An interactive atlas of world history containing over 650 maps and 1,000 pages of written narrative. It allows users to see the rise and fall of all civilizations, empires and nations within their full historic and geographic contexts.

Veterans National Education Project (V-NEP)
V-NEP has developed a website to help educators engage students in learning Modern History and current events. They provide historically accurate, relevant educational resources, with a focus on events "as seen through the eyes of veterans." Through the Global Awareness Map, V-NEP presents the cultures and history of the 142 countries where the U.S. military serves or has a strategic interest. This online, interactive map has multi-media and visual content, film clips, lesson plans and classroom discussion points on many 'hot spot' countries actively in the news.

We are Sikhs
This website provides an overview of the Sikh community.  Learn who the Sikhs are and what they stand for.  The site provides an in depth look at their values, lifestyle, and community.

World Digital Library
This site includes timelines, interactive maps and historical documents. The WDL is a project of the Library of Congress with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world.

The World Factbook
The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The online version of the World Factbook is developed and maintained by the CIA.

World History For Us All
An innovative “model” curriculum for teaching world history. The content is organized into 9 “big” eras. Within each era, the content is further divided into the following themes: Humans & the Environment, Humans & Other Humans, and Humans & Ideas. This site is a project of San Diego State University in cooperation with the National Center for History in the Schools at UCLA.