Beginner · 2h 6m · 18 lessons
History: Beginner
Ask how we know, and the past starts to talk.
What you'll learn
- ✦Explain how historians use coins, inscriptions, texts and buildings, and say what each cannot tell
- ✦Place events on a BCE and CE timeline, and work out the years between two dates
- ✦Compare two sources about the same person or event and say what each shows and hides
- ✦Explain how people moved from hunting to farming and first cities, using site evidence
- ✦Explain what early republics, new ideas and Ashoka's inscriptions tell us about ancient India
- ✦Explain how trade, taxes, praise poems and buildings show who held power
- ✦Explain how Sultans, Mughals and bhakti and Sufi teachers shaped politics and regional cultures
- ✦Trace how the East India Company became a ruler, and how one policy changed a family's life
Certification projects
Build 3 projects to earn your certificate
Hands-on work that proves you can apply what you learned — part of the certificate requirements.
Syllabus
Module 1 · 21m
How Historians Know Free
What you'll be able to do
- Name four kinds of source and what each can tell us
- Place events on a BCE and CE timeline
- Compare two accounts of one event
Module 2 · 21m
Early Societies Locked
What you'll be able to do
- Explain how farming began using site evidence
- Describe a Harappan city from what was dug up
- Tell what a text and a burial site each show
Module 3 · 21m
Kingdoms and New Ideas Locked
What you'll be able to do
- Tell a kingdom from a sangha
- Explain the new questions of Buddha's and Mahavira's age
- Read an inscription for what it shows and hides
Module 4 · 21m
Trade, Power and Buildings Locked
What you'll be able to do
- Trace a trade route from its evidence
- Read a praise poem with care
- Read a building as a source
Module 5 · 21m
Sultans, Mughals and Regional Cultures Locked
What you'll be able to do
- Explain how a large empire was held together
- Explain how devotional songs shaped regional cultures
- Show how tribal and nomadic groups linked to trade
Module 6 · 21m
The Colonial Period Locked
What you'll be able to do
- Trace how the Company became a ruler
- Explain how a policy changed one family's life
- Place 1857 to 1947 on one timeline