A guide to the language of history
History glossary
Understand the people, places and ideas behind the stories. Find a term, read its meaning, then explore it in context.
181–216 of 797 terms
détente
a relaxation of tensions between rival powers, especially during the Cold War.
dharma
the teaching, moral order or path central to Buddhist life.
dictator
a Roman emergency magistrate given extraordinary authority for a limited crisis, though later rulers stretched the idea toward one-person rule.
Dictatus Papae
a 1075 list of claims asserting sweeping papal authority.
Digest
the part of Justinian's legal compilation that arranged extracts from classical Roman jurists.
Diktat
a dictated settlement imposed without genuine negotiation.
diocesan
relating to a diocese, the territory overseen by a bishop.
diplomacy
negotiation between states or political actors to manage conflict, alliances, or settlements.
direct action
protest that directly challenges a practice rather than only asking officials to change it.
disfranchisement
the denial or removal of the right to vote, including through discriminatory registration barriers.
disinformation
false or misleading information spread deliberately to confuse, persuade, or weaken trust.
dissolution
the legal and political breaking apart of a state or union.
Divine authority
a claim that power is backed by, granted by, or connected to the gods.
Divine kingship
the idea that a ruler's power is connected to gods, religion, or sacred authority.
Doctrine
a formal teaching, principle, or set of ideas used to guide belief or action.
Domesday Book
the great 1086 survey of land, wealth, and obligations across much of Norman England.
Drevlians
an East Slavic group subject to Rus tribute demands, remembered for killing Prince Igor in 945.
Druids
Celtic religious and intellectual specialists who preserved law, ritual, history, and teaching through oral tradition.
Dynasty
a sequence of rulers from the same family or ruling house.
East India Company
the chartered English trading company that grew from Asian commerce into territorial and military power in India.
Eastern Roman Empire
the eastern half of the Roman Empire, centered on Constantinople, which survived the fall of western imperial rule.
Edict of Milan
the 313 agreement granting legal toleration to Christianity in the Roman Empire.
edicts
royal inscriptions through which Ashoka communicated policy and moral instruction.
Einsatzgruppen
mobile Nazi killing units that carried out mass shootings behind German lines, especially in occupied eastern Europe.
Emancipation
the freeing of enslaved people or oppressed groups from legal control.
Emergency Committee
the group of Soviet hardliners who attempted the August 1991 coup.
Empire
a large political system in which one power rules many peoples or territories.
Empiricism
the idea that knowledge should be based on observation, evidence, and experience.
Enabling Act
the March 1933 law that let Hitler's cabinet pass laws without normal Reichstag approval.
enclosure
the consolidation and privatization of common or scattered farmland, often displacing rural people.
Enlightenment
an eighteenth-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, reform, science, and criticism of inherited authority.
Epic of Gilgamesh
an ancient Mesopotamian poem about King Gilgamesh of Uruk, friendship, fame, death, and the search for meaning.
equal protection
the constitutional principle that government must provide people equal protection of the laws.
Estates-General
the representative assembly of France’s three estates called in 1789 amid fiscal and political crisis.
Etemenanki
the great ziggurat of Babylon dedicated to Marduk, possibly linked to later Tower of Babel traditions.
Eternal Public Peace
the 1495 ban on private feuding among members of the empire.
