Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.

Even an inclusive national history curriculum can make Britain (and Europe) appear as the lynchpin of world history. Without a coherent structure for global history, young people remain unaware that continents beyond Europe have histories of equal significance.

This article suggests ways children can explore how sophisticated human societies have developed and often influenced each other, across the globe. All societies have features in common as well as differences, which children can compare and contrast.

World history topics of 1999

The 1999 list with its minimum requirement of one world topic for KS2, confusingly, made no distinction between civilisations from the remote past (Ancient Egypt, Indus Valley, Ancient Sumer, the Assyrian Empire) and those contemporary with British and European History in the Common Era (Maya - classic period, Aztecs, and Benin).