How about that time :uncle-ho-2: wrote a Vietnamese declaration of independence largely based on the U.S. one and asked the U.S. for recognition at the end of WWII, but the U.S. ignored it and backed the French recolonization? Kicked off ~35 years of near-continuous war in the country right on the heels of the largest conflict in human history.

All sorts of interesting angles: the infancy of the Cold War (and how it could have been done differently), the U.S. stepping into the shoes of the old European colonial powers, how the U.S. pushed national liberation movements away/towards communism (a pattern that would be repeated in Cuba and elsewhere), the seeds of the modern anticolonial movement, the "blowback" angle of this coming back to bite the U.S. hard (another pattern that would repeat), etc.

Monroe Doctrine and its consequences

Various CIA operations and planned operations that involved US citizens/US soil (Northwoods, drug trafficking, MKULTRA, and human experimentation in general - it goes beyond LSD)

Cuba’s MODERN literacy program and how it compares to western/capitalist programs (Cuba’s programs are being used by tens of millions of underserved people)

Superimperialism - how the US got off the gold standard and dominated the world with less overt war

Strategy of tension, GLADIO, blowback

The history of industrialization and capitalism. You can probably sneak in a little about how it’s time to find an “alternative”

Shock doctrine is post-communist states around the world

The Warlord Era of china (this one is wild)

Simply write a note informing the teacher that History ended in 1992

Haitian rev? It opens up avenues to compare and contrast with the French and maybe even American revs, the French doing their bourgeois revolution then immediately turning round and trying to keep the Haitians as slaves and slapping them with “reparations” for successfully freeing themselves.

(Edit: bonus of this is nobody can come back at you calling you a dirty commie or mark you down because you call out the US for teaming up with nazis in Central America or whatever. Nobody is gonna say “umm actually the Haitians should’ve stayed as slaves”)

:jb-shining: :jb-shining: :jb-shining: :jb-shining: :jb-shining:

A part of history I always found interesting was the 30 Years War.

In 1594, Henry IV was coronated king of France. But France was Catholic, a d he was very protestant. Ultimately, he converted but he put forth a policy of being permissive to protestants in France. After his death, his child, Louis XIII takes the reign. He, a long with his cardinal, are Catholic but very wary of the Habsburgs, the ruling family of Austria-Hungary and Spain. So when the a war broke out between protestants and Catholics, Louis XIII sides with the protestants in a move his cardinal called 'raison d'etat' or reason of state.

This, in a way, invents the concept of a political state separate from bloodlines and religion in Europe, and leads the way for Louis XIII's absolute monarchy.

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That's a pretty short paper. You're going to want to tighten up your topic quite a lot or you're going to be trying to cram an entire book into 5 pages. Do you have any questions you'd like to answer? Any small aspect of some event/conflict/whatever that makes you curious would be a good place to start if you want to dig in and do something interesting. On the other hand, if you're just looking to pump out a paper and move on with your life (no shame, when you're in college, you're constantly balancing a lot of demands on your time. Not every paper can be the deepest and best you can manage), then pick something that you already have a good foundation of knowledge about and delve into a small aspect of it that can be covered well in 5-7 pages.

Also, as a former writing center employee, I must suggest taking your paper to the writing center to help with any stage of the writing process, whether you're having trouble getting started or whether you'd like another pair of eyes to just proofread.

tbh just write about the holodomor, collect a 100% and maybe even an award, scholarship, and/or local media attention depending on how hard you market yourself

use that recognition and fame to then pivot to a grifter full time and enjoy the easy money

Les Mis, the event (The Paris Revolt of 1832)

The Shearer's Strikes and early unionism in Australia (leading to the first Social Democratic government in the world)

The Scottish clearences and the post 1745 political settlement in the context of the construction of capitalism.

1848 and all that

Ethiopia and fucking over the Colonialists

Early Anti-colonial movements in Africa

Paris Commune

Bengal famine, make sure to show some love to Churchill.

Plaza accord and the destruction of the Japanese economy, you should point out how the US is trying the same thing again with China.

1964 Brazilian dictatorship Assasination and torture of leftists organizers and journalists. 50 years later nobody faced any consequences.

If you want to go big Shaun on the Hiroshima bomb. Obviously 5 pages is not enough, but if you watch the video I think you can condense down the argument to a few bullet points along with using the same historical quotes as he did. I recommend you watch it anyway if you haven't already its a masterful presentation.

Sorry its 20th century biased.

One of my favorite would be Thomas Sankara, this is a decent number of interviews about him.

Write about all the pipe JFK laid. Jk he was exclusively monogamous with Jackie.

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you could try development and trends of capitalism from 1500-present, arrighi has a three part series of books on this and sources/arguments should be pretty simple

just skim and paraphrase key segments of his 'the long twentieth century'

alternatively you could angle for something like the decline of the US empire and lift parts from the sequels, 'adam smith in beijing' and 'chaos and governance in the modern world system'