5 Historical Documentary YouTube Channels You’ll Want To Subscribe To

Studying history is an important aspect of our everyday lives. With it, we can learn things from the past to better our future and avoid the mistakes our ancestors committed and even find inspiration on how to go about our lives.

However, studying history shouldn't be limited to books tucked away in a library or in often dramatized and historically inaccurate movies.

As such, here are some YouTube channels you may want to visit if you wish to learn more about the days gone by:

Kings And Generals

The Kings and Channels YouTube channel mostly focuses on military engagements in history, from the Roman civil war between Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

However, what's unique about this YouTube channel is that it also covers why these conflicts happened and an unbiased reporting from both sides as best they can since historical records are often lost to time.

The channel also covers some of the important events in history and information not usually taught in school, such as how the Roman legionnaires went from using the phalanx to the triplex acies (triple line) and how the Great Schism happened.

If you're a Total War fan, then you're in luck. The Kings and Generals YouTube Channel often use games from the video game series like Rome 2: Total War and Atilla: Total War to provide visuals when it tackles topics about the Classical and Medieval Ages.

Oversimplified

If you're looking for a YouTube channel that condenses all you need to know into a bite-sized and digestible 30-minute video, then Oversimplified is the YouTube channel you're looking for.

Aside from staying true to its name of oversimplifying history to make it more understandable for the average joe, it also uses its own original artwork to portray historical characters (with some comedic effect.)

You can even see a fairly accurate representation of Napoleon "reenacting" how he rose to power and became The First Consul.

What's unique about this channel, though, is that it managed to make history fun to learn due to its use of inside jokes and memes, along with no small measure of humor.

Timeline - World History Documentaries

Timeline - World History Documentaries is more of a traditional approach to historical documentaries. The YouTube channel hosts hours-long professionally-made documentaries ranging that cover mostly everything that happened under the sun.

These documentaries cover events like the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the burying of Pompeii and Herculaneum and even Pontius Pilate's role in the Passion. They even have shows discussing the weapons used during the Battle of Waterloo (hosted by Sean Bean!) and how Hawaii became America's 50th state.

If you're looking for professionally-made historical documentaries you can binge-watch for free, then this YouTube channel is the one you're looking for.

Modern History TV

The Modern History channel focuses more on the life of the nobility and the peasantry from the Middle Ages, with Jason Kingsley OBE, the owner of the channel, testing out what it was actually like to be in the Middle Ages. As such, the videos often feature Kingsley trying things like the food of the average serf at the time to wearing full plate armor and practicing fighting in it while looking like a literal knight in shining armor atop a white horse.

If you want to know how to become a knight in the Medieval Period or what the everyday life of a nobleman looks like, then this is the channel you're looking for.

Weird History

Ever wondered how the Romans wash their bum after defecating in the public baths, or how people keep themselves clean and presentable during the Victorian Era? The Weird History YouTube channel has the answers for you and more.

True to its name, the channel often focuses on the things history books in school tend to skip and/or overlook in favor of the important dates. Case in point, his videos include the likes of how President Ronald Reagan used astrology to make decisions, the history of Gout, and how you could survive the Black Death that took the lives of 20 million people in the mid-1400s.