What is historical background?

Answer 1

There are many well known historic events. Often though it is necessary to know some of the circumstances that led to those events or extra information that will explain the way things were done or cultural elements, society of that time, laws, customs etc. This makes it easier to understand the main historical event. That other information is known as historical background. For example, World War II is a historic event, but some of the causes go back a long way and were influenced by many factors. World War II started on the 3rd of September 1939. You could study it from that day onwards, but to really get a better understanding of World War II you need to go back in history much further, back to World War I and even before that.

So if you are studying events in history, knowing some of the historical background of those events makes them easier to understand, so it is very important in studying history and even other things from the past, like stories, art, music. Old stories or old paintings or lyrics of older songs may more sense if you know about when they were created and what was important then, who were famous people then, what way people lived their lives. Again that is all historical background.