The last indigenous state of Mesoamerica, the Aztec Empire was founded by nomads in the Valley of Mexico in 1325 CE. Before the arrival of the Spanish in 1519 CE, Aztec authority spread by conquest from their capital at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City) through most of present-day Mexico. Aztec power ended with Spanish conquest. According to the ancient Mexican calendar, the wind and storm god Quetzalcoatl was born in Year 1 Reed.

Some of the earliest examples of writing in Mesoamerica can be found in the Zapotec area in the fertile area of the Valley of Oaxaca. Around 600 BCE the Zapotecs erected some of the earliest permanent architecture dedicated to public ritual at the site of San José Mogote. Beginning in 300 BCE, residents eventually settled at the hilltop site of Monte Albán, which dominated the Valley of Oaxaca and its surrounding areas for hundreds of years.

In 1853, building on the international success of his celebrated statue

The Grand Tour can be understood as the original "liberal arts" education. From the 16th through the 19th centuries, wealthy young people, mostly men, from England or Germany would journey south to Paris and especially to Venice, Florence, and Rome. They were attracted to the paintings and sculpture of the Renaissance and the antiquities of Rome.

Semiramis was a historical Assyrian queen of Babylonian birth, who lived and reigned around 800 B.C.E. By the 18th century the legends associated with her life had eclipsed her actual accomplishments as queen, notably due to the popularity of Voltaire's eponymous play, written in 1748. His version of her life centered on palace intrigue, notably the beautiful queen's affair with Assur, and her plot to have him poison her husband, the king.