What is the best way to learn the basics to world history online without having to take a class or pay money?

Have you heard of a library? The loan you books for free.

To learn the basics online, you’re actually going to have to know some basics, so that you know what to search for (eg World War 2). By trying to do it yourself without taking a class, you will have to put a lot more work in and you may find it quite daunting to work out which parts of world history to focus on. (At least in a class the tutors have worked all that out for you and can structure your learning better.)

For a more general overview, perhaps you could do searches on the relationships between different countries and look at the history of those – you would learn a lot about the world by examining how different countries have related to each other over the decades/centuries.

Hi and welcome to fluther.

I don’t why this is a meta question, but I have just the thing for you:

Yale has free video courses online HERE

That link goes directly to the History course. I “took” Psych. Enjoy.

Well, you could start with Wikipedia.

[mod says] Question has been moved to the General Section.

Wikipedia is half-decent. Takes a bit of legwork, and you’re probably not going to get the whole story, but it is free.

I would find a world history textbook that gets lots of good reviews. You can get used copies on Amazon or Half.com for under $10 (especially if you go for an older version). My school uses this and this paired with this.
I would also find someone that has taken a World History class (they’re split into two parts, prehistory to 1500ish and 1500ish to now) and has taken really good notes, and get their notes from them.

I find audio books to be a good way to learn as I can listen to them at work or while doing other things...librivox.org has some good books and is free and in the public domain. I have never searched for any history on the site but it might have some hidden gems. If you arnt bothered about legalities (not that i recommend) my friends tell me most torrent sites have audio books. Good luck :)

Thank you for your suggestions…harple gave a great suggestions to study the history of each country I should then learn lots of differences…though I’m thinking a class and tutor sounds like that should work for me.

Start with wikipedia and then click on each of the blue word subsections that say main article then move on to the sources at the bottom.

I like finding class syllabi online at good universities and reading the outlines for the classes, and the suggested reading. Even if I don’t do the work, understanding what the framework is for a course of study can be interesting. You could then either work through the material for that course, supplementing it with videos and other reading, or put together your own structure, once you understand what’s important. A survey class would give you a general understanding, and then you could fill in with what interests you.

@Needtonomore Tried the Yale course? People pay upwards of 20 grand a year to watch and learn from this Prof at that school. Just saying.