History glossary
hereditary
passed down through family inheritance, usually within a ruling house, noble lineage or office-holding family.
- Category
- Social and political concept
- Region
- Global
- Date range
- Varies
What it means
Hereditary status, power or office passes through family inheritance. Qin rulers attacked older hereditary privilege because inherited local authority could compete with the central state and recreate the regional rivalries that had weakened the Zhou world.
Related terms
Stories using this term
The Celtic World Before Rome
Celtic tribes spanned Europe, shaping culture, conflict, and a lasting legacy.
The Elizabethan Age
Elizabeth I’s reign brought stability, cultural flourishing, exploration, and victory over the Spanish Armada.
The Kim Dynasty
North Korea’s Kim dynasty built a nuclear-armed regime, maintaining power through crises and control.
The Tudor Dynasty
The Tudors strengthened royal power, drove religious change, and shaped early modern England.
Feudalism and Medieval Society
From the estates of Charlemagne's empire to the flowering of Gothic cathedrals, this story explores how feudal hierarchies, manorial agriculture, and Church authority shaped the lives of kings, knights, and peasants alike.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece was a civilisation of city-states, sailors, philosophers, soldiers, artists, and political experiments whose influence reached far beyond the Aegean world. From Athens and Sparta to the Persian Wars, democracy, philosophy, drama, and Alexander the Great, Greek history helped shape ideas about citizenship, empire, knowledge, and culture. Its legacy survived through Rome, Byzantium, Islam, and modern Europe, making Ancient Greece central to the story of the classical world.
Ancient Egypt
Follow Ancient Egypt from its unification around 3100 BCE to Cleopatra's defeat in 30 BCE. This story explains how the Nile River, pharaohs, pyramids, gods, temples, hieroglyphics and burial beliefs helped one of history's longest-lasting civilizations endure for more than 3,000 years.
Early China
From Neolithic farming villages to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Early China built the writing, bronze culture, and political doctrines that gave Chinese civilisation its enduring character.
