OneWorld History

The mission

As a society, we are sort of fracturing. We can't agree on commonalities anymore. The common knowledge base has shifted. We don't know the same things the other people know. People speak in different languages, and even within languages, they speak in different communities in different ways. There's a huge complexity there, but there should be somewhere on the internet that you can go to, to get a decent explanation of the entire world, relatively easily. And then go into basically as much depth as you want to — or as you have time for.

If you want to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday learning about a country, you will, of course, never know it fully without having lived there. But from the outside, you will understand it with a greater degree of knowledge.

The mission is to create compelling media that is as historically accurate as it can be, to tell the truth of what has happened, to reengage humans in the study of history, and make it as accessible as possible — in all languages around the world.

This is not an individual's attempt to create a monopoly on truth. What it is, is to create a tree of truth: a trunk that can support branches that become less and less substantiated, provided there are sources. On the edges of this tree, there will be things that will possibly be untrue, because they were recorded improperly. The trunk itself has a high probabilistic certainty — not a guarantee. There's always the possibility of being overturned. And if that happens, it's a beautiful and exciting thing, and something the site itself will record.

It's about making sure there's somewhere we can go that's checked with multiple models, that humans will then interact with and agree and disagree with in different ways, and check against the non-digital reality. Which is exactly what needs to happen for the shared pool of common knowledge to grow. This is a collaborative project. Joining in and being part of this is a collaborative project to make and grow and explore our shared knowledge.

How it works

The product is one globe and one timeline: guided tours, maps of how borders changed, data, and sourced event cards.

The AI has basically set a baseline. We know that it's not infallible. Humans come in and add their critiques, or do their tours and walk people through how they would tell the story of these sequences of events.

We're going to do our best to teach history the best way we possibly can. We'll use maps, sourced tours, and AI-generated pictures and videos — labelled, never presented as photographs, and always open to be re-verified — lots of different ways to help people understand what actually happened in the past.

So long as it's based in truth, it should be told. Or at least it should be a place for people to tell their truths if they would like to, but that will always be a side quest. The main quest will be to understand what we know to have occurred.

On non-war tours, viewpoints are labelled Positive, Neutral, or Negative. War tours use each side's name and a Balanced view.

Teachers can use this on a whiteboard as a teaching tool to walk through different wars, and students can take tours themselves. It is a starting point and a companion to learning, not a substitute for textbooks, teachers, or primary sources.

What we value

• Truth and verifiability above all. Accuracy comes before speed, polish, or reach.
• Cited claims. Every claim should point back to sources you can read and judge. Every figure should name its source.
• Corroboration and evidence hierarchies. Independent sources matter. Quality of evidence matters. Consensus is not enough, because false consensus exists.
• Numbers that cannot be independently corroborated are flagged, whoever produced them.
• Legitimate critique is welcome. If something is wrong, missing, or unfairly framed, we want to hear it and fix it.
• Honesty about what is still growing. This is a public beta. Some topics are thin, and some will contain mistakes we have not yet found.

A note from the founder

I'm building a verified historical repository: questions asked, answers fact-checked and corroborated, then turned into a deep, searchable teaching database — and low energy once it's built, not a forever-burning chat. The work is AI-assisted, and then it has to stand up to human critique and to the record itself.

I want this to be a place we can stand on together — a floor of truth, not a finished ceiling. If you find an error, write to me.

— Jon

Jon Roberts, Canadian history teacher and the founder of OneWorld History.

Contact

For critique, corrections, and questions: jon@oneworldhistory.com.