What would be a good free online source for getting a middling level of understanding of historical events?

by lavjey

I've recently found myself realising there is so much world history I know nothing about, and I'm on a bit of a quest to better myself and learn more about the things I'm curious about. Unfortunately I've found it hard to find good sources for my level of interest. Every time I find myself searching for a topic online I'm either met with an overly simplistic overview or something so in depth a laymen like me can't understand it. What I'm asking for is your personal recommendations for a source where I can get the following sorts of information:

  • A detailed overview of the events, not super simplistic but also not assuming any knowledge from the reader.
  • What led up to the events occurring (including Geo-political factors and previous historical events - e.g. How the war in Vietnam with the US affected Cambodia and the formation of the Khmer Rouge)
  • the key players in these events, their stories and the aftermath.

Some of the topics that have taken my interest lately are:

  • Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
  • The Cold War
  • Cuba, it's fight for independence, the bay of pigs, I'd also love to learn more about Ché and Chavez

I apologise if this isn't the right forum for this question but I just thought that this would be my best port of call, as I'm hoping to come back here with more specific questions once I have a better knowledge of the topics I'm interested in.

PrincessAnika

While it is generally frowned upon to use as a source in research, the reality is that Wikipedia tends to give a pretty thorough overview of most things, without a whole lot of prior knowledge. If you come across something you don't understand, odds are it will also be a link to the article on that topic as well. From there, you can expand out into books, and you'll even have a small reading list available to you if you look into which books are being cited in the article.