Quote Originally Posted by Jolt View Post
Still, there is an colossal amount of works which do not get translated into English. For instance, my major area of interest is the Portuguese Discoveries, and if I wanted to stick to English, I wouldn't get nearly anywhere. Practically every credible primary and secondary source is written in Portuguese, and the major works written in English about the subject speak in a general manner (With differing levels of objectivity) of the Portuguese discoveries as a whole, and the major events of it. Things like the Portuguese presence in Macau and China during the 16th-18th, or Indian Portuguese Empire during that time (Which could very well allow for a master's thesis), giving just two examples, you won't get anything in English, or what you can get from it, you can easily get much more information in Portuguese.

So yeah, I'd say history is far, far, from being English dominated.

EDIT:
Ancient Egypt era: Egyptian hieroglyphs and derivates
Ancient Babylonia/Assyria: Akkadian cuneiforms
Ancient Greece: Koine Greek (For Alexandrian and Diadochi periods, learning Akkadian and/or Elamite cuneiforms can also be useful. There is a bounty of information written down from primary sources in those languages)
Roman era: Classical Latin
Dark Ages/Medieval era: Medieval Latin and the language of the area you're specializing in.
English is dominating historical publications. Of course as I stated the modern language(s) of the place you're interested in is important too. Also Iberia is more dominated by it's local languages compared to most other nearby regions. Is that because noone bothers to learn spanish or portuguese, as they don't bother to learn other languages, I'm not sure?