The Age of Empires series tells the history of wars and great empires/cultures. Every game has multiple campaigns, and I think they're worth playing.
You don't need to have played one of the games before, but if you're intressted in the time from Paleolithic (Hunter-gatherer times) to Iron Age you can take a look into the first game. The first game also has a addon called "The Rise of Rome", as the title suggests it's about acient times.
The second begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends around the time of Columbus (re)discovery of America.
The third game begins around the discovery of America by Columbus and ends just before the american civil war.
Then there is a 4. game called Age of Mythology which hopefully gets a new release too, it's about Greeks, Egyptians, and Norse mythology (a addon added the chinese mythology later on).
I suggest to pick the one about the time period you're most intressted in, or just all of them
(I think the 2. game was most fun game mechanic wise). They aren't learning games in the classic sense, so expect some liberties if it comes to actual gameplay (but not in the briefings before the mission begins).
It was planned to have a forth game (if you don't count Age of Mythology) about the modern age and a last fifth one about the futur, maybe they continue the series now as planned (or this is the final entry: from american civil war up to the future, idk if it will end in "peace" or just with the end of human race
)
I see. Thanks for the information.