Since 'next' is a time-order word, you need another.
'Then' is a time-order word. You are not stating a 'fact', nothing happened abruptly, or 'suddenly', and you aren't comparing anything, 'similarly'.
The answer is A. his long and notable history of his people. Although the speaker uses first person, he is in fact speaking of his people's history because he/she refers to many locations around the world and many different periods throughout time.
