Empire: World History
Episodes
260. Yalta: Signing Away The Fate of The World (Ep 5)
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Did the Western powers fail at Yalta? Did Churchill hold strong in his red line about the fate of Poland? Why did the Big Three eat a huge feast in th...
259. Eastern Europe & “The Great Betrayal” (Ep 4)
28 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who created the United Nations? How did The Big Three divide Germany between themselves? Why did Poland see the Yalta conference as “The Great Betra...
258. The Big Three & The Big Carve Up (Ep 3)
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Where did The Big Three stay as they carved up the post-war world map, and why were their rooms full of bedbugs? Why did FDR refuse to allow the press...
257. Churchill, FDR, & Mind Games at Yalta (Ep 2)
21 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did FDR become the mediator between Stalin and Churchill at the 1945 conference? Why did Churchill call Yalta the “Hades Riviera”? What was Mu...
256. Stalin & 8 Days That Changed The World (Ep 1)
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did one peace conference in Yalta in 1945 completely transform the world in just eight days? What was Joseph Stalin's backstory before becoming th...
255. Victorian Narcos: From Opium To Fentanyl (Ep 9)
14 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What led to the Second Opium War? Why wasn’t China colonised by Europeans? When did China start referring to this period as the “century of humili...
254. Victorian Narcos: Fire Monkeys, Iron Gunships, & Peasant Warfare (Ep 8)
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who won the First Opium War? Why did British troops feel guilty about their role? What treaty led to Britain taking control of Hong Kong? Anita and W...
253. Victorian Narcos: Drug Dealers Lead Britain to War (Ep 7)
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did opium traders convince the British Cabinet to wage war on China? Who was Lord Palmerston? Why was China, one of the biggest empires in the wor...
252. Victorian Narcos: Selling Drugs To The Queen (Ep 6)
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who was Commissioner Lin and how did he crack down on foreign opium in China? Why was Charles Elliot so hopeless that he landed Queen Victoria with a ...
251. Victorian Narcos: Flooding China With Indian Opium (Ep 5)
30 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who were Jardine and Matheson? What was life like for workers growing opium in India? How does George Orwell relate to the East India Company opium tr...
250. Victorian Narcos: Banished From Beijing (Ep 4)
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did the Macartney Mission fail so spectacularly? Where does the word ‘kowtow’ come from? Why were the diplomats banished from the Forbidden Ci...
249. Victorian Narcos: Doomed Envoy to China (Ep 3)
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who led the first British envoy to China? What did Europeans think of China in the 1700s? Why did the diplomats bring a huge planetarium as a gift for...
248. Victorian Narcos: Sex, Drugs, & The Opium Agency (Ep 2)
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did Britain create a violent monopoly on opium production in India in the 1700s? What was the Opium Agency? Why did Chinese elites use opium durin...
247. Victorian Narcos: Tea Starts A Drug War (Ep 1)
16 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did the British taste for tea start a war over the right to sell drugs to China? When did tea become fashionable in Britain? How did the Dutch bri...
246. Ireland Transformed: From Banning Condoms to Exporting Viagra
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did Ireland go from a farming economy to the home of Big Tech and Big Pharma in Europe in a few decades? Why were women imprisoned in “Magdalene...
245. Inside The Good Friday Agreement with Alastair Campbell
09 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What ended The Troubles? Why was 1998 the right moment for a peace treaty? Which issues caused the most heated debate? What was the food like in the n...
244. The Troubles: IRA Secrets Exposed (Ep 4)
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who was responsible for the murder of Jean McConville? Which IRA secrets were revealed in the Belfast Project tapes? How did Gerry Adams move into pol...
243. The Troubles: London Bombings, Hunger Strikes, & The Graveside Grenade (Ep 3)
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who organised the bombing of The Old Bailey in Central London? Why was Jean McConville abducted in December 1972? Why did the British government choos...
242. The Troubles: Bloody Sunday & The British Army in Belfast (Ep 2)
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What was the British Army’s policy of “Internment” in Northern Ireland, and how did it drive membership for the Provisional IRA? Who was General...
241. The Troubles: War in the Streets of Northern Ireland (Ep 1)
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What were The Troubles and why did they lead to 30 years of violence and division in Northern Ireland? How were Irish Catholics inspired by the Americ...
240. Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Irish Civil War (Ep 3)
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence in 1921, Michael Collins is sent to London to meet Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and other B...
239. Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Rise of The IRA (Ep 2)
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Irish republicans who led the Easter Rising of 1916 are tried for treason by the British government, and sentenced to death. Some are so unwell th...
238. Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Easter Rising (Ep 1)
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The 1916 Easter Rising was a definitive moment in 20th-century Irish history. Its memory was evoked throughout The Troubles, with republicans wearing ...
237. The Great Famine: The Irish Exodus to America (Ep 2)
13 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The legacy of the Great Famine continues to shape not only Ireland, but the Irish diaspora in America, Canada, and the UK. In the mid-1800s, starving ...
236. The Great Famine: The Blight Strikes Ireland (Ep 1)
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did the memory of the Great Famine shape Irish identity? Could it have been prevented? From 1845 to 1852, a disease decimated potato crops across...
235. The Viceroy, The Psychopath, and The Merchant: The Irish in Empire (Ep 3)
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ireland may have been England’s first colony but, by the 17th century, Irishmen were carving out their own imperial legacies in India. Gerald Aungie...
234. Battle of the Boyne: Clash of Two Kings (Ep 2)
04 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Restoration reinstates the monarchy in England, Scotland & Ireland, and Irish Catholics believe that they will get their lands back for their loya...
233. Blood and Betrayal: Oliver Cromwell's Irish Invasion (Ep 1)
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
His statue may stand proudly outside the Houses of Parliament in London, but in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell is remembered as “the Devil from over the S...
Legacy: Genghis Khan
26 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After victory in China, Genghis Khan goes west and takes on the Khwarezmians, surprising his enemy with a daring assault. He conquers all in his path ...
232. Colonising Ireland: The First Plantations (Ep 2)
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1607, after launching a failed rebellion in Ulster against the English, Hugh O’Neill and other Irish nobles are forced to flee Ireland, and their...
231. Colonising Ireland: Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, & The Tudor Conquest (Ep 1)
20 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ireland is the only country in Western Europe that has experienced being colonised in the modern era. It was used by England as a laboratory for imper...
230. Britain’s Last Colony: Trump, Brexit, and Russia-Ukraine (Ep 2)
18 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The future of the Chagos Islands hangs in the balance as world leaders debate how really owns the islands and who should be allowed to live there. Sin...
229. Britain’s Last Colony: The Second World War, Forced Deportations, and 9/11 (Ep 1)
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Chagos Islands have dominated news headlines over the past few months, but the struggle of the Chagossian people to reclaim their island home has ...
228. The Man Who Lived A Thousand Lives: Prisoner of War (Ep 2)
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel transformed India’s landscapes but faced immense personal struggles. Despite rising to prominence as the Maharaja of Mysor...
227. The Man Who Lived A Thousand Lives: Taming Nature (Ep 1)
06 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel's visionary work transformed the landscapes of India. From humble beginnings in Germany to an apprenticeship at Kew Gardens,...
226. The Rise and Fall of East India Company Painting (Ep 2)
04 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Calcutta in the late 18th century was a chaotic, fast-growing city, filled with fortune seekers, towering mansions, and an ever-present sense of imper...
225. Painting the Empire: Art of the East India Company (Ep 1)
30 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Company School painting is a fascinating yet often overlooked artistic tradition that emerged during the British East India Company’s rule in India....
224. Empire in Your Garden
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did plants power imperialism? Gardening may be a quintessentially British hobby, but many of the familiar plants in our lives have a global – a...
223. Empire of Plants: From Kew Gardens to Botany Bay
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kew Gardens near London is one of the most famous botanical gardens in the world, welcoming countless visitors every year. But what many visitors may ...
222. The Downfall of the Mughals (Ep 3)
21 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Aurangzeb is arguably the most controversial figure in Indian History. The mere mention of his name provokes fierce debate. Aurangzeb succeeded in sei...
221. War of Succession: The Battle That Shook India (Ep 2)
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
With their father in very bad health and rumours of his death swirling around the empire, Shah Jahan’s four sons decide it is their time to take his...
220. Battle of Brothers: The Puritan vs The Mystic (Ep 1)
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The battle of succession that erupted during a severe illness of Shah Jahan is often regarded as one which determined the fate of India. The eldest o...
219. Building The Taj Mahal: Love, Loss, & Splendour (Ep 2)
09 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Within days of his beloved wife’s death, Shah Jahan starts designing his grandest architectural project yet to express his love for her. Her mausole...
218. Creator of The Taj Mahal: Shah Jahan’s Rise to Power (Ep 1)
07 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Shah Jahan, the third son of the opium-addicted Jahangir, was born in 1592 with the name Khurram. More interested in precious gems and architecture th...
217. Zebras and Zodiacs: Jahangir’s Art Revolution
02 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Often overshadowed by his son’s architectural wonders like the Taj Mahal, Emperor Jahangir was a true connoisseur of beauty. His reign witnessed ...
216. Seeds of British India: England’s First Ambassador to the Mughal Court
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What do you buy for a man who has everything? Thomas Roe is tasked with wooing the Emperor Jahangir. On March 6th 1615, he sets sail from England o...
215. Jahangir: A World of Light And Darkness
26 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Prince Salim grows up in the continuously expanding empire of his father, Akbar. The young prince is being primed to take on this legacy, but he is mo...
214. The Empire of Frankincense & Myrrh
24 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“The Nabateans are a silent partner in everything that goes on in the high summer of the Ancient period” - Bettany Hughes By the time of Jesus’...
213. How Three Wise Men Became Three Kings
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the Three Wise Men has been reinterpreted since it was first written down. The gift-bearing visitors to the newborn Jesus were initially ...
212. Who Were The Three Wise Men?
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The truth behind the story of the Three Wise Men has more connections to empire than many of us realise… Featured in every Nativity scene in school...
211. A Beautiful World: The Art of Akbar
12 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a dyslexic child, Akbar explored his curiosities about the world through visual wonders, and by having literature read aloud to him. As an adult, h...
210. Akbar the Great: Revolutionising Religious Tolerance
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Raja Birbal is a man of such exceptional wisdom and wit that he will become the stuff of legends. Birbal is just one of the Nine Gems Akbar surrounds ...
209. Akbar the Great
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 1542, and the baby who will grow up to be Akbar the Great is born into nothing and nowhere. His father, Humayun is on the run to Persia and the...
208. Humayun Reconquers India
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Kicked out of India, Humayun roams the desert as a nomad, accompanied by his young pregnant wife, his court poets, and his library camels. Sher Shah h...
207. The Stargazing Hippie vs The Lion King
28 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On his death bed, Babur tells his eldest son not to fight with his brothers however awful they will be to him. As his father passes away, Humayun inhe...
Introducing... The Rest Is Classified
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It's Iran 1951. Mohammad Mosaddegh, fuelled by an ever-growing nationalism, has just been elected Prime Minister. Immediately he chooses to nationalis...
206. Babur: Guns, Gardens & Diamonds
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Against all odds, Babur defeats Sultan Lodi and captures Delhi. But despite the wealth that India can provide him, Babur hates his new home. He compla...
205. Babur: The Taking of Delhi
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“In Herat a man can’t stretch out his leg without touching a poet’s backside” - Babur It’s 1506, and Babur leaves his beloved base in Kabul...
204. Babur: The First Mughal Emperor
19 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“To wander from mountain to mountain, hopeless and homeless, has nothing to recommend it” - Babur Before he became the father of the Mughal dyna...
203. Captain Hook, Peter Pan & The Dark Side of Neverland
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
J.M. Barrie, the fascinating Scottish writer, gave us Peter Pan - the boy who never grows up, and his notorious pirate nemesis: Captain Hook. But wher...
202. Long John Silver: The Truth Behind Treasure Island
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Louis Stevenson, a sickly boy with a vivid imagination, grew up along Scotland’s rugged coast, where tales of shipwrecks and buried gold stir...
201. The Raj at War
07 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For many years, commemorations of the two World Wars excluded the memorialisation of soldiers from the British Empire. But campaigners have gradually ...
200. The East India Company’s Global Manhunt
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After robbing the fleet in a brutal, barbaric fashion, Henry Avery caused a diplomatic incident of global proportions. The Mughals were furious and th...
199. Robbing the World’s Wealthiest Dynasty
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most notable pirates of his day, Henry Avery would go on to make potentially the most lucrative heist ever on the high seas. Originally a n...
198. The Pirate Trial of the Century
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
William Kidd, a respectable Scottish privateer during the late 17th century, tasked with hunting down pirates on the orders of a murky cabal of Britis...
197. The Pirate Hunter
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alongside legends like Blackbeard and Calico Jack, William Kidd is one of the most famous pirates to have entered the public consciousness, thanks to ...
196. Blackbeard’s Reign of Terror
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“At our first salutation he drank damnation to me and my men who styled cowardly puppies saying he would neither give nor take quarter…” By the...
195. Blackbeard & the Pirates of the Caribbean
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The history of pirates is a thrilling kaleidoscope of adventure, devastation, violence and political intrigue, and never more so than during the 17th ...
194. Empire of Numbers: Fibonacci and the Birth of Modern Money
14 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When King Alfonso VI of León took Toledo from the Arabs in 1085, the history of western christendom changed forever. Within the city existed a number...
193. Empire of Numbers: The Indian Origin of Arabic Numerals
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Often called Arabic numerals, the modern number system we use today actually originates in India. Whilst in the west they were using Roman numerals, i...
192. Native American Chiefs, the Founding of Canada, and the KKK: Scots in America
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From India to Africa, the involvement and influence of Scots in the British Empire has been profound. In both arenas, they rose through the ranks as s...
191. Slave, Slaver, Abolitionist: Three Scots in Africa
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The extraordinary lives of three Scotsmen - John Henderson, Richard Oswald, and David Livingstone - encapsulate the polarities of the Scottish experie...
190. Rags to Riches: The Scots in India
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of Culloden, much of Scotland was on its knees. Crippled by defeat and the subsequent backlash of the British government, along with famin...
189. Culloden: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Last Stand
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Few battles in history have been remembered as powerfully, nor been as mythologised, as Culloden on the 16th of April 1746. Under the leadership of Ch...
188. Bonnie Prince Charlie: The Young Pretender
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1688 the Stuart King James II was ousted from the throne by his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, in what is called the Glorious Rev...
187. The Birth of Britain
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With the accession of James I and VI in 1603, Scotland was assimilated into the composite monarchy of the United Kingdom. James, an eccentric, insecur...
186. Scotland: A Nation in Crisis
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When charting the rise of Scotland’s global influence, few events have been as tragically remarkable as the Darien Scheme of 1698, which saw woefull...
185. The God Kings of Angkor Wat
11 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the 9th century AD, two years after the Holy Roman Empire was established in Western Christendom, another world-shaking empire was rising in the ea...
184. The Buddhist Merlin
09 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
While in the West the legends of King Arthur were being born, a Buddhist tantric magician of immense magical powers - Vajrabodhi - was enshrining hims...
183. The Poet Kings: Taking Hinduism to Southeast Asia
04 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
India’s transformation of the ancient world is indisputable, and tangible evidence of this can be found in the magnificent Hindu and Buddhist temple...
182. The Lady Macbeth of China
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Having garnered absolute power through bloody means, Empress Wu Zetian begins seeing apparitions, haunted by her violent schemes. With her husband inc...
181. The Dragon Empress: China’s Game of Thrones
28 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The inculcation of Buddhism from India as the state religion in China was enabled by the violent rise of China’s only ever woman Emperor. Raised by ...
180. Gold & God: Connecting India & Ancient Rome
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It was actually India, not China, that was the greatest trading partner of the Roman Empire. During this era, it’s clear that sea travel was the fas...
179. The Golden Road: Rise of the Indosphere
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religi...
178. The Vietnam War: Nixon, Vietnamisation, and the Fall of Saigon
19 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With Richard Nixon now in the White House and not wanting to have his presidency consumed by Vietnam like his predecessor’s was, he begins to search...
177. The Vietnam War: Lyndon Johnson, Americanisation, and Operation Rolling Thunder
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With the death of JFK, Lyndon B. Johnson took over the Presidency and immediately had to wrestle with America’s relationship with Vietnam after the ...
176. The Vietnam War: The Rise of Ho Chi Minh
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Vietnam, or Indochina as it was known, had been under French colonial rule since the nineteenth century. This was until the Vietnamese nationalist gro...
175. The CIA vs Fidel Castro
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Following the fall of Batista, the Cuban revolution took a more radical turn. Castro was not a communist to begin with, but as those around him became...
174. The Cuban Revolution
05 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s 1959 and the swaggering Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, has just overthrown the unpopular American backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Che G...
173. The Korean War: Dividing the Peninsula
31 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Korean War was a brutal affair. It is estimated that 3,000,000 people were killed in the conflict that absolutely devastated the Korean Peninsula....
172. The Birth of North Korea
29 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Whilst we know the Korean Peninsula is split into two quite separate countries, North Korea and South Korea, that has not always been been the case. K...
171. The Bengal Famine: Chaos in Calcutta
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By 1943, the price of rice was beyond unaffordable for most in Bengal, and people were dying in the streets. Despite government censorship of letters,...
170. The Bengal Famine: A Disaster on the Horizon
22 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1942, in the midst of the Second World War, the British administration feared that Japanese forces would take India as part of their campaign. To p...
169. Freedom Fighters Betrayed: Colonising the Philippines
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By the end of the Spanish-US war, the Philippines was on the menu. Two battles played out simultaneously on the archipelago: and old and a new empire ...
168. Teddy Roosevelt Takes on the Old World
15 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1898, whilst his boss was on a break at the osteopath, Teddy Roosevelt basically started a war. A master of the press, he managed to whip up war fe...
167. Paradise Lost: The Taking of Hawaii
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On 7th July 1898, President McKinley formally annexed Hawaii, making it a colonial territory of the USA. It was not until 21st August, 1959, that it b...
166. How To Hide An Empire
08 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Not everyone agrees that the USA should be classed as an empire. But in the late 1800s, after white settlers had colonised western states, America tur...
165. A Massacre at Dawn
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Arizona Territory, April 30, 1871. The canyon known as Aravaipa lies still in the predawn darkness, the only sounds to be heard in the early-morning c...
164. How the West was Won: The Truth Behind the Westerns
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A whole genre of movies is based on a relatively short period of nineteenth-century American history. But what is the real story behind battles betwee...
163. The Tattooed Girl: From Mormon to Native American
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1850, 13-year-old Olive Oatman and her family set off on the perilous journey by foot from Missouri to Arizona. Olive and her little sister were ca...