Empire: World History

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...

162. The Oregon Trail & the Gold Rush

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Fort Laramie was once a stockade where European fur traders and Native Americans lived together peacefully. But by the 1850s it became a stop-over alo...

161. The Trail of Tears

19 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Despite having fought alongside them, President Andrew Jackson hated Native Nations. In the early 1800s, he sought to deceive Cherokee tribes into giv...

160. Native Nations vs Thomas Jefferson

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

North America was never virgin territory. For thousands of years it has been home to established nations of Indigenous people who founded ancient citi...

159. The American Revolution: Building The New Rome (Ep 4)

12 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The British have surrendered, they’ll be leaving soon. Now the Americans have a new and arguably harder task than before. They have to meld those 13...

158. The American Revolution: Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness (Ep 3)

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Declaration of Independence establishes the ideals on which this break away nation founds itself on. But it’s full of contradictions. It complai...

157. The American Revolution: The Shot Heard Around the World (Ep 2)

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The infamous Boston Tea Party sees colonists dressed as Native Americans dump British tea in the surrounding waters. Calls of “the British are comin...

156. The American Revolution: No Taxation Without Representation (Ep 1)

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From sugar to paper, a series of taxes in the 1760s spark outrage amongst American colonists that snowball into a revolution. Was it inevitable that t...

155. The Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin (Ep 5)

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We're all about the Benjamins. Franklin is unquestionably the most well-rounded of the Founding Fathers. Not only did he help draft the Declaration of...

154. The Founding Fathers: John Adams (Ep 4)

29 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Often given less attention than the other Founding Fathers, John Adams is no less significant. Not only did he go on to be the second US President, bu...

153. The Founding Fathers: Alexander Hamilton (Ep 3)

28 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished in sq...

152. The Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson (Ep 2)

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Jefferson is one of the most complex figures in the whole American Revolution. A child of the enlightenment, it was he who wrote 'we hold these...

151. The Founding Fathers: George Washington (Ep 1)

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Everybody knows Washington as the strapping, powerful general and then president who helped to overthrow the British and forge America, but how did he...

150. Worlds Colliding: Seizing Settlers in New England

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Deerfield, February 1704. The small, puritan town of roughly 300 inhabitants in western Massachusetts has been riven with tension ever since the Frenc...

149. Pocahontas: Kidnapped in Virginia

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most famous names in American history, Pocahontas had an extraordinary life. She was the daughter of Powhatan, a great Native American chie...

148. America: The Empire of Liberty

13 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Empire that dare not speak its name. America was born through an explicit rejection of empire as it forced the British from the continent and inde...

147. Queen Victoria: Empress of India (Ep 4)

08 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1877 Queen Victoria took on the title Empress of India, a nation which she undoubtedly had close to her heart. Yet, under her reign and that of her...

146. Queen Victoria: The Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets (Ep 3)

06 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Across 1851, over 6,000,000 people went to London to see the Great Exhibition. Designed to showcase the very best of what Britain and the empire could...