The Merville Gun Battery held a threatening position to the east of Gold Beach from where it had the potential to devastate ships that would be landing British forces within its line of fire. It was heavily reinforced with four 6-ft (183-cm) thick concrete casemates covered in a further 6... More
After its liberation from Spain in 1821, Mexico, replicated colonial rule through la encomienda, a quasi-feudal system confining power to a coterie of wealthy landowners. In the election of 1910, Porfirio Diaz, the strongman who had ruled uninterrupted since 1877, was challenged by a reformist, Francisco Madero. Diaz had Madero... More
In the early 7th century, Muhammad’s steady unification of the warring tribes of Arabia appeared to be an insignificant sideshow in a remote backwater. What mattered was the clash of the Sassanid and Byzantine Empires in all-out war (602–28). Fortunes swung violently: the Sassanids captured Syria, Palestine and Egypt, then... More
The Middle Eastern map changed dramatically in the early 20th century, with many countries gaining independence from the Ottomans and later from British or French control. By 1960–61, the region was comprised of independent states, many of them made wealthy by their oil production and reserves. Pan-Arabism, initiated by the... More
At the end of the third millennium BCE, the city-state of Ur presided over most of Mesopotamia. Apart from the capital, there were important subsidiary centres at Sippar, Nippur and Isin. After the death of the ruler, Shulgi, early in the second millennium BCE, Ur fell into decline, and was... More
In c. 900 the Middle East was on the eve of its domination by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which came to control much of the region with Ashurnasirpal II, king of Assyria, ruthlessly expanding his borders as far north as Phrygia and south to absorb Babylonia and Elam. The Levantine states,... More
Some of Egypt’s greatest statuary, art and literature was produced during this era (c. 2000–1523 BCE). It began with reunification and ended with enemy occupation. Amenemhat I (the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom) and his successors ruled Egypt for 200 years. Amenemhat, I moved the capital from Thebes to... More
Since the birth of agriculture, the settled populations of China’s great floodplains were perennial targets for nomadic raiders from the Asian steppes. The first attempts to block these depredations with walls date back almost 3,000 years, with many succeeding permutations. The Ming came to power by expelling the Mongols, who... More
The Christian concept of a ministry encompasses a journey through which someone demonstrates their faith. Jesus’s ministry began with his baptism by John the Baptist and is considered by most scholars to have ended with the Last Supper in Jerusalem. The exact timeframe of the ministry is uncertain, although most... More
Cyril and Methodius were brothers born in Thessalonika in the early 9th century. The missionary Cyril (826–69) proved a brilliant linguist, while Methodius (815–85) was a sound administrator, who had risen to become an abbot of a monastery. The patriarch of Constantinople sent both the brothers when Prince Ratislav of... More
The Missouri Pacific (MP), chartered by Missouri in 1849, was the first railroad to be built west of the Mississippi River, and was to stretch from ‘St Louis to the western boundary of Missouri and thence to the Pacific Ocean’. The gold rush in 1848 had highlighted the need for... More
The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT) operated from 1870–1988, when it was merged into the Union Pacific. It was owned by private investors and constructed to funnel goods and passengers from Missouri and Kansas to Texas, across Indian territories. The railroad was commonly referred to as the Katy, after its stock exchange... More