The T’ang Dynasty engaged in a highly successful campaign of territorial expansion during its early years. Its influence stretched far to the west, well into Central Asia. Its main rival in this area was the Tibetan Empire, with which it often held an uneasy alliance. Right at the furthest reaches... More
The Taiping Rebellion began in Guangxi province in 1850 with the uprising of a Christian sect, known as the God Worshipping Society, after they clashed with local imperial officials. Their leader, Hong Xiuquan, claimed to be the brother of Jesus after experiencing visions in 1837. Hong’s fanatical and somewhat authoritarian... More
Before the German 17th Army could proceed with its authorized retreat from the Taman Peninsula, the Soviet North Caucasus Front launched a surprise attack on the heavily embedded German defences. The offensive began on 9 September with a small deployment of troops from the Black Sea who landed in Novorossiysk.... More
The Knights Templar were founded early in the 12th century to protect Christians on pilgrimages to Jerusalem from Muslim attacks. The Templars were renowned for their military prowess, which they transformed into a lucrative security franchise, guarding not only the persons of crusaders in transit but their domestic assets when... More
An earlier project for damming the Tennessee River at Muscle Shoals, Alabama had ended up ‘a muscle-bound white elephant’. So President Roosevelt was treading vexatious territory when he called upon Congress to create ‘a corporate clothed with the power of government but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of private... More
Only decades after facing near annihilation from the depredations of the Hyksos from the north and the Kushites from the south, the first two rulers of the 18th Dynasty accomplished a stunning turnaround. Kamose, the founder, in a brief reign drove the Hyksos back into their Nile delta strongholds and... More
In May 1915, the French 10th Army managed to reach the top of Vimy Ridge, a strategic position commanding the approaches to the coal-mining centres of Lens and Loos, but were driven off by ferocious German bombardment. In September, General Foch determined to try again while also commanding a new... More
The Third Crusade was Christian Europe’s response to Saladin’s re-conquest of Jerusalem. First to take up the cause was Frederick Barbarossa, the veteran Holy Roman Emperor who set off overland with a huge army. Richard I of England, and Philip II of France rendezvoused in Sicily, before sailing separately for... More
The Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II provoked this terrible conflict in Central Europe by attempting, as King of Bohemia, to impose Catholicism within his dominions, triggering the ‘defenestration of Prague’ (1618), when his representatives were thrown out of the windows of Prague Castle. His outraged subjects offered his crown to... More
The eminence grise of the Protestant cause was, ironically, a Catholic cardinal: Richelieu of France, determined to frustrate the Habsburgs. He had bankrolled Denmark’s disastrous intervention; in 1630, he backed a winner in Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. The Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II had sacked his most successful military leader,... More
The siege of Arras (1640) was a turning point in the prolonged conflict; after capturing Arras, the French surged into Flanders, routing the Spanish at Rocroi (1643) and in the Netherlands, (Gent, Hulst, Dunkirk). The tide turned for the French in Germany, with defeats at Tutlingen and Herbsthausen. However, their... More
Around 620 CE, the clans around Lhasa unified, then annexed, the ancient neighbouring kingdom of Zhangzung. The empire they founded expanded northward at the expense of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, occupying the Tarim Basin, before losing most of its gains under the irresolute rule of Emperor ‘Old Hairy’ Tride Tsuktsän.... More