Following its foundation in the 7th century, Islam acted as a cohesive force between areas where it was established as the main religion. It facilitated trade between the lands of Christianity in west and the empires of the Far East via a number of important land and maritime trade routes.... More
Andrew Henry and William Ashley were partners in a gunpowder manufacturing business, who in 1822 advertised for ‘one hundred enterprising young men’ to discover the source of the Missouri River. Their joint expedition tracked the Missouri, establishing Fort Henry en route; on the return journey, an Arikara Indian ambush claimed... More
A filigree of well-traversed Native American trading routes covered western North America on the eve of European arrival. These were the arteries of a barter economy underpinned by certain staple forms of exchange. Transition zones between primarily agricultural and hunting populations would feature the trade of crops for meat. Rare... More
An iconic image of the 18th Dynasty is in Deir el-Bahri temple where a tableau depicts the trading expedition of the female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, to Punt. In Ancient Egypt, the waxing of power invariably fuelled a limitless appetite for the resources to sustain that power and the exotic materials required... More
When Europeans first arrived, America’s indigenous population were either nomadic or subsistence hunters, managing, rather than supplanting, the native vegetation. During the 18th century, the colonization of the eastern seaboard saw natural forest cover replaced with plantation monocultures to the south, mixed arable farming to the north. During the 19th... More
In February 1875, a British commission was appointed to adjudicate on the ongoing border dispute between the Boers of Transvaal and the Zulu, finding almost entirely in favour of the Zulu. The British High Commissioner, Sir Henry Bartle Frere, called the report ‘unfair to the Boers’ and remained determined to... More
After completing his travels, Ibn Battuta returned home to Morocco, where the sultan of Fez was so entertained by his adventures, he hired him a ghostwriter to record them for posterity. Ibn Battuta had travelled for almost 30 years, throughout the Islamic world as far as Sumatra and Zanzibar, and... More
A secretary to the Almohad governor of Valencia in southern Spain, Ibn Jubair set out on pilgrimage seeking both expiation (for the sin of drinking wine) and his roots – his ancestors came from his destination, Mecca. His travelogue is vivid, crammed with telling observations of the sights and people... More
When Charles XII ascended the Swedish throne in 1700, his country’s empire had dominated the Baltic for a century. An alliance of rivals led by Russia’s Peter the Great saw Charles’s youth and inexperience as the chance to break that dominance. The Great Northern War would last until 1721, but... More
In March 1917, the Germans had arranged and financed Lenin’s return to Russia and, after seizing power in the October Revolution, Lenin handsomely returned the favour. In December peace negotiations began, after an armistice was declared between Russia and the Central Powers. The Bolsheviks, shocked by the severity of the... More
The Battle of Poitiers (1356) resulted in an emphatic victory for the English forces led by King Edward III’s son, the Black Prince. The French king, John the Good, and his son, together with most of their nobles were captured. France descended into chaos: disaffected nobles ravaged the countryside, where... More
Concluded at Mersen (Meerssen) in Holland in August 870, this was a treaty between Charles the Bald and his half-brother Louis the German, which divided the kingdom of Lotharingia, ruled by their nephew Lothair II, who had died the previous year, between them. The two realms were divided by the... More