By the early 19th century, when the Dutch Cape Colony came under British rule, South Africa was a major hub for maritime trade between Asia and Europe, and in the week of traders came successive waves of Christian missionaries, originating in the Netherlands, the British Isles, France and the United... More
While there were only two Communist countries in 1980 – Cambodia and North Korea – where Christianity was actively suppressed, there were also only two countries where religion was freely practised, Cuba and Poland, and in both these cases Roman Catholicism was firmly entrenched, with devout populations. The vast majority... More
In 1199 Albert of Boxhoeveden was sent by the Archbishop of Bremen and Hamburg to convert the Livs to Christianity. Founding Riga, he became its bishop, and created the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, to supplement his German crusaders. By 1212, the Livs were subdued, and in 1217, the Estonians... More
Known as ‘Operation Linebacker II’, the US Seventh Airforce and US Navy Task Force 77, dropped 20,000 tonnes of explosives on North Vietnam at Christmas 1972, killing more than 1,600 Vietnamese. President Richard Nixon was under pressure to end the war in Vietnam as the high number of American casualties... More
In sparsely populated colonial America it was hard to adhere to conventional practices of worship; a parish could stretch for over 100 miles, and with churches and millions ministers often distant, anticlerical, self-reliant and sometimes idiosyncratic forms of Protestant flourished. From the beginning of English, Dutch and Swedish colonisation of... More
Built on the site of modern Amarna is Akhenaten’s city (c. 1341 BCE). Rejecting Thebes as the religious capital, Akhetaten believed that divine inspiration took him to this fertile flood plain. Here he could worship the only god, Aten, and glorify the royal family. Aten had two open-air temples dedicated... More
Alexandria was established in 331 BCE by its namesake Alexander the Great as the new capital of his empire following his invasion of Egypt. It was designed by the architect Dinocrates who supposedly orientated the street grid to allow the northerly maritime winds to cool the city. The construction of... More
Founded in 312 BCE as the capital of the Seleucid kingdom, which stretched, at its peak, from the Aegean to Afghanistan, Antioch was founded by Seleucus, one of Alexander the Great’s generals. The Seleucid kingdom was consumed by Rome, and by the 2nd century CE, Antioch rivalled Alexandria as the... More
Leptis Magna was originally a Punic settlement from around the 7th century BCE until 146 BCE when Rome defeated Carthage and the city became part of the Roman republic. Although the city was answerable to Rome, becoming an important maritime trade post for regional agriculture, particularly olive oil, it maintained... More
Medieval London consisted of 24 wards; from 1322, each acquired the right to appoint two officials, an alderman and beadle, to collectively formulate city ordnances. From 1384, this body became a city council; the mayor, however, was a member of the powerful merchant guilds and was appointed by them. London... More
In around the 2nd century CE, Palmyra was established in the middle of a desert, in what is now modern Syria. At this point in its history, the city was a subject of the Roman Empire. It began life as a caravan city, with its inhabitants renowned as wealthy merchants... More
King Phillip IV completed the cathedral of Notre Dame in 1330. Begun in 1163, the cathedral could house a congregation of 1,300, with towers soaring over 200 feet (63 metres) above the city. Phillip II had rebuilt and extended the city walls to enclose the Left Bank (1190–1220); by the... More