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
In the middle of the third millennium, the floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were home to a cluster of city-states, which collectively comprised the Sumerian civilization. The Treaty of Mesilim, inscribed in cuneiform on a stele, or stone pillar, is the world’s oldest known legal agreement. It refers... More
This was the second of three treaties that divided the Carolingian Empire and followed the Treaty of Verdun (843). The Holy Roman Emperor Lothair I had already seen the domain of his father, Louis the Pious, divided between himself and his two younger brothers, Louis the German and Charles the... More
In 879 the German king Louis the Younger, encouraged by the Bishop of Paris, had invaded West Francia, reaching as far as Verdun, but retreated after his nephews, King Louis II of France and Carloman III of France had given their share of Lotharingia (Lorraine) to him. The Treaty of... More