Empire

The Turkey Merchants: Life in the Levant Company

Sarah Searight describes how the Levant Company, which had received its first charter from Elizabeth I, did not surrender its monopolistic hold over trade with the Middle East until the reign of George IV.

Warren Hastings

T.C. Owtram introduces Warren Hastings. After thirty years in the service of the East India Company, eleven of them as Governor-General, Hastings returned in 1785 to face impeachment at Westminster Hall

The Armenian Dilemma

Anthony Bryer describes how, during the tenth and eleventh centuries, between Turks and Byzantines, Armenian kingdoms led a perilous life. 

The Conquest of Siberia

Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, writes J.H. Shennan, Russian merchants and explorers settled the eastern lands between the Urals and the Pacific.

Bougainville and Tahiti

Arnold Whitridge describes how, in April 1768, Bougainville reached ‘an enchanting island’ in the South Pacific.