Empire

Makers of the Twentieth Century: Nasser

Robert Stephens looks at how Nasser left his mark on nearly twenty years of Egyptian, Arab and world history. An anti-colonialist who extended his concern to the newly liberated countries of the Third World, he has been acclaimed as a nationalist liberator - and condemned as a warmonger.

Architecture and Empire

British imperial architecture as epitomised by the work of Sir Herbert Baker was not tied to any geographic setting. Its elements could be re-ordered to fit any tropical dependency. As Thomas R. Metcalf explains, what had been hammered out in Pretoria, and redefined in Delhi, could be carried to such places as Kenya. But Baker, who designed the imperial acropolis of New Delhi with Lutyens, differed from his colleague, "the most original and creative architect of his age." For Baker architecture always served a political purpose: for Lutyens, Empire was incidental.

Cecil Rhodes

The life of Rhodes - an empire-builder, arch risk-taker, megalomaniac mine-owner and namesake of Zimbabwe's pre-independence antecedant, Rhodesia.

Makers of the Twentieth Century: Ho Chi Minh

'Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh' was the chant of radicals in the 1960s and 1970s, idolising the Communist leader who led Vietnam's Revolutionary struggle first against French colonialism and then against the United States' involvement in Vietnam. 

The British Under Roman Rule: A Study in Colonialism

The Roman invasion of Britain divided its constituent kingdoms and tribes. Some supported the Romans, others fiercely opposed their occupation and suffered dreadfully as a consequence. In the face of continuing resentment at their occupation the Romans, argues Graham Webster, changed from a policy of repression, and began to pay careful attention to the feelings and aspirations of their British subjects.

The Maoris in New Zealand History

When the British and Maori signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, Governor Hobson declared: 'We are one people'. Today, as Professor Keith Sinclair shows, this hope has still to be realised.

Tide of Empires

Decisive Naval Campaigns in the Rise of the West, Vol. I, 1481-1654 by Peter Padfield