North America

Hugh Latimer unearths the role of the rubber plant in the story of empire and Malayan nation-building.

Motives of commerce and trade, Eric Robson suggests, carried just as much weight in the founding of the 13 American colonies as the desire of Puritan emigrants for liberty of conscience and a life of independence.

Accused of cowardice at the Battle of Minden, and often-cast for the role of villain when he was Colonial Secretary, Lord George Germain, writes Eric Robson, nevertheless had many of the qualities of a successful statesman.

Two hundred years ago Britain and the United States went to war. The conflict was a relatively minor affair, but its consequences were great, says Jeremy Black.

Richard Cavendish remembers Henry Hudson's attempted discovery of the Northwest Passage.

John Spiller surveys race relations in the United States during Reconstruction and constructs a balance sheet.

Richard Cavendish recalls the slave liberation movement in 19th-century Kansas.

Andrew Boxer traces the origins of a historical issue still as controversial and relevant today as in past centuries.

Richard Cavendish remembers the infamous mafia massacre of February 14th, 1929.

The famed radio broadcast of HG Wells' War of the Worlds took place on October 30th, 1938.

Anthony Aveni explains how the people planning great monuments and cities, many millennia and thousands of miles apart, so often sought the same inspiration – alignments with the heavens.

A century ago international anarchists were causing public outrage and panic with their terror tactics. Matt Carr considers the parallels with al-Qaeda today.

Segregation on buses in Alabama officially ended on November 13th, 1956.