Feature

Newfoundland was England’s first overseas colony, but its settlement did not follow the usual patterns: its communities were nomadic, moving around the island with the seasons.

Fiercely independent, highly skilled sailors, the Kroomen of Sierra Leone forged an alliance with the Royal Navy to rid the African coasts of slavers.

The legacy of Marie Skłodowska Curie, the world's most famous female physicist, is assured, but in her lifetime, she was a controversial figure.

The October Revolution of 1917 inspired a generation of Bolshevik youth to embrace new ideals of socialist living in the commune.

Despite popular misconceptions and its aristocratic origins, for part of its history opera was inextricably linked with popular culture – no more so than in the 1920s. 

Crisis-ridden Pakistan is a very different country from the one envisioned by its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1947. 

In his lifetime George Downing was regarded as ‘ready to turn to every side that was uppermost’, but even Pepys was grudgingly forced to admit his qualities in eighteenth-century political life.

What did the indigenous people of the Americas think of Christopher Columbus?

The key to Germany’s imperial ambition, the North Sea island of Heligoland was transformed into a fortress. By the end of the Second World War, the dream lay in ruins.

Alexander Kerensky, the last Russian premier before the Bolsheviks took power, decided to continue the war with Germany. He and his nascent democracy would pay the price.