Feature

During his brief lifetime, James V was a popular ruler who aimed to maintain Scotland’s independence from his English uncle, Henry VIII. Did it cost him his life?

The opening battle of the First World War was won by the Bank of England before the British had so much as fired a shot.

In August 1814, the US capital was torched by British troops. The ‘greatest disgrace ever dealt to American arms’ left its legacy on the US, Britain and Canada.

Though an incredible feat of engineering, the Panama Canal ruined many reputations during the 400 years it took to make the dream a reality.

When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914 there was no outbreak of jingoism and no immediate rush to enlist.

For 80 years the Braganza dynasty guided the destiny of Brazil. How did Dom Pedro I and his successor come to reign in a continent of republicans?

In 1902 a revolutionary dictator named Castro provoked an unlikely Anglo-German naval demonstration off the coast of Venezuela.

In 1880, the British withdrew from Afghanistan. Abdur Rahman Khan, the new ruler installed after the Second Anglo-Afghan War, unified the fractured nation at a terrible cost.

Africans in Georgian Britain have often been portrayed as victims of slavery, unfortunates at the bottom of the social heap. The reality was far more fluid and varied, with many African gentlemen sharing the same cultural and social aspirations as their fellow Englishmen.

In Rwanda, Hutu turned on Tutsi and a genocide lasting 100 days began, an episode of intense violence many thought impossible in the late 20th century.