History Today

‘We shall never see his equal in any age’, wrote Madame de Sévigné of this simple and heroic soldier. By Aram Bakshian Jr.

Just over a hundred and thirty years ago, writes Sarah Searight Great Britain acquired New Zealand with a minimum of political and financial fuss.

Burke and Wills crossed the continent of Australia; but, writes S.H. Woolf, tragedy marked their way back.

As a chaplain in New South Wales, Marsden from Yorkshire became one of the founders of Australian sheep-farming. By M.L. Ryder.

When Siam emerged from isolation, writes W.S. Bristowe, a fiery Scottish sea captain settled for twenty years in Bangkok.

Elka Schrijver tells the story of the artists who followed the Dutch East India Company to modern day Indonesia.

First a French, then a British colony, these remote and beautiful islands are being gradually drawn into the modern world, writes J. Coen.

In the mid-nineteenth century, writes Christopher Lloyd, a young naval surgeon from Orkney played an important part in West African exploration.

Many missionary hopes in Africa were disappointed, writes W.F. Rea, but Livingstone and his colleagues achieved some successes along the Zambezi river.

Cecil Northcott describes how Mackenzie’s dream of a liberal empire south of the Zambezi met opposition from Cecil Rhodes and from the Boers.