Empire

Raffles of Java, 1781-1826

Administrator, Orientalist, patron of science and founder of Singapore, Raffles was an enlightened Governor of Java during the British occupation, 1811-1816.

Gibraltar, 1704-1954

Gibraltar provides one of the examples of how the British Empire was 'acquired in a fit of absence of mind'. 

Amritsar, 1919

Few incidents in the British rule of India have given rise to more acute controversy than Dyer's drastic action at Amritsar on April 13th, 1919.

Russia’s California Colony

The Russians were among the first Europeans to sense California's potential. Had they not sold their settlement there in 1841, the world could have been a different place.

A Chinese Poet in Central Asia

Ts’ên Shên was one of the celebrated poets of the T’ang dynasty. Here, Arthur Waley explores his body of work and the tumultuous career that propelled it.

The War of American Independence Reconsidered

Only a staff composed of men of military genius, and backed by a decisive and imaginative government at Westminster, could have secured a victory in the American War of Independence. Eric Robson reflects on how men of considerable talent, and of much good-will, failed in an impossible task.

Ireland’s Path to Desolation

Tim Pat Coogan points the finger of blame for the Great Famine at ministers in Lord Russell’s government, which came to power in 1846, and sees echoes of the disaster in the Republic’s current economic plight.