Feature

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.

Unlike his grandfather Chinggis Khan, the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan is little known in the West. But his destruction of two Islamic empires gave him a notoriety that persists to this day. 

During a period of European peace, Spain sought to establish control of the Mediterranean. Yet a disastrous attempt to oust the Ottomans from North Africa threatened to accelerate the westward advance of Islam. 

Foreign traders were attracted to the City of London by England’s prosperous trade in wool and cloth. They were not always made welcome.