Constantine Gerakis, c 1648-88, better known as Phaulkon, was an exemplar of Europe's burgeoning influence in Asia in the seventeenth century. He played the role of intermediary between the representatives of the European powers and King Narai of Siam with great success, argues Robert Bruce, but paid for eventual failure with his life.
From 1858 until 1945, explains Frances Stewart, the Andaman Islands served as a penal colony for the British Empire. The islands were also valued for their good natural harbours. During the Second World War the Andamans were captured by the Japanese.
Maiden Castle, an enormous earthwork two miles from Dorchester, Dorset, dominates the local landscape. The hill-top site, explains William Seymour, shows traces of occupation for three-and-a-half thousand years, and was the scene of a major, much publicised excavation by Mortimer Wheeler in the 1930s.
Roy Porter on the European concept of Enlightenment.
Although Kensington Palace was the official residence of Edward, Duke of Kent, and the birthplace of his daughter, the future Queen Victoria, his attempts to repair and renovate the building, explains Olivia Brand, met with only limited success.
The framework for the police of nineteenth century France, argues Clive Emsley, emerged out of the reorganisation of the Revolution and the reforms of Napoleon.
German cartoonists, explains W.A. Coupe, told in stark visual language of the growing bitterness felt by their countrymen at the terms of the 1919 Peace Treaty.
There is evidence, argues Adrian Tronson, to suggest that the 13th-century Mali empire, and its ruler Sundiata, were strongly influenced by the life of Alexander the Great, 356-323 BC, an influence that was to be capitalised on in the late 1950s.
Gordon Daniels on the sustained bombardement of the Japanese mainland, prior to the use of the Atomic bombs.
