Matthew Parker

Colonial schools in Africa eroded national identity and pride; in Sierra Leone a new way of teaching had to be found.

The short-lived colony of Willoughbyland, in what is now Suriname, was both verdant and dangerous. In the end, it was exchanged for New York.

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

For much of the British Civil Wars the colony of Barbados remained neutral, allowing both Parliamentarian and Royalist exiles to run their plantations and trade side by side. But with the collapse of the king’s cause in the late 1640s matters took a violent turn, as Matthew Parker relates.