The Treaty of Waitangi, 1840
Just over a hundred and thirty years ago, writes Sarah Searight Great Britain acquired New Zealand with a minimum of political and financial fuss.
Sarah Searight
The British Acquisition of Fiji
Traders and missionaries from Europe settled on Fiji many years before its official annexation by the British Empire.
New Orleans Under French Rule
For some sixty years during the eighteenth century, writes Sarah Searight, Louisiana was a colony owing allegiance to the King of France.
St Simeon Stylites
Sarah Searight introduces the fifth century ascetic whose long life on top of a pillar attracted thousands of worshippers.
Ladakh: Barrier or Entrepot?
An island in a sea of mountains, as Sarah Searight describes it, the Indian region of Ladakh was once a cosmopolitan centre of pilgrimage and trade.
The British Museum and the Xanthos Marbles
At a time when the Turkish rulers of Greece were conducting a profitable trade in ancient statues, Charles Fellows, an enlightened English tourist, rescued a precious hoard from Asia Minor. By Sarah Searight.
The Turkey Merchants: Life in the Levant Company
Sarah Searight describes how the Levant Company, which had received its first charter from Elizabeth I, did not surrender its monopolistic hold over trade with the Middle East until the reign of George IV.
Mali’s History at Risk
Sarah Searight highlights the problem of pillaging for those trying to piece together Mali’s rich heritage.
The Charting of the Red Sea
Sarah Searight tells how the efforts of the little-known Robert Moresby, together with the innovation of the marine steam engine, revolutionised trade and transport for the British Empire in the perilous waterway.
Region of Eternal Fire
Sarah Searight finds that, in the past as in the present, Caspian oil has produced political conflict as well as economic development.