South America

John Thomas North, the Nitrate King

Britain's connections with Chile date from her War of Independence, and were powerfully re-inforced by a Victorian company-promoter in the City of London.

A French Farce in Brazil

Spain and Portugal divided almost all of South America between them, but in the 16th century the French also had commercial and colonial ambitions in Brazil. Robert Knecht tells the stories of two French expeditions that ended in disaster.

Bringing the Sky Down to Earth

Anthony Aveni explains how the people planning great monuments and cities, many millennia and thousands of miles apart, so often sought the same inspiration – alignments with the heavens.

How Our Enemy Made Us Better

Federico Guillermo Lorenz looks at Argentinian memories of the Second World War during and after the Malvinas-Falklands War of 1982.

Argentina’s Left-Wingers

Leslie Ray argues that politics and football have always been inseparable in the land of the ‘hand of God’.