Scotland’s Darien Scheme
Scotland’s short-lived, catastrophic Central American colony exposed its precarious relationship with England. Was closer union an inevitable result?
Empire
Fall of Africa’s Greatest Empire
The Battle of Tondibi, which resulted in the defeat of the Songhay army, took place on 13 March 1591.
The East India Company Before Empire
In its earliest days, the East India Company was seen not as a threat to Asia’s elites, but as a means of strengthening their powers.
Making Massacre
A Dutch conspiracy trial in the Indonesian archipelago gave birth to a sadly enduring English word.
Captain Cook’s Contested Claim to Australia
Terra nullius has long been at the heart of why the British did not treat with Aboriginal people following James Cook’s arrival in Australia. But should it be?
Shampoo Empire
Shampooing was brought to Britain by a Bengali immigrant who knew his craft – and how to sell it.
Britain’s Forgotten Citizens
What did it mean to be black and British in the Caribbean in the 20th century?
A Portrait of Empire
Three lives from Britain’s 18th-century global empire speak of collaboration, resistance and ambivalence.
Empire and Celebrity
In the 18th century, celebrity culture helped make the British Empire seem both a part of everyday life and a place of fantasy.
Virgin Islands of the Atlantic
The first ‘New World’ reached by Europeans was not in the Americas, but in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, where previously uninhabited islands were transformed forever.