Empire

A slow grind of sieges and massacres. Long distance bombardments and gruelling inch-by-inch trench warfare. Battles for Sevastopol, Odessa, and control of the Black Sea. Is it 1853 or 2023? The parallels between the Crimean War and what is happening now in Ukraine are startling. Listen as William and Anita are joined by Orlando Figes to discuss this totemic 19th century clash and all of its modern-day resonances. Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts...

The Crimean War continues to drag on. The allies' siege of Sevastopol is grinding to a stalemate. The Russians seek to counterattack to tip the balance back in their favour. As they make gains at Balaclava, the British cavalry undertake one of the most tragically heroic actions in British history: the Charge of the Light Brigade. Listen as William and Anita are joined by Orlando Figes to discuss the end of the Crimean War, the impact it had upon Russia, and the shadow it still casts today...

After the Arab conquest, Persia was turned upside down. Patronage went to Islam as opposed to Zoroastrianism. The official language of state was now Arabic. Even the very nature of the state changed; for 1,000 years Persia had been the centre of imperial power, dominating those around it. Now it was ruled by others. But, what it was to be Persian was not lost. The language, the art, the civilisation survived...

The Lady with the Lamp, the great nurse who forever changed public health for the better: Florence Nightingale lives large in the national consciousness. Mary Seacole, however, has been largely forgotten by history, even though she too played a significant role in the Crimean War. Both were lauded by the press. Both were famous in Britain upon their return. Remarkable forces of will, both were women ahead of their time...

Timur, known to many as Tamburlaine the Great from the iconic Marlowe play. Despite having a limp and struggling to get onto a horse, he erupted from what is now Uzbekistan at the head of a mounted army to conquer Persia and much of Eurasia. He delved deep into Russia, reached the shores of the Mediterranean after taking much of Anatolia, and conquered much of the Levant. He even sacked Delhi, in so doing surpassing Genghis Khan. His conquests were legendary, as was his brutality...

In the 18th century Vitus Bering went from Russia's east coast and landed in America. Over the next 150 years, Russia colonised more and more land, first taking Alaska and then working down America's west coast, eventually claiming areas as far south as California. Whilst this venture did fail, this failure was not inevitable...

After conquering much of Eurasia, Timur showed no interest in building institutions and so after his death, like the Mongol Empire before it, the Timurid Empire soon fragmented and collapsed. However, some of Timur’s grandchildren took over parts of the Empire and ushered in eras of cultural advancement that matched that of the renaissance in Italy. Under the tutelage of Ulugh Begh, great developments in maths and science were made in Samarkand...

As the other European empires were consolidating their holdings in Asia, Russia took 1.5million square miles of territory. Moving south from the Orenburg line, the Russian Empire swallowed up the Khanates of Central Asia with minimal casualties to their own troops. Depicting the citizens of Kokhand, Khiva, and Bokhara as insolent and inferior, this conquest serves as one of classic European colonialism. Listen as William and Anita delve into the story of the conquest of Central Asia...

How did the great divide within Islam, the split between Sunni and Shia, develop? We trace how the great 16th century confrontation between the Ottomans of Turkey and the Safavids of Iran cemented what had previously been a much more porous division. Iran has been a Shia country ever since and this has shaped much of the modern Middle-East. Listen as William and Anita are joined by Barnaby Rogerson to discuss one of the crucial turning points of Persian history...

Tolstoy was one of the greatest writers of all time. His books have constructed how we think about Russian imperial history. But he was not just an observer, he was also a participant. As a young man, Tolstoy fought in several of Russia's imperial wars– against the Chechens and the Ottoman Turks, then against both the French and the British in the Crimea. As he matured he grew far more critical of Russian Empire building and lamented the futility of war and conquest...