The History Network

In 1909, famed mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published The Crime of the Congo, an exhaustive book cataloguing the evils of Congo Free State. On the first page, Doyle included unsettling photographs of African women with severed hands, cut off...

On January 20, 1889, the following death notice appeared in the New York Times: "MACKENZIE—At New Brighton, Staten Island, on the 19th of January, Brig. Gen. Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, United States Army, in the 48th year of his age." Such a...

May 8, 1945 marked the end of the War in Europe while August 15 marked the same in the Pacific theatre. With the defeated nations being occupied and made into new allies, an entirely different conflict for the world was now beginning. The Cold War had...

For a year Britain and her Commonwealth stood alone against Germany, in June 1941 Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, invading Russia. Churchill was desperate for allies, and Stalin had been openly hostile to Capitalist Britain but now as the...

Following the Civil War, Mackenzie reverted to the rank of Captain and rejoined the Corps of Engineers in New Hampshire, improving fortifications along the Atlantic coast. However, after spending the last two years in a combat command, engineering no...

Few ancient states could match the scope and power of the Seleucid Empire. Founded in the late 4th century BC by Seleucus Nikator, a former officer of Alexander the Great, the Seleucid Empire at its peak included the modern states of Turkey, Syria,...

The Battle of Adowa stands out during the scramble for Africa of the 19th century. It was was that rare event of a native African army defeating a well equipped, modern European force. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

To commemorate our 6 millionth download this week, we've gone back in the archives and edited a two-parter from season 10 together on Lettow-Vorbeck. Enjoy!... The lasting image of the First World War is that of trench warfare. However, far away from...

The Dessert War or Western Desert Campaign was one of the two major stages of the North Africa Campaign of WW2. The Western Desert was crucial to the allied forces being able to continue their fight against the Germans following allied defeats and...