HISTORY OF WRITING

The first writing

Writing has its origins in the strip of fertile land stretching from the Nile up into the area often referred to as the Fertile Crescent. This name was given, in the early 20th century, to the inverted U-shape of territory that stretches up the east Mediterranean coast and then curves east through northern Syria and down the…

HISTORY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

A renewal of hostilities?

It is a commonplace that the war beginning in 1939 is a continuation of the one which ended in 1918, much as European conflicts of the 18th century (such as the Seven Years’ War) were often a return to unfinished business. In many respects the commonplace is true, and it is reflected in everyday…

HISTORY OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

The diplomatic drift towards war: AD 1890-1914

In the years leading to World War I there are five major powers within Europe – Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France and Britain. The cast list is unchanged since the early 18th century (except that Prussia is now Germany), and the players are well used to the game of diplomacy in which…

HISTORY OF THE CARIBBEAN (WEST INDIES)

Ciboney, Arawak and Caribs: 1500 BC – AD 1500

A string of islands, between Florida and Venezuela, encloses the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The tightly clustered group at the southern end of this chain provides an easy sequence of stepping stones to the three largest islands – Puerto Rico, Hispaniola and Cuba.

From the second millennium BC humans…

HISTORY OF WARFARE – SEA

From canoe to warship

Any tribe in possession of primitive boats is likely to use its craft in war. Canoes provide a good way of arriving suddenly to surprise the enemy.

But naval warfare hardly deserves that name until boats are large enough and sturdy enough to become fighting machines in their own right. In modern times, since the…

HISTORY OF WARFARE – LAND

Preliminary skirmishes

Fighting between primitive tribes consists either of raids on rival settlements (where surprise is important, and disorder inevitable) or of structured and even ritualistic clashes. In either case the struggle is made up of a large number of one-to-one encounters.

This does not fit the pattern or what is normally called a battle. The story of warfare…

HISTORY OF THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION

Spain’s distant cousins: AD 1690s

During the 1690s all Europe awaits the death, thought likely to be imminent, of Charles II, the king of Spain. He is childless and has no cousins in the immediate Spanish Habsburg line. The question of the day is who will inherit the vast Spanish domains.

The two most powerful European rulers, Louis XIV of France…

HISTORY OF THE WAR OF THE GRAND ALLIANCE

Alliances against France: AD 1686-1697

The military adventures of Louis XIV prompt other European powers to form alliances against expansionist France. The first is the League of Augsburg, put together in 1686 by the Austrian emperor Leopold I. He brings into it his Habsburg cousins in Spain and various states of the Holy Roman empire. This…

HISTORY OF THE WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION

Charles VI and the Pragmatic Sanction: AD 1720

The great issue dominating Austria in the years after the War of the Spanish Succession is again a problem of succession – this time relating to the remaining Habsburg territories, ruled from Vienna. The emperor Charles VI has a son, born in 1716, but the child dies before…

HISTORY OF WALES

The creation of Wales: 8th – 9th century AD

The digging of Offa’s dyke in the 8th century, as the effective border between Anglo-Saxon England and Celtic Wales, formalizes a situation which has existed for a century and a half. Victories near Bath (in 577) and near Chester (in 613) have brought the Anglo-Saxons to the Bristol Channel and the…

HISTORY OF VENICE

Founding refugees: AD 568

When the Lombards invade Italy, in 568, one of the first cities in their path is Aquileia – a Christian town of long-standing importance, traditionally held to have been founded by St Mark. Many of its inhabitants, alarmed at the prospects of life under the rule of Germanic tribesmen, opt for the uncertain status of refugees….