HISTORY OF TIBET

A remote territory

The advantages and disadvantages of the high plateau known as Tibet are identical. The place is extremely hard to reach, hemmed in on the south by the Himalayas and on the north by the almost equally high Kunlun mountains. The terrain is inhospitable, the plateau itself being about 15,000 feet above sea level. The climate is harsh,…

HISTORY OF THE THIRTY YEARS’ WAR

Ingredients of a complex war: AD 1618-1648

The conglomeration of conflicts known as the Thirty Years’ War can be seen as the tidying up of the patchwork quilt to which Germany has been reduced by two different historical processes. The fragmented nature of the region results originally from the feudal structure of the Holy Roman empire. It has been further…

HISTORY OF THEATRE

Dance and music

It is unlikely that any human society (at any rate until the invention of puritanism) has denied itself the excitement and pleasure of dancing. Like cave painting, the first purpose of dance is probably ritual – appeasing a nature spirit or accompanying a rite of passage. But losing oneself in rhythmic movement with other people is an…

HISTORY OF THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS

Our solar system: about 4.6 billion years ago

In our own galaxy, the Milky Way, a star is formed about 4.6 billion years ago – about two thirds of the way through the story so far of the universe. It is the star which we know as the sun.

As its material contracts, many particles are left spinning…

HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY

The use of tools

It is a commonplace that humans are distinguished from other creatures by a technological ability, and man has often been described as a tool-using animal. The distinction is not entirely valid. Some animals do use tools. Chimpanzees are the most often quoted example, stripping a twig to plunge it into an anthill and then eating the…

HISTORY OF TANZANIA

Uncharted territory: to the 19th century AD

In the uncharted centuries of prehistory, Tanzania is criss-crossed by tribal trade routes linking the Great Lakes (Victoria and Tanganyika) with the coast. These are the same routes along which Arab traders subsequently move inland, searching for slaves and ivory.

In a second wave of penetration by outsiders, Europeans use Bagamoyo (opposite Zanzibar) as…

HISTORY OF SYRIA AND PALESTINE

Syria and Palestine: from the 6th century BC

The Roman rulers are not the first to link Syria administratively with Palestine. In the late 6th century Darius makes Syria and Palestine, together with Cyprus, the fifth satrapy of his empire. During the Seleucid dynasty Syria and Palestine are under joint control in the 2nd century. Then, for some…

HISTORY OF SWITZERLAND

La Tène and the Helvetii: 5th century BC – 5th century AD

Switzerland’s earliest European role is as the heartland of the Celts. Various tribal groups, from whom the Celts evolve, share an origin in the early Iron Age culture of Hallstatt in Austria. But the metalwork and pottery found at La Tène, at the eastern end of Lake Neuchâtel…

HISTORY OF SWEDEN

Scandinavian kingdoms: 9th-14th century AD

The story of medieval Christian Scandinavia, after the various regions convert in the 10th and 11th century, is of dynasties in Denmark, Norway and Sweden struggling to establish stable kingdoms – with sometimes the added ambition of bringing the other two into a unified realm.

The earliest recognizable kingdom is that of Hemming in southern Denmark…

HISTORY OF SWAZILAND

Colonial rule: AD 1906-1967

In their small landlocked upland kingdom, under a British high commissioner from 1906, the Swazi preserve their tribal traditions more effectively than most other African nations. Part of the explanation is that little development occurs during the colonial period, because the status of the region is so uncertain.

The South Africa Act of 1909, creating the Union…

HISTORY OF THE SUDAN

Nubia: from 3000 BC

The region known in modern times as the Sudan (short for the Arabic bilad as-sudan, ‘land of the blacks’) has for much of its history been linked with or influenced by Egypt, its immediate neighbour to the north. But it also has a strong identity as the eastern end of the great trade route stretching along…