HISTORY OF THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

Washington in the Ohio valley: AD 1753-1755

It has been plain for some years that the Ohio valley is a dangerous area of friction French and British colonists. Hostility turns to violence in 1752, when the French destroy a British trading centre at Pickawillany. They and their Indian allies then seize or evict every English-speaking trader in…

HISTORY OF FRANCE

Cave-dwellers of France and Spain: from 30,000 years ago

The area to the north and south of the Pyrenees, in modern France and Spain, is occupied from about 30,000 years ago by palaeolithic hunter-gatherers who make good use of the many caves in the area. They leave astonishing signs of their presence, and of their sophistication, in the paintings with…

HISTORY OF EUROPE

The mountain ranges of Europe and Asia

When the great land masses of Africa and India collide with Europe and Asia, about 100 million years ago, they cause the crust of the earth to crumple upwards in a long almost continuous ridge of high ground – from the Alps, through Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan to the Himalayas. This barrier will…

HISTORY OF CRIMEAN WAR 1853-1856

The Eastern Question: 19th century AD

The most insoluble and dangerous topic of European diplomacy during the 19th century acquires a broad name – the Eastern Question. It refers to the danger posed by the weakness of the Ottoman empire, with the sultans in Istanbul proving unable to control the vast empire assembled by their more warlike ancestors.

The…

HISTORY OF THE CARIBBEAN

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 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

A mood of rebellion: AD 1763-1770

During the years after the end of the French and Indian War there is mounting tension between Britain and her American colonies. The contentious issues are British taxes and the presence of British troops on American soil. Unrest centres particularly on the most radical of the colonial cities, Boston.

In 1770 there is…

HISTORY OF TURKEY

Ancient Anatolia: to the 11th century AD

Anatolia, linking Asia and Europe, has a long and distinguished record as a centre of civilization – from one of the world’s first towns (Catal Huyuk), through the successive periods of Hittites and Trojans, Ionians and Lydians, Romans and Byzantines.

But the region acquires its present identity and name, as…