Asian history
Public and Private Tragedies: Voices of the Indian Mutiny
Historian William Dalrymple describes the discovery of previously unknown eyewitness accounts of the crisis, and draws startling parallels between the dying Mughal world and our own.
The Silk Route
From traders in salt and lapis lazuli 6,000 years ago to the
adventurer Marco Polo in the 13th century, merchants and others journeyed
to and from China and the Middle East on ancient highways collectively
known as the ‘Silk Route’.
- Achmad Sukarno
The Indonesian president whose authoritarian manner and confrontational attitude finally led to his downfall in 1967. - Ancient Surgery
Surgery is not a modern phenomenon but has its roots in the ancient world. Developments in India, Egypt, Greece and Rome many centuries ago meant that operations that are common now were also performed then. - Aung San Suu Kyi
The Burmese Nobel Prize winner who pursues peace from house arrest. - Children and war
The history of child warriors is a long and bloody one that extends from the youths of Sparta in the 1st millennium BC to the young people engaged in military activity around the world in the early years of the 21st century. - Cities and disaster
An examination of the calamities that befell seven cities: London (1666), Lisbon (1755), Chicago (1871), San Francisco (1906), Tokyo/Yokohama (1923), Florence (1966), New Orleans (2005). - Empire
An extract from Professor Niall Ferguson's revisionist history of Britain and its colonies. - Empire's Children
Trace and tell your family's empire stories. Stories, histories, research guides, videos. - Ferdinand Marcos
The Filipino president whose corruption finally led to his downfall. - Going
Critical: Bhopal
The Bhopal gas disaster of 1984, when a toxic cloud from an American chemical plant killed and injured thousands of Indians, and the science behind what went wrong. - Hirohito
The Japanese emperor whose role in World War II is still debated. - Ho Chi Minh
The Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader whose war against the US was won six years after his death. - Ho Chi Minh
This C4 Learning website explains the role of Ho Chi Minh in achieving independence for Vietnam and eventually uniting the country. - Immigration
Accessible history of immigration into Britain from the time of the Romans to the present. - An
Indian Affair
The hidden origins of Britain's relationship with India from the 17th century to the religious zealotry and imperial ideology that was the Raj. This website places the interaction into the context of trade and politics and shows the myriad ways that India has suffused the English lifestyle. - Japan at War: A beginner's guide
Books and websites – from the seizure of Manchuria in 1931 to the atomic bombs that ended the war in the Pacific in 1945 – reveal the conflict from a mainly Japanese perspective. - Krakatoa
The story of the volcanic eruption of 1883, the most violent in history, responsible for the deaths of 36,000 people, many from the 40-metre-high tsunamis created by the eruption. - Mahatma Gandhi
This Channel 4 Learning website examines Gandhi as a political campaigner and religious leader and the effects of his policies. - Mao Zedong
The Communist Chinese dictator whose rule – and whims – led to disaster for his people. - Origination
Brings together the wealth of web resources that record and celebrate the contributions of immigrant cultures to British history. - Pol Pot
The Cambodian dictator who was responsible for the deaths of at least one million people. - Public and Private Tragedies: Voices of the Indian Mutiny
Historian William Dalrymple describes the discovery of previously unknown eyewitness accounts of the crisis, and draws startling parallels between the dying Mughal world and our own. - The Other Band of Brothers: Execution on the Home Front
How the racism inherent in the US and British armies impacted on the black and Asian soldiers who fought in them. - The Tank Man
The story of the lone protester in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989 and his legacy. - Race in the 20th Century
This C4 Learning website explores the representations of empire and immigration in Britain and civil rights in the United States. - The Road to 9/11
A chronology that investigates the ‘humiliation and disgrace’ that, according to Osama bin Laden, the Middle East suffered for ‘more than 80 years’ before the bombing of the World Trade Center. - Tit for tat
Acts of vengeance and their consequences – including such ‘triggers’ as the murder of Genghis Khan’s envoys in 1218, the murder of the Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972 and the storming of the Golden Temple of Amritsar in 1984, as well as other examples of retribution from Japan, Czechoslovakia and Korea. - The War of the World
According to historian Niall Ferguson, from the Russo-Japanese war of 1904/5 to the aftershocks of the Cold War, the 20th century was by far the bloodiest in history. In this website, Ferguson explains why this came about, and there is an extensive chronology of the events that made this the ‘age of hatred’. - World War II: A chronology
Every aspect of the conflict, including all the major events and personalities and all theatres of war, accompanied by links to relevant websites.
