On 26 December 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev announced the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The communist utopian dream had come painfully crashing down, freeing the world from the shackles of the Cold War and leading to the emergence of 11 new independent Eastern European nation-states. The grip of communist fear that had consumed the West for […]
When Pêro Vaz de Caminha arrived in Brazil on the 22nd of April 1500 aboard Pedro Alvares Cabral’s voyage of ‘discovery’, he was awestruck. The letter he wrote to the Portuguese King Manuel I is in stark contrast to those written by other explorers of the period.
The historian Tacitus wrote, “The appearance of the country differs considerably in different parts; but in general it is covered either by bristling forests or by foul swamps”. Such was a Roman view of the whole region of Germania at the time, not just Saxony. According to Roman sources, a people known as the ‘Saxones’ […]
Babi Yar, a name synonymous with the Holocaust. On the 29th and 30th of September 1941 alone 33,171 Jews were killed by SS Einsatzgruppen death squads, assisted by the Wehrmacht and Ukrainian collaborators. The mass shootings continued until November 1943. The final death toll, which also includes non-Jewish victims, Romani, Soviet Prisoners of War and […]
In most European countries there is a standardised tongue, a language for all, that citizens can speak in both social and administrative capacities, which is often taken for granted. However, what happens when cultural and linguistic divides run so deep that a nation cannot identify its own national language? This is the issue that India […]
Mark Antony’s life spanned the last fifty years of the Roman Republic. Born in 83 BC into a family of ancient lineage and high distinction, Antony unsurprisingly lived a predominantly political and military existence. He held a respectable career as a Roman general and statesman; however his romantic position became of increasing interest and importance. […]
The Romans used powdered mouse brains as toothpaste. Julius Caesar gave us our modern calendar of 12 months. Originally there were only 10 months, running from March to December, but then they added two more. This meant that September (from the Latin for seven) became the 9th month. October (from the Latin for eight) is […]
Arguably the most important facet to consider when one is examining the social and cultural developments within the European Enlightenment is the rise of the public sphere. What gave rise to what many historians now regard as the birth of the modern middle class in Europe is debated to be the result of numerous factors. […]
We have lived in the shadow of execution and capital punishment for almost all of human history. Its practice can be traced to all regions of the world, through many eras up to the present day where it is now practiced in 58 countries. In varying cultures and ages this form of public deterrence has […]
Space Exploration begins with the Romans, who before telescopes, knew of seven bright objects in the sky, which they named after their most important gods (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn). They also called the sun and the moon, Apollo and Diana respectively. The other planets in our solar system were not discovered until much […]
Without any parliamentary notice, the disgusting ‘Contagious Diseases Act’ was suddenly passed in 1864. Effectively ‘legalising’ prostitution and placing it under police control, it allowed the stop and search of any woman suspected of being a prostitute. Such a ‘search’ included a bodily examination, totally violating and humiliating anyone forced to participate.
18 August 1920 marks the day American women were granted the right to vote under the constitution, with the addition of the Nineteenth Amendment. This signified a judicial end to the contradiction and hypocrisy which had tainted the lives of women for so long. Men had enjoyed universal suffrage for almost a century already when […]
With a population of 94 million inhabitants, the East-Asian archipelago of the Philippines is the 7th most populous nation in Asia and 12th in the world. Despite this, developments in the Philippines rarely feature in Western news cycles, until recently. An oft-cited reason for the Philippines’ huge and ever expanding population is that 80% of […]
Lafcadio Hearn, a travel writer who lived in Japan from 1890 until his death, like many other Western travellers, remarked on the curious spectacles of Japanese culture and tradition which had been cut off from the outside world for over 200 years. What is embedded, somewhat unknowingly, is a narrative of intense social and religious […]