Empire: World History

To listen to the full bonus episode, join the Empire Club at empirepoduk.com. Wild Swans author, Jung Chang, joins William to discuss her family’s harrowing experiences during Mao’s Cultural Revoluti...

**Listen to the first 4 episodes of the series today by joining the Empire Club at empirepoduk.com.** How did Israel defeat the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in just six days in 1967? Why did Egy...

William and Anita are joined by renowned British-Iranian journalist, Christiane Amanpour, to discuss the war in Iran, and how it has echoes of the events she has covered since leaving Tehran in 1979. ...

How did World War II break out in Asia in 1937? Why did Mao Zedong and his fellow communists live in caves after the Long March? How did the notorious Nanjing Massacre occur? ** Binge all six episode...

How did the Phoenicians create the alphabet we still use today? Was the Bronze Age collapse comparable to the fall of Rome? What does DNA evidence tell us about the origins of the Philistines and Isra...

The legendary ancient Greek poet, Homer, is a key source to our understanding of the Bronze Age Collapse, but did a single genius named Homer even exist? How could sophisticated poems like The Iliad a...

Stephen Fry joins William and Anita to discuss how Greek Myths have shaped our understanding of the Bronze Age Collapse.  Was the Trojan Horse real? What can we learn about the end of ancient civilis...

In 1979, the people of Iran took to the streets to topple the Shah. This year they are back in the streets shouting “Long Live The Shah”. How did this happen? How did a country which so volcanically t...

How did the British finally break into Delhi during the 1857 Uprising? Why did a sudden solar eclipse change the fate of the siege overnight? Why is the British victory considered one of Delhi’s great...

How did the tide turn towards the end of 1857 as British reinforcements gathered to strike the hearts of the rebellion: Delhi and Lucknow? Who was the British Commander, John Nicholson, and why was he...

The warrior queen who fought the British on the battlefield, Rani of Jhansi –or Rani Lakshmibai– is still a hero in India, with comic books and Bollywood movies about her. But what’s the true history ...

In one of the darkest chapters of the 1857 uprising, brutal massacres are met with revenge brutal massacres as the rebellion reaches the East India Company garrison town of Kanpur or “Cawnpore”. Who w...

How did Julia Margaret Cameron - Virginia Woolf's great aunt - become one of the most influential photography artists of her time? Who were the Anglo-Indian Pattle Sisters who charmed Victorian societ...

Who were the Italian sailors who stole the bones of St Nicolas from his church in Turkey in 1087? How was the mythology of St Nicolas combined with Germanic pagan stories of Odin riding a white horse ...

The original Santa Claus, Saint Nicolas, was a real bishop from Myra in modern-day Turkey, whose tomb there was popular with pilgrims, but 700 years after his death, a group of sailors decided to stea...

Who was Karsh and how did he become one of the most famous portrait photographers of the 20th century? How did Karsh escape from the Armenian Genocide as a child? What was the story behind some of the...

Should we still read Kipling today? What family tragedy did Kipling face in the later half of his life? How did he fan the flames of jingoism during and after the First World War? William is reunited...

What inspired Kipling to write his two most famous works: The Jungle Book and Kim? Why did Kipling hate London and swiftly move to the US? How did Kipling develop such astute observational writing abo...

Rudyard Kipling was one of the most evocative writers of India, yet he was a jingoist and an imperialist until his dying day. So how do we grapple with this conundrum, why was Kipling such a man of c...

How did Britain’s imperial game become so popular in India? Why were India’s princes the ‘nepo babies’ of cricket? How does the legacy of Partition continue to affect matches in India and Pakistan tod...

How is the history of cricket completely intertwined with the history of the British Empire? What was the Bodyline Controversy of the 1930s and how did it nearly kill a player? Who was Don Bradman and...

Why did George Orwell go to Spain to fight on the Republican side against General Franco? Who saved his life when he was shot in the throat? How did internal feuds on the leftist side of the war influ...

How did neighbouring Arab nations respond to the displacement of Palestinians in 1948? Why was the future Egyptian prime minister, General Nasser, stationed in Gaza in 1948? How did the population of ...

How did British Army General Murray fail to take Gaza in 1917? Who was General Allenby and how did his tactics in the cavalry charge on Gaza City lead to transformation in the region? What are the con...

How did the expansion of Islam out of the Arab peninsular affect Gaza in the seventh century? Who was ‘Amr ibn al-As and how did he ambush the Byzantines in Gaza? Why is the Islamic Conquest described...

How did Gaza become a centre of learning and festivals during the Byzantine era? Who was St. Porphyrius of Gaza, and why did he destroy pagan temples in the city? Why is the Early Christian period con...

Gaza is one of the oldest urban centres on Earth, and in this series we are exploring its long history. It was first referred to by Pharaoh Thutmose III in the 15th century BC when it was known as Gha...

How was George Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower involved in a huge corruption scandal associated with the Panama Canal? How many workers died during the French attempt to build the canal? And who was Bunau-...

What madcap schemes did French engineers use to drum up support to build the Panama Canal in the 1880s? How did the Gold Rush affect the flow of travellers through Panama looking for a shortcut? Who w...

Who was Captain Morgan, and why is a spiced rum named after him? How did a Welsh buccaneer lead an attack on the heart of Spain’s empire in Panama? How did Elizabeth I fund Francis Drake’s first slavi...

Is there any truth in the film 'The Last of The Mohicans' and how did the French and Indian War that it's based on change the make-up of Canada? Why was the Seven Years War the first truly global war?...

How did the Norse settlers in Greenland adapt to the harsh Arctic environment, and what did their diet consist of beyond fish? What role did walrus ivory play in their trade with Norway? And who were ...

What was life like in Berlin in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War? Why did the Red Army steal taps from Berlin houses when they reached the city? Was the famous photo of the red flag on ...

Did the Western powers fail at Yalta? Did Churchill hold strong in his red line about the fate of Poland? Why did the Big Three eat a huge feast in the middle of a war zone? In the final episode in t...

How did one peace conference in Yalta in 1945 completely transform the world in just eight days? What was Joseph Stalin's backstory before becoming the Soviet leader? What is the relevance of the Yalt...

What led to the Second Opium War? Why wasn’t China colonised by Europeans? When did China start referring to this period as the “century of humiliation” and how did this narrative shape nationalism in...

Who won the First Opium War? Why did British troops feel guilty about their role? What treaty led to Britain taking control of Hong Kong? Anita and William discuss the tragic imbalance of The First O...

Who was Commissioner Lin and how did he crack down on foreign opium in China? Why was Charles Elliot so hopeless that he landed Queen Victoria with a bill owing millions to drug dealers? What was the ...

Who were Jardine and Matheson? What was life like for workers growing opium in India? How does George Orwell relate to the East India Company opium trade?  William and Anita explore how William Jardi...

Who led the first British envoy to China? What did Europeans think of China in the 1700s? Why did the diplomats bring a huge planetarium as a gift for the Chinese emperor?  William and Anita continue...

How did Britain create a violent monopoly on opium production in India in the 1700s? What was the Opium Agency? Why did Chinese elites use opium during sex?  Anita and William discuss how the East In...

How did Ireland go from a farming economy to the home of Big Tech and Big Pharma in Europe in a few decades? Why were women imprisoned in “Magdalene Laundries” in Ireland until 1996? How did Irish soc...

Who was responsible for the murder of Jean McConville? Which IRA secrets were revealed in the Belfast Project tapes? How did Gerry Adams move into politics and become a key figure in the signing of th...

In the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence in 1921, Michael Collins is sent to London to meet Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and other British officials to negotiate a treaty.  After we...

The legacy of the Great Famine continues to shape not only Ireland, but the Irish diaspora in America, Canada, and the UK. In the mid-1800s, starving families fled the country in search of survival, g...

How did the memory of the Great Famine shape Irish identity? Could it have been prevented? From 1845 to 1852, a disease decimated potato crops across Ireland. Farmers of small plots who relied entire...

The Restoration reinstates the monarchy in England, Scotland & Ireland, and Irish Catholics believe that they will get their lands back for their loyalty to the king. And when the openly Catholic King...

His statue may stand proudly outside the Houses of Parliament in London, but in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell is remembered as “the Devil from over the Sea” for the bloodshed he unleashed there from 1649 t...

The Chagos Islands have dominated news headlines over the past few months, but the struggle of the Chagossian people to reclaim their island home has spanned decades. First colonised in 1513 by the Po...

Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel transformed India’s landscapes but faced immense personal struggles. Despite rising to prominence as the Maharaja of Mysore’s trusted landscape architect, Krumbiegel suffered...