The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and...

We have paper money today because it functioned as an IOU, certifying that the holder could redeem it for an equivalent amount of physical gold or silver from the bank's vault. That’s where the English pound got its name as it matched a specific weight of gold (or silver). This w ... Show More

Nearly a century of Cold War tensions between the United States and Russia hide the incredibly close friendship that the two nations enjoyed before this period. From America’s colonial founding in the 1600s to the eve of World War One, the two distant nations relied on each other ... Show More

One of the worst nautical disasters in recent American history is the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. On November 10, 1975, the “storm of the century” threw 100 mile-per-hour winds and 50-foot waves on Lake Superior. The ship found itself at the worst possible place, at the ... Show More

The First World War marked the end point of a process of German globalization that began in the 1870s, well before Germany acquired a colonial empire or extensive overseas commercial interests. Structured around the figures of five influential economists who shaped the German pol ... Show More

On September 1 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland followed two days later by France and the United Kingdom declaring war on Germany and beginning the Second World War. This was the opening act in what would be the most devastating clash in human history. By its end Europe and much ... Show More

This is a reassessment of British and Italian grand strategies during the First World War. Dr. Stefano Marcuzzi, Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, tries to shed new light on a hitherto overlooked but central aspect of Britain and Italy's war experiences: the ... Show More

📖 Episode Transcripts in Link Below ⬇️ Today, we'll explore the unification of Germany in 1871, the culmination of a series of wars and diplomatic maneuvers led by Prussia under Otto von Bismarck, resulting in the establishment of the German Empire under Kaiser Wilhelm I. https: ... Show More

The 11th of November marks Remembrance Day, a memorial day honoured since the end of the First World War. Hostilities ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 after four years of global conflict. As we use this day to look back at those lost, it's importan ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the conference convened by the victorious powers of the Napoleonic Wars and the earlier French Revolutionary Wars, which had devastated so much of Europe over the last 25 years. The powers aimed to create a long lasting peace, partly by redrawing t ... Show More

<p>As some of you may know, I am also a First World War historian, and the academic history of the war can be very different from the public perspective, which dwells on the first two years of the war. </p> <p>Forgetting the victories of 1917 and 1918 is not new; it is something ... Show More

November 11, 1918. At exactly 11 AM local time, the shooting stops. It’s eerily quiet for the first time in a long time. World War I has finally come to an end today after Germany and the Allied nations signed an armistice not long before. The final battle of the war, known today ... Show More

<p>In June 1914, a gunman assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This event set off a chain reaction that plunged Europe’s major powers, and the wider world, into all-out war. President Woodrow Wilson was determined to keep the Un ... Show More

Four empires collapsed during World War I – the German Empire, the Russian Empire, the Austria-Hungary Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. After the armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, the victorious Allies redrew the maps of Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East to replace these fallen e ... Show More