The End of the Cold War: A fresh perspective to the Gorbachev/Reagan debate

The End of the Cold War: A fresh perspective to the Gorbachev/Reagan debate

The end of the cold war was a tumultuous period in the 20th century that came dangerously close to a violent outbreak of nuclear conflict. While there are a multitude of views on who is to be credited for their role in bringing about an end to the cold war, two names prominently stand out, [...]

(INDIA@75) 1959 : The Dalai Lama is granted political asylum in India

(INDIA@75) 1959 : The Dalai Lama is granted political asylum in India

In 1950 the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) invaded Tibet. Under Mao’s leadership, China was looking for the reunification of former Chinese territories, one of which was Tibet. Since then, guerrilla warfare had persisted between Tibetan Rebels who desired independence and Chinese soldiers. Despite the fact that Mao viewed this reclamation of Tibet as a [...]

The Breakdown of the Grand Alliance: Deconstructing the Causes

The Breakdown of the Grand Alliance: Deconstructing the Causes

The Cold War was a period crucial to shaping 21st century history as we know it today. Fought passively between the two remaining axes of the modern world after the destruction wrought by the Second World War, (the US and USSR), this long period of hostility lasting until 1991 threatened to cause a collapse of [...]

Factors that led to the Industrial Revolution: An analysis

Factors that led to the Industrial Revolution: An analysis

Industrialisation was a defining period in history that enabled the transition of predominantly agrarian economies to manufacturing hubs. The Revolution, which took place in the 1700s, ushered in a holistic transformation: an increase in demand, a shift to a culture incentivizing productivity and increased utilisation of economic resources. A booming market requires just this; the [...]

The Blood Telegram, India’s Secret War with Pakistan (Book review)

The Blood Telegram, India’s Secret War with Pakistan (Book review)

The Blood Telegram by Gary J. Bass is insightful, reflective and thoroughly well researched; the book offers a new perspective on the frequently chronicled 1971 India-Pakistan War, which led to the creation of Bangladesh. Outlining the turn of events in the leadup to the 14-day War in 1971, Bass also offers a scathing criticism of [...]

The Spanish Civil War (Part 3)

The Spanish Civil War (Part 3)

The significance of foreign intervention in influencing the outcome of the Spanish Civil War cannot be overstated enough by historians. Several have unanimously agreed that it considerably lengthened and intensified the war while ensuring that Spain's domestic issues were overtaken and submerged by the more significant ideological battles that were taking place in Europe. Of [...]

The Spanish Civil War- Part 2 (The trigger in 1936)

The Spanish Civil War- Part 2 (The trigger in 1936)

The infamous Spanish Civil War was a culmination of brewing political tensions between the Republicans and the Nationalists. Hostile public sentiment and drastic reform from one regime to the next, in the leadup to 1936, led to this brutal conflict. With an unprecedented death toll of nearly one million people as estimated by the Nationalist [...]

The Spanish Civil War – Part 1

The Spanish Civil War – Part 1

Culminating in the year 1936, the Spanish Civil war is considered one of the most brutal landmarks in 19th-century history. Fundamentally, the conflict was the product of nearly three decades of widening political polarisation and a tussle for power between the two dominant ideological groups: The Republicans and the Nationalists.  While the conflict itself took [...]

Hitler’s Foreign Policy: Trigger to World War II?

Hitler’s Foreign Policy: Trigger to World War II?

The early 1940s were marred by the single greatest conflict in the history of the world, unprecedented in size and scale; World War II. Orchestrated by the failure of the vision collective security, the conflict caused the deaths of nearly 85 million people. The world, at the time, witnessed the rise and fall of several [...]

The Great War: How did Lieutenant Keith Furze survive?

Guest Blogger: B.D. Wilberforce B.D. Wilberforce, Author of Furze: Sweethearts and Swan Songs B.D. Wilberforce is the author of Furze: Sweethearts and Swan Songs, a historical fiction based on the hand-written account of World War One that Lieutenant Keith Furze kept between January and June 1915. It is due to be released on 11 November [...]