How Mansa Musa Flooded Cairo with Gold—and What Happened Next
Reading Time: 18 minutes In the 1320s, Mansa Musa made his way to Cairo, leading a caravan so laden with gold that centuries…
Reading Time: 18 minutes 
Reading Time: 18 minutes How the Almoravids Shaped Modern Islam in Africa
Reading Time: 19 minutes The Almoravids started as a desert reform movement. They ended up presiding over an empire extending from the Maghreb,…
The Real Sparta Examined Through 12 Spartan Myths & Truths
Reading Time: 16 minutes Popular conceptions of ancient Greece are still influenced by Spartan myths of austere supermen governed only by martial necessity….
Power and Betrayal: Rise and Fall of the East India Company
Reading Time: 23 minutes The East India Company started as a commercial enterprise but became something much greater: a sovereign power. It raised…
Philip IV’s Blueprint for Destroying the Knights Templar
Reading Time: 21 minutes On Friday, October 13, 1307, a few minutes before dawn, officials of the King of France began arresting Knights…
The Dramatic Downfall: Lessons from the Ottoman Empire’s Decline
Reading Time: 24 minutes For centuries, the Ottoman Empire spanned three continents and connected diverse populations, religions, and languages. Yet its demise was…
Life in Iran Before and After the 1979 Revolution
Reading Time: 22 minutes The Iranian Revolution of 1979 marked a defining before-and-after for many Iranians. Far more than just a date on…
The Taiping Rebellion: China’s Deadliest Civil War
Reading Time: 28 minutes The Taiping Rebellion shattered nineteenth-century China. Beginning in 1850 and ending in 1864, millions of people died in combat…
The Vietnam War: A War of Guerrilla Warfare and Global Politics
Reading Time: 19 minutes The Vietnam War raged from 1955 to 1975. It escalated from a civil war into one of the twentieth…
The Haitian Revolution and the First Black Republic
Reading Time: 19 minutes The Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) was among the most radical and far-reaching revolts in modern times. What began as the…
