The History Network

Latest Episodes:

Struggle for Control: Wars In Ancient Sicily Jan 31, 2014

Show notes

Jasper, Josho, Murray and Lindsay discuss Ancient Warfare Magazine VII.2 Struggle for Control: Wars in Ancient Sicily

"Created by the gods and land of the giants, Sicily was a wealthy but deadly prize that dangled in front of many ancient powers. The unfortunate island would be subjected to a seemingly endless series of wars fought by people from all over the ancient Mediterranean. For centuries, the Greeks and Carthaginians would bludgeon each other to the point of exhaustion over a desire to dominate the island. Heeding the siren’s call, the power of Athens would be dashed against Sicily’s rocks. Like a lover forced to choose between two suitors, Sicily would choose Rome over Carthage and thus accelerate the demise of the latter." More

1603 Omdurman Jan 18, 2014

Show notes

"Ye Sons of Great Britain! come join with me And sing in praise of the gallant British Armie, That behaved right manfully in the Soudan, At the great battle of Omdurman". So go the opening lines of The Battle of Omdurman by William McGonagall. It was indeed a great battle where the British and Egyptian forces were heavily outnumbered by the Dervishes of the Mahdist leader Abdullah al-Taashi. It involved a gallant British cavalry charge in which Winston Churchill took part, and it was a battle with which the discipline of a modern army won over a vastly larger force with older weapons. As the French historian and writer Hilaire Belloc put it: "Whatever happens, we have got... The Maxim gun, and they have not". Dur: 19mins File: .mp3

1602 Ranald Slidell Mackenzie - Part 1 The Civil War Jan 05, 2014

Show notes

On January 20, 1889, the following death notice appeared in the New York Times: "MACKENZIE—At New Brighton, Staten Island, on the 19th of January, Brig. Gen. Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, United States Army, in the 48th year of his age." Such a death notice, lacking much detail into his life and career, could be expected if the officer was a minor figure of the late 19th century army, having played little or no role in the Civil War or the more recent Indian Wars. However, this notice is not fitting for an officer who graduated at the top of his class at West Point in 1862 and in three short years, rose to the rank of brevet major general. Dur: 29mins File: .mp3

1601 Violence and "Red Rubber" in the Belgian Congo Dec 22, 2013

Show notes

In 1909, famed mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published The Crime of the Congo, an exhaustive book cataloguing the evils of Congo Free State. On the first page, Doyle included unsettling photographs of African women with severed hands, cut off in the course of forced labor or punitive acts. Doyle's ruthless critique of King Leopold II was published in the context of mounting international criticism against Belgian colonialism, which resulted in the annexation of the territory in 1908. Dur: 29mins File: .mp3

Warriors of the Nile: Conflict in ancient Egypt Dec 13, 2013

Show notes

Jasper, Josho, Murray and Lindsay are joined by Egyptologist Arianna Sacco to discuss Ancient Warfare Magazine VII.1 Warriors of the Nile, Conflict in ancient Egypt.

"One of the earliest civilizations in the world, the culture of ancient Egypt blossomed along the banks of the River Nile. Around 3000 BC, the country was already a unified kingdom ruled by a single king. Its powerful rulers built impressive monuments in the form of the famous pyramids during the so-called Old and Middle Kingdoms, many of which still endure to this day. Egyptian civilization would reach even greater heights during the New Kingdom (1549–1069 BC), when its warrior-kings ventured more boldly beyond the safety of their own borders to forge an actual empire." more

Dur: 38min

Attack of the Celts: Confronting the Classical World Nov 08, 2013

Show notes

Jasper, Josho, Michael and Lindsay discuss the meaty topic of the Celts in the classical world (issue VI 6).

"In 106 BC, a Roman army captured the Gallic stronghold of Tolosa and appropriated a vast treasure hoard. It was soon claimed that they had recaptured the spoils that a band of marauding Gauls had originally looted from the Greek sanctuary at Delphi in 279 BC. The claim, while dubious at best, nonetheless illustrates the ancient tendency to lump Celtic peoples together, treating separate raids by distinct peoples as part of a single menace. In the ancient retelling, both Rome and Greece were sacked by a chieftain named Brennus (albeit in different centuries), a neat onomastic coincidence that is likely too good to be true." More

1510 Horses in the Wehrmacht Oct 31, 2013

Show notes

The legend of the triumphal German Panzer Divisions sweeping all before them during the Blitzkrieg across Europe in 1939-40 gives the impression of a modern mechanized force, but what we rarely hear about is that behind this spearhead was the bulk of the infantry who relied upon its use of horses. So dependant upon the lowly horse were they that at its height the Wehrmacht used over 1.1 million of them! Dur: 20mins File: .mp3

1509 Germanicus Caesar: Rome's Most Popular General Oct 12, 2013

Show notes

Germanicus Caesar is a famous name in the annals of Roman military history yet his life story is known to remarkably few. It is a Boy's Own tale of adventure, courage and derring-do, but it is also the chronicle of the man who was intended to be the third emperor of Rome, but never was. Dur: 41mins File: .mp3

1508 German Auxiliary Officers and Their Critiques of The American Revolution Sep 28, 2013

Show notes

We have all seen it - on coins, stamps, postcards, t-shirts, billboards, and classroom walls. In 1851 Emanuel Gottlieb Luetze painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware", an iconic image of the General's attack on Trenton during a bitter December night in 1776. Lost in all of the painting's fame, however, is the irony that the German-born artist was glamorizing the defeat of German auxiliary forces as the turning point in the American Revolution. Dur: 46mins File: .mp3

1507 Kamikaze: The Mongol Invasion of Japan Sep 09, 2013

Show notes

Kublai Khan, the Grandson of Genghis Khan, became emperor of Mongolia in 1260. Northern China was already under his control and Korea gave him access to the sea, with Japan just 100 miles away. Five times, between 1266 and 1274, Kublai Khan sent emissaries to the Emperor of Japan, addressing him as "the ruler of a small country", demanding he pay tribute and become a vassal state. Five times the emissaries returned empty-handed. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected