In 1868, Japan was a feudal island nation with no railways, no constitution, and no modern army. By 1912, it had defeated two empires and become Asia's first industrial power, while neighboring China's dynasty collapsed under the weight of reforms it could never complete.
History Modern EraIn 1839, Britain went to war not to defend freedom or territory, but to protect its right to sell narcotics. The opium wars china endured reshaped global power for over a century.
History Modern EraIn 1884, fourteen nations gathered in Berlin to partition Africa among themselves. No African was invited. Within fifteen years, seven European powers had seized 90% of a continent they barely understood, drawing borders that ignored hundreds of ethnic groups and still shape conflicts today.
Geopolitics & Conflict HistoryThe Black Death killed half of Europe and, in doing so, destroyed the economic foundations of feudalism. The labor shortage that followed gave surviving peasants bargaining power, triggered wage explosions, provoked desperate legislation, and ultimately created the conditions for capitalism.
Geopolitics & Conflict HistoryTrofim Lysenko promised Stalin that ideology could replace genetics. The Soviet Union believed him for 17 years, destroyed 3,000 scientists, and exported the consequences to China.
History Modern EraThe history of language is a 135,000-year story where humans spent most of it talking and almost none of it writing. How we got from grunts to grammar, and why Paris banned the question entirely.
History Modern EraIn 1953, the CIA and MI6 overthrew Iran's democratically elected government to protect an oil company. The consequences reshaped the Middle East and are still playing out today.
History Modern Era
