Aruba: Black Gold and Boas
What happens when an oil-rich island paradise interrupts its production of petroleum? You may have to visit the Caribbean island of Aruba to find out.
The Chinese Question in Australia
The local British tried to bar Chinese traders from Australian shipping routes. Louis Ah Mouy, Lowe Kong Meng, and Cheong Cheok Hong had something to say about it.
The Shah, Our Man in Tehran?
Playing up the threat of the communist incursions, the Shah of Iran gained more and more support—financial and political—from the United States.
Kongo, Interpreted
In the sixteenth century, Kongo’s government trained young nobles to provide interpretation and cultural mediation between Europeans and Kongolese.
Filles du roi: the Founding Mothers of New France
Sent by Louis XIV, the filles du roi were sent to North America to birth new generations of colonists and help conquer the land.
US–Iran Relations: 1953
What really happened in Iran back in the day, and what did the United States have to do with it?
Exporting the Convict Clause: Slaves of the State in the Canal Zone
The criminalization of Blackness enabled by the Thirteenth Amendment brought chain gangs to the construction projects of the Panama Canal Zone.
Coffee for the Resistance
During Indira Gandhi’s autocratic Emergency in 1975, one New Delhi coffeehouse became a key gathering place for opponents of her politics.
Marseille: Independent, Industrial, and Mediterranean
From Caesar’s Commentaries to the modernism of Le Corbusier, the port city of Marseille has preserved a sense of individuality and industry.
Imperfect Memories of British Slavery
British abolition in 1833 was accompanied by £20 million paid in compensation to slaveholders, many of whom subsequently "forgot" slavery ever existed.