For European states in the early modern era the Ottoman empire represented a huge trading bloc, stretching at its height from Hungary in the west to Iran in the east, from Ukraine in the north to Egypt in the south, and along the southern shores of the Mediterranean to the...

Any study of the intercultural relationships between the Indigenous peoples of North America and British settlers usually focuses on the differences that resulted in disputes and violence. However, on closer examination, the interaction also involved the exchange of ideas and the forging of alliances, which required diplomacy and respect for...

In this podcast Professor Kevin MacDonald (University College London) examines the history of the Mali Empire, discusses the importance of using both oral history and archaeology to construct this history and also reflects upon the empire’s legacy. The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1226 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita (c. 1214...

In his book of the same name, A short history of Islamic thought, Dr Fitzroy Morrissey provides a concise introduction to the origins and sources of Islamic thought, from its beginnings in the 7th century to the current moment. In this talk he explores the major ideas and introduces the...

In this podcast, Professor William Pettigrew of Lancaster University, discusses the origins of the British Slave Trade in the 1560s, the impact of the English Civil War, Cromwell and the Restoration, and looks at slavery's role in the development of the British economy, empire and domestic politics.

As British and Irish migrants sought new lives in the Caribbean, Asia, North America and Australasia, they left a trail of physical remains where settlement occurred. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, gravestones and elaborate epitaphs documented identity and attachment to both their old and new worlds. In this Virtual...

Professor Malcom Gaskill joined the HA Virtual Branch on Thursday 10 December 2022 to discuss the subject of his book, The Ruin of all Witches, Life and Death in the New World, which was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize in 2022. His research explores the attitudes, beliefs and treatment of people as...

In this podcast Professor David Stirrup of the University of Kent looks at the relationship between the early English and British settlers and the Native North Americans they encountered. Professor Stirrup examines how this relationship and perceptions developed, the migration of Native Americans to Britain and provides insight on what...

In this podcast Dr Misha Ewen of Historic Royal Palaces discusses her research project Families and the English Atlantic Empire, 1550-1650 which explores the role of women, families, and household economies in early modern empire-building. Misha Ewen specialises in the social and economic history of the early modern Atlantic world, with...

In this podcast, Dr Edward Holberton of the University of Bristol discusses the changing relationship between the British state and the North American colonies during the 17th and early 18th centuries. Dr Holberton explores what we can learn from an examination of some of the literary sources and writers of...

In this Virtual Branch webinar we were joined in conversation with Dr Toby Green on his acclaimed book 'A Fistful of Shells'. Shortlisted for the 2020 Wolfson Prize and winner of the 2019 Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, the book explores West Africa from the Rise of the...

Historian and author Martyn Whittock recently gave a lecture for the HA Virtual Branch on 'Mayflower Lives: building a New Jerusalem in the New World'. In 1620, 102 ill-prepared asylum seekers landed two months later than planned, in the wrong place on the eastern coast of North America. By the next summer, half of...

In modern times, occultists have spoken of a specifically western tradition of ceremonial magic, which has been continuously handed down through the millennia, in secret, from an original starting point in ancient Egypt. Although professional historians have become increasingly interested in the history of magic in general, there has not...

The 1620 Mayflower voyage was the result of the desire of a religious Christian group, the Puritans, who wished to break away from the Church of England and create a new community away from Catholic-influenced Europe. Plans for the voyage were fraught with problems in the summer of 1620, and the...

Following on from the complementary podcast on the sailing of the Mayflower, this podcast with Dr Sarah Pearsall of the University of Cambridge explores the early British Settlements in America and their development into a new society moving towards statehood. It looks at who the settlers were and their relationships with the Native...

In this podcast Dr Fred Anscombe highlights the vastness of the Ottoman Empire, and explores shared common characteristics of culture and philosophy, and what made them unified as 'Ottoman'. He argues that the common terminology of referring to the Ottomans as Turks is questionable since the empire was so vast. He also explains how...

In this podcast, Dr. Fred Anscombe explores changes in the religion of Islam through the period of the Ottoman Empire. He describes the different principles of Islam known as Sufism, Hanafi, and Sharia, and how they influenced the Ottomans.

In this podcast Dr Toby Green of King's College London examines the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Benin.

In this podcast Dr Toby Green of King's College London looks at the African Kingdoms and Empires of Oyo and Dahomey 1608-1800, in the area that today is Benin and North central Nigeria.

In this podcast Dr Toby Green of King's College London discusses the Kingdom of Kongo.