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SS Great Eastern
The SS Great Eastern was a steam-powered ship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) which sailed on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York in June 1860. At the time, it was by far the largest passenger ship ever built, a record...

Definition
Black Hole of Calcutta
The Black Hole of Calcutta refers to a prison cell which was used to hold 146 mostly British prisoners captured after the Nawab of Bengal had taken over the city from the East India Company. Interred on 20 June 1756 in a tiny cell in Fort...

Video
Beyond Brideships 1 : "Company Women and King's Daughters" Jamestown Brides
Part one of “Beyond Brideships” compares the Jamestown Brides of 1619-1621 with the “Filles du Roi” of Quebec and examines the misunderstood agency of these women.

Article
Battle of Buxar
The Battle of Buxar (aka Bhaksar or Baksar) in Bihar, northeast India, on 22-23 October 1764 saw a British East India Company (EIC) army led by Hector Munro (1726-1805) gain victory against the combined forces of the Nawab of Awadh (aka Oudh...

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East Indiamen in a Gale
A c. 1759 painting by Charles Brooking East Indiamen in a Gale showing ships of the East India Company. (Royal Museums Greenwich)

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Map of the British Raj c. 1930
A map illustrating the British Raj around 1930, a period of direct British rule over the Indian subcontinent that began in 1858. Following the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, also known as the First War of Independence, the British Parliament passed...

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Jan Pieterszoon Coen, Governor General of the Dutch East Indies
Jan Pieterszoon Coen (1587-1629), an officer of the Dutch East India Company and twice the company's Governor-General in the Dutch East Indies, oil on wood portrait after Jacob Waben, 1629.
Westfries Museum, Hoorn, The Netherlands.

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Port of Kollam, India
An early 17th-century illustration of Kollam (Quilon) in southern India which became a colony of the Portuguese empire in 1505. Part of the Portuguese Estado da India, a fort was built at Kollam in 1515.

Image Gallery
5 British Royal Houses
In this gallery, we look at the history of the last five royal houses of Britain through their family trees. From the Wars of the Roses to the current House of Windsor, we see an evolution from absolute rule to a constitutional monarchy...

Collection
British House of Hanover
The House of Hanover is a royal house that first ruled Hanover and then Great Britain from 1714 to 1901. The British Hanoverians began with George I when he succeeded the last of the Stuart monarchs, Queen Anne of Great Britain (r. 1702-1714...