Partitions of Poland: Did you mean...?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was a Swiss philosopher whose work both praised and criticised the Enlightenment movement. Although a believer in the power of reason, science, and the arts, Rousseau was convinced that a flourishing culture...

Peter I of Russia (Peter the Great) was the Tsar of Russia from 1682-1721 and Emperor of Russia from 1721-1725. During his long reign, Peter had absolute power and brought real change to Russia, including building its first navy, introducing...

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543 CE) was a Polish astronomer who famously proposed that the Earth and other planets revolved around the Sun in a heliocentric system and not, as then widely thought, in a geocentric system where the Earth is...

The Goths were a Germanic tribe who are frequently referenced for their part in the fall of the Roman Empire and their subsequent rise to power in the region of northern Europe, initially in Italy. Prior to their contact with Rome they must...

The Paris Peace Conference, held from January 1919 to January 1920 and attended by the victorious Allied powers, debated and agreed the terms of the peace settlement that formally ended the First World War (1914-18). As four empires were...

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on 3 March 1918, outlined the harsh conditions under which the crumbling Russian Empire withdrew from the First World War (1914-18). Negotiated by Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924), the leader of Soviet Russia...

Ogedei Khan (aka Ogodei) ruled the Mongol Empire from 1229 to 1241. He was the third son of Genghis Khan (r. 1206-1227), the empire's founder. Ogedei's accomplishments included creating a new capital at Karakorum, establishing a system of...

The Hundred Days refers to the second reign of French Emperor Napoleon I, who unexpectedly returned from exile to reclaim the French throne. It encompasses Napoleon's triumphant return to Paris on 20 March 1815, his climactic defeat at the...

Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942) was a lieutenant-general in the Nazi SS organisation, Gestapo chief, and head of Reich security. A favourite of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), Heydrich controlled all police activity in the Third Reich and was instrumental...

Einsatzgruppen ('deployment groups') were secret Nazi killing units, who systematically sought out and murdered civilians identified as enemies of the Third Reich. Operating without any legal restrictions in territories newly conquered by...