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The Estado da India (1505-1961) was the name the Portuguese gave to that part of their empire which stretched from India to East Asia. However, in its widest sense, the name includes all Portuguese colonies east of the Cape of Good Hope and...

Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713) was the second major colonial conflict in North America, fought between the colonies of England – Great Britain after 1707 – and those of France and Spain, each side aided by their respective Native American allies...

King George's War (1744-1748) was the third great colonial conflict fought in North America between Great Britain and France, each side aided by their respective Native American allies. Like the previous two major colonial wars, it coincided...

Captain Stede Bonnet was a plantation owner in Barbados who turned to piracy and privateering in 1717. Known as the 'Gentleman Pirate', Bonnet embarked on a life of crime relatively late in life, reportedly in order to escape his nagging...

Carthaginian warfare has been overshadowed by defeat to Rome in the Punic Wars, but for six centuries before that Carthage was remarkably successful in conquering lucrative territories in North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, and Sicily. By...

Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859) was a British engineer and a key figure of the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840). Brunel masterminded the Great Western Railway from London to Bristol, designed and built innovative giant steamships...

John Paul Jones (1747-1792) was a Scottish-born sailor who served in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). His raid on the English port town of Whitehaven in 1778 and his victory over the HMS Serapis the...

Jean Lafitte (also spelt Laffite, c. 1780 to c. 1820 CE) was a Franco-American leader of pirates and privateers who captured merchant vessels of various states in the Gulf of Mexico from 1810 to 1820. Lafitte proved an invaluable ally for...

The War of Jenkins' Ear (1739-1748) was a colonial conflict fought between Great Britain and Spain, primarily in the Caribbean and off the coast of South America. Looking to protect its interests in the West Indies, Britain provoked a war...

Sounion (or Sunium) was an important ancient Greek religious sanctuary sacred to the gods Poseidon and Athena. Spectacularly located on a promontory in southern Attica, the site is dominated by the temple of Poseidon perched on the cliff...