Opium: Did you mean...?

The French exploration of New Zealand has been overshadowed by the achievements of British navigator Captain James Cook (1728-1779), but French navigators who visited Aotearoa's (New Zealand) shores named over...

Wallis Simpson (1896-1986) is often remembered as the wife of King Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor. British monarch for less than a year in 1936, Edward preferred to abdicate the throne to be free...

Niccolò Paganini, depicted in his most romantic guise, with tousled hair and gaunt cheeks, the product of his reliance on mercury and opium. Lithograph by Nicolas Eustache and Antoine Maurin, based on a painting by Pingret in...

Digital reconstruction of the Yuanming Yuan palace complex, known in the Western World as the Old Summer Palace. This reconstruction depicts Haiyantang ("The Palace of Calm Seas"), a two-story western-style...

In which John Green teaches you about European Imperialism in the 19th century. European powers started to create colonial empires way back in the 16th century, but businesses really took off in the 19th...

Did you know the English East India Company’s tea trade was fueled by the opium trade? The English East India Company (EIC) – also known as the British East India Company – was an immensely successful...

Centered around the story of the Sassoons, a Jewish family in Ottoman Baghdad that spanned two continents, this book is not only a family story but also a story of global trade and...