Africa

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Illustration by Jonty Clark.

Ye olde travel guide: Aksum AD 537 . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Uganda railway, which links Uganda and Kenya with the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa in Kenya, was built during the period of British control of East Africa. (SSPL/Getty Images)

The dark side of abolitionism

British soldiers on the front of El Alamein. (Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

El Alamein: The British empire’s last hurrah

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Sultan Moulay Ismail Ibn Sharif. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Ye Olde Travel Guide: Meknes 1681 . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Frederick Courteney Selous (1851-1917). (Alamy)

My history hero: Frederick Courteney Selous (1851-1917) . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Ancient Egypt through Victorian eyes . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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King George VI and stories from Africa . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A gold head, thought to represent the head of an important enemy killed in battle, from the Asante kingdom. The abundance of this precious metal greatly shaped the region's history. (Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

The Golden Coast

An 1860s coloured engraving of Lake Victoria’s outflow at the Ripon Falls, which John Speke discovered in 1862 and correctly declared to be the source of the Nile. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Explorers of the Nile

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The end of slavery and headaches in history . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A London Missionary Society (LMS) mission in Papua New Guinea, c1920s. (Photo by Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo)

Married to a missionary

A stone relief depicting men bringing gifts to the king, c500 BC. (Getty Images)

The Persian empire: myth vs reality

A European buyer of enslaved people

General History

Who started the enslavement of Africans in the Americas?

A monumental misunderstanding

Map of Algiers, c1700. It was here that Icelanders, including Ólafur Egilsson, were sold into slavery. (Culture Club/Getty Images)

Barbary pirates: kidnapped in Iceland