Painting of a European marketplace

Europe

Ye olde travel guide: Prague 1600. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A Christmas card from the First World War

First World War

First World War Christmas cards

Books interview: Margaret MacMillan on the First World War. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Self-portraits: How people took selfies in the past

A policeman feels the full force of a blast in this illustration – from the 7 June 1884 issue of 'The Illustrated Police News' – depicting a Fenian attack on Scotland Yard. The Fenians' dynamite campaign of the early 1880s provoked a radical response from the British government. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Victorian war on terror

1914: Why Britain had to go to war

Books interview: Herodotus's 'The Histories'. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Ye olde travel guide: Heidelberg 1618. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Great Earl of Kildare 'extended English rule over Ireland'

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, displayed remarkable leadership of the British army at the battle of Waterloo. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Waterloo: the historians' verdict

Ye olde travel guide: Thessalonica 1423

A Second World War memorial monument depicting Soviet soldiers

Q&AWhy did Britain and France not declare war on the Soviet Union when the Red Army marched on Poland in September 1939?

General History

What is the origin of the phrase ‘Dutch Courage’?

Languishing languages

When did Italian replace Latin as the language of Italy?

Nazi spies and Viking ships. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A depiction of Hannibal at the battle of Trasimene, which is "today remembered as one of the most stunning victories in military history". (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

A big day in history: Hannibal smashes his foes "at the very gates of Rome"

German soldiers with a horse-drawn cart during the retreat from Ukraine in 1943. The idea of Teutonic efficiency was a triumph of Nazi spin, says James Holland. (Keystone/Getty Images)

The great misconceptions of the Second World War

Ye olde travel guide: Madrid 1621. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A crew of Dambusters pictured together in c1943. The famed Dambusters raid, Operation Chastise, was an RAF attempt to breach German dams and so "deprive Ruhr industry, and the Mittelland Canal of water, over the longest period of time possible". (Royal Air Force Official Photographer/ IWM via Getty Images)

The legacy of the Dambusters

The Spanish Armada: Tudor spin portrayed the events of August 1588 as a glorious English victory but, argues Robert Hutchinson, bad weather and bad tactics had more to do with the Spanish fleet's failure than Elizabethan derring-do. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

The Spanish Armada: England's lucky escape

British soldiers in Normandy. Though Goodwood cost the British some 200 tanks, infantry losses were relatively light, says Mark Urban. (Capt. E G Malindine/IWM via Getty Images)

Operation Goodwood: one of the biggest British disasters of the Second World War?

A Pompeian fresco from the first century showing a woman tuning a musical instrument. Excavations at the partially buried Roman city reveal that women played a prominent role in the home, and that they took personal grooming very seriously indeed. (Photo by: Werner Forman/UIG via Getty Images)

At home with the Romans

History on trial

A noisy history of the world

Holding the line: France in the First World War

Ye olde travel guide: Florence 1380. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

"I read and studied much": Adolf Hitler at his Berghof mountain retreat in c1936. (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images)

Hitler's philosophers

My history hero: Clara Schumann (1819-96). This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An illustration depicting the battle of Naseby, arguably one of the most significant land battles in British history. (Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

20 important battles that shaped Britain