France

The notion that men fought and died 'for nothing' is a fallacy, says Max Hastings. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

1914: Why Britain had to go to war

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

A Second World War memorial monument depicting Soviet soldiers

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

A noisy history of the world

A French soldier standing in the entrance to a trench. (Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)

Holding the line: France in the First World War

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

Winston Churchill, former prime minister of the United Kingdom, gives his 'victory' sign while making a polling day tour of his constituency during an election. (Getty Images)

Are these the most overrated people in history?

George Frederick Handel married opera's passion with the respectability of biblical texts, says Tim Blanning. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)

10 milestones in the history of western music

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries by Jacques-Louis David

Napoleon’s great cultural charade

A big day in history: The day Pope Urban II exhorted Christians to go on crusade

Nelson mortally wounded at Trafalgar in 1805

Nelson: the unhappy admiral

Industrial might: Blenheim bombers in production in England, late 1939. The Allies’ combined industrial strength proved too much for the Axis. (Getty Images)

Second World War

The Library The world in flames

The Flight of Bonaparte from the Battle of Krasnoi, 1815. Artist: Sutherland, Thomas (1785-1838)

How Napoleon was humbled

Premium

A contemporary view of the river Seine and Notre-Dame de Paris. (Getty Images)

Ye Olde Travel Guide: Paris 1802 . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Premium

A statue of Joan of Arc in the home where she is thought to have been born, in Domrémy-La-Pucelle, eastern France. (PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images)

Where history happened Joan of Arc . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.