143. Isabella of Castile: The Spanish Inquisi...

Why did Mao declare war on sparrows as part of The Great Leap Forward? What caused China to attack India in 1962? How did Mao use a swimming pool to embarrass Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev? Anita and William are joined once again by Rana Mitter, author of A Bitter Revolution: C ...  Show more

William and Anita are joined by renowned British-Iranian journalist, Christiane Amanpour, to discuss the war in Iran, and how it has echoes of the events she has covered since leaving Tehran in 1979. How did the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 shape the military tactics of today’s Islamic ...  Show more

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue ... and Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and Isabella, queen of Castile expelled the Jewish population from Spain.

Queen Isabella of Castile was the greatest of the state-building rulers of the late Middle Ages. During her rule, she sent Columbus to America, married Ferdinand of Aragon to launch modern Spain, and finished the centuries-long Reconquista, ending centuries of Muslim rule in I ...

May 1453 saw Constantinople under siege - the culmination of an age long struggle between Christianity and Islam for control of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Ottoman leader Mehmed II had dreamed of possessing the city since he was a boy, and now the shining light of Chri ...

July 31, 1492. In cities, towns and villages across late medieval Spain, whole districts have emptied out. Houses abandoned, stores closed, and synagogues—which until recently had been alive with singing and prayer—now sit quiet. Exactly four months earlier, the King and Queen of ...  Show more