Kublai Khan: ruler of the waves

The 20th century saw the mafia go global. Crime groups, from Japan's Yakuza to southern Italy's Camorra, capitalised on political chaos and mass migration to spread their influence around the world. In this episode, Spencer Mizen and Ryan Gingeras trace the relentless rise of the ...  Show more

Thinker, feminist, sociologist, campaigner: 19th-century writer Harriet Martineau was a pioneer and a radical across a huge range of areas, but it's very likely you've never heard of her. Stuart Hobday tells Matt Elton about a figure who played a key role in shaping the modern wo ...  Show more

After victory in China, Genghis Khan goes west and takes on the Khwarezmians, surprising his enemy with a daring assault. He conquers all in his path and now controls the biggest empire the world has ever seen. But whose shoulders are broad enough to become his successor? Listen ...  Show more

In the third century BC, China was a land fractured by war - a patchwork of rival kingdoms struggling for dominance. Out of this chaos rose a single, extraordinary figure who would reshape the course of history: Chin Shrr Hwong, the First Emperor of China. His achievements were m ...  Show more

We're in the Mongol lands of Central Asia in the late 1100s. This is a place of nomadic warriors, a region divided between tribes. But one man will emerge to unite them. Armed with the greatest military mind of his age, he will lead the Mongol peoples far beyond their own borders ...  Show more

The leader brings reforms to his newly unified Mongol nation. The man formerly known as Temüjin will now conquer an empire bigger than any before in recorded history. But what are the innovations that underpin his supremacy? And how will history judge him - as a cruel tyrant, or ...  Show more