255. Victorian Narcos: From Opium To Fentanyl...

How did the French colonise Algeria? Was the Algerian economy built on slavery? Who was the revolutionary priest who united Algerians against the invaders? What atrocities did the French commit in the mountains? In the first episode of this series on the Algerian Revolution, Will ...  Show more

How did the United States change from a revolutionary experiment into a global empire? Was the American Revolution really a civil war over Native American land? Why was George Washington known as the ‘Town Destroyer’? How do the Civil War and Vietnam continue to haunt America? An ...  Show more

2/2. The British Empire aggressively pursued the opium trade well into the 19th century, fueling an addiction epidemic within China. The Qing government was determined to stamp out this destructive trade, leading to the First and Second Opium Wars. But the British Royal Navy w ...

In this week's episode, we give an overview of the First Opium War, one of the most humiliating events in Modern Chinese history. From this event that culminated in the first of many unequal treaties in 1842, China began a steady downhill slide and suffered a multitude of setback ...  Show more

Tom and Dominic welcome back special guest Rana Mitter to discuss China's position during World War Two. This episode covers the Rape of Nanjing by Japanese forces, the military tactic of flooding the Yellow River, the deal between Chinese Nationalist Wang Jin Wei and Japan, and ...  Show more

Friend of the show Rana Mitter joins Tom and Dominic this week to discuss the role of China in the Second World War. In the first of two episodes, Rana, Tom and Dominic cover the fall of the last Emperor and the establishment of a Chinese Republic in 1912, the Opium Wars, warlor ...  Show more