Misha Glenny and guests discuss an ancient civilisation who lived over 2000 years ago in the southwest of modern-day Libya. During prehistoric times, the Sahara Desert was greener and even had large lakes, but for the last 5000 years it has been a hyperarid environment. Extreme s ...Show more
The Spanish-American War 1898
Misha Glenny and guests discuss a turning point in world affairs in 1898 that left Spain greatly reduced as an imperial power and the US the owner of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, with a significant influence over the newly independent Cuba where the war broke out. The U ...Show more
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how, in September 1812, Napoleon captured Moscow and waited a month for the Russians to meet him, to surrender and why, to his dismay, no-one came. Soon his triumph was revealed as a great defeat; winter was coming, supplies were low; he ordered hi ...Show more
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's temporary return to power in France in 1815, following his escape from exile on Elba . He arrived with fewer than a thousand men, yet three weeks later he had displaced Louis XVIII and taken charge of an army as large as any th ...Show more
The 1812 invasion of Russia was the beginning of the end for Napoleon. Russia’s scorched earth campaign not only prevented a quick French victory, it emboldened other countries to once again take up arms. And this time, they were prepared to take on the world’s greatest general. ...Show more
Napoleon’s military success has cowed a continent but, in Russia, he meets almost unimaginable horror. He was defeated, he says, not by the Tsar, but by winter. His subjects aren’t so sure. And his enemies see an opportunity.Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, f ...Show more