From humble beginnings, in the course of three centuries the Portuguese built the world's first truly global empire, stretching from modern Brazil to sub-Saharan Africa and from India to the East Indi
The very name El Cid sums up much of the special character of medieval Spanish warfare. It comes from the Arabic al sayyid, master or chieftain, and seems to have been given to Rodrigo de Vivar by his
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were a time of great upheaval for medieval France. In 1328 the Capetian line came to an end. This was the trigger for the Hundred Years War (1337-1453)?as succes
The Great War of 1914-18 is often seen as one major battleground – the Western Front – with numerous 'side-shows'. The other battle zones were not side-shows to those involved, however, although the l
During the Middle Ages, Islam was Christian Europe's only civilized and most troublesome neighbor. The Middle Ages saw almost continual strife between these two distinct cultures. By the time the Fran
