Ethiopia: Did you mean...?

Following the conquest of North Africa by Muslim Arabs in the 7th century CE, Islam spread throughout West Africa via merchants, traders, scholars, and missionaries, that is largely through peaceful means whereby African rulers either tolerated...

Trade and commerce were essential components of the success and expansion of the Byzantine Empire. Trade was carried out by ship over vast distances, although for safety, most sailing vessels were restricted to the better weather conditions...

Mycenean Greece and the Orient about 1450 BC. Inset: Reference Map of the Nile Delta.

Monastery of Debre Libanos founded by Saint Tekla Haymanot in 1284. Photo by Walter Mittelholzer, published in his book Abessinienflug (Trip to Abysinnia), 1934. ETH Library, Zürich.

During the reign of the emperor Justinian I (527-565 CE), one of the worst outbreaks of the plague took place, claiming the lives of millions of people. The plague arrived in Constantinople in 542 CE, almost a year after the disease first...

The leader of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) ordered the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Hitler's refusal to withdraw brought a declaration of war from Britain and France on 3 September, and so began the Second World War (1939-45...

Hunter-gatherer societies are – true to their astoundingly descriptive name – cultures in which human beings obtain their food by hunting, fishing, scavenging, and gathering wild plants and other edibles. Although there are still groups of...

The Phoenicians, based on a narrow coastal strip of the Levant, put their excellent seafaring skills to good use and created a network of colonies and trade centres across the ancient Mediterranean. Their major trade routes were by sea to...

Throughout 1938, Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the leader of Nazi Germany, threatened to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The excuse presented was that Sudeten Germans were being repressed but Hitler was intent on creating a 'Greater...

Herodotus' section of his Histories on burial in ancient Egypt (Book II.85-90) is an accurate description of Egyptian mummification, but he purposefully omits the spiritual significance of embalming in keeping with his commitment to refrain...