Images

Sir Arthur Wellesley, Marquess (and later Duke) of Wellington in command of the British forces at Sorauren near Pamplona during the Peninsular War (1807-1814). Oil on canvas by Thomas Jones Barker, c. 1853. National Army Museum, Chelsea...

The Portuguese royal family evacuates Lisbon for Brazil as the French army closes in at the start of the Peninsular War (1807-1814). Painting by Henri L'Evêque, 1812.

The last stand of Pedro Velarde y Santillán, a Spanish artillery captain famous for his death during the Dos de Mayo uprisings against French occupation at the onset of the Peninsular War. Painting by Joaquín Sorolla, 1884. Museo del Prado...

A map illustrating the empire and campaigns of Timur (from the Chagatai word for iron) at its biggest extent before his death in 1405. Timur the Lame (Timur-i Leng from Persian, Tamerlane as it had evolved in English or Timūr Gurkānī, son-in-law...

This granite menhir, located near the Castle of the Rock Goyon (Fort la Latte) in northern Brittany, France, and measuring 2.64 meters, has a very fine obelisk shape. It was broken in two by the film crew of The Vikings in 1957, and the trace...

The Champ Dolent menhir in northern Brittany, France has been standing in its place since the beginning of the Neolithic period. Weighing about 120 tons, it was dug from a granite quarry 4 km away. It is 9.30 m high (just over 30 feet) and...

Pages 2 and 3 of the Berlin Decree, signed 21 November 1806 by Emperor Napoleon I that kicked off the Continental System embargo on British trade.

French soldiers inspect goods in Leipzig in 1806, near the start of Napoleon's Continental System. By Gottfried Heinrich Geißler, 1824.

Smugglers in 1808, defying the Continental System. Etching by John Augustus Atkinson and William Miller, 1808. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.

A clay tablet from Zakros, Crete inscribed with Linear A script. Still undeciphered, Linear A script was used by the Minoan civilization from c. 1850 to c. 1450 BCE. (Zakros Archaeological Museum)