Empire

By Goalhanger Podcasts

History

What's Empire about?

How do empires rise? Why do they fall? And how have they shaped the world around us today?

William Dalrymple and Anita Anand explore the stories, personalities and events of empire over the course of history.

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Empire episodes:

05.01.2024
145. Victoria & Albert (Ep 2)
It is one of the great love affairs of history. Upon meeting again shortly after her 18th birthday, Victoria and Albert became smitten with each other and within 5 days Victoria asked him to marry her. Whilst initially an unpopular...
04.29.2024
144. The Making of Queen Victoria (Ep 1)
Born on the 24th May 1819, Alexandrina Victoria was fifth in line to the throne at a time in which the monarchy’s popularity was declining. Yet, over the course of her reign, which at the time was the longest of...
04.24.2024
143. Isabella of Castile: The Spanish Inquisition, the conquest of Granada, and Columbus
For centuries Spain had been an outlier in Europe due to its religious diversity; Christians, Jews, and Muslims all existed reasonably peacefully across the Iberian peninsula. Under Isabelle of Castile that all changed. She began the Spanish Inquisition and brought...
04.22.2024
142. Isabella of Castile: Uniting Spain
To some she is Europe’s first great queen, to others she is one of history’s great villains, but there is no doubt that Isabella of Castile holds one of the most significant legacies in European history. Born third in line...
04.17.2024
141. Nur Jahan: The Most Powerful Mughal Woman
With Jahangir sliding into more of an opium and alcohol fuelled slumber with each passing day, Nur Jahan took the reins of the Mughal Empire. In this she demonstrated her political prowess, but she was also a remarkable woman. She...
04.15.2024
140. Nur Jahan: The Light of the World
Nur Jahan was born on a roadside as her well-to-do parents fled from Safavid Persia for the tolerant court of the Mughal emperor. Her first marriage was respectable although unremarkable, but then her husband died and she entered the imperial...
04.10.2024
139. Mrs Genghis Khan
Börte came from a powerful nomadic tribe and in many ways her marriage to Genghis Khan set him up to become the great conqueror we know. They married young and when they were twenty, he brought his new bride back...
04.08.2024
138. The Graceful Reed: Ruling the Islamic Empire
Sold as a slave to the great Abbasid Caliph, al-Khayzuran quickly rose to the very top of the pyramid. Through marriage and motherhood, she became wife of the caliph and then Queen Mother and in both instances she wielded extraordinary...
04.03.2024
137. Empress Theodora: Making Heaven on Earth
The Empress Theodora is often unfairly remembered for the salacious stories that have been told about her when she was forced to work in a brothel. She was far more than that. She used her power to improve the fortunes...
04.01.2024
136. Empress Theodora: From the Brothel to the Throne
Placed by her mother into a brothel when she was just a child, Theodora was born into the most brutal of worlds. It was a Constantinople riven with division, whether due to theology or circus factions it was always ready...
03.28.2024
135. Helena: Queen of the World and Finder of the One True Cross
Born in poverty at a time when the Roman Empire was in danger of cracking up and disintegrating, Helena was set for a life of obscurity as a stable hand, bar maid, and, according to some, a prostitute. Yet, in...
03.26.2024
134. Cleopatra: The Would-Be Empress of Rome
With Julius Caesar dead, Cleopatra turned to another of Rome’s dominant figures. She became entwined with Mark Antony, the ruler of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, but even with their enormous combined power the destructive tendrils of Roman...
03.21.2024
133. Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile
Born in the romantic splendour of Ptolemaic Egypt, not far from the Library of Alexandria, Cleopatra was destined for greatness. She ascended to the throne at 18 and very quickly asserted her authority across Egypt as her extraordinary mind and...
03.19.2024
132. Journey to Nalanda and the Library of Jewels
In late autumn, 629 AD, Xuanzang set out for the great university of Nalanda from Chang’an. Across the desert, over the Pamirs, and through multiple robberies, it was an epic journey. As he neared the Buddhist heartlands, he saw Buddhism...
03.14.2024
131. Buddhism Goes to China
Buddhism reached China in the 1st century AD, yet it remained a minor, foreign religion for the next 100 years. It was not until the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 AD and the cracking of the classical Confucian...
03.12.2024
130. India meets Rome: Making the Image of the Buddha
In the 1st century AD, the nomadic Kushans settled in what is now Afghanistan and established settlements and trade. From here, they moved down over the Hindu Kush and took large sections of Northern India. Within their new kingdom, Buddhism...
03.07.2024
129. Ashoka: The Great Buddhist Emperor of India
Ruling in the 3rd century BC, Ashoka was one of India’s greatest ever rulers. Under his rule, the Mauryan Empire grew into the largest empire India had ever seen. Its capital, Pataliputra was a dazzling, glorious, cosmopolitan city that was...
03.05.2024
128. The Buddha & The Golden Road
India was the forgotten heart of the ancient world. For a millennium and a half, from about 250 BC to 1200 AD, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas, an...
02.29.2024
127. Inventing Curry: The British Taste for India
From the beginning of the Raj, British tastes began to turn away from Indian cuisine towards a European palate. The colonial classes sneered at Indian food, instead seeing French food as the height of sophistication. Meanwhile, people in Britain –...
02.27.2024
126. Punch & Chilli: The East India Company at the Table
When the East India Company first arrived on the shores of India, the food they ate in their first factories was not so different from that of Britain. It was all stews, heavy with butter and stuffed with spices, almonds,...
02.22.2024
125. The Origin of the Houthis
Since November 2023, the Houthis have been attacking international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. They set off from the Yemeni coastline on speedboats, armed with guns and unmanned drones, often supplied by Iran, and cause havoc. Such has been...
02.20.2024
124. Saddam Hussein vs The Ayatollah
In September 1980, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces invaded neighbouring Iran and so began the longest conventional war in modern history. After initial Iraqi successes, a brutal stalemate set in that was reminiscent of the horrors of the First World War....
02.15.2024
123. Hezbollah: The Party of God
In June 1982, Israeli tanks rolled over the Lebanese border. Soon after, Iran sent 1,500 Revolutionary Guards into Lebanon to help fight them. Thereafter, funded by Iran but largely manned by Lebanese Shi’ites, Hezbollah established itself as the most powerful...
02.13.2024
122. Iran & Saudi Arabia: The Rivalry that Split the Islamic World
1979 was the year that set the Islamic world on the path to today. In Iran, the revolution established the nation as a theocracy that sought to defend Shi'ism across the world. In Saudi Arabia, the siege of the Holy...
02.08.2024
121. The Fall of the Shah of Shahs
The Shah cracks down on dissent, to the point even his great ally Jimmy Carter begins to cool on the relationship. The economy continues to overheat and the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini has never been more popular. In early 1978 people...
02.06.2024
120. The Iranian Revolution: The Rise of Ayatollah Khomeini
With the Last Shah’s reforms - known as the White Revolution - starting to take effect, Iran looked to be in a healthy position. Economic growth is strong, Tehran is a thriving cultural centre, and women now had the vote....
02.01.2024
119. The Last Shah
Reza Pahlavi rules but he is still bedevilled by the interference of the great powers. Britain has its claws in deep with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (the future BP) which makes more money from Iranian oil than Iran does. But...
01.30.2024
118. Iran's First Revolution
Throughout the 19th century, Iran was a pawn of the great colonial powers. It failed to industrialise, its economy stagnated, and resentment at foreign interference grew. This came to a head in 1906 with the Constitutional Revolution - a liberal...
01.25.2024
117. Nader Shah: The Sword of Persia
Nader Shah was not born to rule. He was poor, the son of a shepherd in a semi-nomadic tribe, and had no connection to the throne. But he was physically impressive; he stood over six feet tall, had dark piercing...
01.23.2024
116. Isfahan: The City of Dreams
Isfahan, half of the world. It had been a city for years, but at the end of the 16th century Shah Abbas made it his capital and totally transformed it. With the immense wealth he brought to the city, Isfahan...
01.18.2024
115. The Great Conversion: How Iran became Shia
How did the great divide within Islam, the split between Sunni and Shia, develop? We trace how the great 16th century confrontation between the Ottomans of Turkey and the Safavids of Iran cemented what had previously been a much more...
01.16.2024
114. The Persian Renaissance
After conquering much of Eurasia, Timur showed no interest in building institutions and so after his death, like the Mongol Empire before it, the Timurid Empire soon fragmented and collapsed. However, some of Timur’s grandchildren took over parts of the...
01.11.2024
113. Timur: Scourge of God
Timur, known to many as Tamburlaine the Great from the iconic Marlowe play. Despite having a limp and struggling to get onto a horse, he erupted from what is now Uzbekistan at the head of a mounted army to conquer...
01.09.2024
112. Ferdowsi: How One Poet Saved Persian Civilisation
After the Arab conquest, Persia was turned upside down. Patronage went to Islam as opposed to Zoroastrianism. The official language of state was now Arabic. Even the very nature of the state changed; for 1,000 years Persia had been the...
01.04.2024
111. Shackleton: The Hero of Antarctica
As the timber creaked under the pressure of the Antarctic ice, Shackleton knew his voyage aboard the Endurance was doomed. What the ice gets, the ice keeps. And so followed one of the most obscenely daring - to the point...
01.02.2024
110. Antarctica: The Continent that wouldn’t be Conquered
Antarctica, the great land of ice. It was first spotted in the early years of the 19th century but it wasn't until 1895 that humans, in the form of a Norwegian expedition, actually landed on one of the world's most...
12.28.2023
109. The Endeavour: Into the Unknown
With Alexander Dalrymple sidelined, Captain James Cook and Joseph Banks are ready to set off on an expedition to track the Transit of Venus and see whether there really is a great southern continent. Over the next three years, they...
12.26.2023
108. The Endeavour & the Great Southern Continent
In the 1760’s a clever, young, ambitious Scotsman named Alexander Dalrymple began advocating a theory as to the existence of a great southern continent. The idea of a landmass that would counterbalance the known world had long been the stuff...
12.19.2023
107. China's Greatest Admiral: The Story of Zheng He
In the 15th century, Admiral Zheng He, on the orders of the Emperor of China, embarked upon a series of extraordinary voyages of exploration. These voyages were undertaken in fleets of up to 300 colossal ships, with tens of thousands of...
12.14.2023
106. The Rise of Islam
With the Sassanian Empire defeated and the Byzantine Empire exhausted, there is a power vacuum in the centre of the world. Both of these superpowers have drained their resources fighting each other over the past 30 years, consuming many of...
12.12.2023
105. The Last Great War of Antiquity
Eurasia is divided into two great superpowers. Khusrow II rules the Sassanian Empire. Maurice, the last of the Justinian dynasty, rules their mighty rivals, the Byzantines. When he is overthrown, Khusrow looks to capitalise upon the chaos, invades his neighbour,...
12.07.2023
104. How Persian Religion Changed the World
Three great religions have come out of Persia and all of them have influenced world history. First there was Zoroastrianism, the first monotheistic religion, which had significant influence over Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Then there was Mithraism. It began in...
12.05.2023
103. Alexander the Great: Defeating Darius
Darius has already been defeated by Alexander. His wife has been kidnapped and has now died in childbirth. The omens sent by the gods bode ill for him. Yet, the two are ready to face off at Gaugamela. Will Darius...
11.30.2023
102. Alexander the Great: The Conquest of Persia
Darius III rules Persia and he has already demonstrated his heroism and skill in battle. The Empire itself, despite having been through a period of court intrigue, was stable. Yet, coming through their western border, originally from Macedonia, was a...
11.28.2023
101. Salamis: Athens’ Revenge
Leonidas and the 300 have been defeated at Thermopylae, leaving the way to Athens open. With the Persians advancing, many Athenians flee to the island of Salamis in the hope it will give them shelter. From there, they see flames...
11.23.2023
100. Thermopylae: Xerxes, Leonidas, and the 300
August 480BC; the might of the Persian army, roughly 100,000 soldiers, face down a few thousand Greeks, led by Leonidas and his brave 300. In light of their overwhelming advantage, an embassy of Xerxes asks the Spartans to lay down...
11.21.2023
99. Marathon and the Rise of Greece
Ionia has revolted and so Darius turns his gaze away from India and towards Greece. He crushes the rebellion, quelling all resistance. He then looks to take much of the Greek mainland and many city states acquiesce before his envoys,...
11.16.2023
98. Darius the Great: Ruling from India to the Mediterranean
The Persian Empire that Darius took control of was already mighty and powerful; his predecessor, Cambyses, had conquered Egypt, further expanding its territory. But it was under Darius it reached its zenith. Stretching all the way from the Mediterranean in...
11.14.2023
97. Cyrus the Great: Building the First Superpower
Born the son of a khan, a tribal chieftain, Cyrus would go on to be a titanic figure of world history. He took Persia from being a minor regional power to the first superpower the world has ever seen. Conquering...
11.09.2023
96. Empires of Iran
Persia was the first great superpower. The empire built by Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and the rest of the Achaemenids stretched from India in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, from Russia in the north to the Gulf of...

What's Empire about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Empire episodes:

145. Victoria & Albert (Ep 2)

144. The Making of Queen Victoria (Ep 1)

143. Isabella of Castile: The Spanish Inquisition, the conquest of Granada, and Columbus

142. Isabella of Castile: Uniting Spain

141. Nur Jahan: The Most Powerful Mughal Woman

140. Nur Jahan: The Light of the World

139. Mrs Genghis Khan

138. The Graceful Reed: Ruling the Islamic Empire

137. Empress Theodora: Making Heaven on Earth

136. Empress Theodora: From the Brothel to the Throne

135. Helena: Queen of the World and Finder of the One True Cross

134. Cleopatra: The Would-Be Empress of Rome

133. Cleopatra: Queen of the Nile

132. Journey to Nalanda and the Library of Jewels

131. Buddhism Goes to China

130. India meets Rome: Making the Image of the Buddha

129. Ashoka: The Great Buddhist Emperor of India

128. The Buddha & The Golden Road

127. Inventing Curry: The British Taste for India

126. Punch & Chilli: The East India Company at the Table

125. The Origin of the Houthis

124. Saddam Hussein vs The Ayatollah

123. Hezbollah: The Party of God

122. Iran & Saudi Arabia: The Rivalry that Split the Islamic World

121. The Fall of the Shah of Shahs

120. The Iranian Revolution: The Rise of Ayatollah Khomeini

119. The Last Shah

118. Iran's First Revolution

117. Nader Shah: The Sword of Persia

116. Isfahan: The City of Dreams

115. The Great Conversion: How Iran became Shia

114. The Persian Renaissance

113. Timur: Scourge of God

112. Ferdowsi: How One Poet Saved Persian Civilisation

111. Shackleton: The Hero of Antarctica

110. Antarctica: The Continent that wouldn’t be Conquered

109. The Endeavour: Into the Unknown

108. The Endeavour & the Great Southern Continent

107. China's Greatest Admiral: The Story of Zheng He

106. The Rise of Islam

105. The Last Great War of Antiquity

104. How Persian Religion Changed the World

103. Alexander the Great: Defeating Darius

102. Alexander the Great: The Conquest of Persia

101. Salamis: Athens’ Revenge

100. Thermopylae: Xerxes, Leonidas, and the 300

99. Marathon and the Rise of Greece

98. Darius the Great: Ruling from India to the Mediterranean

97. Cyrus the Great: Building the First Superpower

96. Empires of Iran

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