The Allied landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944 were the largest amphibious operation ever undertaken in military history. Across five separate beaches, over 150,000 men made up the landing forces from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. To protect the men on the beaches, a massive bombardment of naval gunfire and aerial bombs struck German fortified defences, troop concentrations, and artillery positions. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

At the end of the Seven Years War, the Proclamation of 1763 was issued by the British, which granted any lands west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Ohio Valley of North America to the Native Americans. American colonists could not settle any of these lands and would be forcibly removed by British forces if necessary. Dur: 18mins File: mp3

In his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, Raphael Lemkin says that "genocide is composite and manifold, and that it signifies a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of the essential foundations of life of a [specific] group." Collective dispossession, including plunder and spoliation, is only one of the many crimes that accompany and even fortify genocidal policies—or perhaps better said, expropriation and pillaging are important aspects of the political economy of genocide. Dur: 15mins File: .mp3

Agitation from the Armenian community for political reform and autonomy, brewing since the 1870s, was further intensified by large-scale massacres that occurred across the empire in 1894–1897 and in Cilicia in 1909; additionally, the more seemingly benign expressions of oppression and discrimination faced by Armenians, which had increased throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, also contributed to growing discontent. Though they had already suffered grave injustices, the previous misfortunes of the Ottoman Armenians paled in comparison to the genocide of 1915–1916. As Bloxham notes, the massacres of the 1890s and genocide of 1915 differ in significant ways—notably in their motivations as well as in participation by centralized versus localized actors—but share a common time frame at the twilight of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, the massacres of 1894–1897 themselves charted the course of what was to come, conditioning the mentality of both perpetrators and victims.

This episode was written by Ümit Kurt.

Ümit Kurt is a historian of the Modern Middle East with a particular focus on the transformations of the imperial structures and their role in constituting the republican regime. Kurt is Polonsky Fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He is the author of several books in Turkish and English, including "The Spirit of the Laws: The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide." His recent book is, The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province, published by Harvard University Press, May 2021. He is currently teaching in the Dept. of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Kurt is the winner of the Discovery Early Career Research Award of 2021, given by Australian Research Council.

Dur: 25mins File: .mp3

The battle of Königgrätz (also known as the battle of Sadowa or the battle of Chlum) was the most decisive clash between the armies of Prussia and those of Austria and her allies during the short, seven-week long, Austro-Prussian War in 1866. The war itself is also known under several different titles. Königgrätz was also one of the largest battles of the age with almost half a million men fighting on the field. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

At the end of the 19th century tensions had been high between the United States and Spain - the point of friction being Spanish colonial rule specifically in Cuba. When the USS Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana harbour, it pushed the American President McKinley into war with Spain. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

When the Indian Mutiny broke out in May 1857, members of the Honourable East India Company became involved. Soon, several outstandingly brave deeds by them and other volunteer civilians were reported back in England but there was no official way to recognise civilian valour in times of armed conflict. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

At the end of the First World War France and Italy had wanted the German High Seas Fleet divided between them, Britain and the USA wanted it scuttled, which Germany did anyway without permission. The resulting Treaty of Versailles imposed strict limits on size and number of warships the newly constituted German government was allowed to build and maintain. This nullified the threat of Germany at sea. Dur: 14mins File: .mp3

The Athenian army moved into position for the coming struggle. The right wing was commanded by Callimachus – for it was the regular practice at that time in Athens that the polemarch should lead the right wing; then followed the tribes, in order of their numbers; and, finally, on the left wing, were the Plataeans. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3

On September 10th 490 BC, hoplites from the Greek city of Athens faced an invasion force sent from the enormous and powerful Persian Empire to the east on the field at Marathon, a bay 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometres) northeast of Athens. The Athenians were outnumbered but the result would not be what anyone expected. Dur: 21 mins File: .mp3