South America

A poverty-stricken migrant mother with three young children by Dorothea Lange, colourised by Marina Amaral. (Photo courtesy of Head of Zeus)

History in colour

Rags and riches: Enslaved people wash diamonds in Brazil, guarded by armed overseers, in a German engraving of 1828. Diamonds were discovered in Minas Gerais state in the late 17th century. (Picture by Alamy)

Brazil: a society shaped by slavery

Brazil's oldest museum was gutted by a fire that destroyed most of the 20 million artefacts it housed. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Brazil’s National Museum fire in context

Perkin Warbeck, an imposter and pretender to the English throne, being humiliated in the stocks before his execution in 1499. Warbeck was used by Henry VII’s Yorkist enemies in an unsuccessful plot to threaten the new Tudor dynasty. (Getty Images)

Imposters in history: 16 famous con-artists and pretenders

In only two years, Hernán Cortés brought about the downfall of an efficient military civilisation through a combination of diplomacy, warfare, tactics, luck and sheer force of personality, writes Caroline Dodds. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)

Cortés and Montezuma: The conquering of Tenochtitlan

British Royal Navy Type 21 frigate HMS Antelope explodes in San Carlos Water, off East Falkland, after attacks by the Argentine Air Force during the Falklands War, 24 May 1982. (Photo by Martin Cleaver/Pool/Getty Images)

The Falklands War explained

Podcast Brian Glanville

The World Cup story

Barry Cunliffe and David Abulafia

Living with the oceans

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Violeta Parra and the birth of ‘New Song’

Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Have nuclear weapons helped to maintain global peace?

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Percy Fawcett and the lost city of Z: The history behind the film

Monument to Alexander von Humboldt

Books interview with Andrea Wulf: “Alexander von Humboldt is the forgotten father of environmentalism”

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Historic San Felipe de Barajas castle is one of the main attractions in Cartagena, Colombia. (Image: Thinkstock by Getty Images)

General prehistory

My favourite place: Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

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My favourite place: Miranda Kaufmann