South America

Rutger Bregman. (Rutger Bregman (Photo by Maartje ter Horst)

Rutger Bregman’s optimistic history of the world

Postcards from the past competition

Postcards from the past: Aged between 6–13? Enter our exciting lockdown competition

Tectonic foliation in metamorphic rocks at Porthleven, Cornwall. (Photo by Getty Images)

How the world made us

Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett

Percy Fawcett and the search for the ‘Lost City Of Z’

Simon Wiesenthal, who became famous after World War II for his work as a 'Nazi hunter'. (Photo by: SeM/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The real Nazi hunters: how the infamous escaped – and those who brought them to justice

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: what might we learn from pandemics in the past?

Illustration of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19). (Photo by Alamy)

Coronavirus: a historical perspective

A 16th-century map showing Magellan's ship

A voyage from hell: how Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world changed history

Illustration by Davide Bonazzi

Have nuclear weapons helped to maintain global peace?

Heart of the city: The sun shines on the lawns of the Plaza de Mayo, located in the historic centre of Buenos Aires. (Photo by Alamy)

Explore Buenos Aires, Argentina: infused with Latin beauty

England Women's World Cup squad, Mexico, 1971

The 1971 Women’s World Cup: game changers?

Panorama of Machu Picchu

The last days of the Incas

Great Pyramid of Giza. Egypt. (Photo by Olgakostenko | Dreamstime.com)

10 of the most surprising numbers in history

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