HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-01-30T10:27:32.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: History crossword: 23 January
items: Can you solve our history crossword of the week?
items: The United States and Latin America: a turbulent history
items: History's most mysterious manuscripts
items: History crossword: 15 January
items: History’s 8 biggest land deals: how the US more than doubled in size – and why it agreed to leave Greenland alone
items: History crossword: 9 January
items: Uncontacted peoples: why do nearly 200 groups choose to live outside 'civilisation'?
items: From Churchill to Vietnam: protests that changed the world
items: In 1756, a young Englishwoman was taken hostage by Barbary pirates. This is her story

History crossword: 23 January
type: item
date: 2026-01-30T09:30:28.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
encoded: View Riddle on the source website

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Can you solve our history crossword of the week?
type: item
date: 2026-01-30T09:30:13.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Period
encoded: View Riddle on the source website

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The United States and Latin America: a turbulent history
type: item
date: 2026-01-30T08:00:30.000Z
creator: Danny Bird
subject: General History
subject: Period
description: Greg Grandin tells the centuries-long story of the United States of America's interventions across Latin America - from independence to the War on Drugs
encoded: Has the United States always seen Latin America as its ‘backyard’? And when did influence tip into intervention? In this episode, Danny Bird is joined by Yale University's Greg Grandin to explore the long, turbulent history of US–Latin American relations, from westward expansion and early regime change to gunboat diplomacy, corporate empires and the Cold War. Don't miss our new podcast series History Behind the Headlines: Briefing, in which we task expert historians with bringing you the history you need to make sense of the headlines – in five minutes or less.

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History's most mysterious manuscripts
type: item
date: 2026-01-28T08:00:16.000Z
creator: Emily Briffett
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: Garry J Shaw explores the history of the world's most mysterious manuscripts
encoded: What do exploding bats and amphibious galleons have in common? They're both fascinating features of some of the world's most mysterious manuscripts, as revealed by journalist and author Garry J Shaw in his book, Cryptic. From Hildegard of Bingen’s secret language to the hoaxes of Renaissance Spain, and from John Dee’s angelic communications to the peculiar Voynich Manuscript, Shaw unravels the allure and enigma of texts shrouded in secrecy.

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History crossword: 15 January
type: item
date: 2026-01-23T09:30:40.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
encoded: View Riddle on the source website

History’s 8 biggest land deals: how the US more than doubled in size – and why it agreed to leave Greenland alone
type: item
date: 2026-01-21T17:15:37.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical events
description: From the Louisiana Purchase to the sale of Manhattan Island, Piers Mucklejohn explores eight moments in history when vast swathes of land changed hands for money
encoded: The Alaska Purchase (1867) When the US banked an unexpectedly amazing bargain from Russia In 1867, the Russian empire made the US an offer that it could hardly refuse. Still reeling from crushing defeat in the Crimean War in 1856 and fearing that the British might seize Alaska to extend their power in the Pacific, it was desperate to offload that territory. At the end of March, less than a month after Russian envoy Eduard de Stoeckl began negotiations with US secretary of state William Seward, the sale was made. Seward’s expansionist desire to extend US territory, especially in the Pacific, spurred him on to negotiate all night. The transfer of Alaska was agreed at 4am on 30 March – 586,000 square miles sold for just 2 cents per acre, a total of $7.2m (equivalent to around $155m today). Contrary to popular belief, the purchase was generally supported by the public, though scornful commentary in some newspapers heaped criticism on “Seward’s Folly”. “We simply obtain by the treaty the nominal possession of impassable deserts of snow,” the New York Daily Tribune complained of the territory, much of which lies within the Arctic Circle. “We may make a treaty with Russia but we can not make a treaty with the North Wind, or the Snow King.” Beneath the snow, though, gold was discovered in the 1890s. There was oil, too – all in all, a hidden treasure trove of natural resources. The Alaska Purchase proved to be one of history’s most serendipitous land deals. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/01/2Danish-West-Indies-purchase-61b4fd3-e1769012728283.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A black and white photograph of a group of five men standing around a long, rectangular table" title="The purchase of the Danish West Indies is completed in 1917 with the transfer of payment. The US deemed these Caribbean islands vital to its natural security in the face of German U-boat threats" /> The US purchases the Danish West Indies (1917) This Caribbea…

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History crossword: 9 January
type: item
date: 2026-01-16T09:20:13.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
encoded: View Riddle on the source website

Uncontacted peoples: why do nearly 200 groups choose to live outside 'civilisation'?
type: item
date: 2026-01-12T15:30:12.000Z
creator: Michael Wood
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Civil rights
subject: Column
subject: Historical people
description: "These are the last humans who have stayed outside 'civilisation'", writes Michael Wood
encoded: A new report by Survival International, Uncontacted Peoples: At the Edge of Survival, is the latest accounting of the human story – and it is a historical document of unparalleled power. It reveals that at least 196 groups in the world are still uncontacted, most of them gravely threatened by logging, mining and drilling for oil. These are the last human beings who have stayed outside ‘civilisation’ since the violence of the West reached across the globe after 1492. The report cast my mind back 25 years to when we made a series of four films telling the story of the Spanish conquest of the Americas. Cortés, Pizarro, Orellana, Cabeza de Vaca: these were men who experienced some of the most incredible adventures in human history. We tracked them on the ground, following in their footsteps over the Andes, up Inca trails to lost cities, and rafting down the Amazon. The third film was especially powerful in its implications for the here and now, as well as the events of the 16th century. It told the story of the expedition led out of Quito in 1541 by Gonzalo Pizarro (younger half-brother of Francisco, who spearheaded the conquest of the Inca empire). Its goal was to find the fabled El Dorado – ‘the Golden Man’ – a mythical city of gold believed to exist somewhere in the jungles beyond the Andes. The city was, in fact, unfindable – because it never existed. In trackless terrain, the expedition ran into disaster: soaked by incessant rains, running out of food, the men were reduced to eating their horses and cooking their boot leather. Francisco Orellana pushed onward in a home-made boat to scout what lay ahead, but such was the speed of the river that he couldn’t make his way back to the rest of the men. Read more | “Indigenous Americans who travelled across the Atlantic were horrified by inequalities in European society” After untold sufferings, the survivors of the main army made it back to Quito nearly a year and a half later. Meanwhile, after many adventures, Orellana …

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From Churchill to Vietnam: protests that changed the world
type: item
date: 2026-01-11T15:00:40.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Civil rights
subject: Debate
subject: Historical events
description: With the police about to be given broader powers to tackle disruptive events, the right to protest is in the spotlight. Timothy Garton Ash and Katrina Navickas join Danny Bird to discuss the history of popular demonstrations
encoded: Danny Bird: What is a protest? What distinguishes it from a riot or a revolution? Katrina Navickas: A protest is often defined by law, making it a fluid and changeable term. In England and Wales, its meaning has evolved over time. The earliest legal definition dates to the 1714 Riot Act, which distinguished a riot from other forms of protest. The modern idea of a demonstration emerged in the 19th century alongside the rise of democratic movements. Protest came to mean people gathering publicly to make collective claims – a reflection of the growing concept of ‘the people’ and their role in politics. However, what counts as a protest still depends on context: the country, the circumstances and the legal boundaries of what is permitted in public spaces. Timothy Garton Ash: Historically, revolution was associated with violence, but modern protest is defined by nonviolent action. Think of Gandhi in India, the Civil Rights movement in the US, or People Power in the Philippines [in 1986, resulting in the overthrow of the Marcos regime]. The revolutionary events of 1989 in eastern Europe were particularly notable because they brought together nonviolence and revolution for the first time. In essence, protest is about people power – collective, peaceful demonstration as a means of change. What makes a protest ultimately successful? Is it timing, tactics, leadership or something peculiar to a moment in history? TGA: In the book I co-edited with Adam Roberts, Civil Resistance and Power Politics (OUP, 2009), we examined 18 cases over a century, from Gandhi to the more recent ‘colour revolutions’ in former Soviet and Yugoslav republics. One point is clear: protest alone is never enough. It requires favourable internal and external conditions to succeed. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/01/WHA0173278webready-6200492-e1767782763339.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A black and white photograph of a large crowd of people, standing togeth…

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In 1756, a young Englishwoman was taken hostage by Barbary pirates. This is her story
type: item
date: 2026-01-09T15:00:12.000Z
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Amazing lives
subject: Historical people
subject: Islam
subject: Pirates
description: Taken hostage by a Barbary ship’s captain in the 18th century, a young Englishwoman found herself fighting for her freedom in Marrakech. Adam Nichols introduces a brave captive who later wrote a book about her dramatic experiences
encoded: The Barbary corsair ship appeared suddenly on the horizon, bristling with cannon. Its decks swarming with armed men, it sliced through the waves at a clip that its quarry – the British merchant ship Ann – could not match. At that time, in the mid-18th century, such pirate attacks were violent, bloody affairs; if the Ann’s captain tried to resist, he would be risking the lives of his crew, his passengers and himself, and would likely see his ship sunk. He surrendered. The corsair captain swaggered aboard the British vessel without firing a shot, and surveyed his captives. He was one of the infamous Sallee Rovers operating out of Salé, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, who sold any Europeans they captured into slavery. The captain ordered the Ann’s four passengers to be taken to his ship, along with the crew, who were chained up in the hold. One of the passengers was a young Englishwoman named Elizabeth Marsh, barely 21 years old. It is because of her that we know these details. She later published an account of her experiences: The Female Captive: A Narrative of Facts Which Happened in Barbary in the Year 1756, Written by Herself. The corsair attack occurred in August 1756, a few months after the beginning of the Seven Years’ War. Marsh’s father, an administrator for the Royal Navy, had moved his family from their home in Menorca to Gibraltar, which he considered safer. To further protect his daughter, he then booked her a berth on the Ann, which set sail for England in late July. Read more | Liquor, loot and death on the high seas: 5 things you (probably) didn't know about the history of pirates Marsh’s family aspired to be “respectable people”, and she had received a genteel education. The future planned for her was typical of young women of her position and era: to marry a well-to-do man and bear his children. Now, torn from that sheltered life, she faced a very different fate. As a young, attractive European woman, Marsh would have been a highly sought-after comm…

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