The rise and fall of empires and the events that shaped world history. William Dalrymple and Anita Anand explore the intricate stories of revolutions, imperial wars, and the people who built and lost empires. From the British Empire to the Ottomans to Ancient India, history is shaped by power struggles and territorial conquests. How does it continue to affect the world today? Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Club to receive early access to miniseries, ad-free listening, early access to live show tickets, bonus episodes, book discounts, our exclusive newsletter, and access to our members’ chatroom on Discord! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
359 episodes transcribedThroughout the 19th century, Iran was a pawn of the great colonial powers. It failed to industrialise, its economy stagnated, and resentment at foreig...
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 physicall...
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...
How did the great divide within Islam, the split between Sunni and Shia, develop? We trace how the great 16th century confrontation between the Ottoma...
After conquering much of Eurasia, Timur showed no interest in building institutions and so after his death, like the Mongol Empire before it, the Timu...
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...
After the Arab conquest, Persia was turned upside down. Patronage went to Islam as opposed to Zoroastrianism. The official language of state was now A...
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...
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...
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 wh...
In the 1760’s a clever, young, ambitious Scotsman named Alexander Dalrymple began advocating a theory as to the existence of a great southern continen...
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 vo...
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 h...
Eurasia is divided into two great superpowers. Khusrow II rules the Sassanian Empire. Maurice, the last of the Justinian dynasty, rules their mighty r...
Three great religions have come out of Persia and all of them have influenced world history. First there was Zoroastrianism, the first monotheistic re...
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...
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 co...
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...
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...
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 t...
