Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
WorldHistories
FRESH PERSPECTIVES ON OUR GLOBAL PAST
We are
Did the Cold War living in an
age of anger
ever really The roots of our
21st-century rage
SYRIA
Historians
predict its future
EXPLODING THE
PHARAOH MYTH
Are our ideas about
ancient Egypt wrong?
RUSSIAS
TRUMP Why his win
must change our take on history
REVOLUTIONS
How 1917 shaped a century
They didnt expect me to survive
Eyewitness to the WW2 D-Day landings ISSUE 2 FEB/MAR 2017
Revolutionary road
A 1930 Russian textile featuring a
tractor design. This issue, we explore
the global impact of Russias tumultuous
20th-century history, from its 1917
revolutions to the reverberations of the
Cold War which, arguably, continue today
WELCOME ISSUE 2
A number of commentators
have suggested that 2016
was somehow uniquely fated
to be terrible and that, at its US and Europe, author Pankaj Mishra notes that
end, things might revert to what we are witnessing today is the turbulence and
turmoil we used to locate in Iran or India erupting
their normal, calmer state. in the heart of the modern west. You can read more
Putting aside the fact that such a view is to some extent of his thoughts about why we may be living in the
a uniquely western one there are, of course, parts age of anger in his conversation with Tom Holland
of the world in which much more severe crises are on page 82.
depressingly routine a more likely interpretation is This issue brings you even more commentary from
that the phenomena identied as negative in 2016 leading historians and experts with a newly expanded
(political shocks, social divisions, economic turbu- opinion section tackling hot topical issues. How
lence) are set to continue for some time to come. should we now regard Fidel Castro, following his
As we explore in this issue, they may in any case death late last year? What are the historical precedents
be part of a much longer-lasting trend. In The Big for the recent upsurge in US citizens heading north to
Question, starting on page 40, seven experts assess Canada? You can nd answers to those and other
whether the Cold War ever really ended. Though pressing questions from page 18.
some believe that it concluded with the collapse of Theres much more to discover besides, with another
the Soviet Union in 1991, might it be more true that thought-provoking journey across centuries and
the tensions and rivalries it produced never really went continents from the treachery that cost the crusad-
away? Looking even further back, we consider the ways ers Jerusalem to New York during the blackouts of
in which the 1917 Russian Revolutions (page 30) 1977, and from our potentially erroneous beliefs about
affected the global political climate for many decades. ancient Egypt to a new look at Koreas art history.
Continuity and change, then, is something of Id love to know what you think, too, about
a theme for this issue. Returning to the idea that the both the magazine and the wider world of history:
kind of upheaval seen in 2016 was new to some in the please email your comments to me and the team at
worldhistories@historyextra.com. For now, enjoy this
issue, and look out for issue three on 29 March.
Matt Elton
Editor, BBC World Histories
COVER ILLUSTRATION: DAVIDE BONAZZI. INSIDE COVERS: BRIDGEMAN. THIS PAGE: STEVE SAYERSTHE SECRET STUDIO.
BACK COVER: ON LOAN FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA
3
Save when you subscribe
to the digital edition
of BBC History Magazine
An anti-fascist
poster from the 24 56
Soviet Union, 1929.
This issue, we Lenins lust for power The truth about
explore Russias BY VICTOR SEBESTYEN ancient Egypt
relations with the
rest of the world The man behind the communist myth, and BY JOHN ROMER
throughout the 20th how his legacy shaped the world for decades Our view of the land of the pharaohs may
century and how
be based on ction, a leading expert argues
they still inuence
politics today 30
Russias Revolutions 68
BY ROBERT SERVICE Glittering Korea
On the centenary of Russias upheavals BY SOYOUNG LEE
in 1917, we explore their global impact Highlights from an exhibition exploring
the peninsulas diverse cultural history
40
THE BIG QUESTION 74
Did the Cold War Crusader, deserter, traitor
GETTY IMAGES
BY JEFFREY LEE
ever really end?
The life of Raymond III of Tripoli, whose
A panel of experts debates the real story
treachery cost the kingdom of Jerusalem
of Russias relationship with the west
5
CONTENTS Regulars
REGULARS
36 Eyewitness: Normandy landings, 1944
by David Render
46 A Year in Pictures: 1977 Conict,
conciliation, soccer and space
by Richard Overy This issue
60 Perspectives: The battle of Lepanto weve been 18
in 1571 by Jerry Brotton
asking
66 Extraordinary People: Ruth Williams
Khama by Susan Williams How should history
remember Fidel Castro? 18
114 Column: Global Connections
Why did the Russian Revolutions impact
by Michael Scott on global politics for decades? 30
WorldHistories
FRESH PERSPECTIVES ON OUR GLOBAL PAST
JOURNEYS
Did the Cold War
ever really
We are
living in an
age of anger
The roots of our
21st-century rage
102 In the footsteps of The 1903/4 British
end?
CLASH OF
EMPIRES
Fidel Castros
divisive
legacy invasion of Tibet by Robert Twigger
The naval battle
that shaped
16th-century
SYRIA
Historians
predict its future
EXPLODING THE
PHARAOH MYTH
6
CONTRIBUTORS
30 Victor Sebestyen
36 Born in Budapest, feature writer Sebestyen
was still a child when his family left the country
as refugees. Much of his work has explored
68 eastern Europes tumultuous history, and on
56 page 24 he assesses how the personality and
actions of one man Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
shaped the course of world history.
Tanya Harmer
Associate professor in international history
at the London School of Economics, Harmer
offers her take on the contentious legacy of
revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on page 18.
Castros critiques of neoliberalism continue
108
to resonate globally in the aftermath of the
GETTY IMAGES/AWL IMAGES/METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART /REX/ELIZABETH ROMER/ UNIVERSITY OF CHICHESTER/HELEN ATKINSON
Pankaj Mishra
56 In a wide-ranging conversation with fellow
author Tom Holland, starting on page 82,
Mishra explores the origins of trends that
look set to dominate the news in 2017. In the
past year or so, a lot of familiar oppositions
liberalism versus fundamentalism, Islam versus
modernity have been destroyed, he argues.
John Romer
A leader of major archaeological expeditions
108 to Egypt, Romer believes that our view of the
ancient history of that land is shrouded in myth
and misconception. The idea that pharaohs
were worshipped as all-powerful gods, for
instance, is just silly talk, he says. Read more of
Romers thoughts in our interview on page 56.
Jerry Brotton
This issue the author of This Orient Isle:
Elizabethan England and the Islamic World,
turns his attention to another meeting of
civilisations: the 1571 battle of Lepanto, which
pitted Christian Europe against the Ottoman
68 empire. As he writes on page 60, it was a conict
that caused a major shift in the balance of power.
7
The Brieng
The history behind todays news
8
BACK STORY
What does the future
hold for Syria?
Since the popular protests of 2011 led to an armed
uprising, Syria has been wracked by war between
government forces, rebel ghters and the
so-called Islamic State. Chris Bowlby
talks to historians Eugene Rogan
and James Gelvin, who share
their opinions on the
causes and possible
outcomes of
the conict
Innocent victims
Civilians evacuated
from an Islamic State-
controlled district near
Aleppo by ghters of
the Syrian Democratic
Forces in August 2016.
An estimated 6.5 million
Syrians have been
internally displaced
since the conict began
REUTERS
9
THE BRIEFING Back Story: Syria
Iraq to Syria, where the government is forces, and the Qataris and the west unpopularity of Iraqs prime minister,
led by an Alawite minority, and into support what they believe to be Nouri al-Maliki, among the Sunni
10
This map shows areas of
Syria controlled by various
factions, as reported in
December 2016
between 250,000 and 470,000 Syrians Iraqs third-largest city. [the current presidents father] and the
began in 2011 after pro-democracy But even if the days of the IS Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s,
protests were violently suppressed by caliphate are numbered, that doesnt without generating a comparable level of
government troops, and rebel groups took necessarily mean that IS itself is in its hatred and polarisation. The current civil
up arms against the forces of President
death throes. There are ve possible war has given rise to deeper and more
Bashar al-Assad. Jihadist militants from
the so-called Islamic State joined the scenarios for what might happen to IS in dangerous divisions than ever before.
ghting and in June 2014, having taken the long term. Ill list them here, from Western diplomats have failed to
control of areas of eastern Syria and least likely to most likely. The rst recognise that the regime of Bashar
north-west Iraq, proclaimed a caliphate. scenario is that IS goes underground, al-Assad knows it is in a battle for surviv-
The president represents the Alawite sect only to re-emerge in the future; however, al, not just for the state but for all Syrians
closely linked to Shia Islam, while the this ignores the unique circumstances associated with it. Those Syrians, who
majority of Syrians are Sunni; Islamic
that nourished IS in the past. Second, IS number in the millions, feared the worst
State follows a fundamentalist Wahhabi
branch of Sunni Islam. More than 4.8
could simply set up shop elsewhere; this as brutalised opposition militias took
million people have ed the country, ignores the fact that IS branches outside their revenge. The challenge facing the
largely to Lebanon, Jordan the caliphate have mostly either failed or international community, now that
and Turkey; some 6.5 are on the verge of failing. Third, IS government forces look poised to win a
million have been ghters could continue to wage an insur- total victory, will be to prevent the state
displaced gency in Syria or Iraq, or both but from doing to its enemies what they
internally. since ISs raison dtre is re-establishing feared the opposition might do to them.
Syrias President a caliphate, if this scenario transpires
Bashar al-Assad has IS will no longer be IS. Fourth, IS Will the US under President Trump
held power since 2000 ghters may just give up, or move on to take a new approach to Syria?
other criminal enterprises. Finally, JG: It is difcult to predict exactly
former ghters and freelancers could what Trump will do about Syria. It is
continue their attacks globally, with or highly unlikely that he will advocate
without organisational backing, until intervening, either militarily or
11
THE BRIEFING Back Story: Syria
12
Syria might become like Somalia,
with a government that reigns,
but does not rule, over all the
territory within its borders
Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Russia has supported the Assad
regime, reinforcing Syrias army and
launching air strikes against rebels
How have other countries reacted How might the conict be ended?
to the conict, and how has their JG: There were always three possible end-
45
Per cent of Syrias population
has been displaced, according
historical involvement in Syria
informed those actions?
ER: Only Iran and Russia have a clear
idea of what their interests in Syria
games for the Syrian civil war: a victory
for the Syrian government or the
opposition, a negotiated settlement, or
Somalisation. This term, coined by a
are, and have acted decisively and UN representative, suggests that Syria
to a report by the Syrian
Centre for Policy
successfully to reinforce their interests. might become like Somalia, with a
Research Both Iran and Russia have played government that reigns, but does not rule,
a decisive role in reinforcing the over all the territory within its interna-
exhausted Syrian army during the tionally recognised borders. Even with
ve-year civil war, and in preserving the governments recent gains (made with
Bashar al-Assad in power. Russian assistance) the Syrian govern-
Syria has been a loyal ally to Iran ment is unlikely to wipe out all resistance.
since the early 1980s, while the And because there is no incentive for the
geopolitical stakes for Russia are also government to enter into negotiations
high. Since the collapse of the Soviet now that the momentum is on its side
Union, Russia has lost every one of except, perhaps, to secure terms of the
its former allies in the region except oppositions surrender the second
Syria. The Russian eet has use of option is also unlikely. Thus Somalisa-
the Syrian naval base in Tartus, and tion is the most likely endpoint.
Russian intelligence relies on electronic
surveillance from its base in Latakia. Chris Bowlby is a BBC journalist specialising
The Russians had everything to lose in history. He was speaking to Eugene Rogan,
if the Assad regime fell, because they professor of modern Middle Eastern history
A woman is helped from a bus
in Aleppo after being evacuated
would have been turfed out by any at the University of Oxford and author of
from a village under siege in successor government as supporters The Arabs: A History (Penguin, 2012), and
north-west Syria, December 2016 of the hated Alawite state. James Gelvin, professor of history at UCLA
Compared with these clear-sighted and author of The Modern Middle East: A History
GETTY IMAGES/REX FEATURES/REUTERS
13
THE BRIEFING History Headlines
Headlines
an oil pipeline spanning four states. Members of the
Standing Rock Sioux say that the pipeline would des-
ecrate ancestral burial grounds and other spiritual
NOV 2016 locations. Following months of protest, alternative
routes are being considered; however, the reprieve
JAN 2017 may be short-lived new US president Donald Trump
has expressed his support for the pipeline project.
14
6 SICHUAN PROVINCE CHINA
Titanic undertaking
Forget rollercoasters: a theme park in China is planning
a more unusual attraction a full-size replica of RMS Titanic.
The ambitious project to painstakingly recreate the doomed
269 metre-long ocean liner, which sank after hitting an iceberg
in 1912, is set to cost 1 billion yuan (118m/US$145m).
The replica will be permanently docked at the Romandisea
resort, 70 miles east of Chengdu and about 700 miles
from the open sea.
2
4
5
7 SOHAG PROVINCE EGYPT
Grave expectations
Tomb building was big business in 8
ancient Egypt, nds at a rediscovered city
suggest. The settlement believed to be at
least 5,000 years old is thought to have been
home to tomb builders and high-ranking
ofcials. Archaeologists uncovered graves
A tomb at a newly bigger than royal burials at nearby Abydos, one
excavated city of Egypts oldest cities. This proves the impor-
near Abydos in tance of the people buried there, and their high
Egypt. Substantial social standing during this early era, said the
burial sites here countrys antiquities ministry.
indicate the high
status of the citys
EGYPTIAN MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES/ALAMY
inhabitants
8 JAVA INDONESIA
Mystery of the vanishing shipwrecks
Several Second World War shipwrecks have
disappeared from the seabed north of Java. The
British and Dutch warships, sunk during the 1942
battle of the Java Sea, are the nal resting places of
hundreds of sailors. It is feared that they have been
illegally salvaged for scrap metal. Dutch and British
authorities have condemned the actions, and plan to
work with Indonesian authorities to investigate.
Inside
Why we must
Story learn to under-
stand zig-zags
Each issue The Hillary Clinton Obamas conception of American his-
celebration-that-wasnt was tory shared by the Clinton supporters
our expert held in a convention centre in that vast, glass-ceilinged room is one
correspond- with a glass ceiling: a hubristic case of characterised by the gradual absorption of
the speech-writers tail wagging the more people into the universal promise
ents provide event-planners dog, perhaps. Even of democracy. Theirs is a familiar and, in
historical before Donald Trump had given his one form or another, hegemonic narrative
oddly low-key victory speech, the party of the American past. It proceeds from
insights into broke up in desolation. the idea that there is a universal claim
global issues. Reporting Many weeks later, the palpable sense about liberty and equality encoded in the
of shock at the outcome of the election founding documents not as a descrip-
from the post-election US, has not abated. This did not feel like a tion of reality but as an end goal.
Adam IP Smith suggests normal campaign, but Democrats hoped Theirs is the America of Abraham
assumed, even that Hillary Clinton Lincoln the rst Republican president,
that Trumps victory should would win and that normality would but one as temperamentally different
make us re-evaluate our resume. The widespread presumption from Trump as he was similar to Obama.
that Trump couldnt win reected a Lincoln talked of the US as the last, best
expectations of continuity powerful urge not just to want continuity hope of Earth but saw it as a work in
and that historians must but to expect it, too. The shock of Trump progress: an ideal constantly looked to,
is in part the shock of historical discon- constantly laboured for, and even though
adjust their conceptions tinuity: there has never been anyone like never perfectly attained, constantly
of change him before, so there should not be one approximated and thereby constantly
now. Sometimes, though, the people who spreading and deepening its inuence
assure you that everything will carry on and augmenting the happiness and value
as before are wrong. Sometimes, people of life to all people, of all colours,
do not behave as you think they will, everywhere. There may be zig-zags on
institutions collapse, and the world turns the way, but the destination is clear.
upside down. Many of those who voted for Trump
President Obama directly confronted appear to subscribe to a less teleological
the challenge of discontinuity in his version of history: America not as a work
Adam IP Smith is senior lecturer at University remarks on the White House lawn on the in progress but as a once-beautiful accom-
College London, specialising in American morning after the election. The path plishment now sadly tarnished. Hence
history. He is also an author and presenter of that this country has taken has never Trump wants to make America great
Trump: The Presidential Precedents, broadcast been a straight line, he said. We zig and again. As one Trump supporter told me,
on BBC Radio 4 in January we zag, and sometimes we move in ways this election was the last chance to get
that some people think is forward and our country back. Hillary Clinton, he
CHRIS GLOAG
DISCOVER MORE others think is moving back. At which said, was not really American. Deeply
From Our Own Correspondent is broadcast point he paused, before adding, as if to immersed as Donald Trump is in
every Saturday at 11.30am on BBC Radio 4 reassure a scared child: And thats OK. conspiratorial thinking not least about
16
Clinton supporters in New York City react to
news of Donald Trumps victory in Florida on
8 November. The widespread presumption
that Trump couldnt win reected
a powerful urge not just to want continuity
but to expect it, too, says Adam IP Smith
17
THE BRIEFING
G Viewpoints
POLITICS
Expert opinions on
the historical issues
behind todays news ow any individual historian that is available, and measured reec-
gure who personied the character and and the United States intervention in and audacity split the political left.
shape of their nation. As one Cuban the islands affairs from 1898 onwards, it His enemies distorted the world in
exile explained to me, his death sparked is impossible to understand why response, employing money, guns,
intense reection and contradictory a dictatorial regime continues to exist torture, assassination, covert operations
thoughts. Seen from a distance, he and why Cubans still resist the idea of and reformist programmes to try to
dees one-dimensional labels and leaves a US-brokered alternative. immunise the world from his example.
a complicated legacy. To fully make sense of the decisions The results were catastrophic and violent
But perhaps the more interesting made by Castro, we will have to wait for millions caught in the middle.
questions historians must ask are not for access to Cuban archives for the Then, in the 1990s, amid the
what and who Castro was good/bad, post-1959 period still mostly sealed and triumphal celebrations at the end of
visionary/anachronistic but why he inaccessible to historians. Yet context, the Cold War, it seemed for a moment
achieved power and made the decisions again, can help. The world Castro en- as if Castro might become irrelevant.
he did, and how he transformed history. countered in the 1950s was not sympa- Yet his critiques of neoliberalism
Addressing the question why forces us thetic to ideas of radical reform, despite continue to resonate, rst in Latin
to look at context, to position Castro urgent problems and grassroots support. America at the turn of the 21st century
within a longer Cuban history of Those who tried to change their countries and then globally in the aftermath of
rebellion that tells us more about the democratically had been undermined or the 2008 nancial crash.
island than one mans life ever will. violently overthrown, as demonstrated in With profound political and
Castro did not exist in a vacuum; nor the CIA-sponsored coup against Jacobo economic changes on the horizon,
did he create the conditions for revolution rbenz in Guatemala in 1954. It was a it is too early to tell whether Castros
alone. The idea of the heroic guerrilla powerful lesson to would-be revolution- ideas will remain relevant or be
single-handedly coming down from the aries: ght a different, unrelenting battle consigned to a previous epoch. Histories
mountains to liberate Cuba is just that: or compromise and fail. of his global impact and his legacy are
an idea albeit a particularly potent one, Castros decision to choose the former yet to be written. One hopes that, when
constructed and propagated by those path transformed history. It proved they are, they will weigh up different
who seized power in 1959, embraced by that small powers could act like giants perspectives and consider the broader
revolutionary hopefuls around the world on the world stage. And it inspired implications, context and signicance
and exaggeratedly feared by upholders of a revolutionary wave that swept through of a man who, for all his crimes, changed
the status quo. But it is also an inaccu- Latin America. Under Castros leader- the world irrevocably.
rate one that ignores thousands of other ship, Cuba helped bring about the end of
Cubans across the island who also colonialism in Africa and weakened
fought against US-backed dictator apartheid South Africa. It also shaped Tanya Harmer
Fulgencio Batista in different ways. a global Tricontinental revolutionary is associate professor
Castros appeal, along with the organisation in the 1960s that radically in international
popularity of his nationalism and anti- transformed the idea of third worldism. history at the London
Americanism, cannot be understood All the while, Castro was a far more School of Economics.
without this larger perspective. consistent challenger of the United Her specialisms
Certainly, without reference to Cubas States and global capitalism than the include the Cold War
protracted struggle for independence Soviet Union ever was. His methods and Latin America
19
THE BRIEFING
G Viewpoints
NORTH AMERICA
Border politics
Trumps election sparked a surge in
US citizens looking north to Canada
but weve seen this situation before
BY MARGARET CONRAD
values) had slipped across the border, eorge Orwell thought read prose is declining. Those who
and the liberal government of the then
prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau
refused to deport them. As in earlier
G that a manipulative state
would have to rewrite
history. He was mistaken.
both earned a bachelors degree
and could read with reasonable
prociency declined over one decade
refugee movements, many returned to If people know no history, they are (19922003) from 40 to 31%.
the United States when it became safe already captive minds. When, recently, I experienced this phenomenon
to do so, but a majority stayed, blending I asked my university students in New rst-hand on one occasion when
comfortably into Canadas ever-changing Zealand to evaluate a 20th-century I visited my local library. A young man
multicultural landscape. tyrant of their own choosing, 80% of helped me to locate a book and I asked
Canadians are not averse to taking them could not name one (I think him if he had ever read the author. He
advantage of the divisive experience there may have been someone named replied: Actually, I havent read a book
currently engulng their neighbour. Hitler in Russia...). Universities educate since I nished my English major.
An enterprising radio announcer in for vocations: you can be good at brain This isnt just a problem restricted
Cape Breton, for instance, has received surgery, or conveyancing, or Spanish to education, either. A government
a surprising number of serious inquiries drama, and be no more intellectually and a shallow media dene the world
since he launched his tongue-in-cheek autonomous than a medieval serf. for people who live only in the bubble of
website Cape Breton if Trump Wins, You may pick up rough knowledge the present. Those without knowledge
suggesting that US citizens move to in your own time by reading popular of the past can become cynics and say:
the island in the province of Nova history (such as Barbara Tuchman) well, probably they are all lying, but
Scotia. Meanwhile Shopify, an or great novels that illuminate a period they cannot live up to the ideal of a good
Ottawa-based e-commerce company of history (Erich Maria Remarque). citizen who tells them to stop.
that has a major presence in the United However, the new world of visual I know of no university that addresses
States, posted a moving to Canada entertainment is seducing young people this problem, apart from teaching futile
playlist on its website. away from the habit of reading serious history of western civilisation courses
JOY CUMMINGS/TOM PILSTON-GUARDIAN NEWS & MEDIA LTD
It remains to be seen whether Canada books. American data covering the or general education. None of them offer
can sustain its liberal values in the period from 1984 to 2004 shows that targeted courses that will give young
current political climate but an inux the percentage of 17 year olds who rarely people the tools to become autonomous
of progressive Americans might well read for pleasure (hardly ever or never) human beings and will also illustrate
serve to bolster that outcome. rose from nine to 19; the percentage that how everything they are taught
read almost every day fell from 31 to 22. accomplishes that objective.
You might think that university
Margaret Conrad would provide an antidote but instead
is professor emerita it appears to be counterproductive. James R Flynn
at the University of The same set of American data shows is emeritus professor
New Brunswick. that 49% of 2001s high-school students in the schools
Her books include read little (less than one hour per week) of psychology
A Concise History of or nothing for pleasure; that gure for and politics at
Canadaa (Cambridge the university seniors of 2005 was 63%. the University of
UP, 2012) As might be expected, their ability to Otago, New Zealand
21
THE BRIEFING
G Viewpoints
as the events that the sweetness of the heavenly nectar. critically acclaimed
ALAMY
Feed-
back
Readers respond to our rst issue which explored among
other things whether the wests dominance is over,
Indias Second World War story and Istanbuls diverse past
I think it is very important that Perfect read for long drive south, MISSED ISSUE 1?
we learn about world history lets see if I can hide from two You can still order a copy online at
rather than just the history of our excitable toddler nephews long enough buysubscriptions.com/worldhistories
own nation, which I feel helps to build to nish it! Thanks, too, to Sunil Khilnani or call us on 0844 844 0250+ and quote
barriers between us and them. I think for writing about BR Ambedkar, whose WORLHA16*
the pursuit of the idea of a shared world deep legacy I felt in Delhi and Ratnagiri * Subscribers to BBC History Magazine pay only 6.99.
history is one of the most important jobs last week. Prices including postage are: 8.49 for UK residents,
for historians at the moment, so this is @AlexBescoby, on Twitter 9.49 for Europe and 9.99 for Rest of World. All orders
subject to availability. Please allow up to 70 days for
a valuable step in the right direction. delivery. + Calls will cost 7p per minute plus your
Mike Ashford, by email telephone companys access charge. Lines are open
8am8pm weekdays & 9am1pm Saturday
23
Seeing red
An undated portrait
of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
who, Victor Sebestyen
GETTY IMAGES
argues, created an
autocratic regime that, at
one point, was imitated
by nearly half of the
countries in the world
24
LENINS
LUST
FOR
POWER
The Russian Marxist led a revolution that would turn the world upside down.
Victor Sebestyen assesses the global legacy of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and
introduces the real man behind the myth of the communist colossus
25
Lenins legacy
M
In the great man interpretation of history, held nowadays
by a majority of historians in the west, a few towering gures
make the weather and turn events. Among them, undoubtedly
and whether one likes him or loathes him was Lenin, whose
inuence on the world since 1917 has arguably been as signi-
cant as that of anybody else.
He never fought in a battle, and commanded no armies.
Instead he spent much of his life in the reading rooms of an
arxist thinkers believe that assortment of public libraries. He held no great ofces of state
the major events of history were driven not by the actions until his late forties, and before 1917 he had spent nearly half of
of individual men and women but by strong, sweeping econom- his adult life as a political refugee living in humble boarding
ic, social and political forces. Nothing contradicts the theory houses outside Russia. Throughout most of his wanderings as
as powerfully as the life and career of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the an exile in various European cities, Lenin had just a handful of
man who led the rst communist revolution and who created followers who believed in his revolutionary message.
the rst Marxist state. Yet he returned to seize power in one of the largest empires
If Lenin had not been in the city of Petrograd (now known as in the world, and created a kind of autocratic regime professing
St Petersburg) 100 years ago, there would not have been a com- an idealistic socialism that was at one point imitated by nearly
munist revolution in Russia, almost certainly no Soviet Union, half of the countries in the world from Europe to Asia, and
and very likely no Cold War in the way that it developed through- from Africa to the Caribbean and Central America. Over many
out the 20th century as an ideological clash of civilisations offer- decades, millions of people would die in its name, victims of
ing completely alternative ways of looking at the world. a bloody social experiment. Much of Lenins political style lives
It is not only his later biographers who argue for on still, a century after the triumph of the revolution he led.
ALAMY/AKG IMAGES
fort to evade the censorship of the Romanovs clumsy, brutish revolutionary party, he would say regularly. But the sentence
autocracy, but from around 1900 it was the one that stuck. that followed is often ignored: Theory is a guide, not holy
Unlike many other dictators, he enjoyed an idyllic child- writ. When ideology clashed with opportunism, he invariably
hood surrounded by a loving family. He wasnt at all interested chose the tactical path above doctrinal purity. He could change
in politics until his 18th year when a family tragedy the execu- his mind and his strategy completely if it advanced his goal.
tion of his elder brother radicalised him almost overnight. Lenin founded and led the ultra-radical Bolsheviks; unlike so
One of the enduring myths about Lenin the man (as opposed to many other fanatics he would not allow his tiny groupuscule to
Lenin the idea, as often portrayed by historians of both the left remain merely a talking shop. He turned his Bolshevik Party into
and the right) is that he was an icy, unfeeling, one-dimensional a disciplined, tightly knit, organised, conspiratorial, unquestion-
individual, a supremely clever tactician who thought with care- ingly loyal corps of comrades. Many other revolutionaries could
ful deliberation rather in the way that, famously, he played his write as well as Lenin, though at his best he had a clarity and a
favourite game, chess. In fact he was a highly emotional man compelling logic that had real force. Others were better orators
who ew into tremendous rages that would leave him exhaust- and public speakers, though many people who heard him were
ed, even prostrate. His thirst for revenge after his brother was impressed by the manifest force of his intellect. But he possessed
hanged (for an assassination plot against Tsar Alexander III) qualities that other revolutionaries lacked: he had subtle tactical
motivated Lenin as powerfully as did any ideology. After his air and a sense of timing, and he understood the nature of pow-
brothers execution his whole family was shunned by polite lib- er, how to achieve it and what it could be used for. This is why
eral society in provincial Russia. This had a profound effect on Lenin succeeded while other revolutionaries whose names we no
Lenin, fuelling a hatred for the liberal bourgeoisie that never left longer remember were discarded into the dustbin of history.
him and which drove his politics.
Marxism was like a religion to Lenin, as it was to so many of Fortunes of war
the early believers. But Lenin was different. He was a practical Of course, luck or maybe some of those sweeping historical
man and an optimist, convinced that the socialist revolution forces played a part in Lenins victory, not least the outbreak of
could come in the here and now not in the far-off future or the First World War, which caused chaos in Russia; it was deeply
AKG IMAGES
some afterlife. Lenin is often depicted as a rigid ideologue, a unpopular, and prompted a crisis in the tsarist regime. Having
communist fanatic, and this is true up to a point. He spouted been jailed for his revolutionary activity in 1895, then exiled in
Marxist theory constantly: Without theory there can be no Siberia and later moving to western Europe, Lenin was in
27
Lenins lover...
Inessa Armand, pictured around
1895. The only occasion on which
Lenin ever visibly cried in public
was at Armands funeral in 1920
Switzerland in February 1917 when, during the rst of that years was keeping it an obsession he passed down to his successors.
revolutions, a series of strikes, bread riots and a mass army muti- Lenin launched the Red Terror to destroy his opponents. He
ny forced the abdication of the last Romanov emperor, established the Cheka, which morphed into the NKVD and
Nicholas II. The Germans helped Lenin and some of his then the KGB, imitated wherever communist regimes came to
supporters return to Russia, gambling that he would seize power, power. He allowed a freely elected parliament to sit for just
make a separate peace and take Russia out of the war. 12 hours before abolishing it perhaps a record in brevity.
Back in Russia, Lenin cleverly built on that luck. He cam- There would not be another elected parliament in Russia for
paigned against the war, and promised land to Russian peasants, more than 70 years.
a series of new workers rights, and to take back control from the Throughout its existence the Soviet Union identied itself
elite. Bankers who had proted from the war would be jailed, and with the founder of the state, both while alive and after his
the assets of the rich enemies of the people would be seized. death. The regime that Lenin created was largely shaped by his
Lenin was an adroit tactician, while the liberal Provisional Gov- personality: secretive, suspicious, intolerant, intemperate. Few
ernment that took over from the tsar was no match for him. of the more decent parts of Lenins character found their way
Lenin took power in a coup not a democratic process, but into the public sphere of his Soviet Union.
then the tsar was not a democrat, and nor were several gures in
the government. The test of Lenins leadership was not as a dem- Mountain man
ocratic politician. He persuaded, hectored and bullied his reluc- The state that Lenin founded was moulded very much in his
tant Bolsheviks into taking over the government when many of own ascetic image but there were other aspects to Lenin, too.
his comrades opposed him. Eventually they came round. That He wrote reams of text about Marxist philosophy, much of it
is what Trotsky, originally one of his opponents, meant by his now unintelligible. But he loved mountains almost as much as
categorical claim that if Lenin had not been in Petrograd in he loved making revolution, and wrote lyrically about walking
1917 there would have been no Bolshevik takeover. through the countryside. One of the reasons he remained in
From the rst moment after his Bolshevik revolution in Oc- Switzerland for so long during his exile from Russia was to be
GETTY IMAGES
tober 1917, Lenin and his comrades felt insecure. He thought near the Alps. He lived in London for nearly two years and grew
that power could slip away at any time, which explains so much to like it, but it wasnt close enough to a peak for him to be happy.
of the 74-year history of the Soviet state. Having achieved pow- He loved nature, hunting, shooting and shing. He could
er illegitimately, Lenins only real concern for the rest of his life identify hundreds of species of plants. His nature notes and
28
Architect of terror
Felix Dzerzhinsky (centre), head
of Lenins secret police. Lenin had
not always been a bad man, but he
did terrible things, says Sebestyen
letters to his family reveal aspects of Lenin that would surprise Lenin thought himself an idealist. He was not a monster,
people who imagine him as a distant and unfeeling gure. a sadist or personally vicious. In personal relationships he was
For a decade Lenin had an on-off love affair with a glamor- invariably kind, and his behaviour reected the way he was
ous, intelligent and beautiful woman, Inessa Armand, who be- brought up like an upper-middle-class gentleman. He was not
came a close friend of his wife. Their mnage a trois is a touching vain. He could laugh even, occasionally, at himself. He was not
story a rare example of a romantic triangle in which all three cruel; unlike Stalin, Mao Zedong or Hitler, he never asked about
protagonists appear to have behaved in a civilised fashion. The the details of his victims deaths in order to savour those mo-
only time Lenin visibly broke down in public was at Armands ments. He never donned uniforms or military-type tunics, as
funeral in 1920, three and a half years before his own. After In- favoured by other dictators. But during his years of feuding with
essa died, Lenins wife, herself childless, became in effect the fellow revolutionaries and battling to maintain his grip on power
guardian of his mistresss children (none of whom were his). he never showed generosity to a defeated opponent nor per-
formed a humanitarian act unless it was politically expedient.
A poisonous legacy He built a system based on the idea that political terror
Lenin wanted power, and he wanted to change the world. against opponents was justied for a greater end. It was perfect-
He retained power personally for just over four years before fail- ed by his successor, Josef Stalin, but the ideas were Lenins.
ing health rendered him physically and mentally incapable. But, He had not always been a bad man, but he did terrible things.
as he predicted that it would, the Bolshevik revolution turned Anjelica Balabanova, one of his
the world upside down. Russia never recovered, and nor did old comrades who grew to fear Victor Sebestyen is a
many of its neighbours. and loathe him, observed percep- historian and journalist whose
Lenin was the product of his time and place: a violent, tyran- tively that Lenins tragedy was books include Revolution 1989:
nical and corrupt Russia. The revolutionary state he created was that, in Goethes phrase, he de- The Fall of the Soviet Empire
less the socialist utopia he dreamed of than a mirror image of the sired the good... but created evil. (Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
Romanov autocracy into which he was born. The fact that Lenin It remains a suitable epitaph. The 2009). His latest work is
GETTY IMAGES
was Russian is as signicant as his Marxist faith. He believed, as worst of Lenins evils was to have Lenin the Dictator: An
some supporters of Russias current leader Vladimir Putin do to- left a man like Stalin in a posi- Intimate Portrait, published
day, that his country needs indeed, has always needed a dom- tion to lead Russia after him. in February 2017 by
inant, ruthless leader: a boss or, as the Russians say, the Vozhd. That was a historic crime. Weidenfeld & Nicolson
29
30
Russias Re
March in February
Striking workers carry
banners through the
streets of Petrograd
(St Petersburg) at the
start of the February
Revolution that brought
the fall of the Russian
monarchy the next month
GETTY IMAGES
volutions 31
Communist revolutions
T
he Russian Revolution of 1917 had an enormous from the Russian body politic, and that the Allied cause could
impact on politics on a global scale for many only benet. Nicholass indulgence of the religious mystic and
decades. Nothing came close to it in importance serial philanderer Grigory Rasputin had brought the imperial
a fact recognised at the time and which contin- court into disrepute, and food shortages snapped the patience of
ues to prove compelling a full century later. Petrograd workers and garrison soldiers, who took to the streets
There were, of course, two revolutions that year. When peo- to call for an end to the monarchy. But the Russian army on the
ple write about historic impact they are nearly always referring eastern front was acquitting itself well during that long, cold
to the October Revolution, by which Lenin and the Bolsheviks winter, and many western politicians, including the Americans
seized power in Petrograd and proclaimed the start of a new era who joined the war in April were jubilant that free Russia
in human affairs that would, they asserted, bring communism would now be able, under a liberal-led provisional government,
to the entire world. But the earlier revolution in February was to ght the Germans with heightened morale and efciency.
acclaimed at the time as an event of momentous international Foreigners who yearned for reform in their own countries
signicance because it brought the downfall of the Romanov were impressed by the extent of the changes that emerged fol-
monarchy. The Russian political system was widely reviled as lowing the monarchys demise. Even Bolshevik leader Lenin
the bastion of political reaction in Europe, and Nicholas II was acknowledged that Russia had become the freest country in
dismissed as a butcher of the peoples in his empire. When he the world. Lenin, at that time living in exile in Switzerland,
abdicated in March 1917 there were joyous celebrations not aimed to exploit any opportunity to overthrow the new cabinet
only in Russia but also in Paris and London. Crowds gathered and unfurl the ag of communist revolution.
to welcome the prospect of democracy. However, conditions proved helpful. The urban economy
There had been similar presentiments in 1905, when the collapsed. The administration disintegrated, and discipline
massacre of peaceful petitioners outside the Winter Palace was
followed by public demonstrations throughout the cities of the
Russian empire. Strikes, rural disturbances and mutinies came Lenin deemed that only
close to bringing down the monarchy, and Nicholas was com-
pelled to issue the October Manifesto, in which he promised to he could adequately in-
undertake reforms encompassing civic freedoms and elective
representative institutions. This concession, extracted from a terpret Marxs doctrines
reluctant tsar, was accompanied by savage repression of the rev-
olutionary parties. By the end of 1906 Nicholas II had stabilised
his authority albeit at a price: he had to allow the creation of broke down in the armed forces. Ultimate real authority lay not
the State Duma (Russias rst elected parliament) and to permit with the cabinet but with the workers councils (soviets) that
broader freedom of expression and assembly. And over the next sprang up in cities, and the Bolsheviks worked hard to get
few years he tried to claw back the powers that he had inherited themselves elected to leading positions in these councils. By
upon the death of his father in 1894. October, Lenin had convinced his party that soviets could serve
The revolutionary parties, both liberals and far-left socialists as the foundations of a revolutionary administration.
such as the Bolsheviks, were disappointed that Nicholas had
managed to cling on to his throne. But he had been humbled, Accessible communism
and the Romanov monarchy was never the same again. The Lenin was a fanatical Marxist who deemed that only he could
spectacle of Nicholas the Bloody being forced to accept the ex- adequately interpret the doctrines of Marx and Engels. Short
istence of an elected parliament had an inuence on rev- and stocky, he surprised even his own party in the way
olutionaries and reformers around the globe. Those he successfully adapted to the demands of open pol-
in Turkey and China took heart, and reinforced itics in the revolution. Returning to Petrograd in
their effort to secure the transformation of politics April 1917, he recruited a former anti-Bolshevik
in their own countries. Where Russia had led, Marxist leader, Leon Trotsky, to the Bolshevik
they reasoned, surely others would quickly follow. party on the grounds that they agreed both about
When Nicholas II stepped down in the revolu- the need to stop the First World War and about
tionary crisis of March 1917, the situation was rad- the opportunity to overthrow the provisional gov-
ically different. Russia, along with France and the ernment. Though Lenin was a rousing speaker,
GETTY IMAGES
United Kingdom, was involved in the First World Trotsky was an orator of genius. Both were outstand-
Bla Kun, the Bolshevik
War against Germany and Austria-Hungary. At rst communist ing in their ability to simplify communist doctrines
revolutionary
it was believed by pro-war politicians in Paris and who led Hungary for and policies to a form that was accessible to listeners
London that a dynastic incubus had been excised a few months in 1919 who knew nothing of Marxist intellectual intricacy.
32
Fallen tsar
Russias last monarch,
Nicholas II, pictured
under arrest following
his abdication in March
1917 at the end of the
February Revolution
The Bolshevik central leadership included other gures who
bristled with political talent, among them Josef Stalin, Grigory
Zinoviev and Felix Dzerzhinsky. All were committed to the ob-
jective of overthrowing the provisional government, and the
partys rank and le endorsed their radicalism.
On 25 October, the Bolsheviks led the military-revolution-
ary committee of the Petrograd Soviet into action and threw out
the old cabinet. Lenin became chairman of Sovnarkom, the
new Soviet government, which proclaimed a total reversal of
previous policies. A general peace was to be arranged in the
world war. Land was transferred to peasant control. Large-scale
industry and the banking system were nationalised.
The Bolshevik party believed that if only it could communi-
cate its message to workers and soldiers on both sides in the war,
those people, too, would rise up and throw out their govern-
ments. Soon, surely, there would be a European socialist
revolution. Lenin and his comrades had taken a political
gamble they believed was a sure-re bet. Rival socialists in
Russia warned that the odds were heavily
against them, and that civil war and dictator-
ship were the likeliest results; they saw the
Bolsheviks as irresponsible adventurers. Few
people gave Sovnarkom much chance of en-
during survival. But everyone was aware that
an event of huge international importance
had taken place.
For Allied politicians, the danger was that
Lenin, even if he were in power only briey,
would damage the war effort. Sovnarkom
agreed a truce with the Germans and Austri-
ans on the eastern front. It was obvious that,
if the truce became a permanent peace, Ger-
man divisions would be moved from east to
west. That would decisively tip the military
balance against the Allies.
Call to arms
Peace was signed between Sovnarkom
A photo (possibly
staged) shows and the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk in
Bolsheviks storming March 1918, and Germany came close to
the Winter Palace in breaking the back of the western front in the
Petrograd, ejecting spring. But the French and British armies held rm, and it was
the cabinet of the
provisional Russian the German war machine that cracked. The war was over.
government
Utopian dreams dashed
The Bolsheviks, meanwhile, found themselves, as their political
enemies on the left had predicted, engulfed by a civil war. Most
Old Bolsheviks
GETTY IMAGES/AKG IMAGES
mental agency in the USSR, received the task of leading the communist had inadvertently DISCOVER MORE
campaign. Dissent was mercilessly suppressed. The powerful brought about, and Soviet com- Russia in Revolution: An
political police was reinforced. Stalins name was ceaselessly munism tumbled into the waste- Empire in Crisis, 18901928
gloried in the media. paper basket of history. by SA Smith (OUP, 2017)
35
Eyewitness: Normandy landings
36
EYEWITNESS
On the front line of history
Normandy landings, France, 1944
David Render was a young lieutenant during the Allied assault on Normandy
Operation Neptune, the largest seaborne invasion in history,
which began on 6 June 1944: D-Day. Early that morning, infantry
CROWN COPYRIGHT. IWM/MAP: BATTLEFIELD DESIGN/DAVID RENDER
Shells screamed
through the air in
a solid wall of sound,
landing unseen in the
retreating darkness
38
I had arrived at the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry (A Squad- It was still dark and raining hard as we readied our tanks
ron), and was to take command of a troop of three Shermans, after a few tful hours of sleep. I looked at my watch:
leading them into battle the next day. 0200 hours time to go. The horizon was lit up by hundreds
of British artillery pieces. The noise was terric, as shells
As I later found out, the original commander of A Squad- screamed through the air overhead in a solid wall of sound,
rons 5 Troop had been killed by a sniper. My arrival as his landing unseen in the retreating darkness 1,000 yards ahead.
replacement was not met with a welcoming response by the As the artillery lifted, it was our turn to advance with our in-
men he had commanded. They were all considerably older fantry, and the German machine guns opened up. Their bul-
than me, tough desert veterans who had fought with the regi- lets rattled harmlessly off our sides like jack-hammers, but
ment through the north African campaign. They had no incli- wreaked havoc on the soldiers of the Duke of Wellingtons
nation to get to know me or support me; the average life expec- Regiment, killing many and forcing the remainder to go to
tancy of a new tank troop commander in Normandy was less ground, leaving us to advance on our own. We blasted every
than two weeks, and they didnt expect me to survive. hedgerow with our own machine guns and high-explosive
rounds to clear any cover that could be used by enemy
The troops had been taken by surprise by the terrain the machine-gun teams and anti-tank gunners, cutting down any
close-knit elds and high-banked hedgerows of the Nor- German soldier who tried to make a run for it as we drove
man bocage. The Germans had already used their superior deeper into their defensive positions.
tanks to inict heavy casualties on the more lightly armoured
and under-gunned Allied variants. The 88mm gun of a Ger- The ear-splitting whine and crack of a high-velocity
man Tiger or 75mm armament of a Panther panzer could slice armour-piercing round heralded our rst engagement
through a Sherman tank like butter at 2,500 yards, while with enemy panzers. A Panther tank broke from our right
we had to get to almost point-blank range to have a chance of and I shouted re-control orders to my gunner. Our rst
destroying one of their tanks. It was a disturbing fact that bred round missed and I cursed as I adjusted the shot, but shells
concern among the men. Conscious that I lacked experience, from the other tanks were hitting it and soon we also found
I knew I would only earn their respect if I could show that I was our mark. The enemy tank lurched to a halt under a crescendo
not afraid, and I did that by always leading from the front. of re and began to belch thick black smoke. The surviving
crew members began to bail out of their stricken vehicle, and
Fortunately, we had an exceptional squadron leader, we machine-gunned them before they could escape.
Major John Semken. Though only 23, he was a deep thinker. A Tiger tank appeared and was dealt with by a Sherman
He taught us how to use our greater numbers of tanks, and to Firey tank equipped with a heavier 17-pounder gun, which
use the bocage to our advantage. Semken knew that, though it Semken had brought up for the purpose. We engaged more
was under-gunned and lacked adequate protection, the Sher- Panthers and the less-well-armoured German Panzer Mark IV
mans greater mobility and faster rate of re could give it an tanks in a frenzy of ring, loading and moving. By the end of
edge over German tanks. He intended to exploit this by using the engagement A Squadron had destroyed 13 enemy tanks
the ground as cover and smothering every enemy tank with a with no loss of any Shermans: Semkens principles had won
combined weight of re from as many of our Shermans as pos- the day. My troop performed well and played its part, while
sible. In Major Semkens words, the key was to never hesitate, I had earned my spurs and won the respect of my men.
but to re rst and keep ring. Very shortly after I arrived
in the regiment we put these principles into action in my rst I led 5 Troop for another 11 months of bloody ghting,
major engagement, which included the defeat and capture culminating in the nal drive into the heart of Germany at
of the rst German Tiger tank as a well as several panzers. the end of the war. Although we won every engagement, those
victories did not come without cost. Two of my
This engagement, Operation Epsom, launched tanks were destroyed and, though I survived,
on 25 June and was designed to drive the Captain David Render others did not. By the time victory in Europe was
Allied advance deep into German lines and was a tank commander declared in May 1945, the Sherwood Rangers
force the enemy into a set-piece battle. The Sher- during the Second World had lost 440 men out of an established unit
wood Rangers role was to capture the villages of War. He is co-author strength of just over 600.
Fontenay and Rauray, assisting British forces in with Stuart Tootal
their push to capture the strategically important of Tank Action: An
DISCOVER MORE
city of Caen. We knew little of the overall opera- Armoured Troop
Listen to original BBC reports from the Normandy
tional plan, but had been told that we would face Commanders War
campaign in the BBC Radio 4 programme Witness:
the fanatical former Hitler Youth soldiers of the 194445 (Weidenfeld Broadcasting D-Day at bbc.co.uk/programmes/
German 12th SS Panzer Division. & Nicolson, 2016) p0201hng (UK only)
39
40 ILLUSTRATION BY DAVIDE BONAZZI
THE BIG
QUESTION
Did the
Cold War
ever really
end?
The Cold War is often thought to have died after the fall of
the Soviet Union in 1991. But with relations between Russia and some
western nations becoming increasingly frosty, and talk from both
sides increasingly turning to nuclear weapons, have reports of its
demise been exaggerated? Seven historians offer their opinions
41
The Big Question: Cold War
42
Piers Ludlow Vladislav Zubok
Partnership for Africas Development) but challenged by of a Cold War. Although Russia is wedded to the capitalist
BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) as well as by system, it claims to have a better idea than America about how
Africas long-suffering people. Perhaps the most damaging to organise a democracy. Yet Russia and America are some way
impact has been ideological, the attempt to deny that there is short of being locked in a comprehensive struggle for world
any alternative. Fortunately history and experience show supremacy, and the recent dip in prices for oil and gas makes
otherwise that change is inevitable, and that the people are Russia a less than impressive contender. Not yet a Cold War,
their own liberators. then, but a situation of acute danger. Fingers crossed...
Hakim Adi is a professor of history at the University of Chichester and Robert Service is the author of several major books on Russian history,
author of Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist Internation- including The Last of the Tsarss (Macmillan, 2017). He writes about the
al, Africa and the Diaspora, 191919399 (Africa World Press, 2013) Russian Revolutions on page 30 of this issue
44
Catherine Merridale
45
A year in pictures: 1977
46
New York is looted
Just before 9.30 on the night of 13 July 1977,
the lights started to go out across New York
City and mayhem ensued. The atmosphere
in the city was already tense, fuelled by
economic woes, soaring crime rates and fear
of the serial killer dubbed the Son of Sam.
And after a series of lightning strikes and
technical errors caused a city-wide blackout,
widespread looting broke out. By the time
power was restored over 25 hours later, more
than 1,600 stores had been looted, hundreds
of res started and thousands of people
arrested. In this photo, men survey the
wreckage of a shop on Grand Concourse
in the Bronx.
A YEAR
IN PICTURES
1977
Conict and
conciliation,
soccer and space
48
Catalan pride
Huge crowds throng the streets and squares of
Barcelona on 23 October to welcome the
homecoming of Catalonian politician Josep
Tarradellas, who in 1977 returned to assume
the presidency of the Catalan Generalitat
newly restored government of the autonomous
region with the simple message: I am back.
Handshake of hope
Israels prime minister Menachem Begin and Egypts
president Anwar Al-Sadat meet in Jerusalem in
November 1977 a historic encounter marking the
start of a peace process following decades of territorial
wars between the nations. Ten months later peace is
cemented with the signing of the Camp David Accords
brokered by US president Jimmy Carter.
Extremist danger
The radical leftwing Red Army Faction
took this photo of Hanns-Martin
Schleyer on 6 October 1977, 31 days
after they kidnapped the West German
industrialist. Less than two weeks later
his body was found in the boot of a car in
France his murder marking the climax
of the German Autumn of terrorist
attacks that shook the nation that year.
AKG IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
49
A year in pictures: 1977
GETTY IMAGES
50
Farewell Biko
An estimated 1520,000
mourners attend the funeral
of Black Consciousness leader
Stephen Biko on 25 September
1977 in King Williams Town,
South Africa. He had died on
12 September, as a result of
being beaten in police custody.
Bikos murder became a
ashpoint in the struggle of
black South Africans against
oppression by the white
regime, but it wasnt till over a
decade later that the apartheid
system was nally dismantled.
51
A year in pictures: 1977
52
Desert war
Somali women train with
wooden guns in an exercise
during the Ogaden War
between Somalia and
Ethiopia. The conict
was sparked when Somali
troops invaded the disputed
Ogaden border region in
July 1977, and continued
until the following March.
It marked the start of
decades of instability in the
Horn of Africa, with
periodic conict between
Ethiopia and Eritrea, and
within Somalia, continuing
for the following 40 years.
AKG IMAGES
Raising an army
Chinese archaeologists at Lintong, east of Xian,
excavate one of the most famous nds of the century: the
Terracotta Army life-sized troops guarding the tomb
of Qin Shi Huang, rst emperor of a unied China,
who died in 210 BC. Discovered by farmers in 1974,
excavation of the army began in earnest in 1977 and
continues today; its estimated that it comprised around
8,000 warriors accompanied by horses and chariots.
54
Shuttle run
The prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise
lifts from the Boeing 747 carrier that
launched it over southern California
on 12 August 1977 the rst free
ight of a US space shuttle. Following
extensive further testing, the rst
space ight of the NASA shuttle
programme launched on 12 April
1981, when Columbia orbited the
Earth 57 times. The programme
continued for 30 years, despite two
fatal accidents; the last of 135 missions
was own by Atlantis in July 2011.
Richard Overy
is professor of history at
the University of Exeter,
GETTY IMAGES
55
The pharaoh myth
A pharaoh is depicted
alongside the tree of life in
an ancient relief in the Great
Hypostyle Hall of the temple
of Karnak near Luxor. The
idea that pharaohs were
worshipped as all-powerful
gods is just plain silly,
argues John Romer
THE
TRUTH
about
ANCIENT
EGYPT
GETTY IMAGES
56
Tyrannical god-kings, feudal divisions, poisonings, treason many of our
long-held beliefs about ancient Egypt are based on misunderstandings
and skewed interpretations. John Romer, author of a new book exploring
1,000 years of Egyptian history from the construction of the Great Pyramid
to the collapse of the Middle Kingdom, explains why we need to rethink
how we view the worlds rst nation state
INTERVIEW BY MATT ELTON
How have we misunderstood this period of 20th century, so it became an important concept when this
Egyptian history? history was being laid down.
I think virtually all of ancient Egypt has been misunderstood. The problems extend beyond that, too, to ideas of conflict
Fundamentally, our understanding has been based on four inside ancient Egypt between priests, farmers and soldiers
key inuences: the Bible; the ancient Greeks; the work of the three divisions of classical European society. Its yet to be
19th-century French scholar Jean-Franois Champollion; established that such a feudal division actually existed in
and then, into the 20th century, German historians. pharaoh-land, and there was no military cult in ancient Egypt
Champollion laid down the terms with which we discuss at all. The whole thing is very wrong, and gave politicians an
ancient Egypt kings, country, courtiers, nobles, peasants, easy exemplar of society for their own horrid purposes.
priests and soldiers at a time when Europeans had a very Most histories of the Old Kingdom [in the third millenni-
strong idea about what those terms meant. It was a time of um BC] assume that the ancient Egyptians never changed.
revolution in Europe, when nation was a hot topic in France, They took parallels from one period and dumped it back to
but the fact that Champollion and some of his contemporaries another 1,000 years earlier or later. And we know virtually
translated it back to ancient Egypt was barking mad. After all, nothing at all about the personalities of ancient Egyptians.
ancient Egypt wasnt a place but, instead, a culture in the The only way we understand their personalities is as seen
same way that tribal peoples dont have a dotted line around through the eyes of the ancient Greeks, a bunch of old Nazis,
the edge of their land. and a lot of dreadful popular television in which people run
Worse than Champollion were the great geniuses that around with blazing torches setting fire to each other.
interpreted the grammar and logic of the Egyptian language.
They were a bunch of what we would call hard-rightwingers: There was a gap in the construction of monuments
not all of them were Nazis, but many were very active in that in the period between the building of the pyramids
movement. They thought history was a science and, therefore, and temples at Thebes (now Luxor), wasnt there?
pure but anyone who thinks history writing is a science is There was indeed a remarkable period, a kind of hiatus, during
crazy. Those researchers wrote many of the books still used in which the ancient Egyptians stopped building monuments.
modern western universities, which are full of their prejudices. Its been described as a time of murder and starvation, but we
know that wasnt the case because the graveyards of the period
How are those prejudices manifested? show a people who were just as t and well as at any other time.
The idea that pharaohs were worshipped as all-powerful gods, Graves had actually become richer, because people no longer
for instance, is just plain silly. Translated ancient Egyptian had to build monuments for their king.
letters show us that the relationship between a pharaoh and
his courtiers was very far from that between a god and his So what caused that hiatus?
worshippers. But the idea of an all-powerful god was very Most other histories extract information from largely irrelevant
common at the time that these books were written in the early things, such as bits of literature or poetry, and pretend that
57
The pharaoh myth
A tomb relief from Egypts 5th dynasty depicts the collection of tithes.
Most other histories extract information from largely irrelevant
theyre history. I dont: I go for facts on the ground. What those things, such as bits of literature or poetry, and pretend that they
show is that, during the Old Kingdom, around 2,500 BC, are history. I dont: I go for facts on the ground, says John Romer
after the four great pyramids had been built, the kings laid
back a bit. All of the resources that had previously gone into
building truly colossal pyramids at Giza and Dahshur were
used instead to build more modest royal pyramids, along
with hundreds of splendid tombs for governors and courtiers
with mortuary cults of their own. So, about 300 years after the
Great Pyramids were nished, not only were pyramids still be-
ing built by the court but it also had centuries of funerary cults
to support. A large number of families were connected to each
of these monuments, so the court had become very big.
At the same time, the level of the Nile was gradually
dropping. It happened so slowly that it wouldnt have been
noticeable in a single lifespan, but modern archaeology shows
the river level fell by several metres over the course of centuries.
That meant the amount of crops grown also decreased.
Those factors combined and a tipping point was reached:
ancient Egyptian society no longer had the resources to make
such great monuments. That doesnt mean that people were
starving, or poor, or fighting simply that they didnt have This inscribed papyrus, found near the Red Sea and the oldest known
example of its kind, details the building of Khufus Great Pyramid
the resources to build huge pyramids.
58
One site provides the How did ancient Egypt inuence the wider world?
The entire western world is touched by ancient Egypt. It was
what we would now call a religious state, although they
only example of how wouldnt have understood that denition. And it continues to
be inuential to this day in the way in which taxes in the
blocks were moved by United Kingdom are collected in the name of the queen, for
instance, or in how, when Donald Trump was elected president
the people who made of the United States, he was honoured with tradition and
ceremony to show that a different aura had descended upon
the Great Pyramid him. The idea of sacredness in the ceremony of leaders is
essentially what was happening in the Middle Kingdom.
system. The port was used to ship copper from Sinai across art actually tells us: that on the whole they were peaceable,
the Red Sea and then on across the desert to the Nile valley. highly talented people who were
Not only does this document give an exact list of how well satisfied with their lot.
many stones this captain supplied, but it also tells us that quite
a famous man, Ankh-haf, whose tomb is at Giza, was in charge
at this harbour. This is amazing because its the first time hes
been identified as being in charge of aspects of the Great John Romer is an Egyptologist, broadcaster
Pyramids construction. Suddenly, we know something about and writer. His latest book is A History of Ancient
how it was made that we never knew before. Its all real stuff Egypt, Volume 2: From the Great Pyramid to the
not just fairy tales from slightly dubious history books. Fall of the Middle Kingdom (Allen Lane, 2016)
59
PERSPECTIVES
SEVITCEPSREP
ONE MOMENT, TWO VIEWPOINTS
Ottomans battle
Christians at Lepanto
On 7 October 1571, Ottoman forces clashed with the Holy Leagues eet
in a huge naval battle in the Mediterranean. Jerry Brotton looks at both
sides of an encounter that shifted the balance of sea power in the region
The battle of Lepanto was one of the aside their differences and combine forces relief and what one commentator, the
greatest conicts in pre-modern in the form of a Holy League. They Venetian Pietro Buccio, described as
history, pitting Ottoman naval forces hastily assembled a vast Christian armada a marvellous and glorious Christian
against the ships of the Christian of more than 200 ships, 40,000 sailors victory against the indels. In contrast,
Holy League in the Gulf of Patras off and 20,000 troops led by Philip IIs Selim II quoted a verse from the Quran:
western Greece. The clash, involving half-brother Don John of Austria. In the But it may happen that you hate a thing
an estimated 500 ships and 100,000 summer of 1571, the eet set sail to lift which is good for you, and swore to
combatants, was the largest such the siege of Cyprus. When Don John avenge the defeat by rebuilding his eet
battle since ancient times and the learned of the fall of Famagusta on that and intensifying his attacks on Christian
last great naval conict dominated island he headed for Lepanto, where the forces across the Mediterranean basin.
by armed rowing vessels. Ottoman eet of 300 ships lay at anchor. For the Christians and for subse-
quent western historians defeating the
The background to the battle was a Savage combat Ottomans represented the rst great
region becoming increasingly dominat- On the morning of 7 October the two victory over an apparently invincible
ed by the Ottomans. That empire was sides engaged each other in an epic navy, and marked the beginning of
engaged in a relentless programme of battle that quickly descended into savage the decline of Muslim inuence in the MARY EVANS/MAP: BATTLEFIELD DESIGN
expansion across the Mediterranean, in hand-to-hand combat as both sides Mediterranean. The French historian
stark contrast to the disunity that charac- boarded each others galleys. Around Fernand Braudel described it as the end
terised their papal, Spanish and Venetian 4pm, as the smoke of war began to lift, it of a genuine inferiority complex on the
adversaries. With the accession of Sultan became clear that the Ottomans had part of Christendom and a no less real
Selim II in 1566, Ottoman designs on been outgunned and defeated, losing by Turkish supremacy. For the Ottomans
north Africa and Christian strongholds some estimates nearly 200 of their ships, it was an act of God a signicant but
such as Malta and Cyprus threatened to along with 15,000 soldiers and sailors. not insurmountable defeat in a wider
transform the Mediterranean basin into For a brief moment, Christendom and largely successful geopolitical strate-
one vast Turkish naval port. forgot its divisions and united in gy of dominating the eastern Mediterra-
When in the summer of 1570 the celebration of its victory over the nean and north Africa.
Ottomans declared war on Venice and seemingly invincible Turks. Across On the following pages we explore the
invaded Cyprus, Pope Pius V, Philip II of Europe the news was greeted with an
5
context of the battle from both Ottoman
Spain and the Venetians agreed to put extraordinary outpouring of delight, and Christian viewpoints
60
A detail from Andrea Vicentinos
expansive c1600 painting of
the battle of Lepanto vividly
captures the chaotic melee
as armoured Holy League
soldiers rout Ottoman troops
61
Perspectives: Battle of Lepanto, 1571
I
n 1499 the Greek port of Naf- The eet headed towards Crete, The superior Christian repower pre-
paktos, better known by its Vene- where they believed the Christian navy vailed. Ottoman accounts described how
tian name of Lepanto, fell to the lay, and were joined by Ulu Ali Pasha, men succumbed to a hail of bullets and
Ottomans. From that point they the beylerbeyy (duke-governor) of Algiers. the noble eet was surrounded by a thick
effectively controlled the eastern But, as autumn drew in, provisions smoke which covered the sky. After
Mediterranean, part of a larger geopolit- ran low, and many of the Albanian, hours of hand-to-hand combat, Mez-
ical strategy that saw them conquer most Bosnian and Greek soldiers deserted the zinzade Ali Pasha was struck by a bullet
of the region as well as north Africa, in- Ottoman eet. One chronicler wrote and fell; his head was cut off (reputedly
cluding Egypt (1517), Algiers (1529) and that the eet cruised for a long time on by a Spanish soldier) and displayed to the
Tripoli (1551). Lepanto became part of the sea. No one appeared. The Otto- dismayed Ottoman troops. The Otto-
the multi-confessional, polyglot empire, mans believed that the Christians lacked man rout was complete, and of their high
a livaa (district) in the Ottoman adminis- the courage to meet them. The winter command only Ulu Ali Pasha escaped.
trative system. Beyss and kadiss (chieftains approached. The corsairs and beyss of the
and legal authorities) recruited local coastal provinces asked the Porte [gov- Ottoman analysis
Greek sailors, oarsmen and soldiers ernment] for permission to return home. Unsurprisingly, Ottoman sources were
conscripted into the timariott cavalry in Thus the army disintegrated. muted in their reactions to the battle.
return for tax exemptions. When the Christian navy was nally Most blamed the unnecessarily long
In early 1571 Bosnian spies informed sighted off Lepanto in early October, the campaign, exhaustion and desertion,
Sultan Selim II that a Christian eet was Ottoman force was not only unprepared as well as the disastrous leadership of
being assembled to break the Ottoman but severely depleted in manpower and Mezzinzade Ali Pasha (which, as he
siege of Famagusta in Cyprus. An imperi- resources. That was crucial: the Otto- was appointed by Selim, was the nearest
al decree set the religious tone for Selims mans relied for victory on vastly superior anyone came to criticising the sultan).
response: When news about the indels troop numbers and the accuracy of the Selims response, a terse imperial decree
intention to attack became known by composite bow red from their galleys dated 28 October 1571, attributed the
everybody, here the ulemaa (religious by experienced archers. They also had defeat to God: Now a battle can be won
scholars) and all the Muslim community arquebuses and the heavier musket but or lost. It was destined to happen this way
found it most proper and necessary to they discovered to their cost at Lepanto according to Gods will.
nd and immediately attack the indels that their Christian enemies possessed The defeat was a military setback, but
eet in order to save the honour of our more than twice as many guns. by the summer of 1573 Turkish shipyards
religion and state, and to protect the land Almost immediately dissension broke had rebuilt the eet, and the following
of the Caliphate, and when the Muslims out among the Ottoman commanders. summer the Ottomans retook Tunis,
submitted their petition to the feet of my Ulu Ali Pasha advised an engagement in which had been seized by Don Jon in
throne I found it good and incontestable. open sea away from the coast. Fearful for 1573. When asked about the battle by
his life if he disobeyed the sultans the Venetian ambassador, Grand Vizier
The armada sets sail command to engage the enemy, Sokullu Mehmed Pasha responded:
Selim ordered his eet to sail from Istan- Mezzinzade Ali Pasha ignored the Our courage has not faded away after
bul in April 1571, appointing Mezzinza- advice, believing that the Christian eet the battle of Lepanto; there is a discrep-
de Ali Pasha, a former janissary (elite war- was much smaller than it really was. ancy between your losses and ours. We
rior) as its admiral. Ottoman chroniclers Shortly after noon on 7 October, he ceded from you a land [Cyprus] [and]
gave divergent estimates of the eets size, ordered his eet to attack. As the rst thus cut off one of your arms. You defeat-
ranging from 170 to 300 vessels, powered Ottoman galleys crashed into the ed our eet, which meant nothing more
by up to 35,000 oarsmen many of them Christian ships, up to 40 others ran than shaving our beard. A missing arm
captured Christians and carrying more aground perhaps accidentally, or in cannot be replaced but a shaved beard
than 40,000 sailors and soldiers. a deliberate act to escape ghting. grows thicker.
62
GETTY IMAGES
Sultans decree
A contemporary portrait of the Ottoman sultan Selim II. Before the
battle of Lepanto, the sultan declared that all the Muslim community
found it most proper and necessary to nd and immediately attack the
indels eet in order to save the honour of our religion and state
63
Perspectives: Battle of Lepanto, 1571
O
n 20 May 1571 Pope Pius V mans. Don John favoured an offensive Finally Don Johns galley rammed
met with representatives campaign while his cautious lieutenants Mezzinzade Ali Pashas agship and,
of Venice and Spain in advised a more defensive approach, grum- after intense ghting, the admiral fell.
Rome. The result was the bling that they were operating without When Ulu Ali Pashas squadron ed,
formation of a Holy any order, nay in utter confusion. Intel- the battle was at an end, and with Gods
League an alliance of Catholic states ligence was also conicted. One of Don own resolution, wrote one Venetian, by
aiming to break Ottoman dominance in Johns advisers told him that his own sol- mid-afternoon the enemy had been
the eastern Mediterranean. diers were largely inexperienced, though completely shattered, subdued and
Agreeing the alliance had been a I do not think the enemys men can be conquered, in the greatest and most
lengthy and tortuous process. Since the very good, or better than ours. However, famous naval battle which has ever taken
fall of Constantinople in 1453, Christian as for the number and quality of the place from the time of Caesar Augustus
countries had failed to unite against their ships in the Ottoman eet, the reports are until now.
common enemy. Venice was keen to so various that I cannot judge very well if
protect its commercial relations with the it is smaller or greater than ours. Aftermath of the battle
sultans, the Spanish were eager to protect When the two eets nally met on the News of the victory quickly spread
their north African interests, and the pa- morning of 7 October, the Holy League across Europe. Festivities, church
pacy was preoccupied with the more im- possessed two decisive advantages. It masses, pamphlets, paintings and poems
mediate threat of Lutheranism. Though outgunned the Ottomans by more than celebrated the event. While the Otto-
the Ottoman invasion of Cyprus proved two to one, and in its vanguard were six mans had ignored the rise of printing,
the need for unity, squabbles continued: great Venetian galleases oating European presses were able to circulate
the Spanish insisted that the Habsburg fortresses too high to be boarded, news of the victory at a hitherto unimag-
Don John of Austria a young man bristling with artillery. As they rowed inable speed and scale.
who desired glory must command the towards the Ottoman galleys and opened Nevertheless, Christian reports of the
leagues eet, and that its main objective re, even the Turks began to fear, Ottomans demise after their defeat at
should be Tunis (held by Ulu Ali Pasha reported Don Johns advisor. Their Lepanto were greatly exaggerated, and
since 1569), not Cyprus. opening salvos sank several galleys and the Holy League rapidly disintegrated.
But by cajoling and threatening, the scattered the Ottoman formation. Priests First Pius died in May 1572, then Venice,
popes assertiveness overcame all evoked Christ and urged the Christian eager to re-establish commercial relations
difculties, and in July 1571 the papal soldiers to ght against the enemies of with the Ottomans, signed a peace treaty
eet set sail for Sicily. There they were his most holy name, and inamed and in March 1573 acknowledging Selims
joined by the rest of the league, amassing moved by these exhortations they all sovereignty over Cyprus. Others also
208 galleys, 6 galleases [large oared became one body, one will, one desire sought alliances with the Ottomans.
warships] and 23 ships besides the small with no heed nor thought of death. In 1579 Elizabeth I established formal
vessels carrying a good many troops Under re from the galleases the sea diplomatic relations with Selims suc-
estimated at 20,000, a remarkable and was wholly covered with men, yard-arms, cessor, Sultan Murad III. Both English
somewhat unlikely coalition of Italians, oars, casks, barrels and various kinds and Ottoman rulers were keen to exploit
Spaniards and even Germans. of armaments, an incredible thing that divisions among an increasingly fractured
only six galleases should have caused Christendom that found little unity in
Internal squabbles such great destruction, for they had not the aftermath of Lepanto.
National rivalries threatened to scupper [previously] been tried in the forefront of
the league almost before the eet sailed a naval battle. Both sides quickly became Jerry Brotton is professor of renaissance
towards Corfu. Fights broke out between constrained to do battle with short arms studies at Queen Mary University of London,
the Spanish and the Italians, while both in hand-to-hand combat, all ghting in and author of This Orient Isle: Elizabethan
looked down on the barbaric Ger- the cruellest fashion, wrote the advisor. England and the Islamic Worldd (Allen Lane, 2016)
64
ALAMY
65
EXTRAORDINARY
Y PEOPLE
R
aised in a south London companionship with her husband, Bechuanaland Democratic Party, and
suburb, Ruth Williams identication of herself with his interests, Ruth encouraged women to get involved.
had an ordinary child- and intelligent understanding of the Eighteen months after the BDP won the
hood but showed unusual broader problems he has to face. nations rst democratic elections in 1965,
courage from an early age. A British ofcial complained that Ruth Botswana gained independence and
When the Luftwaffe bombed London was a tougher proposition than we had Seretse became president; soon after-
in 1940, the teenage Ruth undertook hoped she will never be bought off. wards he was knighted and Ruth became
re-watching duties. In 1942 she joined In 1950 Seretse was brought under Lady Khama. Never bitter about the past,
the Womens Auxiliary Air Force, driv- false pretences to London where he was their focus was the future of Botswana,
ing a crash ambulance at RAF Friston. told he was to be exiled for ve years. then one of the worlds 10 poorest na-
After the war, Ruth became a Ruth, by that time pregnant, had tions, having been badly neglected under
condential clerk in an insurance rm. remained in Bechuanaland because the colonial rule. As rst lady, Ruth became
One evening in 1947 her sister invited Bangwato were (rightly) suspicious of president of the Botswana Red Cross,
her to a dance for students from Africa, Britains intentions. She gave birth to which assisted with relief programmes in
organised by a missionary society. Ruth baby Jacqueline in the Serowe hospital. the region, as well as the Girl Guides, the
was reluctant but went along a decision Winston Churchill had condemned Botswana Council of Women, and the
that transformed her life. There she met the treatment of the Khamas as a very Child to Child Foundation.
Seretse Khama, a law student and heir to disreputable transaction, yet made the Seretse died in 1980, but it never
the kingship of the Bangwato people in exile permanent after he became prime crossed Ruths mind to return to Britain.
the British protectorate of Bechuanaland minister in 1951. Despite denials by the I am completely happy here, she said.
(now Botswana). Ruth and Seretse fell in British government, South Africa I travel to Britain and Switzerland as part
love but their relationship was met with whose supplies of uranium Britain hoped of my charity work for the Red Cross,
hostility from her father and Seretses un- to access had inuenced the decision. but I have no desire to go anywhere else...
cle, Tshekedi Khama, the tribes regent. By then Seretse and Ruth were both My home is here... When I came to this
The British government also weighed living in exile in Britain, where she gave country I became a Motswana.
in, under pressure from white-ruled birth to their second child, Ian, in 1953. Lady Khama died in 2002 at the
South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, They were encouraged by a vigorous age of 78, and was buried next to
which opposed a prominent inter-racial campaign by supporters including Tony Seretse. Their legacy extends well
marriage on their borders. To Ruths Benn, and by others at home in Bechua- beyond the borders of Botswana, in
disappointment British ofcials, backed naland. We still grieve that our mother a model of harmony that exposed the
by the London Missionary Society and is being kept away from us, lamented a evil of apartheid and the injustices of
the Church of England, blocked a church womens association in Serowe. colonial rule.
wedding. However, the marriage went In 1956 the exile was ended on
ahead, albeit in a register ofce. condition that Seretse was not installed Susan Williams is the author of Colour Bar:
Seretse and Ruth settled in Serowe in as king. Once home, he and his uncle put The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation
Bechuanaland, where the Bangwato took aside their differences to work together (Penguin, 2006). A United Kingdom, a lm
Ruth to their hearts as their Mohumagadi for their people. Ruth had two more based on the book, was released in the UK
mother or queen. Most of the white sons, twins Tshekedi and Anthony, and late in 2016
women in Africa pitied her, Yet in many threw herself into voluntary work helping DISCOVER MORE
ways, observed journalist Margaret women and children, saying: There is a Hear more of this story in the BBC World Service
Bourke-White, her life is fuller than big part for me, as a woman, to play. documentary Against The Tide Seretse
theirs, with a much closer degree of In 1961 Seretse Khama launched the Khama, at bbc.co.uk/programmes/p034s4hm
66
GETTY IMAGES/TOPHAM PICTUREPOINT/ALAMY/DREAMSTIME
67
Korean art
GLITTERING
KOREA
For over four millennia the Korean
peninsula has cultivated unique ideas
about art and architecture, as well as
sharing concepts with China and
Japan. Soyoung Lee, curator at New
Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art,
reveals what treasures from the
exhibition Splendors of Korean Art tell
us about the regions cultural evolution
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH PAUL BLOOMFIELD
68
Gilt bronze Amitabha triad, 1333
The Buddha Amitabha, who represents the promise
of salvation in his Western Paradise, became
especially popular in Korea during the Goryeo
dynasty (9181392); here he is shown anked by
his two attendant bodhisattvas in a triptych created
nearly 1,000 years after Buddhism arrived in Korea
via China around AD 372. The names of those who
commissioned and managed the project were inscribed
on the bases of the statues, which were consecrated
and their hollow insides lled with textiles and printed
Buddhist texts. By the time these pieces were made, the
Goryeo dynasty controlled most of the peninsula; its
name is the root of the international term Korea.
ON LOAN FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA
69
Korean art
Bird-shaped earthenware
vessel, third century AD
Clay vessels such as this have been found
primarily at burial sites in the south-east
Korean peninsula, near the Nakdong
river. This was the heartland of the Gaya
confederacy wedged between the larger Baekje
and Silla states, two of the three kingdoms
that dominated the peninsula from the rst
century BC (the other being Goguryeo).
Birds may have been considered auspicious,
travelling between earth and heaven. Usually
found in pairs, these objects probably served
as funereal ritual vessels; liquid was poured
in through an opening at the back and owed
out through the tail.
Pensive Bodhisattva,
mid-seventh century AD
COURTESY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART (EARRINGS ON LOAN FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF KOREA)
Images of the pensive bodhisattva (devout
Buddhist adherent) always seated in this
distinctive pose became prevalent in east
Asia between the fth and eighth centuries,
and emerged as important Buddhist icons
in Korea, particularly in the kingdoms of Gold earrings, sixth
Baekje and Silla. This exquisite statue is century AD
infused with a subtle yet palpable energy Gold earrings were worn by elite
articulated in details such as the pliant, men and women of the kingdom
lifelike ngers and toes. His crown is topped of Silla (c57 BCAD 935), and are
with an orb-and-crescent motif, indicating the most prevalent type of jewellery
inuences from central Asia. found in tombs of that period;
indeed, the burial mounds of Silla
are famous for the extraordinary
gold accessories they contained.
Goldsmiths techniques ranged
from simple hammering to the more
complex method of granulation, in
which tiny gold beads were adhered
to the surface to create intricate
designs a technique sometimes
mimicked by incising granule-like
patterns, as in this example.
70
Maebyeong decorated
with cranes and clouds,
13th century
This is a superb example of Goryeo celadon,
a type of ceramic dened by its elegant green
glaze, adopted from Chinese precedents.
This quintessentially Korean-style
maebyeong (plum bottle), produced at the
famous celadon kiln site at Buan Yucheon-ri
in the south-west of the peninsula, carries
an eye-catching design of large cranes and
clouds, motifs that appear frequently on
Goryeo celadon; cranes were symbols of
nobility, spirituality and long life. The
decoration was not painted but inlaid: the
designs were individually carved and lled
with white and black water-mixed clays.
This bottle was once a treasured piece
in a Japanese collection. Many aspects of
Japanese art and architecture reect
Korean inuences.
71
Korean art
72
Gilt bronze rafter nial and
wind chime, 10th century
This impressive dragons head would have been
attached to a corner rafter of a royal hall or a
Buddhist temple building. The bell, which
functioned as a wind chime suspended from
the dragons mouth, is decorated with a lotus
ower encircling a swastika an ancient Indian
symbol that was associated with the Buddha.
Both bell and dragon were cast in bronze
and gilded. Bulging eyes, aring nostrils and
elaborate scales convey the erceness of this
creature linked with power, good luck and
water. This mythical beast, which originated
in China, also became popular in the art and
architecture of Korea and Japan.
Portrait of a scholar by
Chae Yongsin (18501941),
dated by inscription to 1924
The black-trimmed robe and double-tiered,
three-peaked hat identify this man as a scholar
in informal garb. The artist, Chae Yongsin,
was a famed portraitist of the late 19th and
early 20th century; among the marks of his
nimble hand are the sitters sensitively
modelled face and the nely rendered hairs
of his beard. Chaes works incorporate the
conventions of centuries-old ancestral
portraiture and modern photography, such
as heightened realism and a studio-set
background including a painted folding
screen. By the time this portrait was painted
Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, which
lasted till the end of the Second World War.
COURTESY THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
DISCOVER MORE
Splendors of Korean Art, presented in
collaboration with the Ministry of Culture,
Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea
and the National Museum of Korea, runs
until 17 September 2017. +1 212 535 7710,
metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/
splendors-of-korean-art
73
A kingdom falls
Muslim forces clash with
crusaders in a miniature
from a 14th-century French
manuscript. Raymonds
desertion at the battle
of Hattin in 1187 played
a key role in the crusaders
defeat and the end of the
rst kingdom of Jerusalem
BRIDGEMAN
74
RAYMOND
of TRIPOLI
CRUSADER,
DESERTER
& TRAITOR
In 1187, a crusader army confronted Saladin
in a decisive battle for the Holy Land but was
crushed when one power-hungry count ed the
clash. Jeffrey Lee explores the life and legacy
of Raymond III of Tripoli, whose treacherous
desertion cost the kingdom of Jerusalem
75
The traitorous crusader
A
round nine oclock in the morning
on 4 July 1187, Count Raymond III RAYMOND COULD
of Tripoli took a fateful decision.
Around him an apocalyptic battle HAVE CHOSEN TO
raged. From his position as com-
mander of the vanguard, Raymond FIGHT AND PROVE
could see that the great army of the
kingdom of Jerusalem (the crusader HIS LOYALTY
state established after the First Crusade) was crumbling, suffer-
ing from heat and thirst. Beset from all sides by arrows and the INSTEAD, HE
TURNED AND FLED
swirling attacks of Saladins cavalry, crusader resolve was waver-
ing. At this crucial moment, after years of scheming, rebellion
and treachery, Raymond could have chosen to ght and prove
his loyalty to the Christian cause. Instead, he and his faction
turned and ed.
After Raymond deserted the battle at the Horns of Hattin,
the Muslim forces inicted the greatest defeat ever suffered by
a crusader army. Knights and infantry were annihilated, the
king captured. Saladin, the Muslim leader, then swept through Galilee and Lord of Tiberias the greatest feudal magnate in
the kingdom of Jerusalem, taking cities and strongholds at will. the kingdom.
In October, 88 years after its capture during the First Crusade, The barons of the kingdom worked loyally with Raymond,
the holy city of Jerusalem surrendered to the jihad. but he proved a weak and selsh leader. He still owed most of
Many other factors contributed to this catastrophic reversal his exorbitant ransom, and when the up-and-coming Muslim
for the crusaders their endemic shortage of ghting men, leader Saladin cleverly forgave the debt, Raymond allowed him
the superior wealth and manpower of their Muslim enemies, a free hand to unite his power base of Egypt with Syria,
the loss of Byzantine support in the early 1180s, and the emer- hemming in the crusader lands. Even staunch partisans of Ray-
gence of the ambitious Saladin as a leader in Egypt but the mond criticised this short-sighted deal.
single most damaging factor for the kingdom of Jerusalem in Raymonds next round of machinations almost delivered the
the decade leading up to 1187 was Raymonds lust for power. entire kingdom to Saladin. Raymonds regency ended when
Baldwin came of age in 1177, but the youthful king suffered
Fiendish ambition from leprosy and periodically needed someone to take charge
Raymond was born in 1140, and became Count of Tripoli after when he was too ill to rule. Given Raymonds poor record
assassins murdered his father in 1152. He was dark-complex- as regent, the king turned instead to the loyal Reynald
ioned, with a hooked nose. Renowned for his intelligence and de Chtillon. Later that year, still smarting from his demotion,
inquiring mind, friends and enemies alike thought him Raymond stymied a joint offensive against Saladins Egypt by
a shrewd and accomplished leader. He was related to the ruling Baldwin and the Byzantine imperial eet. This soured relations
family in Jerusalem; for a man so endishly ambitious, Tripoli, with Byzantium and snuffed out the last real chance to crush
a coastal crusader state spanning whats now northern Lebanon Saladins growing power.
and western Syria, was to prove too small a pond. Raymond and his ally Bohemond of Antioch then went
In 1164 Raymond was taken prisoner by Turkish warlord campaigning in their own territories to the north, allowing
Nur al-Din. During nine years in captivity he broadened his Saladin to attack across the unprotected southern frontier.
mind, learning to read and write. Ransomed for the huge sum The Muslims pillaged across the coastal plain to Mont Gisard
of 80,000 dinars, he showed he had broadened his ambitions, in the very heart of the kingdom. Jerusalem was saved only
too. Almost immediately, he began interfering in the kingdom when Reynald de Chtillons generalship, and the inspiration of
of Jerusalem, bordering his county of Tripoli to the south. the brave young leper king, delivered a stunning victory against
In 1174 he demanded to be made regent to his distant overwhelming odds.
cousin, 13-year-old King Baldwin IV. State affairs were under Raymonds rst attempt to supplant Baldwin came in 1180.
the control of the powerful noble Miles de Plancy, but that It appears he planned to make his ally Baldwin of Ibelin heir
did not deter him. Miles was murdered in that same year, to the throne by marrying him to the kings sister Sybilla. The
possibly assassinated as the result of a feud with a noble king neutered the conspiracy by marrying Sybilla to a hand-
family, and Raymond became regent. He enhanced his status some knight from Poitou, Guy de Lusignan. The traditional
by marrying Lady Eschiva of Tiberias, becoming Prince of crusading story tells that Guy was resented as a poor leader and
76
BATTLE OF HATTIN
IN CONTEXT
The First Crusade, launched in
1095 by Pope Urban II, was a
campaign by Christian forces
from Europe to wrest what they
considered the Holy Land, and
particularly the sacred city of
Jerusalem, from Muslim rule. In
1099 the crusaders achieved that
goal, capturing the city in July.
Over the following decades a
series of crusader states were
established across the eastern
Mediterranean, but came under
attack from surrounding Islamic
sultanates most notably by
Saladin (Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn
Ayyub), sultan of Egypt and Syria,
who nally reconquered
Palestine from the crusaders
after the battle of Hattin in 1187.
78
bumptious newcomer. But it was frustrated ambition, rather
than incompetence or outsider status, that lay behind Ray- SALADIN WAS
monds loathing of Guy.
In 1182 Raymond threatened an armed coup, but Baldwin ENDEAVOURING
turned him back at the border with Tripoli. Raymond was not
with the royal host when, later that year, Saladin invaded the TO UNDERMINE
kingdom with a vast force but was obliged to withdraw
after a sharp encounter at Le Forbelet. Tellingly, with Raymond CHRISTIAN POWER
absent, the crusader army acted decisively, without discord
and prevarication. BY FOMENTING
DISCORD AMONG
Raymonds nefarious inuence was back at work the follow-
ing year when Saladin attacked again. The king was too sick to
THE PARTIES
ride so the largest crusader army for years, funded by a dubious
innovation an income tax was led by the new regent, Guy de
Lusignan. While Saladins soldiers sacked and burned, Ray-
mond and his cronies arranged for the crusaders campaign to
zzle out in an embarrassing asco of inactivity. In hindsight,
the results were positive Saladin retired without signicant
gains but Guy had failed to exploit a mighty host, and his historian Ibn Al-Athir. This was one of the most important
reputation was ruined. Baldwin relieved Guy of the regency and factors that brought about the conquest of their territories and
in November 1183 sought to cut him out of the succession alto- the liberation of Jerusalem.
gether by crowning a co-ruler: ve-year-old Baldwin V. Things soon got even better for the Muslims. Not satised
with dividing the kingdom, Raymond defected to the enemy.
Hunger for power He solicited and easily obtained the assistance of Saladin, who
By now Raymonds hunger for power was common knowledge. was endeavouring to undermine the Christian power by craftily
Ibn Jubayr, a Muslim traveller from Andalucia who passed fomenting discord among the parties. Raymond even wel-
through the crusader lands in 1184, recorded that the most comed Muslim cavalry and archers into Tiberias.
prominent crusader was the accursed count, the lord of Tripoli In siding with Saladin, Raymonds aim was simple: to seize
and Tiberias. He has authority and position among them. He is the throne. Ibn Al-Athir conrmed that Saladin accepted
qualied to be king and indeed is a candidate for the ofce. Raymonds allegiance and, in return: He guaranteed that he
By early 1185 Baldwin IV was clearly dying, and he turned would make him independent leader of all the Franks.
again to Raymond as regent. The barons, though, so distrusted Raymond IIIs treason had devastating military consequenc-
Raymond and his regal ambitions that they imposed stringent es for the crusaders. He allowed Saladin to send a powerful raid-
conditions. First, the boy-king Baldwin V was to be protected ing party through Galilee, confronted only by a scratch squad-
from Raymond by placing him in the care of his great-uncle ron of Templar and Hospitaller knights who were massacred.
Joscelin. Second, all royal castles were to be put beyond the re- With another Muslim invasion looming, the kingdom had just
gents control, instead entrusted to the military orders of the lost one-tenth of its elite soldiery. Raymonds vassals were en-
Templars and Hospitallers. As regent, Raymond resumed his raged, and pressured him to renounce his alliance with Saladin.
perniciously passive foreign policy. He made a four-year truce A grudging reconciliation was arranged with Guy, but it
with Saladin, enabling the crusaders most dangerous enemy to barely papered over the cracks in the crusader leadership. Ray-
complete his subjugation of all neighbouring Muslim territo- monds presence added a strong military contingent, but it also
ries, untroubled by Frankish interference. introduced his trademark dithering and dissension. As Saladin
Then, in 1186, Baldwin V died (poisoned by Raymond, if swept across the Jordan with force large enough to surround
you believe William of Newburgh, the 12th-century English much of the Sea of Galilee, Raymonds arguments for restraint
historian). Raymond moved to seize power, convoking a coun- paralysed the army. His more bellicose rivals protested, plausi-
cil in Nablus, the stronghold of his Ibelin allies. But the sup- bly, that Raymond was trying to undermine Guy as he had in
porters of the royal house, led by Reynald de Chtillon, crowned 1183 by ensuring another wasted campaign.
Sybilla and her husband Guy instead. Decisively outmanoeu-
vred, Raymond refused allegiance to the new king, and retreat- Raymonds treachery
ed to Tiberias in agrant rebellion. The crusaders foes watched Historians still believe Guy was wrong to leave his well-watered
this political meltdown with glee. Thus was their unity base at Sephora and take the ght to Saladin, but his real mis-
disrupted and their cohesion broken, wrote the great Muslim take might have been listening to Raymond and waiting too long
79
The traitorous crusader
DESPITE THE
EVIDENCE, RAYMOND
IS NORMALLY
PERCEIVED AS A
CRUSADER HERO
After the battle of Hattin, Christian defenders at Tyre held out against
Saladins army, as depicted in this 15th-century miniature. Raymond
failed in his bid to seize the castle and was forced to ee
before attacking. The crusaders delayed until Saladin stormed al-Athir wrote that: When the count ed, their spirits collapsed
Tiberias and forced Guys hand. Saladin chose the battleeld. and they were near to surrendering. According to the chronicler
Raymonds role in the ensuing battle of Hattin is murky, to Michael the Syrian, after the departure of the Count the Franks
say the least. The chronicler of the Estoire dEracless wrote that it were like unto men who had lost all hope. The Old French Con-
was Raymonds suggestion to camp halfway to Tiberias on the tinuation of William of Tyree agrees that, after Raymonds troops
night of 3 July, adding that: The king accepted this advice, but left, Saladin vanquished them quickly. Between the hours of
it was bad advice. If the Christians had pressed home the attack, tercee and noness [9am and 3pm] he won the entire eld.
they would have defeated the Turks. That night, both armies Astonishingly, despite all the evidence, Raymond is normal-
were exhausted but Muslim morale was boosted by the defection ly perceived as a crusader hero. His divisive quest for power is
of ve crusader knights. Signicantly, they were followers of interpreted as a worthy struggle against villainous warmongers
Raymond of Tripoli. Early next morning, 4 July, battle was such as Reynald de Chtillon. Even his ight from Hattin is
rejoined in deadly earnest. Not long into the ght, Raymond seen as a result of the defeat, rather than a principal cause of it.
performed his destructive disappearing act. He saw that the Seduced by the pro-Raymond chroniclers, William of Tyre and
signs of defeat were already upon his co-religionists and no no- Ernoul, 20th-century historians feted the count as a wise states-
tion of aiding his fellows stopped him thinking about himself, so man whose dealings with Saladin represented a rapprochement
he ed at the beginning of the engagement before it grew erce. between Christian and Muslims. Recent scholarship has gone
Most sources say that Raymond and his knights charged at some way to re-balancing this view, but not far enough nor has
the Muslims, who simply opened their ranks and allowed them it penetrated the general consciousness.
through. He ed from the battle with his accomplices, while the
Turks (as it is said) took no care to follow them. Another source Raymonds reputation
describes how, in their desperation to escape, The speed of their After the battle of Hattin, the only city in the kingdom to resist
horses in this conned space trampled down the Christians and Saladins armies was Tyre, led by the deant Conrad of
made a kind of bridge In this manner they got out of that nar- Montferrat. Tripoli was not besieged thanks, some believed,
row place by eeing over their own men, over the Turks, and over to Raymonds pact with Saladin. Even as the crusader enterprise
the cross. Thus it was that they escaped with only their lives. disintegrated, the count persisted in his pursuit of power.
To many, Raymonds desertion was rank treachery. Accord- According to William of Newburgh, Raymond secretly made
ing to the Chronicle of the Third Crusade, Raymond intended his way to Tyre to corrupt the populace and seize the citadel.
to betray his people, as he had agreed with Sala- His aim was to oust Conrad, his new rival for su-
BIBLIOTHQUE NATIONALE DE FRANCE
din right at the moment of engagement, the premacy over the last dregs of the crusader polity.
aforesaid Count of Tripoli fell back and feigned Jeffrey Lee is the author Conrad foiled the attempt and Raymond ed,
ight. It was rumoured that he did this in order of Gods Wolf: The Life of the leaving some of his men behind whom the zeal-
to break up our formation and that he had Most Notorious of All Crusaders, ous marquis condemned to be hanged, as manifest
agreed to abandon his own people, to strike fear Reynald de Chtillonn (Atlantic traitors to the name of Christ.
into those whom he should have assisted, while Books, 2016) Raymond died soon afterwards of grief and
arousing the enemys courage. DISCOVER MORE
shame, chroniclers wrote. Count Raymond had
This desertion of perhaps 300 knights, a The Crusades: The War for the ardently wished to rule the crusaders, but, in con-
quarter of the crusaders most potent ghting Holy Landd by Thomas Asbridge trast with common depictions of his life, no man
strength, was the decisive moment. Historian Ibn (Simon & Schuster, 2010) had done more to bring about their defeat.
80
ONLY
9.99
EACH
WITH FREE
FROM THE MAKERS OF MAGAZINE UK P&P *
The World of the The Story of the The Story of the The Story of
Georgians Normans Holy Land Roman Britain
Explore the lives, politics and Marking the 950th anniversary From the ancient world of the From invasion to eventual
dramas of the Georgian period of the 1066 battle of Hastings, Bible to the 21stcentury, we abandonment of Britain by
(17141837), ranging from the this special issue traces the dissect the fascinating history Rome, explore battles, tribes,
ballrooms of elite society to the Normans journey from Viking of a small land that has become everyday life under imperial rule
sailors in Nelsons navy. raiders to rulers of England. central to three global faiths. and the occupations long legacy.
The Story of Vikings The World of The Secret History The Story of the
and Anglo-Saxons Shakespeare of Spies Ancient World
Discover the origins of the This edition explores the life and We chart the extraordinary Travelling across centuries from
Anglo-Saxons and Vikings and times of the playwright who died history of espionage from Tudor Egypt, Greece and Rome to China
nd out how they battled to 400 years ago. Discover the real times to the digital age and offer and Persia, explore the real
dominate the British Isles. stories behind the characters in fresh insights into the secret wars stories of ancient cultures and
his plays and nd out about his that shaped many recent discover some of their most
enduring legacy to the world. conicts. remarkable achievements.
Avail a b le t o dow n lo a d n ow
Culture
Books, exhibitions, lms and more
THE CONVERSATION
Pankaj Mishra & Tom Holland
83
CULTURE The Conversation
In his new book, Age of Anger: A History of the Present, Youre Indian yourself, though you now live in Britain.
Pankaj Mishra explores the historical forces behind What links do you see between Modis India and Britain?
the 21st-century rise in populist nationalist politics Modis election was the rst sign that things were going wrong
and disillusionment with western culture around with politics and economies, and that we were in for a pretty
the world including in the heart of the west itself. difcult time. Watching him emerge out of disgrace, I had
Tracing their roots back to the Enlightenment of the a sense that as has subsequently been the case with the result
18th century, he argues that we need to look deeper of the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump
into history to fully understand a diverse set of so many of our certainties and ideas about democracy and
present-day global crises. the will of the people were going to be overturned.
Born in northern India, Mishra graduated with an These phenomena are manifested differently, and have
MA in English literature from Jawaharlal Nehru very local causes, but one aspect common to them all is anger:
University in New Delhi. During the 1990s he contribut- a sense of frustration and resentment evident in practically
ed literary essays and reviews to publications including every political culture in the world today.
The India Magazine. His rst book, Butter Chicken in
Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town India (Penguin, 1995), There may be causes specic to the past decade
combines travelogue with an exploration of the social economic turbulence, increases in immigration and so
changes wrought in India by the process of globalisa- on but your book is a study of the past 200 years. In what
tion. This concern with the impact of global forces on way do you see the current age of anger as having its
peoples around the world animates much of Mishras roots in something much older?
work, including From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt As I started to read and think about it, I quickly realised that
Against the West and the Remaking of Asia (Allen Lane, I would have to consider a much longer span of history. So I
2012), which was shortlisted for several major interna- went back to the beginning of the modern world, when its value
tional literary prizes. systems, technologies and ideologies rst emerged in western
Pankaj met the author and broadcaster Tom Holland Europe and then spread to practically every corner of the globe.
to discuss the major arguments of his new book. If one was to pinpoint a particular moment when the modern
Holland has written extensively on historical subjects world began, one has to go back to the late 18th century and
as diverse as the ancient world and global Islam, start with the figures who first formulated the ideas and the
and presents the BBC Radio 4 series Making History. ideals that we cherish today even if they are very problematic
ideals. These are ideas associated with what wed now call the
Enlightenment, which were institutionalised in the ideals of
Tom Holland: When did the age of anger start? the French Revolution. Many different countries then attempted
Pankaj Mishra: In a way, it began in 2014 with the to catch up with the ideals and systems of western Europe
election of Narendra Modi as prime minister of India: a process now manifest almost universally.
a man accused of mass murder becoming leader of the
largest democracy in the world [see Modi and the BJP You structure your analysis of the Enlightenment around
box on opposite page]. two key gures: Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Thats when I began to think that we had entered or What is emblematic about them and their rivalry?
perhaps that we had always been living in an age of anger, That was the genesis of the book. We think about modern
in which all kinds of irrational events began to erupt. history so much in terms of class conict, east versus west,
84
Narendra Modi, prime minister of
India, gives a speech in 2016. Modis
election is the point at which I began
to think we had entered or perhaps
had always been living in an age of
anger, says Pankaj Mishra
imperialism and racism but one thing the present shares with invented the idea that we, the people are being victimised
the late 18th century is a distrust of elites. Theres an idea that by this metropolitan elite.
there is a well-educated minority of people who are imposing The birth of the modern world was marked by exhortations
their value systems on us, and who want us all to follow to change and urbanise, and what Rousseau was saying was:
their prescriptions for society. Well, what about us the people? Here we are, living our
The difference between Rousseau and Voltaire is that simple lives, being religious in a kind of naive way. Why are
the former was an outsider in Paris, someone who challenged you coming in and forcing this process of change upon us?
the prescriptions that were being handed down by the Rousseau was very much opposed to the idea of change,
Enlightenment philosophers. He, quite rightly, saw seeing it as very disruptive, as forcing people to be something
Voltaire as being the embodiment of this particular kind that they could not properly be. He summed up very early on
of arrogant reason. many of the themes with which we are still struggling today.
Normally Voltaire is cast as a gady who We tend to think of this form of modernity
took on the elites, who challenged the as being unsettling for people in
Catholic church, who was the outsider. MODI & THE BJP: non-European civilisations, but you
But you cast him as sycophantic towards A BRIEF HISTORY describe the German reaction to
despots such as Frederick the Great The Bharatiya Janata Napoleons invasion as the rst jihad.
and Catherine the Great. Are you saying Party (BJP), which leads Yes and this was a really important point for
that Voltaire is the prototype for what Indias ruling National me. When you come from somewhere such as
angry people might now describe as Democratic Alliance India and I experienced this with my previous
the metropolitan elite? coalition government, books whatever you say is identied too
Hes certainly one of the rst embodiments of is a rightwing party complacently with the east, or with Asia, and
formed in 1980 with
that kind of condence and serenity. He was people start thinking of this whole question in
policies informed by
hostile towards tradition, and thought that Hindu nationalism terms of east versus west.
religion was a huge source of oppression. (around 80% of Indias What I was trying to say here, by invoking
We now think of a lot of his attitudes as population is Hindu). Germany, is that there was, once upon a time,
classically modern: his belief in commerce, Narendra Modi, leader a west from which Germany was excluded,
for instance, and his own enrichment through of the BJP, was elected a west by which Germans felt humiliated.
trade. Its not surprising that hes an iconic prime minister in May So if you want to understand the experiences of
2014. Formerly chief
figure for modernity and the modern world. the Russians or the Indians or the Chinese
minister for Gujarat state,
In that sense, I felt that the conflict between Modi has been accused of
today, lets go back to the first people who felt
Rousseau and Voltaire was much more complicity in widespread excluded from modernity.
meaningful than we often assume. anti-Muslim violence that
ared across Gujarat And its the Germans, in the wake of their
So Rousseau was kicking back against after 59 people, mostly humiliation at the hands of Napoleon,
enlightened superiority but what did he Hindu pilgrims, died in who really developed ideas of nationalism
GETTY IMAGES
believe mattered instead? a train re alleged to be a that would also be fed into the mix.
result of arson committed
His invocation of the people as, essentially, Absolutely. Napoleon, in a way, initiated a
victims is very important. He practically
by a Muslim mob.
process of a kind of mimetic politics of
85
CULTURE The Conversation
AKG IMAGES
86
We have seen the pattern
of educated young men
turning to radical causes
in one country after another
which we still havent seen the end. The French invented the This also manifests itself in political terms. Russia was
nation state with a strong military and a sense of patriotism, a largely peasant country trying to become modern. That
and everyone even those opposing Napoleon wanted to be unleashes the particular pathology of the educated young man,
like him and to adopt his methods. outside of the power elite and disconnected from the peasant
masses by virtue of education, who becomes a revolutionary.
Whats crucial, particularly in light of what weve been We have seen this pattern of educated young men turning to
saying about Modi, is the German, Romantic idea that the radical causes in one country after another in Asia and
key to being authentic lies in the deep past. German poets Africa, most prominently in Muslim countries.
and philosophers looked back past the Enlightenment to
the primal origins of the Germans, for instance. Do you think, then, there is a response to the pressures
Absolutely and it was at least partly a response to the of modernity that generates terror as a kind of escape?
assertion that the past is of no consequence, or something to There are obviously many factors at work, but essentially the
be outgrown. In the German-speaking provinces, people were pressure to be something other than what you are, a pressure
actually quite close to their pasts. to conform to a different mode of life, always leads to a reaction
At the same time, they started inventing genealogies for and a backlash.
those pasts which in a way was the beginning of modern It can take many different forms: people declaring holy
nationalism. Practically every nationality in the world emerged war, as in 19th-century Germany, or engaging in what we
from some sort of fraudulent claim of that kind, and it became now call jihad a war for freedom, as we see with the Chechens
a great existential necessity for people who came late to the in mid-19th century Russia. It can also take a much more
modern world. Practically everyone wants to be seen as a insidious form: that of self-hatred, finding various agents of
teacher for the rest of humanity, and you can see, in almost modernity around you whether Jewish people or rootless
comic terms, that every people thinks they are the chosen ones. cosmopolitans and unloading your hatred on them.
Russia is a nation that did not become an organic part of And, of course, despite the differences it felt, at least
what we might call the modern west. You cast it as the Russia shared its religion Christianity in common with
paradigm of a society that has confronted this turbulent western powers. Presumably, the implication of all of
process that it blazed a course for other civilisations. this is that psychic tensions are much greater in
I think that Russia is hugely important in that respect. In non-Christian civilisations.
a way it was an early example of the tormented process of Muslims in the 19th century were aware of the fact that,
becoming more like the west with which countries in Asia and wherever they travelled in a large swathe of territory, theyd
Africa are still struggling. Its a process that inicts psychic nd mosques and Muslim rulers, and saw themselves as part
injuries: you start to essentially dislike the people that you of the larger cultural world. For those people, the experience
want to be more like. So you can never quite escape this of modern forms of imperialism was even more humiliating.
oscillation between self-hatred and a hatred projected towards Something I really wanted to point out was that even the
the west, towards the people who are your models. Germans, who share so much with their neighbours, came
You can see this manifested in the unresolved identity of up with the most vicious response to French imperialism and
Russias people today: do they belong to Asia or Europe? Do Napoleon. They worked up the most vicious forms of hatred,
they want to be more like the west, or refer to a particular past and some of their best writers and thinkers dealt in the
and religion that entitles them to a very distinctive identity? language of hatred. So its important to understand though
87
CULTURE The Conversation
not condone some of the pathological reactions that emerge ridiculous. How has the Muslim world experienced being
from non-Christian, non-western parts of the world because absorbed into European colonial empires, and the
of the external pressures caused by changes of lifestyle, cultural inuences brought by western dominance?
language and politics. The processes are more or less simultaneous: the loss of
What weve been seeing is a kind of pushback to that, which political sovereignty is accompanied by a loss of intellectual
cannot be neatly mapped along eastwest lines. condence. Germany might have been a very different place,
for instance, if it had been occupied for more than a few years.
Yet, having said that, there is obviously a cultural division Countries in the Muslim world have, in some cases, been
between the western world and the Muslim world even occupied for decades. To have had a kind of cultural colonial-
though to talk about it in monolithic terms is, of course, ism at work all that time is bound to have had an impact.
88
The turmoil that we used
to locate in Iran or India
is now erupting within the
heart of the modern west
Does this mean that, for non-western civilisations, the own being. This history has made me who I am, and worked
ambition to return to a pre-modern form is hopeless? upon people I love, including my parents: it both made them
Its a total fantasy. Too much has changed for us to plausibly a bit lost and gave them chances that their parents did not have.
imagine ourselves as becoming, for instance, less modern,
more Muslim or more Hindu. One reason why so many Theres a sense that Modi represents a kickback against
nationalisms and religious fundamentalisms are so violent what the British and previous Islamic rulers brought
today is because theres an awareness that the project is an attempt to revert to a primal form of Hindu civilisa-
hopeless. There has been too big a break in the way in which tion. That desire to cast off foreign inuences and claim
we think about the world: the sense that our horizons are back indigenous control is a response to western
dened in terms of a presence of a God and that everything supremacy that we see a lot across the world, but the
surrounding us is his creation is gone. We are all irredeema- irony is that, in a sense, it is also what Brexit is about.
bly secularised, no matter how hard we try to be religious. Perhaps the processes unleashed by the west in other
civilisations are now unleashing similar processes in
A charge that might be levelled against you ironically, the very heart of the west.
because youre from India is that yours is a very Thats absolutely true. What that process has done, in
Eurocentric perspective. Essentially, youre saying that the past year or so, is destroy a lot of our old categories
its almost impossible for people to escape western of thought and familiar oppositions: liberalism versus
European inuences. fundamentalism, secularism versus
I dont nd the charge of Eurocentricism religion, Islam versus modernity.
that offensive. My argument is that, What we are witnessing today is
actually, weve not been Eurocentric ABOUT THE AUTHORS the turbulence and turmoil that we
enough that we have not explored used to locate in Iran or Iraq, India
enough the way in which Eurocentri- or Egypt, erupting within the heart
cism has pervaded practically every Pankaj Mishra is an of the modern west. Weve seen people
religion and ideology in the past 200 essayist, historian and making essentially fundamentalist
years. So Id say: thank you Id author. His latest book claims of needing to take back their
actually like to be more Eurocentric. is Age of Anger: A History country: essentially, a fantasy of a
of the Present (Allen Lane, sovereign people who have their own
At the start of the book you describe 2017). For more, see well-defined culture and to which
yourself as a stepchild of the west. pankajmishra.com outsiders can never belong. Now that
Presumably, then, this book is weve seen those fantasies emerge
personal for you not just a study of Tom Holland volcanically in Europe, Id argue that
the past 200 years, but also a study of is a critically acclaimed we need to be more Eurocentric while
tensions that exist within you? historian and presenter recognising what we mean by Eurocen-
Thats very insightful. In many respects of BBC Radio 4s Making tricism is changing profoundly.
this history feels very intimate, because History. His books include
PODCAST
its a way of understanding the strands Dynasty: The Rise and
Listen to Pankaj Mishra and Tom Holland
of my own identity, of recognising the Fall of the House of Caesar on the February edition of the World Histories
tensions and contradictions within my (Little, Brown, 2015) podcast: historyextra.com/podcasts
89
CULTURE
E Book Reviews
Book
Reviews
preferring (quite plausibly) to portray successful attempt at an accessible but via an interaction between a vision
the development of the Holocaust as an synthesis of a huge subject. from above from Adolf Hitler and
organic process driven more by gradual initiatives from below. Hitler was the
man most responsible, but many others
escalations and local initiatives than Roger Moorhouse is a historian and
were guilty as well. This was the most
central directives. This approach, author whose books include The Devils appalling crime in the history of the world,
although scarcely new, has the benet of Alliance: Hitlers Pact with Stalin, and I think that we all need to understand
helping to explain the often bizarrely 19391941 (The Bodley Head, 2014) how it could happen.
91
CULTURE
E Book Reviews
sesquicentennial of their nation. Stewart covers varied topics, from their next trip to the city.
Margaret Conrad is a historian and the tumultuous relationship between
professor emerita at the University post-depression mayor Fiorello Benjamin Houston is senior lecturer in
of New Brunswick, Canada LaGuardia and Robert Moses, the modern US history at Newcastle University
92
An Icelandic illumination showing
the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair
cutting the chains between himself
and a giant. Eleanor Rosamund
Barracloughs book explores what
such tall tales tell us about the
Viking perception of the world
From the
Norses
mouth
Philip Parker enjoys
an evocatively written
unheroic) deeds of Viking kings, a tower strapped in his back encoun-
exploration of the warriors and womenfolk. Eleanor tered by the war-band leader Yngvar
Viking sagas and what Rosamund Barracloughs new book while on a raiding expedition to the east
these reveal about how explores Viking history through the of Russia (what had probably been seen
medium of these tales, which bear all was an elephant and its riding-seat).
they saw the world the hallmarks of the oral storytellers All these episodes are, however,
zest for exaggeration, boastfulness and rmly anchored to historically veriable
bravado at the expense of small-minded events. The Vikings did colonise
Beyond the Northlands: regard for the facts. Greenland, though their settlements
Viking Voyages and Similarly disregarding the dry-as- mysteriously faded away at some point
the Old Norse Sagas dust approach to history, Barraclough in the 15th century, and Yngvars
by Eleanor Rosamund
does not try to provide us with a consist- expedition is attested to by numerous
Barraclough
OUP, 352 pages, 25 ent narrative or chronicle of raids, runestones in Scandinavia set up in
campaigns and exploration. Instead memory of those who perished during it.
she asks a simple question of the Yet what makes Beyond the North-
Vikings: What did they think of the lands so effective is Barracloughs clear
In a sense, the Vikings invented world, the people, and the civilisations relish for the retelling of the sagas,
popular history. Fierce warriors who that they encountered? and her lightness of touch in producing
erupted from their Scandinavian The answers take readers on a a real sense of the vastness and diversity
homelands in the eighth century to exhilarating ride through some of the of the world that the Vikings inhabited.
inict a 150-year reign of terror on the more unusual corners of Norse history. The resulting book is a vibrant account
coastlines of north-west Europe, they These range from (in Barracloughs that evokes the spirit of the Viking age
have long endured a reputation as words) the handful of malevolent in a thoroughly entertaining, yet
thuggish and uncultured barbarians. zombies who were said to have chased historically sound, fashion.
GETTY IMAGES
Yet, in the shape of the sagas, they a shipwrecked Viking crew through the
also left one of medieval Europes richest frozen wastes of eastern Greenland, Philip Parker is the author of The Northmens
surviving literatures: epic accounts of to the apple-throwing man sporting a Fury: A History of the Viking World (Jonathan
the heroic (and on occasion decidedly bird-beak, and a mysterious beast with Cape, 2014)
93
CULTURE
E Book Reviews
Free
radicals
Joanna Bourke rates
a look at the idealists as they worked for personal and societal listen as radical men and women lustily
who spread their hopes betterment at the turn of the 20th sing along to Equal Rights Forever; join
century. Rowbotham follows them as with workers at the British Workman
for a new society across they move around the UK and criss-cross Coffee House to discuss labour strikes;
the Atlantic at the dawn the Atlantic: Bristol, Belfast, California, engage with debates about how radical
Dunfermline, Edinburgh, London, mysticism can win against mechanistic
of the 20th century Manchester and Massachusetts all materialism, and much else besides.
feature prominently. These are the rebel It is a lively read. Rowbotham
Rebel Crossings. New crossings in her title. confesses that she is a nosy person,
Women, Free Lovers, The six individuals of the book will which means that readers are sometimes
and Radicals in Britain probably not be well known to most overwhelmed by an excess of inconse-
and the United States readers. They include labour organiser quential information. But the story is
by Sheila Rowbotham
Helena Born, socialist Miriam Daniell, a heartening one. Today we are probably
Verso, 512 pages, 25
militant unionist Robert Allan Nicol, not going to join Rowbothams
radical journalist William Bailie, social individuals in discussing such matters as
reformer and new woman Helen Tufts, Is socialism inevitable?, but the debate
The morning after Donald Trump and socialist-feminist novelist Gertrude about Why women should organise
won the US election, this book appeared Dix. These brief descriptions, of course, is more relevant than ever. Though she
in my pigeon hole and rarely has a book fail to do justice to the complexity of wrote the book before the Brexit
been so welcome. Sheila Rowbotham is these extraordinary individuals political referendum and the election of Trump,
a writer for a post-2016 world: she has lives. They were ideologically eclectic, Rowbotham admits that she nds it
dedicated her life to grassroots activism engaging in passions as diverse as ineffably bafing that radical struggles
aimed at creating more equitable socialism, feminism, Fabianism, have not materialised. However, this is
societies. For Rowbotham, history is theosophy, spiritualism, free love and an optimistic book that attests to the
both political and personal: socialist- anarchism to name just a few. They strength of solidarity. It is a celebration
feminism is a practical mission, not a pursued freedom and individuality. of wild courage and personal passion.
GETTY IMAGES
utopian dream, and she uses her writings Of course, there were casualties: rifts
to promote this vision. developed between lovers; mistakes were Joanna Bourke is professor of history at
Rebel Crossingss tells the story of six made. But the book celebrates their Birkbeck, University of London, and the
leftwing British and American idealists achievements. Readers are encouraged to author of The Story of Pain (OUP, 2014)
94
CONTACT US Issue 2 February 2017
Website historyextra.com/worldhistories BBC World Histories is published by Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited
Twitter twitter.com/historyextra under licence from BBC Worldwide who help fund new BBC programmes.
Facebook facebook.com/historyextra
Email worldhistories@historyextra.com EDITORIAL
Post BBC World Histories, Immediate Media Company Editor Matt Elton
Bristol Limited, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Group editor Rob Attar
Bristol BS1 3BN, UK Art editor Susanne Frank
Phone +44 117 314 7377 Designer Paul Jarrold
Production editor Paul Bloomeld
Group production editor Spencer Mizen
Issue 3 on sale on 29 March 2017 Editorial production Sue Wingrove
Turn to page 101 to pre-order now Picture editor Samantha Nott
Picture researcher Katherine Hallett
Digital editor Emma Mason
Acting digital editor Elinor Evans
Website assistant Ellie Cawthorne
CONTRIBUTORS
Hakim Adi, Helen Atkinson, Davide Bonazzi, Joanna Bourke, Chris Bowlby,
Jerry Brotton, Kathleen Burk, Margaret Conrad, James Flynn, Peter Frankopan,
Theresa Grieben, Tom Hall, Tanya Harmer, Kate Hazell, Paul Hewitt/Battleeld
MAGAZINE Design, Charlotte Hodgman, Tom Holland, Ben Houston, Tonwen Jones,
BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE ADVISORY PANEL Jeffrey Lee, NP Ludlow, Evan Mawdsley, Catherine Merridale, Pankaj Mishra,
Dr Padma Anagol Cardiff University Roger Moorhouse, Richard Overy, Philip Parker, Kim Christian Priemel,
Prof Joanna Bourke Birkbeck College, London Laurence Rees, David Render, John Romer, Michael Scott, Victor Sebestyen,
Prof Richard Carwardine Oxford University Robert Service, Eleanor Shakespeare, Adam IP Smith, Robert Twigger,
Dominic Crossley-Holland Executive Producer, Factual, BBC*
Prof Clive Emsley Open University Susan Williams, Vladislav Zubok
Prof Richard Evans Cambridge University
Prof Sarah Foot Oxford University THANKS TO
Prof Rab Houston St Andrews University Emma Bal, Rob Blackmore, Michael Cocks, Hilary Clothier, Rachel Dickens,
Prof John Hudson St Andrews University John Evans, Sarah Lambert, Colm Murphy, Josette Reeves, Everett Sharp,
Dr Peter Jones formerly Newcastle University
Prof Denis Judd London Metropolitan University Rosemary Smith, Stuart Tootal
Prof Sir Ian Kershaw formerly Shefeld University
Robert Ketteridge Head of Documentaries, Factual, BBC* ADVERTISING & MARKETING
Christopher Lee formerly Cambridge University Advertising manager Sam Jones
Prof John Morrill Cambridge University Sam.Jones@immediate.co.uk +44 117 3008 145
Greg Neale Founding editor, BBC History Magazine
Prof Kenneth O Morgan Oxford University Subscriptions director Jacky Perales-Morris
Prof Cormac Grda University College, Dublin Senior direct marketing executive Natalie Lawrence
Prof Martin Pugh formerly Newcastle University US representative Kate Buckley buckley@buckleypell.com
Julian Richards archaeologist and broadcaster
Prof Simon Schama Columbia University PRODUCTION
Prof Mark Stoyle University of Southampton
Dr Amanda Goodrich The Open University*
Production co-ordinator Emily Mounter
Dr Simon Thurley formerly chief executive, English Heritage Reprographics Tony Hunt and Chris Sutch
Prof Helen Weinstein Director of IPUP, Institute for the Public
Understanding of the Past* SYNDICATION
Michael Wood historian and broadcaster Director of licensing & syndication Tim Hudson
*member of BBC Editorial Advisory Board
International partners manager Anna Brown
IMMEDIATE MEDIA COMPANY
Immediate Media Company Bristol Limited, Publisher David Musgrove
2017 ISSN: 1469 8552. Not for resale. Publishing director Andy Healy
All rights reserved. Unauthorised reproduction Managing director Andy Marshall
in whole or part is prohibited without written
permission.Every effort has been made to secure permission for copyright CEO Tom Bureau
material. In the event of any material being used inadvertently, or where it Deputy chairman Peter Phippen
proved impossible to trace the copyright owner, acknowledgement will be Chairman Stephen Alexander
made in a future issue.
MSS, photographs and artwork are accepted on the basis that BBC World BBC WORLDWIDE
Histories and its agents do not accept liability for loss or damage to same.
Views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher. We abide Director of editorial governance Nicholas Brett
by IPSOs rules and regulations. To give feedback about our magazines, Director of consumer products and publishing Andrew Moultrie
please visit immediate.co.uk, email editorialcomplaints@immediate.co.uk Head of UK publishing Chris Kerwin
or write to Katherine Conlon,
Publisher Mandy Thwaites
Immediate Media Co., Vineyard House,
44 Brook Green, London W6 7BT, Publishing co-ordinator Eva Abramik UK.Publishing@bbc.com
United Kingdom. bbcworldwide.com/uk--anz/ukpublishing.aspx
95
CULTURE Agenda
Agenda
EXHIBITIONS, TV,
FILMS AND
MORE
96
ALTERED IMAGES
The portrayal of Maori and Pacic
peoples in art since the 18th century
is the subject of an exhibition at the
Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa
Tongarewa) in Wellington. Paintings,
prints and artefacts reveal how artists
would often deliberately exaggerate the
exoticism of their subjects by adding
adornments to their works from
THOMAS ANDREW MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA TONGAREWA
97
CULTURE
E Agenda
TEMPLE TREASURES
Now a Unesco World Heritage site, the eighth-century Kasuga
Taisha shrine in Nara, in Japans Kansai region, was originally built
to secure the protection and prosperity of the nations people, and
remains a prominent and revered site. A new exhibition at the
Tokyo National Museum features treasures from and relating to
Japans ancient the shrine, including paintings and sculptures, as well as swords,
Kasuga Taisha
shrine is the focus arms and armour from Japans medieval period.
of an exhibition Eternal Treasures from Kasuga Taisha Shrine, until 12 March
in Tokyo at the Tokyo National Museum, Japan tnm.jp
98
The PBS drama
Mercy Street, executive-
produced by lm
director Ridley Scott,
has been praised for
its handling of issues
of ethnicity and slavery
REFORMS AND
REVOLUTION
The 19th-century Ksar Sad Palace,
a former residence of Tunisias
Husainid dynasty in the Tunis suburb
of Bardo, is now open to the public for
the rst time. A new exhibition here
explores the period of major reforms
that led to the creation of the modern
Tunisian state in 1861. Almost
300 works are on display, including
paintings, medals and manuscripts.
The Rise of a Nation: Art at the Dawn of Modern
Tunisia, until 27 February at Ksar Sad Palace,
Tunis, Tunisia
American Civil War of 186165. series characters are also based on real
Picking up directly from the people from the period. With critics and
dramatic events of the rst-season nale, historians praising the shows attention
the new run takes viewers even closer to to detail down to hairstyles and
the battleeld, covering some of the costumes as well as its historical and
conicts key confrontations including medical accuracy and handling of social
the Seven Days Battle and Antietam. issues, the second season looks set to be Visitors admire artefacts
In the war-torn, Union-occupied city of just as popular as the rst. at Ksar Sad Palace, which has
Alexandria, Virginia on the border recently opened to the public
The second series of Mercy Street is currently for the rst time
between North and South residents showing on PBS in the United States. Season
struggle to adapt to a new way of life. one is now available on DVD and via download
Meanwhile, formerly enslaved African- and streaming services (depending on country)
Chinas path
to dominance
Robert Bickers charts Have empires been
the rise and rise of the a force for good?
modern superpower Seven experts tackle another
of historys biggest questions
Petra in
pictures
A visual guide La Paz
GETTY/ALAMY
100
COMING SOON ISSUE 3
ON SALE
29 MARCH 2017
101
Journeys
Stories and sights from global history
In the footsteps of
The British
invasion of Tibet
In 1903, a British military expedition crossed
into the long-isolated and inhospitable land of
Tibet but the pseudo-diplomatic mission became
a bloody assault. Robert Twigger describes the
story of Sir Francis Younghusbands invasion
102
Almost all foreigners
were forbidden. Only
Buddhists were permitted
to visit this isolated land
Younghusbands expedition
among these lofty peaks faced
bitter cold and altitude sickness,
as well as deant Tibetans
103
JOURNEYS In the footsteps of Younghusband in Tibet
104
Younghusband arrives
in Lhasa and forces
the Tibetans to sign
an accord
Younghusbands
forces overwinter
on the Tuna plain
Younghusband arrives in
Gangtok, Sikkim, to prepare
for the mission to Tibet
The expedition
departs Gnathong
and crosses into Tibet
ILLUSTRATION BY THERESA GRIEBEN 105
JOURNEYS In the footsteps of Younghusband in Tibet
106
The men attempted
to cross the Tsangpo
at Guru pass, some 10 miles beyond Tuna, expedition arrived in Lhasa on 3 August,
and waited for their enemy to arrive. The river in supposedly they discovered that Tibets leader, the
road to Lhasa was effectively blocked.
In March, Younghusband ordered an
unsinkable boats 13th Dalai Lama, had ed to Mongolia.
Under pressure, remaining ofcials reluc-
advance, but stipulated that the troops which capsized, tantly agreed to sign a convention in his
should hold their re unless red upon. absence in the great audience hall of the
The morning of 31 March 1904 was cold
drowning three Potala Palace symbolic heart of Lhasa
and grey, and the mounted infantry were and home of the Dalai Lama.
breathless from the effects of altitude, On 11 April the expedition reached The hobnailed boots of the British
Tuna being 4,400 metres above sea level. Gyantse, some 75 miles north of Guru, ofcers found no purchase on the steps
But the British troops marched forward where the fort presented the last major to the Audience Hall, worn smooth
towards the wall behind which the barrier before Lhasa. After numerous by centuries of bare human feet. They
massed Tibetan troops were ready to fan ofcial meetings no progress was made reportedly had to climb crabwise up the
out and overwhelm the British. towards an agreement, and the decision steep steps, as if negotiating some device
was made to move on to Lhasa. In July at a funfair. But climb they did, and the
Massacre at Guru pass Younghusband sent an ultimatum to the convention was signed, permitting the
Inch by inch the troops marched closer. Tibetans in Gyantse fort: surrender, or British to trade in Yatung, Gyantse and
Flanking movements by the British suffer a siege. There was no reply. Gartok, and to lodge a permanent British
positioned Maxim guns and infantry, At 4 oclock on the morning of 6 July, resident in Gyantse. The Tibetans were
which bore down on the Tibetans. On three columns of infantry crawled required to pay a 7,500,000-rupee in-
the escarpments to either side, grey-clad through the dark and, under sporadic demnity, and the Chumbi valley on the
Tibetan musketeers hiding in hastily re, set charges below the bastions walls. Sikkim border was ceded to British India
built sangars (stone-built fortications) Bubble, an elderly seven-pounder gun, until payment had been received. Young-
were hustled out in silence by the 8th was red but the fort still stood inviolate. husband had achieved his goal though
Gurkhas and 23rd Sikh Pioneers. At 3pm, 10-pounders armed with the results were not as hed hoped.
The British began disarming Tibetans exploding shells breached the stonework, In fact, no real evidence of a Tibetan-
with the good humoured severity that revealing a tiny black hole. A Gurkha Russian pact was uncovered. After the
London policemen display on Boat Race commander, Lieutenant Grant, was rst British left Lhasa, Chinese inuence
night, as a later commentator noted. But at the breach, closely followed by his hav- soared, planting the seeds of the 1950
disarming men without some kind of ildar (sergeant). Both were hit by bullets invasion. The diplomat Sir Charles Bell
prior agreement is always difcult. And and fell 9 metres back down the slope but, said at the time: The Tibetans were
Younghusband, for all his experience, despite their wounds, climbed straight abandoned to Chinese aggression, an
missed a vital point: the Tibetans weap- back up and this time made it through aggression for which the British Military
ons were not army issue but individually the hole, followed by a stream of riemen. Expedition to Lhasa and subsequent
owned broadswords that had been in the The game was up. Ropes unfurled from retreat were primarily responsible.
same families for generations. One gen- the fort as Tibetans sought to escape, and Unlike the tough trek to Lhasa, the
eral, about to be relieved of his ancestral resistance evaporated. march back to Sikkim was a straightfor-
sword, reached inside his voluminous The road was now open to the heart ward affair. The British installed a
belted overcoat, pulled out a revolver and of Tibet. There was, however, one last telegraph line, allowing faster communi-
shot a Sikh soldier through the jaw. obstacle: the Tsangpo river at Chaksam, cation with Lhasa. The last forbidden
In an instant, ring broke out dashing along at 7 knots, wide and deep. country had been stormed and found to
everywhere. Maxims were lazily emptied At rst the expedition attempted to cross be still a mystery, but not quite the
into the crowd. It was a massacre. Of in collapsible boats claimed to be unsink- kind they had been expecting.
the Tibetan army around 1,500 men able but that didnt stop them capsizing,
possibly 700 lay dead. The British, in drowning an ofcer and two Gurkhas.
contrast, suffered no fatalities and just After negotiation, the local system of Robert Twigger is
12 casualties in total. That pattern was leather coracles was co-opted, carrying the author of White
repeated during further skirmishes as the 3,500 men, 3,500 animals and 350 tons of Mountain: Real and
expedition marched towards Lhasa; equipment across the torrent in ve days. Imagined Journeys in the
hundreds of Tibetans were killed in By now the Tibetans realised that Himalayas (Weidenfeld
encounters, with few British losses. their hand had been forced. When the & Nicolson, 2016)
107
JOURNEYS
Africas
Mother
City
The kaleidoscopic
streets of the Bo-Kaap
district are the historic
home of Cape Towns
Muslim population
The rst European heres only really one place VOC) the worlds rst multinational
editorial director of point, providing water and food for were built during the centuries of Dutch
Lonely Planet ships travelling to Asia, by the Dutch and British rule, including Koopmans-de
publications East India Company (abbreviated as Wet House 4 , constructed for a wealthy
108
Capetonian family in the late 18th CAPE TOWN IN EIGHT SITES
century. Now a museum, it showcases
For centuries,
1 Table Mountain
the wealth of the city in an era when it ordinary people Panoramic views across old Cape Town
was known as the Tavern of the Seas tablemountain.net
a party town for sailors revictualling, arrived in Cape Town
2 Castle of Good Hope
trading and carousing here.
The citys story isnt all big houses and
as traders, refugees, 17th-century fort, oldest in South Africa
castleofgoodhope.co.za
barracks, though; for centuries, ordinary slaves and soldiers
3 Companys Garden
people arrived as traders, refugees, slaves
The VOCs vegetable patch
and soldiers. To discover one facet of this,
Queen Victoria Street
amble along Strand Street and turn onto
Chiappini, Rose and Wale Streets to viewpoint on the east side of Table 4 Koopmans-de Wet House
explore the most picturesque parts of the Mountain, is viewed by some as Beautifully preserved 18th-century home
35 Strand Street
Bo-Kaap suburb 5 on the lower slopes of bombastic and grandiose. The simple
iziko.org.za/museums
Signal Hill. These colourful low-rise wooden bench nearby was his own,
buildings and cobblestone streets have and is the perfect place to ponder his 5 Bo-Kaap district and museum
long been home to the citys Cape Malay controversial legacy. Colourful houses of Malay settlers, and
(often also referred to as Cape Muslim) The darkest stain on South Africas museum showcasing Islamic heritage
iziko.org.za/museums
population, originally freed slaves from history is, though, the segregation of the
south-east Asia, Madagascar and apartheid era (194891). For a deeper 6 Rhodes Memorial
elsewhere. On Wale Street youll nd the understanding of the issues and events of Monument on Table Mountain
Bo-Kaap Museum, an interesting stop that time, join the crowds at the site of 7 Robben Island
where youll learn more about this areas Nelson Mandelas incarceration on Infamous apartheid-era jail
heritage. The Auwal Mosque is nearby; Robben Island 7 , and visit the District robben-island.org.za
South Africas rst, it dates from 1794. Six Museum 8 in East City, which 8 District Six Museum
Cecil Rhodes dominated the nal explains how this multicultural area was More apartheid history
years of British rule in South Africa; his dismantled and sets the scene for the 25A Buitenkant Street
memorial 6 , standing at his favourite many township tours that stop here. districtsix.co.za
2
5 3 8
6
1
110
\ Towering achievement
The ve intricately carved towers of Angkor
Wat, the tallest rising to 65 metres high,
dominate the skyline of Angkor. Consecrated
around 1150 as a temple to the Hindu god
Vishnu and mausoleum of Khmer King
Suryavarman II, the worlds largest religious
monument is adorned with bas reliefs depicting
scenes from Hindu epics and more than
3,000 apsaras (holy nymphs). But this magnif-
icent temple, now a Buddhist shrine, is merely
one of dozens in the city originally known as
Yasodharapura, centrepiece of the civilisation
of northern Cambodia that, at its medieval
peak, ruled much of whats now Thailand, Laos
and southern Vietnam. Though never lost
to locals, Angkor was revealed to the western
world only through the writings and drawings
of botanist and explorer Henri Mouhot,
published posthumously in 1864.
Cambodias
epic empire
At its medieval peak, a Khmer
kingdom dominated swathes of
south-east Asia creating heroic
monuments including the largest
religious structure ever built yet
mysteriously dissolved in the 15th
century. Paul Bloomeld explores
the temples and cities of Angkor
111
JOURNEYS Wonders of the World
L Establishing an empire
These time-worn stone animals at Srah Damrei
(elephant pond) are among the treasures of
Phnom Kulen, 25 miles north-east of Angkor
Wat. On this hill in AD 802 Jayavarman II
declared himself rst devaraja (god king)
of a united Khmer state and founded
Mahendraparvata, capital of what would
become the Angkor empire the enormous
extent of which is only now being revealed.
5 Engulfed by nature
The Buddhist monastery of Ta Prohm,
picturesquely overwhelmed by the
roots and tendrils of kapok trees, was
constructed around 1186 at the peak of
the empire by Jayavarman VII, who
replaced Hinduism with Buddhism as
the state religion. This huge monastery
had 18 high priests and 2,740 ofcials,
GETTY IMAGES
112
L Guarded by gods
Jayavarman VIIs grandiose walled city Angkor
Thom, built in the late 12th century, covered
9 square kilometres and was protected by
8-metre-high stone walls. A 100-metre-long
causeway to the south gate is guarded by these
54 stone gods and 54 demons. The Portuguese
Capuchin friar Antonio da Magdalena gave
a detailed account of his visit to the (by then,
\ Face value
ruined) city in 1586, as recounted by Diogo do
The Bayon, adorned with 216 Couto: The city is surrounded by a moat,
enigmatic faces each representing crossed by ve bridges. These have on each side
a bodhisattva (enlightened being) a cordon held by giants. Their ears are all
and possibly also Jayavarman VII pierced and are very long There are written
was Angkors last major temple, lines which record that this city, these temples
built in the late 12th and early 13th and other things were built by the order of
centuries. Historians long believed 20 kings over a period of 700 years.
that the empire collapsed following
its sacking by Siamese forces in
1431. But new research using
airborne laser scanning technolo-
gy, which also revealed vast cities Paul Bloomeld is a travel and heritage
hidden beneath fields and forests, writer and photographer, co-author of several
suggests Angkors complex water Lonely Planet books about adventure travel
management system, involving
canals and huge barays (reservoirs),
ALAMY/GETTY IMAGES
113
Column