Asia

Asia and Africa Unite

In 1955, the Bandung Conference brought together post-colonial nations in the hope of forging a new solidarity. Could such disparate countries overcome their inherent differences?

French paratroopers at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam, 23 March 1954.

Secrets of the Silk Road

The discovery of a cave full of manuscripts on the edge of the Gobi Desert reveals the details of everyday life on the Silk Road.

Group of students, Samarkand, c.1910. Photographed by Sergeĭ Mikhaĭlovich Prokudin-Gorskiĭ. Library of Congress.

East Meets West

The historical currents that have shaped modern Central Asia.

Armenian manuscript, unknown artist, 1386 © Bridgeman Images.

The Mountain of Tongues

Is Caucasian history more byzantine than Europe’s?

Tractor with Stalin’s portrait, Uzbekistan, c.1940.

The ‘Stans’ Turn 30

Is Kazakhstan 30 or 556 years old? As the five states of Central Asia celebrate three decades of independence, they prefer the glories of the ancient past to the legacy of Soviet rule.

Wang Jingwei, Zhang Tailei and Mikhail Borodin, c.1925. Collection of C. H. Foo and Y. W. Foo. Historical Photographs of China, University of Bristol. Wang Jingwei, wearing a white changpao, seated second from the right. Borodin is second from the left. Zhang Tailei sits between them, and was Borodin's interpreter in this period.

Rebels in Rubber Soles

The denizens of an Asian underground who waged a clandestine struggle against European colonial powers.

The State of Myanmar

Myanmar’s colonial legacy includes racial hierarchies and authoritarian government. In the new nation state, not everyone is welcome.

A History Fit for the Taliban

The story of Afghanistan from the 13th century until the present illuminates why the international intervention that began in 2001 failed to deliver.

Unlike his grandfather Chinggis Khan, the Mongol ruler Hulegu Khan is little known in the West. But his destruction of two Islamic empires, as well as a failed attempt to forge an alliance with Christendom, gave him a notoriety that persists to this day.