Issue 17

Expert articles from the August/September 2019 issue of BBC World Histories Magazine

Engraving showing flying fish leaping over a Spanish trade ship

Winds of change: how the discovery of trade winds powered Europe’s empires

Illustration of the Red Dragon of China

Has China always been the world’s greatest superpower?

Photographs documenting the facial reconstruction of a soldier whose cheek was extensively wounded during the Battle of the Somme

First World War

What happened to the 8 million people who were disabled during WW1?

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Emma Dabiri in conversation about her book 'Don't Touch My Hair'

“Afro-textured hair had no stigma before the dehumanisation of black people that emerged from slavery”: Emma Dabiri discusses the changing perceptions of Afro-textured hair . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Engraving depicting Chinese opium smokers in a saloon

What caused the First Opium War?

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The magnificent gilded Shwedagon Pagoda, claimed to be 2,500 years old, dominates central Yangon, Myanmar's largest city. (Patrick Foto/Getty Images)

Explore Yangon, Myanmar: City of Golden Pagodas . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Protester Blocking Tanks Approaching Tiananmen Square

Why China has forgotten ‘Tank Man’? Remembering the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations

(Illustration by Kate Hazell for BBC World Histories Magazine)

Back down to Earth: the legacy of the 1969 moon landing