BBC World Histories Magazine Issue 17

Since we launched this magazine almost three years ago, one word has dominated the pinboard on which we share cover ideas: ‘China’. You need only recall fears that telecoms giant Huawei may be spying on rival nations, or US president Donald Trump denouncing what he sees as China’s unfair trade practices, to grasp why. This issue we explore aspects of the history of tensions between China and the west – economic (page 6), political (page 14) and military, notably the 19th-century Opium Wars that marked the beginning of the end for imperial China (page 20). Elsewhere, we look at other ways in which history challenges simplistic notions of national boundaries. On page 28, Lewis Dartnell charts how an understanding of nature – specifically, trade winds – drove the creation and…

MORE FROM US historyextra.com The website of BBC World Histories and our sister magazines, BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed, is packed with thoughtprovoking world history content. The History Extra podcast Our twice-weekly podcast, featuring interviews with history’s leading names, receives more than a million downloads a month. You can download episodes free from iTunes and other providers, or via historyextra.com/podcasts. Digital editions BBC World Histories is available for the Kindle, Kindle Fire, iPad/iPhone, Google Play and Zinio. You can find us in your app store. BBC History Magazine Britain’s bestselling history magazine is available around the world and published 13 times a year in print and a wide range of digital editions. Turn to page 45 for our latest subscription offer. Social media twitter.com/historyextra facebook.com/historyextra This issue on…

Emma Dabiri “Because the power dynamic was so balanced in favour of white European norms, the idea developed that Afro-textured hair was inadequate, inferior, and associated with a kind of non-humanity,” comments Emma Dabiri, who discusses her new book on the political and social history of such hair on page 72. Lewis Dartnell Professor at the University of Westminster, Dartnell reveals on page 28 why geography was a major factor in the ambitious expansion of European empires. “The leap forward in long-distance exploration was possible because mariners came to understand patterns of reliable winds and ocean currents,” he writes. Chi-kwan Mark “With the world’s second-largest economy and a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, China has the potential to replace the US as the greatest superpower,” Chi-kwan Mark writes…

Expert opinions on historical issues that touch today’s world For nearly 100 years, from the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries, China was not free to trade. In 1839, the first war with the British began over opium sales (for more, see page 20). China lost and, in 1842, had to sign the first of a century of ‘unequal treaties’ by which favourable territorial and trading rights were given to the British, the French, the Americans and, eventually, the Japanese, who became Asia’s most powerful imperialists. In 1854, the British established the Maritime Customs Service, an unusual hybrid organisation that provided tariff revenue for the Chinese government, but was run at the top level by foreign, mostly British, officials. For nearly half a century, till 1911, its most prominent figure was…

On 9 May, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos gave a speech outlining how his space company, Blue Origin, would fulfil his long-held dream of building gigantic settlements in space capable of housing millions of people. Bezos’ presentation began with the iconic footage of Neil Armstrong descending the steps of the Apollo 11 lunar lander. “Wow!” gushed Bezos. “If that does not inspire you, you are at the wrong event!” Armstrong’s “small step” has certainly inspired generations of space enthusiasts, but reducing the Apollo programme to a single, albeit sublime, moment of victory overlooks its complex legacy. After 1969, Nasa found itself facing a resurgent Soviet space programme as it struggled to sustain public enthusiasm for space exploits that often failed to live up to the high bar set by Apollo. In…

1 EDINBURGH SCOTLAND Missing piece of history A chess piece tucked away for years in a drawer in an Edinburgh home has been identified as one of the ‘Lewis Chessmen’. After that collection of figures, dating from the 12th or 13th century, were found on the Isle of Lewis in 1831, five pieces remained missing – including this ‘warder’, the medieval equivalent of a modern rook. Its owner, whose grandfather bought the walrusivory figure for £5 in 1964, had no idea of its historical significance or value: Sotheby’s, which auctioned the piece, sold it for £735,000 at the start of July. 2 QUEBEC CANADA Last of the code talkers The last Mohawk ‘code talker’ of the Second World War has died, aged 94. Louis Levi Oakes, from the Mohawk nation…