Padraic Scanlan talks about how Britain rose to global power on the backs of enslaved workers. Modern Britain has inherited the legacies and contradictions of a liberal empire built on slavery. Modern capitalism and liberalism emphasise ‘freedom’ – for individuals and for markets – but are built on human bondage.
This podcast adds to our article Slavery Compensation: Who Got Paid? and you can listen to it below.
Podcast Episodes about Slavery Compensation
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General History Quiz 186
1. When did the Spanish Inquisition begin?
Try the full 10 question quiz.
The Long Tail of the First World War
Fallen Empires and Civil War By Caitlan Hester The popular view of the First World War is that it ended with Armistice in 1918. But the end the First World War did not put an end to conflict and combat. The 1918 Armistice was followed by events that radically shaped today’s geo-political landscape: the spread […]
Hidden women of history: Maria Sibylla Merian, 17th-century entomologist and scientific adventurer
Reading time: 8 minutes
Most school kids can describe in detail the life cycle of butterflies: eggs hatch into caterpillars, caterpillars turn into cocoons and cocoons hatch. This seemingly basic bit of biology was once hotly debated. It was a pioneering naturalist, Maria Sibylla Merian, whose meticulous observations conclusively linked caterpillars to butterflies, laying the groundwork for the fields of entomology, animal behaviour and ecology.
