Every story we've published, newest first.
In 1192, the most feared warrior in Christendom marched twice to the gates of Jerusalem and turned back both times. He had won every battle. He could not win the peace.
How a war in Korea bankrupted an empire that won it, and what the Strait of Hormuz owes to a dead tax reformer
In 1399, an English king who had abolished parliamentary restraint on his own power was overthrown by a man from his own bloodline. The challenger said he only wanted what was his.
In 1954, the creator of the most powerful weapon on Earth was told he was a threat to national security. Not for what he had done, but for what he refused to do next.
Two ships packed with gunpowder drifted toward the stranglehold on Europe's richest port. The explosion was perfect. The outcome was not.
In 1905, two exhausted empires needed a face-saving exit from a war neither could afford. A third-party mediator gave them one -- and the parallels to yesterday's ceasefire are uncanny.
Philip II weaponized the only cold-storage technology on Earth. The Dutch responded by inventing global capitalism.
In 1911, Germany sent a warship to Morocco to call France's bluff. It worked — until it didn't. The anatomy of a deadline that devours its maker.
Napoleon tried to starve Britain with a trade blockade. He bankrupted France instead — and the parallels to today's chokepoint wars are almost too precise.
The 1720 bubble that bankrupted Isaac Newton — and why your portfolio should be nervous