Curated playlist
Military history of the Mediterranean
- French conquest of CorsicaNapoleon was born a French citizen because France had just conquered Corsica. His parents had fought against the French.
- Unification of ItalyItaly became a kingdom in 1861 while Rome, its future capital, still belonged to the pope.
- Gothic War (535–554)In the Gothic War, the Goths offered to make Belisarius western emperor and he feigned acceptance.
- History of Islam in southern ItalyThe history of Islam in southern Italy begins with an unlikely commander, a 70-year-old judge named Asad ibn al-Furat. He was a qadi, an Islamic judge, yet in 827 the Aghlabid emir of Ifriqiya handed him an invasion fleet bound for Sicily.…
- French invasion of Egypt and SyriaNapoleon's army in Egypt included 167 scientists and scholars. They founded the Institut d'Egypte.
- Hundred Years' WarThe Hundred Years' War actually lasted 116 years, from 1337 to 1453. It was never one continuous fight.
- Vandalic WarGelimer was one step from winning at Ad Decimum when he found his dead brother.
- Afrika KorpsThe Afrika Korps began as a rescue mission, not a grand plan. Germany sent it after Italy lost its 10th Army in Libya.
- Regia MarinaItaly's Royal Navy went to war in 1940 without radar, sonar or a single aircraft carrier.
- Maritime republicsIn 849, four Italian coastal cities sailed to Ostia and shattered a Saracen invasion fleet.
- Yugoslav WarsThe Yugoslav Wars began in June 1991, one day after Slovenia declared its separation from the federation.
- Italian invasion of AlbaniaA Tintin comic borrowed its plot from Italy's 1939 invasion of Albania. Hergé felt "Syldavia is Albania."
- Fall of the Republic of VeniceVenice's leaders voted their own republic out of existence in May 1797. Crowds in the square begged it to survive.