Ancient history

• The conflict that deprived Bolivia of the sea

  The Battle of Miraflores, by Juan Lepiani. 1894. • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS On February 14, 1879, the Chilean navy landed in the port of Antofagasta, which was then on Bolivian territory. Thus began the so-called “Pacific War”, a conflict which until 1884 involved Chile, Peru and Bolivia. For the latte

• The customer, king of department stores

  Inauguration of the Grand Bazaar on rue de Rennes, Paris, in 1907 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS In early 19th European cities century, the retail trade had not yet undergone major transformations:there were small specialized establishments, such as haberdasheries, perfumeries or jewellers, but also small

• Karl Marx, a revolutionary youth

  Karl Marx. John Jabez Edwin Mayal/WikipediaCommons • JOHN JABEZ EDWIN MAYAL Two centuries after his birth, on May 5, 1818, the figure of Karl Marx is for us associated with the severe mien and the thick white beard immortalized by the pioneer of photography, John Mayall, around 1870. To the poin

• The train, a relative class transport

  The Third Class Wagon, by Honoré Daumier. 1862. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS On September 15, 1830, a machine transformed the daily lives of millions of people:the steam engine, which towed the first cars over the 48 km from Manchester to Liverpool at the hectic speed o

• Luddism:the first rebellion against the machines

  Two ludittes attack a Jacquart loom. Anonymous engraving • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The gigantic increase in agricultural productivity that Britain experienced during the 18th th century provided some peasant families with the prosperity needed to have a loom at home and thus supplement their precariou

• Eugénie, the beautiful Spaniard who conquered Napoleon III

  Eugénie de Montijo de Guzman, Empress of the French, by Édouard-Louis Dubute. 1854. Palace Museum, Versailles • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS At the beginning of the XXth century, it was common to see walking in the West Park, in Madrid, a small and fragile old lady, with haughty elegance. She resided in En

• The Luftwaffe at Norman time

  Ammunition hold, served by a system of trenches, unearthed at the German anti-aircraft defense site of Bretteville-sur-Odon Archeology gets closer to us and focuses on the Second World War with the original excavation of a fortified site of the Luftwaffe (the German air force). In 1941, the Germ

• Villa Majorelle has reopened

  The dining room on the ground floor of the Villa Majorelle • MEN2020 / SIMÉON LEVAILLANT / PRESS SERVICE A jewel of Art Nouveau in Nancy, the Villa Majorelle, built in 1901-1902, has just reopened to the public after major works. Louis Majorelle (1859-1926), who was a cabinetmaker and decorator

• Franklin Roosevelt, President of Crisis and War

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt photographed by Vincenzo Laviosa around 1932 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Franklin Delano Roosevelt won four successive presidential elections in 1932, 1936, 1940 and 1944 – an unprecedented feat, which the 22th amendment to the Constitution, which came into force in 1951, prohi

• Andrew Jackson, the founder of the Democratic Party

  Portrait of Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States, in 1828, by Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl • GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO Born in 1767, less than 10 years before the Declaration of Independence (1776), Andrew Jackson was the first president of the United States not to belong to the gen

• The sulphurous opium war

  Opium smokers in China (1903) • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The 1st October 1949, Tiananmen Square, Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the Peoples Republic of China and put an end to a period that Chinese intellectuals called the century of humiliation, so much did Chinas internal and external policy then

• The London of Charles Dickens

  Charles Dickens, photographed in 1867 by Jeremia Gurney and London in the 19th century • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS / ISTOCKPHOTO No one better than Charles Dickens was able to capture the two facets of the London of his time. The bright side of the leap into modernity, and the dark side of child poverty

• The dodo, from Mauritius to wonderland

  Raphus cucullatus, or dodo. Wax and plaster model, mid-19th century, National Museum of Natural History, Paris • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Located in the Indian Ocean, 900 km east of Madagascar, Mauritius remained uninhabited until 1598, when the Dutch settled there and named it after Maurice de Nassau,

• A strange defeat? May-June 1940 (exhibition)

  Beyond the images of crowds thrown onto the roads and the lasting trauma of a surprise defeat, what do we really know about the defeat of 1940, which took place already 80 years ago? Even today, we perceive this humiliating rout as “inevitable”, without realizing that our collective memory is distor

• As in 40 (exhibition)

  May 1940:tanks pass refugees between Soissons and Laon, German soldiers play cards on the front, abandoned French helmets litter the ground near Dunkirk... These photos alone reflect the atmosphere of this terrible year, which the “Comme en 40” exhibition, organized by the Musée de lArmée in Paris.

• Slavery:sold in markets

  Sale of slaves in Richmond, Virginia (USA), around 1861. Private collection • BRIDGEMAN IMAGES The slave trade was governed by criteria of cost and profit, like any capitalist enterprise. On the African coasts, traffickers negotiated prices with local authorities and brokers, sometimes without r

• When slaves crossed the Atlantic

  Plans of the Seraphic Mary. Armed by Mr. Gruel de Nantes for Angola, the ship carried barrels in the holds and 307 slaves piled up on the steerage. Engraving, 1770 • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS From the XVIth in the 19th century, about 25,000 slave convoys crossed the Atlantic. 443 shipwrecks and 148 expe

• Slavery:Haiti Revolts

  Insurgents during the Battle of Santo Domingo. By Jan Suchodolski. 1845. Polish Army Museum, Warsaw • WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Slaves did not always wait to be granted freedom:in Santo Domingo, they freed themselves. At the end of the 18th century, this western half of the island of Hispaniola was the

• Kraken:the giant squid that shook the seas

  The kraken, a legendary sea monster, was feared by all sailors for the havoc it caused on ships. 19th century engraving • GETTY IMAGES Norse chronicles and sagas of the Middle Ages describe a terrifying sea monster that was the size of an island and roamed the seas between Norway and Iceland. In

• Mozart and the magic of the piano

  Although he was noted as a child for his talents as a violinist, Mozart flourished musically with other string instruments:the harpsichord, then the piano. The latter, with a more powerful and flexible sound, allows him to reach his peak as a composer and performer. Harpsichord From the Renaissanc