Mehmed, who was just 21 when he conquered Istanbul, put the Ottoman Empire on the path of great transformation. Sultan Mehmed II was just 21 years old when he defeated the Byzantine Empire ...

In 1745, after being received into the Russian Orthodox Church, and changing her name to Catherine ... begun by Peter the Great. During her reign she extended the Russian empire southwards ...

The Byzantine Empire lost a great deal of territory in the sixth and seventh centuries, a decline often linked to Islamic conquests. However, recent findings have fueled a debate over whether the ...

Dr Kelly O’Neill, an historian of Russia at Harvard University, and the author of Claiming Crimea: A History of Catherine the Great’s Southern Empire, joins Beatrice and Paul for this episode. Read ...