In the summer of 1956, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, seizing control of one of the world's most strategically vital waterways from its Anglo-French owners. What followed was a secret conspiracy, a coordinated invasion, and one of the defining humiliations of the post-imperial age.

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After the fall of Fort St. Elmo, the full weight of the Ottoman army turns on the twin peninsulas of Birgu and Senglea. Through months of relentless bombardment, underground mining, and massive infantry assaults, Grand Master La Valette and a dwindling garrison of Knights and Maltese civilians fight to hold walls that are crumbling around them, all while waiting for a relief force from Sicily that may never come.

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In the summer of 1565, the Ottoman Empire dispatched an armada of nearly 200 ships and 40,000 men to the Mediterranean island of Malta. Their target was the Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military order operating as state-sponsored corsairs.

In Part 1 of our two-part series on the Great Siege of Malta, we explore the history between these two factions and how the capture of a single Ottoman galleon triggered a massive invasion. We cover the defensive preparations of Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette, the divided Ottoman high command upon their arrival, and the grueling, month-long battle for Fort St. Elmo that set the stage for the rest of the siege.

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In the aftermath of Lord Asano’s forced seppuku and the total confiscation of the Akō domain, over 300 samurai are abruptly cast out as masterless rōnin. But behind their peaceful surrender to the Tokugawa shogunate, a dedicated core of retainers has secretly sworn a blood oath of vengeance.

In this episode, we follow former chief retainer Ōishi Yoshio as he orchestrates a brilliant campaign of psychological misdirection, ending with the the meticulously planned, two-hour siege of Kira’s heavily fortified Honjo estate.

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In the spring of 1701, a feudal lord named Asano Naganori was assigned to host imperial envoys at Edo Castle — one of the most important ceremonial duties in Tokugawa Japan. His instructor in court protocol was a senior official named Kira Yoshinaka. What followed was weeks of public humiliation that ended in an act of violence in the shogun's own corridors, a death sentence carried out before nightfall, and the destruction of an entire domain. Over 300 samurai lost everything. But 47 of them refused to accept that the story was over. This is Part 1 of a two-part series on the forty-seven rōnin.

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Churchill becomes Prime Minister as France falls and Britain stands alone. From the Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain to the forging of the Grand Alliance with Roosevelt and Stalin, we follow Churchill through the pivotal moments of the Second World War, and his life following the Second World War.

The final episode of our Churchill series takes the story from its dramatic peak to its end — a state funeral within sight of Blenheim Palace, where it all began.

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From the green benches of Parliament to the mud of the trenches, this episode tracks Winston Churchill's turbulent path through the early 20th century. His meteoric rise as a Liberal reformer, the disaster of Gallipoli that nearly ended his career, and his decade-long political exile. We examine how the "Wilderness Years" transformed a political outcast into the lone voice warning the world of the coming apocalypse.

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Born into privilege but dismissed by his father as a failure, young Winston Churchill set out to prove the world wrong. From self-education in India to the last great cavalry charge at Omdurman and a thrilling escape from a Boer POW camp, this episode charts how a "social wastrel" forged his own legend to become a Member of Parliament by the age of 25.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

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