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You might be surprised to see sections included not normally part of the history of England. For example, the Islamic Ottomans headquartered in Turkey are included because they were one of the catalysts to the development of the British Empire via the discovery of the Americas by Europeans 500 years ago. The mighty Islamic Ottomans had blocked the easy sea routes to the sources of spices and silk in the east. While the huge Continental European countries were fighting to keep the Ottomans out of Europe, the then tiny population of England could concentrate on building an empire. It was left the English at the height of their imperial power to finally crush the Ottomans and contain them within the borders of Turkey. Other “obscure” histories and religions have been included on this basis. This and other similar sections are included so that you can learn not only what and when but also why and how.

References
The banner on our Home Page claims, “You Know Nothing”. Facts and interpretations gleaned to produce these pages were in many cases not available 25 years ago. It is only during this last generation that authors have felt free to write what they feel is correct rather than yesteryear when writers wrote what was politically correct. This particularly applies to: the Religion, the Royal Family, the Victorian era and the Irish question. Most of the sources are less than 25 years old and in the majority of cases written in the last 10 years. Archaeological techniques have also improved out of all proportion during these latter years. The recent books heavily used as sources are shown in the Book List with a star.

Comments
We welcome comments particularly from those who can point out factual and spelling errors. We expected and have received many comments on the religious pages. Thankfully these have been very balanced with as many congratulatory comments as angry contributions. The texts here have been written with an open mind and not from the point of view of one faith as more often is the case. This is now very important for English readers who for the first time in history find themselves not very far from somebody of a different faith as well as no religious faith at all. It will be helpful if, when pointing out an error that you mention the page concerned described by its web address. Viz www.historyofengland.net/religion10

Books
This is intended to be a serious history web site and provides much more text than is normal for web sites. The Book List provides an easy and cheap way of finding the latest books on the subjects introduced and summarised on these pages. As soon as a new relevant book is published and sometimes before it will be listed with a pertinent summary for instant on-line ordering. Many of the modern history writers have a bed time reading style, so buy to enjoy as well as for education.