BBC Radio Podcasts from How to Invent a Country

How to Invent a Country

Turkey - Ottoman or Turk

A bonus episode with Hannah Lucinda Smith, Christopher de Bellaigue and Misha Glenny

Turkey - A Delicate Balancing Act

Ep 3 - How the republic of Turkey emerged from the ruins of World War One

Turkey - The Military and Decline

EP 2 - The Invention of Turkey and slow decline of the empire from the siege of Vienna

Turkey - The Ottomans: East or West

Ep1 - Istanbul and Mehmet the Conqueror. Misha Glenny on the birth of the Ottoman empire

Russia - the sacred song of war

Ep 4 - The Invention of Russia, presented by Misha Glenny and produced by Miles Warde

Russia - the bear moves west

Ep 3 - The Invention of Russia and Catherine the Great, presented by Misha Glenny

Russia - the Empire Strikes Back

Ep 2 - The Invention of Russia and the expansion east to Siberia, west into Ukraine

Russia - A Tale of Two Ivans

Ep 1 The Invention of Russia ... told from a time when it was still very small

Return to Spain

with Sir John Eliot, plus exciting news

Poland - Stalin on one side, Hitler to the left

Ep 3 - Poland reborn and invaded again. Misha Glenny presents, Miles Warde holds the mic.

Poland - a nation without a state

EP 2 - Misha Glenny on Poland's 123 year absence from the map, produced by Miles Warde

Poland - Obliterated from the map

Ep 1 - how Europe's largest state was sliced and diced by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

The Birth of Bangladesh

Bangladesh was born in 1971.

Scandinavia - the narcissism of small differences

Ep3 Norway and fish, followed by oil

Scandinavia - The Viking Inheritance

The Swedish Baltic Empire ... why it's not all Abba and social democracy with the Swedes

Scandinavia - The Bridge

Ep 1 "Danes talk about Swedes all the time. Swedes don't talk about Danes so much."

Ireland - escalation!

"The thing about the border - we've lived it. It doesn't feel like history to us."

Ireland - plantation and conflict

Dr Joan Redmond talks to Misha Glenny about Ireland, England and the early seeds of war

Ireland - we used the word pagan as kids!

Fintan O'Toole talks to Misha Glenny about Catholics, Protestants, and Top of the Pops

The Invention of Britain #4 - so many different little corners!

Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales - why all these borders, and what do they mean?

The Invention of Britain #3

Insecurity - from Dover to Dublin, presented by Misha Glenny and produced by Miles Warde

The Invention of Britain #2

Anglocentrism .... or why Britons Never Will Be Slaves

The Invention of Britain #1- like quicksand for the uninitiated

What is Britain? Who are the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish, the English?

Italy - Garibaldi's Grand Scheme #2

Are we Italian or not? With Leoluca Orlando, Lucy Riall, Tim Parks, Lucy Hughes-Hallett.

Italy - Garibaldi's Grand Scheme #1

Back to Italy with guerrilla numero uno

The Alps - Did the English invent skiing?

Misha Glenny on the early alpine visitors who were either very ill, or very rich.

The Alps - and why Switzerland exists

Natural borders vs mountain borders

The Alps - an icy row of teeth

How the Alps divide Europe in two

Le petit Napoleon

The Invention of France #3

The Terror, the Terror

The Invention of France #2

Joan of Arc and England's role in defining France

The Invention of France #1

The Invention of Brazil #3

Getulio Vargas, inventor of Brazil?

The Invention of Brazil #2

Independence or death!

The Invention of Brazil #1

I came by boat

The Invention of Spain #3

A sense of disaster

The Invention of Spain #2

The heroic last stand

The Invention of Spain #1

What is Catalonia? What's Castille?

The Invention of Italy #3

Big appetite, bad teeth

The Invention of Italy #2

The man in the red cape

The Invention of Italy #1

A less than sturdy boot

The Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Habsburgs #3

The end of the dynasty

The Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Habsburgs #2

King of Spain, Archduke of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor - where did it all go wrong?

The Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Habsburgs #1

How did a small family from Switzerland become Europe's greatest dynasty?

The Netherlands - Why Belgium?

There is a faultline in Europe, from the North Sea to the Alps. Belgium sits halfway.

The Netherlands - The Dutch Golden Age

How Amsterdam became one of the world's leading cities in a few short decades

The Netherlands - Orange Fever

How did a few boggy provinces become one of the trading heavyweights of the world?

The USA - The Melting Pot

Misha Glenny on the people came to America, and the people who were there first

The USA - The Borderlands

To invent a country you have to define a country. Misha Glenny on the borders of the USA.

The USA - It'll Never Work!

Misha Glenny on the invention of the most powerful country in the world

Germany - Germany Unified

Bismarck, Prussia ... and just how big will Germany be? Produced by Miles Warde

Germany - The Rise of Prussia

Misha Glenny on the rise of Prussia under Frederick the Great

Germany - A Hotly Contested Piece of Real Estate

Misha Glenny with a new history of Germany before the Nazis and two world wars

Welcome to How to Invent a Country

When did countries become countries? Misha Glenny finds out.