Germany: Birth of an Empire

The German Empire was formally declared by Prussia on May 4, 1871 from the miscellany of states once ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. A loose confederation of 39 states had emerged from the aftermath of the Napoleonic era and it was the powerful northern state of Prussia, under the leadership of the ‘Iron Chancellor’, Bismarck,

New Guinea: Imperial Struggles

New Guinea is the most eastern of the islands formerly known as the Dutch East Indies. The island is mountainous, covered with jungle, infested by mosquitos and in the 19th century, the native tribes remained feudal and cannibalistic. The sea around the island was littered with coral reef and shoals making sea navigation difficult around

Egypt: 1931 Graf Zeppelin Overprint

At the end of the 1920s, airships and nitrogen filled balloons came to prominence as a form of air travel and the conveyance of light freight such as mail. This development was primarily championed by a German engineer called Zeppelin. He set up his base in Bavaria, Germany, in close proximity to Switzerland and Austria