How to Invent a Country

June 28 1914 - a young Bosnian in Sarajevo fired the shot that triggered World War One. Why is this region so unstable? Misha Glenny returns to a region he's known for years

Misha Glenny asks how the losers of two world wars, which drastically reshaped Hungary's borders, tried to fight off Soviet tanks on Budapest's streets. Produced by Miles Warde

Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head to a rally in Budapest where Viktor Orban compares the EU to the Habsburgs, forgetting it was tsarist Russia that crushed the revolution of 1848

McMafia author Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban uses history beginning with the battle of Mohacs of 1526

At the beginning of 2024 the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping, claimed people living on both sides of the Taiwan Straits should reunite "and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". But is Taiwan really part of China, and could this question lead to war? Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde have been to the capital Taipei and Tainan City in the south to find out about this relationship with the Chinese mainland."I've obviously been following the situation in Ukraine, and it strikes me that before our eyes we're seeing the rapid development of a new Ukrainian consciousness and national identity. What's struck me about coming here to Taiwan is the same process is underway." Misha GlennyContributors include Amanda Hsiao senior analyst of the Crisis Group, Linda Jaivin the author of the Shortest History of China, and Chris Buckley, Chief China correspondent for the New York Times now relocated to Taipei. Plus you'll hear from long time resident Chris Taylor, author of the Lonely Planet Guide to Tibet. "All Xi Jinping understands is complete control .... he's given up on what the Taiwanese call the silver bullet, promises of great trade opportunities and get rich, join us. Nobody's buying that. So the only way he's going to get it is by force of some kind."Taiwan is episode 57 of How to Invent a Country on BBC Sounds, the series that has previously travelled to Germany, Brazil, Turkey and Russia. Misha Glenny is a former Central Europe correspondent for the BBC and the author of McMafia. The producer for BBC Studios Audio in Bristol is Miles Warde.

The Long March, the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution

The end of the Qing and the troubled birth of the republic under Dr Sun Yat-sen

Find out how the world's greatest civilisation found itself dragged into two opium wars

Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head east to find out what is China and where it came from?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

with Sir John Eliot, plus exciting news

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

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

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

Bangladesh was born in 1971.

Ep3 Norway and fish, followed by oil

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

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

Declan Lawn talks to Micha Glenny about the differences between the north and the south and, in particular, the border.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to Italy with guerrilla numero uno

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

Natural borders vs mountain borders

How the Alps divide Europe in two

The Invention of France #3

The Invention of France #2

The Invention of France #1

Getulio Vargas, inventor of Brazil?

Independence or death!

I came by boat

A sense of disaster

The heroic last stand

What is Catalonia? What's Castille?

Big appetite, bad teeth

The man in the red cape