A Short Walk through Our Long History

Things in Boston are about to get really dicey.  In this episode, we’re going to look at several events that happened in Boston starting in about 1770 that all are part of the buildup of tension that leads to the beginning of the American Revolution.   Last episode we talked about the French and Indian war, and how that was part of the larger 7 Years’ War that Great Britain fought with the French...

In this episode, we’re going to look at a world-changing war, that was started by an small Indian and colonial raid on a French patrol.  That Indian raid included a few members of the Virginia Militia, including a 22 year old Lieutenant colonel named George Washington.  This little raid was later described as “the volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America that set the world on...

Well, last episode we surveyed the 13 original colonies, as they were at the start of the 1700’s.  And as I mentioned, a lot happens in the 1700’s.  And as I mentioned 2 episodes ago, one of the things that was happening at this time in Europe was the Enlightenment, which was in full swing by the 1700’s.   Anyway, the Enlightenment had a unique expression in America.  The Enlightenment had a big e...

Well, buckle your podcast seatbelts, because we are getting to a point where a lot of stuff happens in a really short time.  Welcome to the 1700’s!  If you ask the question, which century ‘shaped our modern world’ the most, I think I might pick the 1700’s.  A lot of influential stuff happened in the 1700’s.    So as we start this crucial century, I thought I should set the stage by talking about e...

When we last left the British Monarchy, back in episode 53, King James had come to the throne, and finish writing his famous King James Bible.  No, no, of course he didn’t write it, but he did commission it, and for its day, the scholarship and translation was very good.  It be meant to be a replacement for English translations of the Geneva Bible, which was what was used by the Puritans.  The Kin...

Ok, I need to step back for an episode, and step away from the narrative of the English colonies in North America, which I really want to talk about, and instead spend a bit of time talking about one of the most important intellectual parts of the early modern era, because this whole intellectual trend really influences everything that happens in the next few episodes.  It’s really the ideas of th...

After a little while in Holland, the Puritans from Yorkshire felt like they were being over-influenced by the permissive culture of Holland, and that they were also losing their Englishness.  So in 1620, the puritans hired two ships, the Speedwell and the Mayflower, to take the entire congregation to the New World, and found a colony there.  They were led by John Carver, William Brewster, and Will...

This episode is kind of a cross-over.  We’re looking at the early English explorations of the New world, and their first colonies, which started during Elizabeth’s reign, so they are kind of part of the Middle Ages.   But they are kind of part of the modern era, too, because these first colonies set the stage for the founding of Plymouth Colony, which set the stage for Boston, and Massachusetts, a...

Wow, our 51st episode.  We’ll be talking about the modern world any day now.  But before we get to the New World, the Enlightenment, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the chaos of the 1800’s, the further chaos of the 1900’s, and the soul-crushing angst of the new millennium, let’s take a look back at the chaos of the 400’s, the chaos of the Vikings, the soul-crushing angst of f...

Well guys, we’re right at the end of the Middle Ages.  [much rejoicing clip ] It’s been a longer process than I thought it would be back when I decided to call this podcast a ‘short’ walk through our long history.  It’s   taken us 50 episodes to get through all of human history up to AD 1600.  We covered the ancient world in episodes 1 through 26, and then covered the Middle Ages from episode 27 t...

Last episode, I spent a bit of time on Henry VIII, who was a very important monarch - but I didn’t give him a full episode, he was just shoehorned into the episode on the Reformation spreading to England.  But this time, I’m giving the whole episode to one ruler - Queen Elizabeth the first.  I might need to eventually give Elizabeth the second her own episode too, but I haven’t thought that far ah...

Last episode, we looked at the Reformation spreading out of Germany, and into other parts of Northern Europe, particularly looking at how England was affected.  One of the side effects of the north part of Europe leaving the Catholic Church was that Catholic Church itself was also forced to change.  The Catholic Church needed to take a hard look at itself, and decide how to go forward.  That proce...

Well, did you enjoy our brief excursion into hell last episode?  I did.  Since the world didn’t end, and we didn’t get to experience the afterlife first-hand, I guess we’re stuck here for a while.  So let’s keep looking at history, and see if there’s anything we can learn from it.   Before everything went to hell, we were talking about Martin Luther and the beginning of the Reformation.  Again, th...

Fair warning here up front, this episode is a bit long.  The history of hell is, appropriately, long and convoluted, so the episode has run on a bit despite my best editing efforts.  I should also give fair warning here at the beginning, that some of what I’m going to say is not exactly in line with the conventional teachings of some churches today.  So, if you’re a church-goer, I’m just giving yo...

There are occasionally, in the history of the world, those singular moments, an instant in time, when everything changes.  One single action, one quick moment, and then everything after that is altered.  The course of history is changed.  Caesar crossing the Rubicon, the guy in crow’s nest of the Santa Maria shouting ‘Tierra!!’  (Land).  The first gunshot at the battle of Lexington,  the arch-duke...

It wasn’t in my long-term plan for the podcast to do an episode on the Inquisition, but I thought of it while I was working on the episode about Galileo, and thought, that’s a pretty good topic, so I made a snap decision to add this episode about it. It makes sense to put it here, because Wycliffe, Hus, and Galileo, all of whom I mentioned last episode, were tried by some type of church Inquisitio...

A few episodes ago, we talked about the Renaissance, and we were focused on what happened in Italy, where the Renaissance started. The Renaissance spread out of Italy into the rest of Europe, but as it spread into new places, other things besides amazing art began to be added to the rebirth. Specifically, as the Renaissance spread north, in addition to new art, there were a lot of advances in scie...

OK, in the last episode, we had Columbus finding the New World, but thinking it was India. Meanwhile, Vasco de Gama found the actual India for Portugal. Then John Cabot found Newfoundland, only 500 years after Lief Ericson had found Newfoundland. Maybe they should call it re-found land. Anyway, by about 1510, the seafaring powers of Europe had a pretty good map of the east coast of the Americas, f...

One of the things you might have noticed in the past few episodes, besides the fact that we were jumping around in time a bit, was that we actually got a bit into the 1500’s. For example, the High Renaissance ended in 1520, with the death of Raphael. An anyone with any sense of history at all knows that by getting into the 1500’s, we have missed one of the most historic dates of all time, 1492. Fa...

OK, so in my original plan for the flow of the podcast, I wasn’t going to talk about the Hundred Years War, but the more I looked at what was going on in European History, the more I felt like it was worth talking about. Why? Well, the hundred years war happened at a crucial time, it was kind of the last thing that happened before the Renaissance spread to England and France and really set the sta...

Well, I was going to try to squeeze Gutenberg into the last episode, since he actually lived before the High Renaissance, and his invention kind of fit into the ethos of talking about the high points of the Renaissance. But there was just too much to cover in one episode, plus Gutenberg really does deserve his own episode. The TV channel A&E did a countdown, back in 1999, just before the new m...

Ok, here we are. The High Renaissance. Lots of great stuff happened during the Renaissance, but there was one particular period, about 35 years, where some of the greatest art in all of human history was made. And I’m just going to say up front, that for this episode, you really do have to go to the podcast website and look at the art yourself. I mean, I can describe Michelangelo’s David statue, o...

It’s hard to overstate how important the Renaissance was. It’s kind of one of the highest high points of all of human history. I mean, there are Renaissance faires all over the US, including one in Texas that starts next week. Fortuitous timing, that. But there’s not really faires for other stuff - there’s no ‘Reformation faire,’ nor an ‘Enlightenment Faire.’ There’s definitely not any ‘Dark Ages...

Polo! Yes, in this episode, I’m starting with Marco Polo. There’s not a lot of people who I have looked at over the course of this podcast where I say, ‘Man, I would have liked to have had his life,’ but Marco Polo is someone whose life sounds pretty awesome. Not free of hardship, but whose life is? Anyway, his life was pretty epic. Also, he seems like a pretty good guy, despite being hard to find...

We’ve already talked about a lot of galloping hordes in this podcast, including the Goths, the Huns, and the Vikings. But there is one tribe that outstrips them all, and even outstrips the Roman Empire in terms of sheer territory conquered. In fact, this tribe conquered and ruled the largest territory in the entire history of the world. Yes, I’m talking about Genghis Khan and the Mongols.