Hanging with History

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. There are two stories here, their opposition is part of a theme.   Erasmus, the great Erasmus , Erasmus of Rotterdam was even more a product of the Devotio Moderna than was Luther.  Most of his young education was by the Brethren of the Common Life or their imitators. I am Groote. Last episode I called him a Satirist.  Of course he was m...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. A miner’s son, decided one day, to nail 95 thesis to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg in the year of our lord 1517.  It seems unlikely he intended to split his church, the Catholic, universal church, into a bewildering multiplicity of new religions and sects. And yet, trained in the Devotio Moderna’s way of taking action and r...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. We explore the roots of Humanism and the Reformation.  Taking a long look at the Devotio Moderna, the Brethren of the Common Life.  These were key influences on both Erasmus and Martin Luther.  But more than that, the Devotio Moderna were a vital element in the invention of the printing press.  We look at Gerhard Groote the founder of th...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. This episode is just a little introduction to the theories of the causes of the industrial revolution as of right now.  We look at the Sheilagh Ogilvie classification of 5 general theories of the Causes of the Industrial Revolution and Michael Magoon's list of causes. Of course, Harald has a few pet theories of his own by now.  His...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Consider the British Empire in 1792, the year of Macartney’s expedition to China and the year young Emperor Francis began to look askance at the French Revolution and all the ruling factions within it started to wish for a war.   Well at that time the empire was rather modest, a few spice islands, Canada, Gibraltar, New South Wales had s...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. More focus on Mexico and California than is ideal, but there is a general overview of Spanish America. Spanish America, more than  anywhere else, shows us the global ramifications of the Napoleonic Wars.  “The crisis and collapse of Spain’s empire was the direct result of political turmoil in Europe.  During the Napoleonic wars this vast...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The challenges to recruiting enough men for service in the Royal Navy and the Army and Militia were formidable.   It is revealed that the War of 1812 was really one war too many for Britain.   The necessity to supply seamen for the new North American Lake service meant that the Royal Navy did not have enough men to staff the newly produc...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The trade war between Britain and Napoleon reached a new level in 1807.   British merchants were desperate for new markets.  The French were finding trouble, customs dues fell 80% despite the new Rhine river trade.  We've already talked a great deal about how the Russian economy was pushed to the brink. Smuggling was the response. ...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The wars from 1793 to 1815 included expenditure of 830 million pounds for Army Navy and Ordinance, mainly the Navy. Another 65 million pounds was spent on subsidies to allies.  Looking at a total of 895 million, probably with secret funds we are over 900 million pounds.  To do all this spending 578 million was added to the national debt...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. “The removal of soil, earth or rubbish, the conveyance of stones, sand or lime, everything is done by little four wheel carts drawn by a single horse on iron railways.. the advantage they represent is immense.  England owes to them part of her wealth.  Never without THEM could coal, iron ore, lime stone, slate and other raw materials hav...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. We have a real example of a cultural change brought about by the pressures of war.   The great weapon of war against corruption is accounting and auditing.  But first attitudes must change.  We see various forms of corruption becoming less and less tolerated, as by an unconscious process every form of corruption is tainted by association...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Before the 1807 attack on Denmark, Napoleon gave an ultimatum to Denmark, to Talleyrand’s horror btw.  The ultimatum was for Denmark to turn over their fleet.  But before the deadline for the French ultimatum passed the British invaded, which obviously required months of preparation beforehand.   The British, warned by intelligence, that...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. You probably know that by the middle of the 19th century, the  British dominated India.  The British introduced railroads and electricity, public health and infrastructure, and a population boom began.  By the end  Victoria became the Empress.   But before the French Revolution the British footprint in India was relatively small.  It was...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. For the Ottoman empire the French Revolution to Waterloo have a definte arc, and it isn’t pretty, and there is some coverage up to the Crimean War. The start of the Revolution coincides with the Rule of Selim 3rd in 1789.  And he was a reformer as was his father, he was raised to appreciate the West.  The end of this period will see the...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. A scientific expedition, led by Jean Bruguière and Guillaume Olivier.  Now they truly were scientists, but they were also diplomats secretly working for France.  Jean was an expert on molluscs, snails, shellfish and barnacles. He is credited with the discovery of 34 species of the same including a chiton named after Spinoza.  Olivier, by...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. In a great triumph for France, and Talleyrand personally, Belgium is born.  This is one of history's true ironies because of how the existence of Belgium weakens France in the 20th century. The episode ends with Talleyrand's last treaty, his treaty with Rome, over his own soul. But the birth of Belgium requires a revolution whi...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. “Talleyrand was in a black mood.  All that he had achieved over the past eighteen months had been destroyed: the bloodless and amiable return of the Bourbons in 1814 was being travestied by the vindictive and mean minded 2nd Restoration.  The favorable conditions obtained for France by the Treaty of Paris in 1814 were to be revised and t...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. There is a commonplace, dismissive, reductive argument you will hear all the time.  That napoleon stood no chance.  Even if he had triumphed on the field at Waterloo, as in some ways he really could have.  The forces arrayed against him were so massive he had really no hope.  A huge Austrian and German army was coming in from the Rhine,...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Last episode we looked at France, Scandinavia and Italy.  Italy was particularly fascinating, but we were bare able to scratch the surface.    Now we look at Germany, contrasting Talleyrand's careful thought about France and Louis the 18th with Metternich and Hardenberg's lack of vision. Finally, Castlereagh gives up his effort...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Last episode we described how in Paris there was a party like atmosphere, the dreamy, giddy glow of it, how it sucked in the later arrivals.  The immense joy they all wallowed in.   Part of the peace settlement allowed France to keep all the looted art they had taken from all over Europe.  And I’ve mentioned this before, but the allied l...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The core of this entire messy situation was the evening of March 31st when Talleyrand and Tsar Alexander meet.   This moment that everyone could feel was decisive at the time, the Allies were all hyper aware of the importance of these few days, the core idea is that it did matter a great deal what the tsar thought and what he wanted.  An...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. But you already covered the French Revolution?  Why bring up events from 25 years prior to the narrative? Well, Actually, I’ve covered the French revolution twice.  Once in the France the Enemy arc, covering the situation before ethe Revolution, and then in the French Revolution arc a couple years later.  You might recall I did the agric...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response.  Elizabeth’s greatest domestic threat was the Puritans.  Under Knox they quickly came to dominate Scotland.  A Reindeer75 episode.   Elizabeth was obviously favored by god and this gave her an enormous advantage in what was understood to be a religious argument.  We look into Calvinist ideas of salvation, what does it mean to be Elect an...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Grand Strategy in Elizabeth’s war with Spain.  The Hawkins strategy turns out to be a winner.  Spain has two more Armadas to throw at England.  Their most successful effort was Spain’s attack on Brittany, while France is still divided by Civil War.  “Paris is worth a mass”, says Henry of Navarre, wrapping up a long series of brutal civil...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The key at this point is Talleyrand is getting ready to leave Napoleon and enter into a form of opposition against him, because he sees Napoleon as a danger to France , as a danger to Europe, and as a man about to fall and fail, reach exceeds grasp.  But political opponents of Napoleon either end up dead or locked up at a chateau in Vinc...