I Take History With My Coffee

Historian Hans Baron referred to it as the crisis of the Early Renaissance.  In 1390, war broke out between Florence and Milan.   At stake was the possibility of Italy becoming a unified kingdom or remaining fractured into independent city-states.  Florence faced significant challenges and setbacks in its efforts to resist Milanese expansion.  Ultimately, Florence found itself isolated and vulnera...

If Milan can be seen as the model despotic Renaissance state, then Florence portrayed herself as the ideal of civic republicanism.  Throughout the 1300s, Florence grew fearful of the growing power of Milan under the Visconti.  The leaders of the city came to realize that old alliances nor the papacy would help defend her.  They came to see the papacy as much of a threat as Milan.  Florence would p...

In the latter half of the 14th century, the Trecento, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of Milan, would dominate the political landscape of Italy.  Consolidating power as the single rule of the Milanese state, Gian Galeazzo set his ambitions upon unifying Italy under the Visconti banner.  Actively opposing him was the Florentine Republic.  The conflict between these two city-states would culminate in t...

Medieval Italy was a distinct region with unique characteristics that set it apart from the rest of Europe. In an environment of urban expansion and commercial prosperity, Italian Renaissance humanism would emerge. The city-state, the civitas, became the central defining identity.   And with this came the concept of civic humanism. This emphasizes the importance of active participation in public l...

The Italian poet Petrarch is the paradigm of Renaissance humanism.  He espoused the revival of classical learning and the study of Roman literature as a way to morally improve humanity.  He criticized his scholastic contemporaries as being trivial and contentious.  He admired and sought to imitate the eloquence of Cicero, the great orator of the late Roman Republic.  In this episode, I review Petr...

The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) was a translation center, a library, and a research institute.  It represented the cultural and intellectual efflorescence under the Abbasid Caliphate during the 8th and 9th centuries.  It was the hub of a concerted effort to gather the knowledge of the Greeks, Persians, and Hindus.  Through here, many of the translated works of Greek science and philosophy woul...

In this episode, we explore the scholastic method of the 13th and 14th centuries as it developed from the rediscovery of Aristotle's complete works on logic, known as the Organon .  Scholasticism, at its height, emphasized logic, dialectic reasoning, and the arts of argumentation and persuasion.  It was applied to philosophy, theology, natural philosophy (science), law, and other disciplines....

Pierre Abelard was one of the great thinkers of the Medieval period. He was, in many ways, an iconoclast, unafraid to challenge the establishment of the early 12th-century church. He was brilliant, and he knew it. His arrogance often ran him afoul of his contemporaries. He made reason supreme over faith and outlined a method to critically analyze Scripture and the authority of the Early Church Fat...

In this episode, I look broadly at the development of Medieval thought and learning since the end of the Roman Empire in the West.  The philosopher Boethius in the early 6th century CE, would undertake the task of translating the works of Plato and Aristotle from Greek to Latin.  This would be an undertaking he would not be able to finish.  His translation of Aristotle's Categories, part of A...

The university as an educational institution appeared in the 12th century CE.  The Universities of Paris and Bologna became models of higher education right up to the present day.  The emergence of the university as an urban learning institution coincided with a shift in the intellectual culture of Europe in the later part of the Middle Ages.  The change from monasteries to universities, along wit...

Over the last thirty years, we have witnessed how the introduction of the internet and the rise of social media has spurred drastic cultural and social changes that have impacted all aspects of life.  Many of the same themes can be discussed when looking at the shift from manuscript to printing at the end of the 15th century.  In this episode, I highlight some of these cultural shifts and the impa...

Though some modern features such as title pages and pagination did not develop until the 16th century, the book's basic form has remained unchanged since the first codexes appeared in the 1st century CE.  As innovated by Gutenberg's press, mechanical printing did not create the book.  It just changed the way books were produced.  In this episode, I trace the developments and innovations...

Printing and movable type were known before Johannes Gutenberg.   Both had developed in the Far East.  Gutenberg was able to combine different technologies, and with his knowledge of metalworking, he devised a mechanical system that made the printing process easy and efficient.  Like the internet in the 21st century, the printing press would go on to revolutionize the way information was distribut...

By the mid-16th century, the Spanish were in the Americas, and the Portuguese reached both China and Japan.  By doing so, the Portuguese provided the final link to creating a truly globalized world.  From their arrival on Chinese shores in 1517 to the settlements of Macau and Nagasaki, it would not be easy for the Portuguese, nor would their relationship with either China or Japan last far beyond...

Like any modern commodity, the spice trade of the 16th century was a complex system.  The Portuguese were never able to achieve the desired monopoly on this trade.  In this episode, I provide an overview of the spice trade as it was under the Portuguese until the end of the 16th century. Resources: Spices: A Global History by Fred Czarra Spices, Scents, and Silk: Catalysts of World Trade by James...

Afonso de Albuquerque was known as the "Lion of the Seas" and the "Caesar of the East."  He was the architect of the Portuguese empire in India.  As the second Viceroy of the Portuguese State of India, he asserted Portuguese naval supremacy, created a permanent base of operations, and with the capture of Malacca, gained direct access to the spice markets of Indonesia.  It would...

In this episode, I look at the early efforts of the Portuguese to intrude upon the spice trade in the Indian Ocean.  Within six months of Vasco da Gama's return, King Manuel I had outfitted and armed a larger flotilla.  It would be the start of a series of fleets of ever-increasing size and firepower that would last until the mid-17th century.  These fleets would be instrumental in the Portug...

On July 8, 1497, Vasco da Gama departed Lisbon, Portugal.  In May 1498 he had reached India.  In doing so, he and his crew became the first Europeans to see India after sailing directly from a European port.  In this episode, I trace da Gama's voyage and his initial reception in the city of Calicut.  The Roteiro, or A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama Interactive map of Vasco da Ga...

Starting in 1405, the Ming Emperor Yongle dispatched Zheng He to lead a series of voyages throughout the Indian Ocean basin.  These fleets were to be a show of Chinese power as well as demand tribute from the many foreign states within the region.  In this episode, I discuss the economic and political reasons for the expeditions, what they accomplished, and why the Ming Dynasty suddenly ended them...

The Indian Ocean had been the scene of robust international trade for centuries prior to the Portuguese arrival.  In this episode, I explore the geography and economy of the region from antiquity to the 15th century.  The maritime routes that crisscrossed the region were dependent upon the monsoon winds.  This resulted in the development of ports like Quanzhou, China, as cosmopolitan centers of cu...

King John II of Portugal picked up where his grand-uncle, Prince Henry the Navigator, left off.  His hopes of finding a direct maritime route around Africa to India are bouyed by the two voyages of Diogo Cao.  Yet Cao doesn't quite make it.  That is left to Bartolomeu Dias.  Dias is able to round the Cape of Good Hope., but he, too, will fall short of the primary objective of India.  Links to...

The voyages of Columbus and da Gama were the early modern equivalent of the moon landing. They required new technologies, new ship designs, and new methods of seafaring. New technologies don't appear overnight. They evolve over a period of time. In this episode, I look at some of the major innovations that made long-distance ocean voyages possible: the mariner's compass, better navigatio...

Welcome to the I Take History With My Coffee podcast.  This podcast will explore everything about the Early Modern period.  In this introduction, I explain my motivation for creating this podcast as well as outline the goals and structure of the podcast. Podcast website is https://www.podpage.com/i-take-history-with-my-coffee Visit my blog at itakehistory.com and also on Facebook at I Take History...

In 1498, Vasco da Gama sailed directly from Portugal to India around the southern tip of Africa.  His accomplishment and Columbus's would transform the world and usher in the age of true globalization.  In this episode, I discuss the background to da Gama's voyage.  I explain the impetus for the  Portuguese to seek a direct route to India starting in the 14th century.  I explain the role...