We tour the world to find the state of political and cultural power in 1450 // Who has the ability to conquer the world? Who has the will? Who has the geographic and cultural advantages to do so?
We discuss the trauma of the Mongol Conquest // China's incorporation into Mongol Asia // Ming Revolution, Zheng HE's explorations // The Great Wall and Turning Inward // Little vs Big "China" // The End of the Ming and the Manchu Conquest // The Last Ride of the Northern Barbarians // the Great Library and the Heights of Cultural Power
Islamic empires invade the Indus and the Ganges // Sikhs invent a new culture // Hindu conservatives react// Buddhism Ejected // the Taj Mahal and Conservative Cultural War for the future of Culture // India Breaks Apart, Reunites, Breaks apart Again.
The ottoman pick up the pieces // 1453 // gunpowder janissaries // magnificent rulers and the Great Porte // The Largest Mosque in the World // Terrible Rulers and Ineffective Viziers // Harems and Murder Plots // Falling Behind, Reform, Conservative Backlash, Collapse
Europeans Leave Europe, Get Rich, and Change Everything Around the World
Disease, Death, Terrorism, and Market Capitalism or How Europeans Justified Slavery with Massive Amounts of Money
Martin Luther has 99 problems and the Pope is Definitely 1 // War, Torture, Secret Police, Jesuits, Sweden, Spain, and How do we all Get into Heaven now? // The Catholic Church Unleashes Michelangelo
Science as Reaction to the Trauma of the Reformation // Galileo proves "it Still Moves" // New Technologies disprove Aristotle // Blood is a Solid? Yeah, Kind of. // Newton ruins College with Calculus but Proves God Exists
Descartes invents the person // Hobbes thinks Hell is Other People // Locke tells us we're all great and then we have to live together // Rousseau thinks we are born free but live in chains
Sweden invents the New Legions // Europe discovers how to raise gunpowder armies and, sometimes, pay them //