I was a bit disappointed with the episode on science last week, but this one was back on form.  There isn’t as much to say this time.  He looked at the histories of North and South America after colonisation by Europeans.  The Spanish seized all the land, enslaved the inhabitants and created a society where

If you wanted to have a major summit meeting, by this time the place to have it was Milan.  This was where Constantine and Licinius met to celebrate the wedding of Licinius to Constantine’s sister and to sort out the details of their alliance.  But they didn’t have long.  Licinius found himself under attack by

Galileo’s sketches of the Moon – was science one of the reasons for the rise of the West?  (Thanks to Wikipedia) A lot of people have watched and enjoyed Niall Ferguson’s series on Civilization.  A lot of people have been infuriated by it as well.  One thing that has divided people is his use of

In the Middle Ages the Muslim world had the planet’s most scientifically advanced culture. It is easy to forget just how powerful they were.  At one stage the Ottoman Empire threatened Vienna.  In July 1683 the Christian world held its breath as the Turks surrounded the capital of the Holy Roman Emperor.  Leopold himself, ran

It is a deep seated idea among some people that things were better in the past, and that as time goes on we are heading towards more and deeper problems and are inevitably going to suffer further decay and decline.  This was particularly noticeable in the Middle Ages – though if you read Tolkien you

The fierce face of Maximian (thanks to Wikipedia for use of image) How many emperors does it take to run an empire?  Diocletian tried four with reasonable results.  How did six work out?  Well on the whole not too well, and it was pretty obvious pretty quickly that one of them in particular was surplus