Empire

“At our first salutation he drank damnation to me and my men who styled cowardly puppies saying he would neither give nor take quarter…”

By the end of November 1717 Blackbeard had become one of the most feared pirates of his age. Having declared war upon the British empire in revenge for his imprisoned brethren in Boston, he reigned down violence and destruction upon the eastern seaboard of North America, disrupting trade and causing havoc. By 1718 he had a devastating fleet of some six ships, helmed by his own flagship and one of the most famous pirate vessels of all time: the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a former French slaver. Finally, after blockading Charleston in exchange for a mere box of medicine, the British navy decided to take decisive action and hunt Blackbeard down. The man they sent for the job was  Lieutenant Robert Maynard, who finally found his terrifying foe anchored on an island off North Carolina. Taking Blackbeard’s pirates by surprise, a bloody battle ensued that would see a legendary pirate duel to the death…

Join William and Anita as they discuss Blackbeard’s terrifying reign of fear, the climax of his cataclysmic career, his downfall, and the astounding duel that would seal his bloody fate…

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

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Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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The history of pirates is a thrilling kaleidoscope of adventure, devastation, violence and political intrigue, and never more so than during the 17th and 18th centuries: the golden age of piracy. This saw the rise of some of the most famous pirates of all time, many of them united in the near mythical Pirate Republic at Nassau in the Caribbean. From Calico Jack, the colourful progenitor of the skull and crossbones, to Charles Vane, the pirate king himself who delighted in torturing his captives, and the eccentrically berobed Stede Bonnet, the golden age saw pirates drive the British empire to the brink of despair. None more so than Blackbeard, the famously ruthless pirate captain who supposedly set his beard alight before battle to frighten his enemies. But behind his flaming beard and terrifying reputation, who was the real Blackbeard? And what was it that led him into a life of bloodthirsty pillaging upon the high seas? 

Join William and Anita as they discuss the golden age of piracy and the early life and career of the most famous pirate of all time: Blackbeard.

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

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Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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When King Alfonso VI of León took Toledo from the Arabs in 1085, the history of western christendom changed forever. Within the city existed a number of texts full of the ideas that we would call Arabic numerals, but that originated in India. From the libraries of Toledo these were translated and spread through Europe. Enter Fibonacci. A genius Italian mathematician, he instantly recognised the advantages of this number system and so wrote Liber Abaci, distilling these ancient ideas into a Latin text. Once this caught on, it laid the foundation for the modern banking and economic system that underpins the global economy. 

Listen as William and Anita discuss how numerical ideas that originated in India came to prevail across the world.

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

Goalhangerpodcasts.com

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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Often called Arabic numerals, the modern number system we use today actually originates in India. Whilst in the west they were using Roman numerals, in India they were using numbers 1-9. Then, the great Brahmagupta in the 7th century made one of the most monumental developments in human history. He invented zero in its modern form. Therefore, these basic rules of mathematics for the first time allowed any number up to infinity to be expressed with just ten distinct symbols: the nine Indian numbers plus zero. Rules that are still taught in classrooms around the world today. This step was a major advance that had never previously been attempted elsewhere and it was this Indian reincarnation of zero as a number, rather than just as an absence, that transformed it and gave it its power. From India, this development then travelled along the Golden Road and into the heart of Barmakid Baghdad. 

Listen as William and Anita discuss the origins of the Empire of Numbers.

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

Goalhangerpodcasts.com

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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From India to Africa, the involvement and influence of Scots in the British Empire has been profound. In both arenas, they rose through the ranks as soldiers, merchants and bureaucrats, to carve out, govern and lead the empire overseas. But what of America? Here too the Scottish presence was enormous. From the Scottish diaspora in the Caribbean, where after Culloden Scots rebels were forced to work or they travelled willingly to become wealthy slavers themselves. In North America and Canada they fought in the Seven Years War and American Revolution, quickly came to dominate the fur and tobacco trades, and in many cases developed profitable, amicable and often romantic alliances with the Native Americans and First Nations peoples. With all this and more, the history of Scots in America is rife with adventure and derring-do, success and failure, glory, tragedy, bravery and controversy….

In today’s episode, William and Anita are joined once again by historian Murray Pittock, to discuss the story of Scots in America, and some of the fascinating Scottish characters who made their names there. 

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

Goalhangerpodcasts.com

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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The extraordinary lives of three Scotsmen - John Henderson, Richard Oswald, and David Livingstone - encapsulate the polarities of the Scottish experience in Africa prior to the 20th century. Henderson, formerly a soldier for the Swedes and the Danes in Europe, was captured and enslaved by the Arabs of Zanzibar in the Mediterranean. Before long though, he had won the heart of a princess of Zanzibar, and eloped to Alexandria with her. By contrast, Richard Oswald was a rich and prodigious slaver who went so far as to purchase an island where he would play golf, surrounded by his enslaved golf caddies in tartan, before later playing a major role in negotiating the Declaration of Independence. Finally, there was David Livingstone, a pioneering missionary, explorer and abolitionist, who nevertheless supported British colonial expansion, and whose influence on Western attitudes toward Africa endure to this day. In every case, the story of Scots in Africa is riddled with courage, cowardice, horror and adventure…

In today’s episode, William and Anita are joined once again by historian Murray Pittock, to discuss the remarkable lives of the Scots who shaped and were shaped by their interactions with Africa, and the insight they give into the experiences of Scots overall.

To fill out the survey: survey.empirepoduk.com

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

Goalhangerpodcasts.com

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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In the wake of Culloden, much of Scotland was on its knees. Crippled by defeat and the subsequent backlash of the British government, along with famine and poverty, they were in dire need of new horizons. The nascent British Empire would provide it. The Scottish Highlanders had developed a fearsome reputation during their struggles against the English, and would prove just as indomitable fighting for Britain in India. Yet, in more ways than militarily, India was to become a treasure trove of opportunity, enrichment and conquest for the Scots. From their domination of the East India Trading Company, to some of the men credited with cementing imperial rule in India, and the Highlander Regiments who took on the ferocious Tipu Sultan in the South, Scots involvement in all spheres of the British Empire in India was momentous. It also made them very rich… how controversial, then, is Scotland’s Indian involvement?

In today’s episode, William and Anita are joined by historian Andrew MacKillop to discuss the colourful history of Scots and India.

To fill out the survey: survey.empirepoduk.com

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

Goalhangerpodcasts.com

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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Few battles in history have been remembered as powerfully, nor been as mythologised, as Culloden on the 16th of April 1746. Under the leadership of Charles Edward Stuart - Bonnie Prince Charlie, ‘the Young Pretender’ - the Jacobites fight to the death upon Culloden Moor to place their own king on the British throne. Outgunned, outnumbered, the kilted swordsmen and musketeers took on the forces of the Hanoverian George II of England, in what would be the last battle fought on British soil. What would be their fate?

In today’s episode, William and Anita are joined again by historian Jacqueline Riding to discuss the Battle of Culloden: one of the most cataclysmic battles in British history. 

To fill out the survey: survey.empirepoduk.com

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

Goalhangerpodcasts.com

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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In 1688 the Stuart King James II was ousted from the throne by his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, in what is called the Glorious Revolution. This momentous change would set in motion decades of unrest across the British Isles, as the supporters of James Stuart; his son the ‘Old Pretender’ James, and his flamboyant grandson, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’, both exiled in France and Italy, sought to restore them to the throne of Britain. In Scotland especially, the hereditary home of the Stuarts, rebellion was constantly brewing amongst the Scottish clans, where demands by the English king for them to bend the knee would result in the bloody massacre of Glencoe…finally, with time passing and the momentum of the Stuart cause fading, the Young Pretender; Bonnie Prince Charlie, took up his family’s struggle and sailed to Scotland to reclaim his father’s crown….the storm clouds of revolt were brewing. What would be Scotland’s fate, and indeed that of Britain?

In today’s episode, William and Anita are joined by historian Jacqueline Riding to discuss the Jacobites and their fight to restore the Stuarts to the British throne, in the build up to the cataclysmic Battle of Culloden…

To fill out the survey: survey.empirepoduk.com

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

Goalhangerpodcasts.com

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

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With the accession of James I and VI in 1603, Scotland was assimilated into the composite monarchy of the United Kingdom. James, an eccentric, insecure and rambling figure, preoccupied with witches, was himself an alien in his new English court. Even at this stage though, it seems unlikely that the two nations would be legally combined under one parliament. But, with Scottish interests abroad constantly embattled by a lack of resources and the exclusionist attitude of its English neighbours; their flailing economy, and in-fighting, Scottish sovereignty within the composite monarchy began diminishing. As such, many in Scotland began resisting any union of the two nations with increasing desperation, while the English government - under the pro-union Queen Anne - in response redoubled their efforts to see the Scottish parliament subsumed…Was the union of Scotland and England now inevitable, or could a Scottish Referendum in 1706 protect Scottish independence?  

In this week’s episode, William and Anita are joined by renowned historian Murray Pittock to discuss the process by which Scotland was brought into Union with England, the condition of the new state, and the long term repercussions of this seminal moment for the future of Great Britain…

To fill out the survey: survey.empirepoduk.com

To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition

Twitter: @Empirepoduk

Email: [email protected]

Goalhangerpodcasts.com

Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett

Producer: Callum Hill

Exec Producer: Neil Fearn

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices