Few people know the Napoleonic Era better than my host today, Everett Rummage, who has spent the last 10 years of his life studying it and making his research available through his excellent podcast: "The Age of Napoleon".

One word. India.

YouTube link for this episode: https://youtu.be/y2Xrgn2wFaE

(0:00) Intro

(1:20) Origins of the British East India Company

(2:25) The majesty of the Mughals

(5:07) Back to the East India Company

(7:46) The British beg Aurangzeb's forgiveness

(9:37) Chaos after Aurangzeb's death

(12:13) Enter Robert Clive

(15:36) WWI: The Seven Years' War

(17:55) The Battle of Palashi ('Plassey')

(20:34) Shah Alam signs over the Diwani

(22:45) India: Britain's golden goose

(30:18) What happened to the Spanish?

My retelling of the events described in "Return of a King" by William Dalrymple.

(0:00) Lords Auckland, Wellington, and Melbourne

(5:38) The British East India Company

(8:46) What is a sepoy?

(11:55) 1858-1947: The British Raj

(12:50) Back to the Koh-i-Noor

(16:58) Kabul: an ancient crossroads

(21:24) The British and their Russophobia

(23:47) India: the British Empire's golden goose

(25:13) Let's reinstall Shah Shuja

(28:19) The disastrous retreat of 1842

(33:45) The accursed Eden family

(37:50) More horrors of war

(39:09) Don't f**k with the Afghans

Spoiler Alert: the Ark is from Iraq (love how that rhymes).

YouTube link for this episode: https://youtu.be/TU2QiCFzykA

If you would like to get in touch:

Email: [email protected]

X: @Skerkwagga1939

Instagram: @richardlikeshistory

Produced by Richard Marais

(0:00) 3,600 years of flood myths

(2:27) Sîn-lēqi-unninni

(3:34) The Atrahasis: Babylon's flood myth

(6:39) Sîn-lēqi-unninni: Iraq's Homer

(8:01) The Epic of Gilgamesh

(15:00) Ashurbanipal of Nineveh

(19:26) Old Persian helps decipher cuneiform

(24:51) The Rigveda of Hinduism

We should all know that humanity's oldest author was the formidable high priestess of Ur, who lived 4,300 years ago.

YouTube link for this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzVvk73X1iI

Speaking of rivers, here is a really cool and quirky video by one of my favourite YouTubers, Beau Miles: https://youtu.be/GnSUre9C_Nc?si=g46hXW-2ie-hpXek

If you want to get in touch:

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @richardlikeshistory

X: @Skerkwagga1939

Produced by Richard Marais

(0:00) Enheduanna's exaltation

(4:36) Sargon of Akkad

(5:59) Uruk: the first city?

(7:12) The people of Enheduanna's time

(10:49) Enheduanna's fate

The very symbols that I have used to write this description have a more fascinating past than almost anything you can imagine.

YouTube link to this episode: https://youtu.be/tyOJPYqKqcE

If you want to get in touch:

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @richardlikeshistory

X: @Skerkwagga1939

Produced by Richard Marais

(0:00) Back to the Bronze Age

(3:22) Ancient Egypt

(9:48) The people of the Bronze Age

(14:07) The Homeric Epics

(15:57) Origin of the Turks

(16:39) Who had writing in the Bronze Age?

(20:49) Bronze Age Collapse

(29:24) Enter the Chinese

(30:11) Phoenicia saves our ass

(38:00) Greeks add vowels

(40:28) The Alphabet spreads

(45:30) The exceptions

(48:09) Epilogue

What was the world really like 5,000 to 3,000 years ago, when Odysseus supposedly sailed back from Troy?

YouTube link for this episode: https://youtu.be/_Gihp_OUye0

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @RichardLikesHistory ⁠

X: @skerkwagga1939

Produced by Richard Marais

(0:00) The Fertile Crescent and Egypt

(3:30) Europe and 'Ancient Greece'

(7:29) China

(9:13) The Indus

(12:38) Southern Africa: Earth's first iron smelters

(14:16) South America and the 'quipu' system

(17:52) Russia and the Siberian frontier

(20:21) Australia

(22:39) Pasifika

(25:19) Southeast Asia and its "Peaceful Bronze Age"

(27:19) North America: hunter-gatherer metropolis

Why is the Israeli flag blue? Was Yahweh from Arabia or Egypt? And when did the Israelites stop worshipping his wife, Asherah?

YouTube link for this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLswO5O2Ffo

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @RichardLikesHistory

X: @skerkwagga1939

Produced by Richard Marais

(0:00) 5,000 years of Arabian Sea trade

(2:57) Indigo: India's blue gold

(3:56) Murex snails in the Mediterranean

(5:06) Tekhelet: Biblical blue

(6:01) The secret recipe for Tekhelet is lost

(6:40) God mandates blue fringes

(11:31) Otto Elsner rediscovers Tekhelet after 1,300 years

(12:31) Where the hell does Yahweh come from?

(15:48) Moses, Midian, and the Burnish Bush

(17:59) Yahweh becomes El and marries Asherah

(20:50) Babylonian defeath turns Israel monotheistic

(23:34) What do we actually know about Moses?

How did a group of Khoekhoe cattle herders, armed with only fire-hardened spears, scare Western Europe to the extent that the colonisation of South Africa was abandoned for the next 142 years?

If you are interested in learning more about the Battle of Salt River, have a look at this video with Tauriq Jenkins, the Supreme High Commissioner of the Goringhaecona Khoena Council. Really gives you a feel for the place where this extraordinary event took place on March 1, 1510. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkAtFeIN2Pg

YouTube link for this episode: https://youtu.be/Nxda95VUYtU

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: ⁠ @RichardLikesHistory ⁠

X: @skerkwagga1939

Produced by Richard Marais

(0:00) The Malabar Coast and the pepper trade

(6:26) Vasco da Gama opens a back door for Portugal

(9:53) Francisco de Almeida: the fearless admiral

(14:22) Albuquerque arrives and gets arrested

(17:24) The Battle of Salt River

(19:50) Correction: Cochin not Calicut

(20:24) The Battle of Salt River - continued

(22:17) Interlude: South Africa's human past

(25:42) Almeida meets his end

(28:30) Legacy of the Khoekhoe resistance

If you like what you hear, there is a never-ending amount of fascinating history to unpack and explore. I welcome any suggestions on what to cover as well! At the moment, I'm just doing whatever takes my fancy - I'm particularly in love with the Age of Exploration (15th - 17th centuries AD) at the moment.