The Cities podcast takes a turn for the different as I track cities that helped supply the world with commodities. In the first week, I talk about Silver and the way it helped to build the Spanish Empire and one of its most important cities: Mexico City.

City 1: Mexico City - Silver

A piece of Spanish silver, cut into eight pieces

Spanish Coin minted in Mexico City

Mexican coins traveled all over the world. This one has a distinct "chop" which shows it had made it to Asia and was circulated as a different currency.

 

https://youtu.be/XHYn7S1iqbo

 

This week Mathias and I talk about Uyghurs on Hour of History. We give a brief overview of centuries of history, modern politics, and questions of cultural history.

In this episode we talk about:

Rebiya Kadeer

Chen Quanguo

Uyghur Culture

Rian Thum's book The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History

Alice Su's reporting

Re-education Camps

And our weekly recommendations:

Mathias - the literature of Vasily Grossman

Steven - Airliners.net 

Modernity, at what price?

Location of Xinjiang

https://youtu.be/Y4O6M9wTJFI

Independent of British rule, Calcutta remains an important part of West Bengal and the new India. Led predominately by the left, Marxism comes to define Calcutta through the second half of the twentieth century to Modernity and its new-old-identity, Kolkata.

Item 9: Marxism

Item 10: Modernity

https://youtu.be/a3_EYEm_MUU

This week, Mathias and I talk about dictators and dictatorship in history. In order to define the term, we had to go way back and work our way to the present. Here is what we talked about:

The Roman Republic

The Roman Empire

George Washington

Napoleon

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Fascism

Hitler

Mussolini

Communism

https://youtu.be/aBrcsl2_4s4

The seal of the U.S. Senate. Note the Phrygian cap at top and Fasces at bottom.

The facses, a symbol used by dictators and democracies

The Empire begins to unravel. After the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857, Britain takes direct rule over India and creates the perfect situation for the rise in Nationalism. The second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century become one-hundred years of rebellion, changing identities, and a growth in nationalism. This week Calcutta transforms through British tinkering, Indian solidarity, and the worst famine of the last century.

Item 7: Charkha

Item 8: Rice

https://youtu.be/cCTghj1WbzM

What is Utopia? Does the perfect place exist? Who has tried to create Utopia?

This week, on Hour of History, Mathias, Keith, and I talk about:

Thomas More's "Utopia" and dreams of a perfect place

The Mexican Revolution, Zapata and indigenous communities

Marxist Utopian visions and the revolutions that followed

The folly of Utopia and failed utopias

Thomas More's Island Utopia

 

https://youtu.be/YUmmifkJfqc

This week, I look at the growth of two distinct, but not impermeable, towns in Calcutta. The East India company is in full control of Calcutta at this point and the result is the massive growth of what was once a fishing village. For some this meant opportunity, for others it meant squalor. The result is one of the most vibrant cities in the world and a city in the British Empire second only to London.

https://youtu.be/6ctn_b9FMHM

Item 5: White Town

Item 6: Black Town

This week on Hour of History, Mathias and I talk about North Korea and the Price of Peace.

We go through North Korea's history, from the growth of the Japanese Empire and the Colonization of the Korean Peninsula to the Singapore Summit. It seems that North Korea is willing to stop at nothing so long as it has national security, but how has that worked for its allies and enemies? Find out more on Hour of History.

Kim Il Sung under the watchful eyes of Stalin and himself. North Korea initially sought stability through its alliance with Stalin's Soviet Union.

https://youtu.be/TqeUE2VLmgE

 

From a small fishing village to one of the most important cities in the world. Why did Calcutta become so important? What was "The Black Hole" and how was it used to expand empire? What was the imperial project and did it lead to the Bengali Renaissance?

My two items this week aren't going to be found in a museum, well, because they aren't tangible. But they led to the growth of empire and sparked cultural growth in Calcutta, which in-turn led to thousands of tangible products.

https://youtu.be/yVleb6O3qsg

Item 3: The Black Hole

Item 4: The Renaissance

Ram Mohan Roy, and Brahmo Samaj, were part of the Bengali Renaissance

 

This week, Keith, Mathias, and I talk about people who would stop at nothing, to stop the revolution. It is an often ignored phenomenon that has existed globally throughout the twentieth-century.

In the episode we discuss:

How Eastern Europe has grappled with its history, especially over the imprints left by Fascism and Communism.

Cuba and the frequent challenges the island has faced in the last thirty years.

The Contras in Nicaragua and the United States role in training and supplying arms

Korea's reaction to the Japanese Empire

Narratives of anti-imperialism that fueled revolutions and seem to be bolstered by counter-revolution

https://youtu.be/PfAsxTNRKzg

 

United States intelligence agencies knew about the plans to bomb Cubana Airlines flight 455, a move that bolstered Fidel Castro's claim that counter-revolutionaries were still plotting to reverse the Cuban Revolution.

"Be faithful to our history" urges the sign outside the Office of the Historian in Havana, Cuba. "Faith" is not a word typically associated with history, and has created problems for post-communist states that once relied on a "faithful" reading of history.