The Kingdom of Kongo establishes a rare partnership with an up-and-coming European power, Portugal, to the point that the King of Kongo and his family embrace Christianity and take Portuguese royal names. However, this partnership will also be ground zero for one of the greatest atrocities in human history.

Sources:

Almeida, Marcos Abreu Lelitão de. “Speaking of Slavery: Slaving Strategies and Moral Imaginations in the Lower Congo” (Doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, September 2020).

Bosma, Ulbe. The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years (Harvard University Press, 2023).

Etherington, Norman. “Christian Missions in Africa", The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to African Religions, ed. Elias Kifon Bongba (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).

Garretson, Peter P. "A Note on Relations Between Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Aragon in the Fifteenth Century." Rassegna di studi etiopici 37 (1993): 37-44.

Gondola, Ch. Didier. The History of Congo (Greenwood Press, 2002).

Hanno. “Gorilla Warfare.” Lapham’s Quarterly, Last accessed: 3/12/2026. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/animals/gorilla-warfare 

Klein, Herbert S. The Atlantic Slave Trade, 2nd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

MacGaffey, Wyatt. “Economic and Social Dimensions of Kongo Slavery (Zaire)", Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives, eds. Suzanne Miers and Igor Kopytoff (University of Wisconsin Press, 1977).

Russell-Wood, A.R. The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808: A World on the Move (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998).

Thornton, John. A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250-1820 (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

___________. Afonso I,  Mvemba a Nzinga, King of Kongo: His Life and Correspondence, trans. Luis Madureira (Hackett Publishing Co., 2023). 

Support this project: turningmodern.com/contact

A genius prodigy sets out to change the world by resolving all philosophical and religious disputes with one book, his own 900 Theses, and a debate in Rome between Europe's brightest intellectual lights. And he will leave his mark on history, just not in the way he wants...

Sources Cited:

Hanegraaf, Wouter J. Esotericism and the Academy: Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

Bradatan, Costica. Dying for Ideas: The Dangerous Lives of Philosophers (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015).

Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance (Chatto &Windus, 1965).

Mirandola, Pico della. Syncretism in the West: Pico’s 900 Theses (1486), ed. and trans. S.A. Farmer, 2nd edition (Arizona State University, 2003).

____________. “Oration on the Dignity of Man”, trans. Cosma Rohilla Shaizi. Cosma’s Home Page, 21 November 1994. Last accessed 2/23/2025: . 

Slattery, Luke. “A Renaissance Murder Mystery.” The New Yorker (20 July 2015).Last accessed 2/25/2025: .

Stethern, Paul. Death in Florence: The Medici, Savonarola, and the Battle for the Soul of a Renaissance City (Pegasus Books, 2015).

As the sixteenth century begins following plague, turmoil, traumatic defeats, and the discovery of new continents, people from all faiths feel that the end of history and salvation are at hand while others look to the past to find hope for the future.

What is Turning Modern, and why the "early modern West"?

Anna Maria Luisa, the last representative of the main branch of the Medici, saves her family's legacy through an innovative agreement. Also we survey Tuscany's post-Medici future and the branches of the family that survived into the 21st century.

At the age of 52, Gian Gastone comes to power as the opposite of his uptight, moralistic father in almost every possible way. But even as the Medici family fades, could Tuscany's future be getting brighter?

The vultures surround Tuscany as the Medici begin to die out. The only thing left for Cosimo III is to try to guarantee Tuscany's independence in the future, even though most of the great powers of Europe are working against him.

ERRATA: In this episode I said that King Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese's firstborn son was Carlos. What I overlooked was that Philip V had a wife before Elisabeth, Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy, and they had three sons, Luis, Felipe Pedro, and Fernando. This is important because I suggested wrongly that Carlos stood to inherit both the Spanish crown, the duchy of Parma, and Tuscany if he were made the eventual heir. While his older half-brothers would die and Carlos *would* become King Carlos III of Spain eventually, at the time Cosimo III was still alive he was a possibility to keep Tuscany independent (if also very likely a satellite of Spain). At least it is true that Cosimo III was still opposed to the possibility, preferring instead to let Anna Maria Luisa appoint her own successor. I apologize for the error!

The Medici family are approaching the brink of extinction. It's up to Cosimo III's three children to preserve the family, but even with the dynasty's survival on the line, the Medici cannot stop themselves from repeating the mistakes of the recent past.

Cosimo and Marguerite-Louise's dysfunctional marriage hits its dramatic crescendo and falls apart. Will Marguerite-Louise escape back to her homeland, or will she remain a prisoner of her despised husband?

Grand Duke Cosimo III sets out to make Tuscany great again with tariffs and religiosity. At the same time, Cosimo aims for royal glory, even at a time all of Italy is under the boot of the Hapsburgs.