World history since 1500 Lectures

In this episode we will be considering the titanic struggle between Britain and France in the eighteenth century, the weaknesses and strengths of the opponents, a fight that culminated in the British occupation of Canada and India.

In this lecture we will look at the difficult conversion of European, Mexican and Peruvian peasants to the creeds of the high Church and the fight of the high Church against Satan: magic and witches.

In this episode we'll be considering the books and art consuming public in Europe and the Americas and the rise of the tormented artist and that of the public intellectual during the presently unduly vilified movement of the Enlightenment.

In this lecture we'll be considering the rise of Russia to Eurasian superpower status in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - especialy focusing on its expansion into Siberia.

In this lecture we'll be considering the religious and intellectual life of the sixteenth century. Focussing on the reformation, the Catholic revival of the sixteenth century and the formation of both a secular republic of letters and tourism instead of pilgrimage.

In this episode we will be considering the great Islamic Empires of the golden age of the Mughals, the Safavid and the Ottoman Turks. An age of material prosperity and cultural splendour. The golden age of Islam.

In this lecture we will be considering the fate of the independent Indian nations of North and South America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: a grim tale of disease, brutal wars and disposession and also of spititual hopes.

In this lecture we'll be exploring the beginnings of the all-pervasive modern state: focusing on warfare, taxes, bureaucracy and the contrast between European east and west.

In this episode we will be exploring the slave trade across the Atlantic and Europe's prime turf in the seventeenth and eighteenth century: the Carribean.

In this lecture we'll be looking at the new global trade of the sixteenth century, particularly that in silver, and its effects on the rich and the poor in both Europe and Latin America.