Dan Snow’s History Hit In The Opium Wars Episode 2 Dr Jeremiah Jenne, a professor of Late Imperial and Modern China, and Dan follow up on the other opium wars that followed the Treaty of Nanking. In 1856 the Chinese seized ‘The Arrow’, a ship under a British flag (although this is disputed) which led on to the Second Opium War. This time the French joined in, and once again the British won, leading to the Treaty of Aigun which forced China to legalize opium and open up to missionaries and foreign traders. This was at an anxious time for Britain: the Indian mutiny was under way, America was heading towards Civil War and Russia was circling. The emperor refused to sign the treaty, so in 1860 the British and French returned, this time looting the Imperial Summer Palace and punishing the emperor. This was in effect the end of the 19th century opium trade, which was finally ended in 1907. The wars might have been over, but they formed the bedrock of Communist Party historical narrative right up to today, pointing to a century of humiliation which only now has been overcome.
The Rest is History Luther: The World Torn Apart (Part V) Luther had lit the fire, and now it was out of control. The Peasant Wars took on Luther’s strategy of appealing to the Bible, and more zealous preachers than Luther banned music, the mass, etc. The one man who could have quashed it all, Charles V, was distracted by political events elsewhere, as the culture wars turned into massacres. Luther, leaving behind his monk’s vows, married a former nun and tried to distance himself from the violence. He owed everything to the Elector of Saxony, and he could not be part of this bloodshed, even if he had wanted to. The Reformation that he had invoked spawned atheism, secularism and individualism. What if he had never lived: would there still have been a Reformation? Tom thinks that, in this case, Luther himself did make a difference.
You’re Dead to Me (BBC) Emma of Normanby. Never heard of her, but she was actually the wife of two kings (Aethelred and Cnut – better known as Aethelred the Unready and King Canute) and mother to two more, Harthacnut and Edward the Confessor. She was of Scandinavian origin, and on her second marriage to Cnut she had to negotiate a lot of jostling for the crown between half-brothers. In the end, she got two of her sons to share the throne, although she always claimed that she was ruling too. An encomium written to bolster her position likened her to Augustus, and drew on Roman and Greek history to legitimize her influence. In the end, her son Edward the Confessor turned against her, accused her of treason and stripped her of her land, although he later relented and gave it back again. But from here on, she was sidelined by her son. Features Professor Elizabeth Tyler and comedian Jen Brister (haven’t heard of either of them)
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 