Episodes
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Hey guys, itâs been a bit since last we had some new content but the next couple weeks weâll have some fresh audio for you. Today, however, we have a friendly takeover as Elliot, host of Anthology of Heroes, takes over the podcast feed and talks about the âscramble for Africaâ. Anthology of Heroes is a fantastic podcast, Hardcore History-esque, and Elliot does an excellent job of bringing you fast-paced, detailed history. The production is top-notch but itâll be the storytelling that keeps you riveted and listening. I hope you enjoy Anthology of Heroes as much as I do, and if you do, give him a follow/subscribe/rate/review. As always, thanks again for listening!!
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When the English colonists first came to the New World there was friction but, given the limits of the colonists population and power, no large scale conflict. The Abenaki homelands consisted of most of modern day New England and North East Canada. At first they had no issue with the English, so long as they stuck to the coasts. The fishing and fur trading hubs created by the newcomers was as a commercial positive for the Abenaki. The issue arose when the English population grew and the colonists began to settle the interior lands. The Abenaki were hard pressed as they fought the mighty Iroquois for domination of the fur trade and now found themselves dealing with a growing threat from the Europeans. The slaughter and sacking of a key Pequot village along the Mystic River in 1637 was one of many such defeats that finally made the situation clear to the Abenaki; the only way for them to maintain their homelands was through violence...
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Music - Alpha Mission by Jimena Contreras courtesy of Youtube free sound library
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Episodes manquant?
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Few battles in history are so complete and decisive as Koniggratz. In a day the Austro-Prussian War was won and ended. The brilliant Moltke the Elder faced a much larger Austrian army and roundly defeated it. That, however, doesnât mean it was easy. On July 3rd, 1866 Moltke and his armyâs fate hung in the balance as the Austrian forces fought harder and harder before the timely arrival of the Prussian salvation decided the day.
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Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi, otherwise known as Abd el-Krim, was President of the Rif Republic, a Moroccan freedom fighter, and a guerrilla warfare specialist. He led his people through the Third Rif War and won a resounding victory against the Spanish at the battle of Annual in 1921. He would go on and influence many a revolutionary, from Ho Chi Minh to Mao to Che and in the process he helped to chip away at the tottering colonial system in Africa.
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War A to Z
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Abbasid Revolution
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Date- 747 A.D. - 750 A.D.
Location - Khorasan province Iran
Participants - Umayyads vs Abbasids
Key Players - Caliph Marwan, Governor Nasir Ibn Sayyar, Muhammad Ali, Abu Muslim
Key Battles - Merv, Nahavand, Isfahan, Mosul
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The Issue - The powerful Umayyad Caliphate, the second of the original four in early Islamic history, had a rocky relationship with its many subjects. The Umayyads were an Arab dynasty but could prove no direct relationship or bloodline to the Prophetâs family, and they had a willingness to tax all subjects at very high rates, Arab and non-Arab alike. Because they treated Arabs better than anyone, and should no preference for non-Arab muslims, the Umayyadâs had few friends in their lands. Some of the more discriminatory policies led to unrest and two leaders started to form an opposition party; Muhammad Ibn Ali, who could boast a blood tie to the Prophet and Abu Muslim, an Iranian leader that gave voice to the over taxed non-Arab and non-muslims. Wearing black and touting a black flag, mirroring the Prophets own battle flag, the Abbasids began their revolution in 745.
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The Result - The ensuing five years saw dozens of battles, from Merv to Nahavand, Isfahan to Mosul. The Abbasid forces crippled the Umayyad power structure and forced the governor of Khorasan to flee from city to city until at last he died in 748 A.D. The ignominious death of Governor Sayyar was to be repeated by the Caliph himself. As Abu Muslimâs forces marched on Harrran, Caliph Marwan ran for safety making it all the way to Egypt. Unfortunately for him, Marwan didnât live long in the land of the pharaohs, he was murdered in 750 A.D. The resulting power vacuum caused by the Umayyad collapse allowed Abu Muslim to roll up Syria, Iraq, and Iran into the Abbasid Empire. A legitimate Islamic government was installed and tax laws and revenues regulated by the ruling Muslim dynasty. Abu al-Abbas was chosen as their first caliph and he ruled from the new capital of the Islamic world - Baghdad.
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Source - MacGillâs Military History
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War A to Z
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Abbas I The Great
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Born - January 27 1571, Iran
Died - January 19 1629, Iran
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Wars/Battles of Note - Uzbek-Persian Wars, Turko-Persian Wars, Mogul-Persian Wars, Tabriz 1603,Sis 1606, Siege of Baghdad 1624-1626
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Through a combination of guile, patience, and determination, Abbas the Great ruled a powerful Persian state for over forty years. Upon taking the throne he faced threats from every direction including the vaunted Janissaries of the Turks and the mighty Mogul Empire to the south. Understanding that he could only deal with one enemy at a time, Abbas prioritized each opponent and then in turn dealt with the Uzbeks, Ottomans, Moguls, and even the Portuguese. His was court of culture and when not campaigning he was a powerful patron of the arts and builder of beautiful cities. On his death the Persian Empire ran from the Indus River to the Tigris River.
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Napoleon Bonaparte is, almost always, in the âMt. Rushmoreâ greatest military commanders of all time conversation, and rightfully so. That being said, he wasnât without a great many flaws, and long before Waterloo, Napoleon suffered his fair share of defeats. Marengo doesnât fall into the loss column for Bonaparte, but it came pretty damn close. A poor French tactical choice, a drastic French inferiority in artillery, and a ferocious Austrian assault all led to Marengo being a "close run thing" for the First Consul. But as the First Consul said âThe fate of a battle is a single momentâŚthe decisive moment arrives, the moral spark is kindled and the smallest reserve force settles the issue.â
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As the title makes clear, this is not the promised battle of Marengo! Nope, itâs still very busy up here in Maine and the tourist season has yet to slow, so getting the new episode written up has been a bit more of a struggle than I anticipated. To hold you guys over while I finish up the Marengo script here is a conversation with Brett from the Whiskey Tango Podcast. Brett came on to chat about Turks, cataphracts, and the Byzantines at the battle of Manzikert and, much like the first time he and I talked, this was a blast. We ran a little long but since it has been over a month since the last show, I figure more is better! Enjoy!
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âFor this campaign I see so very ill a prospect that I am extremely out of heart.â
So wrote the man most responsible for todayâs battle and one of Britainâs greatest military victories, the battle of Blenheim.
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"I had scarcely finished speaking when the enemy's battery opened fire upon us, and raked us through and through. They concentrated their fire upon us, and with their first discharge carried off Count de la Bastide, the lieutenant of my own company with whom at the moment I was speaking, and twelve grenadiers, who fell side by side in the ranks, so that my coat was covered with brains and blood. So accurate was the fire that each discharge of the cannon stretched some of my men on the ground. I suffered agonies at seeing these brave fellows perish without a chance of defending themselves, but it was absolutely necessary that they should not move from their post.â - Jean Martin de la Colonie
The battle of Schellenberg is one of the interesting stops on the Duke of Marlboroughâs road to Blenheim. Time was in short supply and the Grand Alliance was in a tight spot, the heights over Donauworth had to be taken, and quickly. A frontal assault was in the offing and the deadly struggle that followed almost cost Marlborough his campaign, reputation, and maybe even the war itself. Letâs go back to the War of the Spanish Succession, the age of Marlborough and muskets. Letâs go back to 1704 and the battle of Schellenberg!
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Letâs go back to the year 1702, a time when Spanish treasure ships still sailed the open seas. Letâs go back to the age of sails and cannon, of Sun Kings and wars of succession. To a time when the Royal Navy was just coming into its own, and the Bourbon navy was about to find out what the cost of maritime power would be. Letâs go back to 1702, 23rd of October, and the battle of Vigo Bay!
Bringing the booty of the Spanish Main with it, a Spanish-French fleet sailed into Vigo Bay to avoid lurking English and Dutch allied ships. Once the Grand Alliance fleet got wind the treasure fleet was penned up in close quarters, they pounced. The end result was a crushing victory that led to Portugal switching sides, Gibraltar becoming an English possession, and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo making his fortune.
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Letâs go back to the year 1700, a cold, gray late November day in Estonia. Letâs go back to the age of muskets and bayonets, of dragoons and hussars. To a time when the Lion of the North, the Last Viking, young Charles XII of Sweden was sizing up his first meal, Peter the "not yet" Great of Russia. Letâs go back to the battle of Narva!
Facing a vastly numerically superior enemy (that was dug-in) with a well defended position with heavy artillery support, Charles XII of Sweden would have been wise to not attack. But then he wouldnât have been Charles XII. Using a sudden snow squall to mask his advance, Charles and the Swedish army attacked the dug-in Russian line and the first great victory of The Great Northern War was won.
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Letâs go back to the year 1014, a late summer in the Balkans where Basil II, of the Byzantine Empire, has brought his army to destroy his oldest foe. Letâs go back to the final days of the Bulgarian Empire of Czar Samuel, seventy years old and still willing (and able) to lead his army into the fight. Letâs go back to the battle of Kleidion! In the mountain passes of the Bulgarian Empire, Basil II used a deceptive ploy to destroy the army of his enemy, Czar Samuel. In the aftermath Basil committed a heinous act of revenge and violence that earned him the epitaph - the Bulgarslayer.
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A little bit of a pivot this week; instead of the Battle of Kleidion (which will just get pushed back a week) youâll be listening to a chat between myself and Brett from the Whiskey Tango Podcast. Iâve got a nasty little cold thatâs keeping me from recording but Brett and I have been talking about doing a joint show for a while and we finally got one recorded. I had a blast and getting to actually speak to someone instead of the wall of my recording closet was a nice change of pace. Ipsus is a fantastic battle to cover and I think you guys will enjoy it! Make sure you follow/rate/review and subscribe to the Whiskey Tango Podcast guys, and enjoy!
Whiskey Tango Podcast
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âThey fought then, and each of them endeavored to slaughter the other; and they fell by each other, and the way that they fell was with the sword of each through the heart of the other; and the hair of each in the clenched hand of the otherâŚâ - Cogdha
This week on cauldron we are going back to good friday, April 23 1014, to the emerald isle itself - Ireland. On the beaches just north of Dublin Brian Boru defeated an uprising and the existential viking threat, saved his kingdom and country, and lost his life. Letâs go back to the Battle of Clontarf.
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The first cycle of episodes in the Cauldron re-boot featured exclusively battles from antiquity and the truly ancient world. This next cycle will see us hop in the imaginary time machine and fast forward from the sandy beach outside of Troy, zooming past the rise and fall of a dozen or more empires, from Persia to Athens to Alexander to Carthage and finally to the powerhouse that was Rome. For a thousand years Rome, in one of its many fashions, ruled much of Modern Europe, and then came the barbarian hordes, plague, rapid and incurable inflation, and a whole myriad of other factors that led to the great cityâs fall. With the dying of the light that was Rome, Europe descended into what was once called the Dark Ages, a time in which life was as cheap as it had ever been. Now, most scholars agree that things werenât nearly as bleak or âDarkâ as they used to seem, but when Europe pretty rapidly went from a unified centralized singularity to a shattered constellation of smaller petty kingdoms things certainly became more interesting. A good mark for the beginning of the Early Middle Ages or the Late Antiquity Period is the Huns burning their way through Central Europe and the fall of Rome itself to the Visigoths. We dive into the Huns in one of the earliest episodes so check that out if you want. Both the Early Middle Ages or the Late Antiquity Period are accepted terms used by scholars in lieu of the Dark Ages, which is a bit less fun and dramatic, even if it is more accurate. From roughly 400-500ad to 1000-1100ad these Early Middle Ages were a period of upheaval and change for Europe. A time of turmoil and faith, war and famine, kings and priests. Which, after writing that I realized, is pretty much every period in European and likely World history. But our story today comes in at the tail end of the Early Middle Ages, when the age of the Viking was all but over and the Age of the Knight and Castle was about to begin. Letâs go back to Late Antiquity, to the steel blue waters of the Baltic Sea, where two lines of Long Ships entangled in a desperate struggle, the winner lives, the loser drowns. Letâs go back to September 9, 999/1000A.D., the Age of the Viking and the Battle of Svolder.
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I am (as you all probably guessed) a huge Dan Carlin fan and I often find myself re-listening to his different series. Recently I put fresh ears on his King of Kings episodes about the ancient Persians. One rough quote, or paraphrase is probably more accurate, from historian Pierre Briant that stuck with me is âyou must believe in ancient history, even if it never happened.â As I put this episode on Troy together this idea keeps slamming me in the head. Iâm not sure there is an episode in military history that better encapsulates the sentiment Briant is trying to get across than the Trojan War and subsequent fall of the great city itself. There isnât a hell of a lot of evidence, but, if you donât believe the siege of Troy occurred, ancient history becomes a much less human, colorful, and tangible world. Now, you donât need to believe gods like Athena and Apollo fought alongside the Trojans and the Achaeans, but damn if that doesn't make for a hell of a story!
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From Megiddo to Kadesh almost 200 years passed with Egypt at the pinnacle of its power. From modern day Sudan to the southern border of modern day Turkey, Egypt reigned supreme. They werenât unchallenged and certainly, like their life-giving river itself things where often in flux; uprisings, rebellions, and border fighting happened regularly and territory was lost just as often as it was gained, but even so the people of the Nile maintained their control over much of the modern Middle East. The chariot, brought to Egypt on the conquering tide of the Hyksos invasion and retooled and perfected by the Egyptians themselves, was in large part what brought Egyptian freedom from the foreign oppressors at home and victory and Egyptian dominance abroad. At Megiddo, this engineering marvel, the Egyptian war chariot, showed the world what it could do to an unequal enemy. At Kadesh, the last great clash of chariots showed the world that this unique weapons system had reached its peak and would soon (in relative historical terms) be outdated and surpassed. But for one glorious late May day on the plains outside of Kadesh, the Pharaoh Ramses the 2nd, who would later be known as the Great Ancestor, saved his army and his reputation from the back of his chariot. Or at least thatâs what he wanted us to thinkâŚ
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Megiddo is an interesting story; by bringing along court scribes Thutmose III allows us to follow along in his footsteps and see the battle as he saw it. Now, obviously we canât take everything the scribes wrote at face value; propaganda is as old as written history, and probably older, but at least, for the first time, we can paint a historical battle with color instead of just black and white. And the drama of Megiddo is real and intense. The pharaohâs choice to take the middle route and risk his army being picked off, man by man, would be a bold decision in any time period. The Canaanites fleeing the field and having to be hauled over the city walls is the very picture of comical desperation. At Megiddo, whether it all happened as the scribes said or not, history comes to life.
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For the re-launch of Cauldron I've chosen the fight between Umma and Lagash as our starting point. Certainly not the first battle in human history but in my humble non-historian opinion the first that we can really get a clear narrative picture of. Itâs ancient ancient history, 2,116 years before Alexander crossed the Hellespont, so dates, facts, and numbers are loose when present at all. But, there are character archetypes weâre familiar with; a great and greedy king, a ravenous blood-thirsty god, and there are recognizable themes; revenge, jealousy, pride, and lust for power. All this means is we can only broadstroke the battle given the lack of information and facts, truly a glimpse of the past, our past, through Tuchmanâs âdistant mirrorâ. But, a picture can be formed, however loosely, of that long gone version of ourselves and we can start to tell our history, the history of war, if not from itâs beginning then somewhere closeby. So, let's get In Medias Res, and get stuck in with episode one the battle between Umma and Lagash!
Thanks for hanging in there if you are an old listener, thanks for joining the audience if you are a new listener!
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