In the last newsletter I wrote of the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453 and the end of the Eastern Church. The 1400s saw the Portuguese lead maritime exploration in a bid to secure the spice trade with ports in present day India & Indonesia. In 1497 Vasco da Gama found a way of reaching Goa and by 1557 the Portuguese had started to trade with China.

The only map to aid Vasco and other explorers was an Ancient Greek world map, Ptolemy’s Geographia,  a copy of which was rediscovered around this time. It was remarkable in what it got right, including Iceland, Sri Lanka and the Canary Islands. It also showed that Africa could be sailed around, which the Portuguese re-discovered.

A century of exploration led to a new world map, one that could be printed.

Till this point Christians had seen Jerusalem as the centre of the world, a new mental change was the emergence of the notion of being European, rather than Christian.  Assumptions and beliefs were contested and Europeans now thought themselves the centre of the world. The discovery of the Americas made for further adjustments that saw maps that would be familiar today.

By 1625 an English writer was identifying European values as Christian and Christians who lived elsewhere were no longer important.

I have been reading The Triumph of the West by J.M. Roberts.

Terry Case

I set out to not merely tell the story of Henry & his wives, but also to tackle the more important story of the breakup of the Catholic Church. We briefly looked at the efforts of translators to have bibles published in the language of the readers and how the Church opposed change.

Luther was the key figure in the upheavals and when we re-start classes I will continue to look at the religious changes in Europe.

It is important to contemplate changes outside of England at this time.

Circa 1400. Beginning of the Italian Renaissance. English travellers and merchants bring the ideas back to England & Scotland.

1453 Fall of Constantinople to the Turks. This ended the division of Christianity between Roman and Eastern administrations of the Church, leaving the Russian Orthodox Church as the major force in the East.

The spice trade became more difficult and expensive resulting in exploration for new routes to India. This encouraged developments in mathematics, astronomy and technical developments such as the compass which Chinese and Arab traders had used for many centuries.

Spain, England and other countries established colonies dependent on slaves. 

1492 Fall of Granada and end of Moorish rule in Spain. 15th Century.

Creation of a Muslim Empire in India by Babur, a contemporary of Henry VIII.

Do not restrain yourselves by focusing on the Tudors and events in a small island!

​Terry Case

I am going to miss our meetings and book recommendations during the Covid-19 lockdown.   If you find something good, please consider, sharing it via our newsletter by sending it to Heather at newsletter@u3abenalla.com. 
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Terry Case

In 2020, the Armchair History group will be looking at royal involvement in British History over the years and its implications in the Tudor era.
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Terry Case

Our final meeting for the year will be Tuesday 10th of December when we combine with the Politics class to watch a DVD that considers how Stalin & Communism was rejected by George Orwell & Winston Churchill. This brings to an end my series on 20th Century History.

Next year I revert to the Friday afternoon sessions for Armchair History and feast upon the Tudors as England is divided by religion.
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Terry Case

We had been looking at the ramifications of the Peace Treaties following WW1. We turned our attention to India, Britain’s richest and most important colony. The Indian Congress Party had been promised political progress as so many Indians volunteered and served in both the Middle East, Turkey and on the Western Front. Like other groups such as the Suffragettes they were betrayed and it was left to Ghandi & Nehru to lead the party in the post war period.

Gandhi implemented his non-violence campaigns to shame the British. Gandhi’s followers were brutally attacked on the orders of the Government, but the protests turned the tables on the British and it would lead eventually to Independence.
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Terry Case

We are reviewing the 1920s and 1930s both in Australia and Europe and  the period where all the hopes for peace and prosperity are challenged.  The focus will next move to Britain’s greatest asset, India "the jewel in the crown" and look at the tactics of the humble revolutionary, Gandhi. 
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Terry Case

Our August session looked at how the British and French made secret deals during WW1 to divide the Ottoman Empire and how they promised both the Arabs and Jews their support and betrayed them.  The present Syrian civil war being just one of the many conflicts that can be traced back to colonial meddling.

How do we know about the secret documents? Well after the Russian Revolution the Communists published all the secret documents in the Russian archives.  It did not stop the British & French drawing lines on maps causing thousands of people to flee their homes.
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Terry Case

Our July DVD covered the Versailles Treaty negotiations where Australian PM Billy Hughes was an outspoken advocate wanting Germany to become a subservient nation paying massive fines. This together with the formation of new European countries, led to WW2.

In our next session we will see how the Middle East was carved up in the scramble for oil resources.
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Terry Case

Our June meeting DVD focused on the revolutions that brought Lenin & the Bolsheviks to power in Russia. We saw the hopes and struggles to raise the desperately poor to a higher standard of living, at first applauded by many in the west. The Soviet Union set out to be a world leader that would see revolutions in many other countries; but lost many of its supporters who were horrified by the mass killings.  International support crumbled, to be replaced by fear of communism.

Our second program had been produced for an Anzac Day screening. It featured the battlefield cemeteries and included an acknowledgement that Aboriginals were also among the Australian war dead and wounded, but have only recently been acknowledged for their service. Those Aboriginal soldiers who survived were not eligible for Soldier settlement schemes and other support, nor were not allowed to join the RSL, although some branches allowed them to join ex comrades for Anzac Day.

The program asked us to understand the complexities of the war so we do not fall prey to “fairy stories”. The finale was a reading of war poet Siegfried Sassoon’s Aftermath written in 1919.   The harrowing poem asks:  “Have you forgotten yet?” Sassoon writes of the horrors of the Western Front, the rats & the dead, the terribly wounded and the young boys, now shattered men.      “ Look down & swear by the slam of the war,  you will never forget.”

The poem concludes :  “Do you ever ask if it's all going to happen again?” Of course we know that is exactly what happened just 20 years later. 

Terry Case