​We concluded the course in June looking at the radically new Enlightenment ideas on science, politics and the economy that emerged between 1750 and 1899.

A century of warfare in Europe between 1800 – 1899 followed as young revolutionaries tried to introduce more democratic participation in governments and sought to reclaim national control in their countries by expelling major powers. 

The bad news continued with the two world wars in the twentieth century as unfinished business from the previous century spilled over into the industrialized warfare that created the most carnage in Human history.

How to stop it? For the first time in many centuries Europe has had peace from warfare for 70 years after the formation of the European Union in the 1950s. Not just a trading block, the EU has enmeshed European economies so that major former enemies (France, Germany and England) would find it impossible and unnecessary to start a war.

While Western Civilization has had many bad directions over its 2600 years [Warfare, slavery, Serfdom, Colonization and exploitation of the weak, there has never-the-less been a trajectory of progress in the last two hundred years. 

Meg Dillon

Our two sessions in May explored firstly, the Protestant Reformation and its electric effect on the rest of Europe. The Printing Press, then in use for sixty years, rapidly spread thousands of copies Of Martin Luther’s ideas throughout Germany and Europe within months. His translation of the Bible into common German, stimulated other Northern nations to make translations too and quickly expanded the importance of learning to read throughout many countries.

Our second session looked at the extensive system of colonization that followed in this period. Spain, Portugal then England, France and Holland all explored and colonized Asia and the Americas. Colonization mostly benefitted the colonizers as many abuses of the native peoples occurred in every country that experienced European conquest or settlement. The final vestiges of colonization were finally eradicated in the 1970s. This enormously long engagement between Europe and the rest of the world has resulted in some of the suspicion, even anger, with which some former colonies regard their former European  rulers.

Videos helped tell the stories of these events.
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Meg Dillon

We have arrived at the Italian Renaissance and explored its explosion of knowledge in the Arts as it’s scholars rediscover Ancient Greek and Roman texts and artefacts. But whom does this knowledge benefit? Scholars and rich merchants participate but the general population just enjoys the spectacles and the beautiful public buildings that patrons donate to their city states in Northern Italy. More significant may be the banking reforms introduced by the Medici of Florence and their establishment of an international European bank with the gold florin as the major trading currency of Europe. Bankers also to the Popes, they introduced many of the modern banking practices that are still in use today: audits, double entry book keeping etc.

Of more impact on the average person, was the Black Death which reduced Europe’s population by half between 1346 and 1353. But it brought advantages too. Feudalism was almost entirely wiped out as the scarcity of laborers enabled them to dictate new and better terms of employment. Port cities grew, labor saving inventions appeared and much more. One of these inventions was Gutenberg’s printing press, which revolutionized access to written information for all who could read.
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Meg Dillon

It’s impossible to cover Roman history of 900 years in four hours of discussion and viewings. Instead we explored a highly selective set of issues that still seem important to historians today. These included Rome as the first mega-city of one million people: how it was supplied from the resources of its conquered territories and how its population lived. We looked at computer re-creations of the port of Ostia through which many of the goods arrived to feed and supply everyday needs. We compared the Republican government with the Empire that followed when dictators, styled as Emperors, captured the government of Rome.  We explored why  the Republic and the Empire both collapsed due to such pressures as the constant warfare on the borders; the pressures of large groups of ‘barbarians’ invading in order to find land to settle in; massive corruption in the governing classes, the drying up of the supply of slaves that were the ‘working class’ of the ancient world. 

​Rome grew too big to sustain effective control over its massive territories  as its armies shrank and became less loyal and it had no way of being able to use fast communications to manage its territories. Rome  was never a democracy but despite this, or maybe because of this, it survived for around 900 years, much of this time being a major power in the Mediterranean. 

​Meg Dillon

Our two meetings for this month explored some major trends in Ancient Greek culture, including some things we have borrowed from them.

My aim was to provide a balanced view of this culture as past historians have sometimes over-romanticized it. Its dark side included almost constant warfare between the city states and the Persians; the suppression of women and the horrible practice of female infanticide that was common. The ancient world, including the Greeks, was based on the economics of slavery, as men and women from defeated enemies were sold as slaves. Even Athens, the supposed shining light of democracy, had a limited but interesting political  model of government that only included adult male citizens.
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We concluded by investigating Athens culture and politics with a final look at what art historians have idolized, stunning pottery and a glorious development of realistic marble and bronze statues


Meg Dillon

History helps us understand some complex issues, even though it can’t and doesn’t predict future outcomes. Today our Western Civilization is strongly attacked as corrupt, militaristic and nihilistic.

But is it? How did it evolve and what aspects of should we embrace and be proud of?

These history sessions will look at the current situation, then briefly explore those past cultures that have created our complex Western world.

Ancient Greece: it all started with the Greeks and their vast cultural agenda. Art, sculpture, philosophy, science and much more was developed by this squabbling, argumentative but lively group of city states and colonies, known as the Greek World.

The Romans: masters of war, engineering and administration. Their Pax Romana (The Roman Peace) was spread across Europe in the largest ancient empire prior to the British Empire. The Romans would colonize and civilize other cultures but would brutally suppress any rebellion.

The Italian Renaissance: The rich Italian city states of the thirteenth century rediscovered the Ancient World of the Greeks and Romans through their discoveries of surviving sculptures and ancient manuscripts. The result was a reintroduction of many of the achievements of these cultures that had been lost in the previous 1000 years. The Italians built on this foundation advancing both the practice of the arts and that of diplomacy in an era that was fractured by minor wars between the city states and the Papacy.

The Reformation: In the early sixteenth century Martin Luther started a vast religious  movement protesting against some of the corruption and excesses that had developed in the Catholic Church. The succeeding growth of Protestantism turned many parts of Europe into mercantile hubs where vast wealth started to be made by a merchant class, while more austere religious and communal practices were adopted by whole populations in Northern Europe.

The Enlightenment: The age of science burst into being in the eighteenth century in England and France. Gentlemen ‘scientists’ started to look at the way the physical aspects of our world worked. In France the French Revolution in 1787 followed naturally from this development as the middle classes refused to accept the older corrupt  rule of King, Church and nobles. This was the start of our era in which science and government would dominate our thinking and lead to Western democracy as we know it and the vast scientific knowledge that has changed our world and lives.
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Discussion and suitable video and other images will be used to convey some of the key attributes of these  major historical influences that have formed the Western world.


Meg Dillon