What are some interesting time periods/eras to learn about?

[gamer.tv]

Last 6 or 7 years, I’ve started to read a fair bit of historical fiction. It’s been great seeing an overview of various key people and events but I want more.

 

I’ve just started to listen/watch some Dan Snow content and I’m enjoying it. I’ve mainly read/listened to things about English history from about 900 - 1500AD, but I’m keen to know what else I could read into, preferably outside the history of the country where I live - which I plan on learning about through a few trips over the next few years.

 

So, what old things did you find interesting to learn about? 

[SuperSpreader]

1. La Reconquista
2. The Second French Intervention 
3. Massacre in the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan (basically Cortez wanted to incorporate Aztec and Spanish empires, Spain saw him as a threat and sent someone to kill him, he left Mexico city to confront the guy, meanwhile there was a celebration and the Spaniards got scared, they overreact to risque dancing (ironic today) and they lash out, and the war began between the Aztecs and the Spaniards, which wasn't what Cortez intended. After losing that battle Cortez vows revenge against the Aztecs.)

[stepee]

Late Bronze Age Collapse Period was mentioned by someone where the other day and made me read more around it and it’s p interesting cuz that’s where we are headed.

 

 

[Biggie]

I’m not in to book learning 

[TUFKAK]

Crisis of the third century.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

21 minutes ago, stepee said:

Late Bronze Age Collapse Period was mentioned by someone where the other day and made me read more around it and it’s p interesting cuz that’s where we are headed.

 

I'll second the Late Bronze Age Collapse Period as well!

[stepee]

6 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

I'll second the Late Bronze Age Collapse Period as well!

 

pretty sure it was you who was talking about it here :P

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Just now, stepee said:

 

pretty sure it was you who was talking about it here :P

 

It was @Fizzzzle!

[stepee]

The Haitian Revolution is also a fun dive!

[skillzdadirecta]

I'm curous about the Reconstruction Period in the U.S. myself.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

3 minutes ago, stepee said:

The Haitian Revolution is also a fun dive!

 

I highly recommend Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast series about the Haitian Revolution.

 

Mike says that researching that history not only made him cry, but shifted his political views towards the left.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Middle Ages Europe is probably my favorite period to read about, but it sounds like you have that covered. 
 

Also gotten into Russian history in the last couple years, especially the Revolution. 

[SmugPrick]

The infamous IGN message board exodus of 2012

[Fizzzzle]

Here's one: the Cuban missile crisis. Considering it's the closest we ever came (so far) to nuclear apocalypse, and considering JFK secretly recorded every meeting and those recordings were fairly recently declassified, it's a truly fascinating subject.

 

However, I'm not here to talk about JFK (though he is a hero in his own right. Most of his military advisors wanted to launch a land invasion of Cuba, but they had no idea that the Soviet Union had secretly sent tens of thousands of troops to Cuba over the previous months and any US troops on Cuban soil would have walked into a trap that would have led to us not being able to talk about this today), I'm talking about Vasili Arkhipov.

 

So, a compromise to the land invasion of Cuba (again, shout out JFK), the US decided to blockade the island. A few Soviet nuclear subs evaded the blockade. I think there were 9, but check me on that.

 

These subs could not surface for oxygen for days. These men were starved, tired, oxygen-robbed, delirious, and armed with nukes. On one such submarine, there were three officers - the captain, a political commissar, and the lieutenant commander Vasili Arkhipov. They hadn't surfaced in days. They could barely breathe. It was like 110 degrees inside the craft. They had had no contact with Moscow. For all they knew, nuclear war had already begun. The captain and the commissar wanted to launch a nuke at... I don't know, Miami or wherever they happened to be.

 

To launch the nuclear missile, they needed all three officers to agree to launch it.

 

Vasili Arkhipov is the only one who said "no."

 

This man is the reason we are breathing. This man saved the entire world. He died of cancer in 1998, probably due to his exposure on nuclear subs, but also potentially due to his massive balls, it's impossible to say.

 

So yeah... Cuban missile crisis. It really was a countdown to Armageddon and people didn't know how close it really came to being so. It came down to one man, and his name was Vasili Arkhipov.

 

Really, the whole thing once JFK's recordings were declassified is a fascinating rabbit hole to go down.

 

@Commissar SFLUFAN it's right up your alley

 

[Fizzzzle]

Honestly, the more you read about the Cuban Missile Crisis, the more you believe we are in the multiverse where we are the only universe that DIDN'T land in nuclear apocalypse. There are times when it feels like a coin flip. Like maybe JFK was sick one day, or Arkhipov had an IBS flair up, and boom, we're all dead.

[Fizzzzle]

Also if you want to look into another Russian who single handedly thwarted nuclear Holocaust, look up Stanislav Petrov. Dude is a legend. That happened in 1983.

[Fizzzzle]

Here's a fucking doozy for your buttholes - did you know that Cortez had no authority to conquer Mexico? That was extremely outside of the purview of his mission, he wasn't sent to claim new land for Spain, he just decided that's what he wanted to do, because he was a complete ass. He basically retained power through a technicality (the myth about him burning his ships didn't happen) and he was not supposed to do, like.. any of the things he did.

 

Also he thought California was a mythical land of Amazons and gold.

 

So yeah, Cortez was a piece of shit and that's fun to explore. Also I am almost certainly a direct descendant of Cortez. Not that that matters.

[best3444]

32 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

Here's one: the Cuban missile crisis. Considering it's the closest we ever came (so far) to nuclear apocalypse, and considering JFK secretly recorded every meeting and those recordings were fairly recently declassified, it's a truly fascinating subject.

 

However, I'm not here to talk about JFK (though he is a hero in his own right. Most of his military advisors wanted to launch a land invasion of Cuba, but they had no idea that the Soviet Union had secretly sent tens of thousands of troops to Cuba over the previous months and any US troops on Cuban soil would have walked into a trap that would have led to us not being able to talk about this today), I'm talking about Vasili Arkhipov.

 

So, a compromise to the land invasion of Cuba (again, shout out JFK), the US decided to blockade the island. A few Soviet nuclear subs evaded the blockade. I think there were 9, but check me on that.

 

These subs could not surface for oxygen for days. These men were starved, tired, oxygen-robbed, delirious, and armed with nukes. On one such submarine, there were three officers - the captain, a political commissar, and the lieutenant commander Vasili Arkhipov. They hadn't surfaced in days. They could barely breathe. It was like 110 degrees inside the craft. They had had no contact with Moscow. For all they knew, nuclear war had already begun. The captain and the commissar wanted to launch a nuke at... I don't know, Miami or wherever they happened to be.

 

To launch the nuclear missile, they needed all three officers to agree to launch it.

 

Vasili Arkhipov is the only one who said "no."

 

This man is the reason we are breathing. This man saved the entire world. He died of cancer in 1998, probably due to his exposure on nuclear subs, but also potentially due to his massive balls, it's impossible to say.

 

So yeah... Cuban missile crisis. It really was a countdown to Armageddon and people didn't know how close it really came to being so. It came down to one man, and his name was Vasili Arkhipov.

 

Really, the whole thing once JFK's recordings were declassified is a fascinating rabbit hole to go down.

 

@Commissar SFLUFAN it's right up your alley

 

 

That is one hell of a post and extremely interesting. Thanks 

[Fizzzzle]

8 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

That is one hell of a post and extremely interesting. Thanks 

Any inaccuracies in that post are entirely due to my writing that straight off the dome, the story itself is 100% true and the fact that there isn't a movie about it is mind blowing

[SuperSpreader]

1 hour ago, Fizzzzle said:

Here's a fucking doozy for your buttholes - did you know that Cortez had no authority to conquer Mexico? That was extremely outside of the purview of his mission, he wasn't sent to claim new land for Spain, he just decided that's what he wanted to do, because he was a complete ass. He basically retained power through a technicality (the myth about him burning his ships didn't happen) and he was not supposed to do, like.. any of the things he did.

 

Also he thought California was a mythical land of Amazons and gold.

 

So yeah, Cortez was a piece of shit and that's fun to explore. Also I am almost certainly a direct descendant of Cortez. Not that that matters.

 

Cortez didn't intend for the Aztec empire to be waged war with, that was the fault of some idiot at a dance party. (not kidding)

 

 

[SuperSpreader]

The entire thing is actually really fascinating. A lot of people assume Mexicans = Aztec or Mayan but the reality is that's a modern reimagination to fuel movements like the Chicano movement.

 

The truth is no one liked the Aztecs, and honestly probably no who does, should. The other groups joined forces with the Spanish because they would rather be in servitude and change religion than live under the Aztecs. The Aztecs were defeated by disease, the Spanish, and their neighbors. The other nations thought they were bloodthirsty barbarians.

 

I can't blame them, pray to Jesus and tend to a hacienda or live under the threat of having my heart ripped out while I'm alive. 

[Fizzzzle]

3 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

The entire thing is actually really fascinating. A lot of people assume Mexicans = Aztec or Mayan but the reality is that's a modern reimagination to fuel movements like the Chicano movement.

 

The truth is no one liked the Aztecs, and honestly probably no who does, should. The other groups joined forces with the Spanish because they would rather be in servitude and change religion than live under the Aztecs. The Aztecs we're defeated by disease, the Spanish, and their neighbors.

Definitely. Cortez didn't conquer Mexico with 500 conquistadors, he conquered Mexico with the aid of all of the other people of Mexico who hated the Aztecs more than they hated the Spanish.

 

Which, again, Cortez was going completely rogue when he did that. And I don't mean that in a "the Spanish did nothing wrong" way, like it was a very happy accident for them, but Cortez basically "Leroy Jenkins'd" Mesoamerica.

[unogueen]

Tang dynasty. Among the greatest periods of human social reform and civic development.