Dan Snow's History Hit has a two-part series on the Opium Wars, which remain an important part of the narrative of China's current history because they exemplify a "century of humiliation" that current policies and actions are designed to compensate for. In Part one The British Empire, China and Opium Dan and Dr Jeremiah Jenne, a professor of Late Imperial and Modern China, delve into the history of the Opium trade in the British Empire, how it brought crisis to China and started a war that still impacts China's relationship with the west today. As a major trading country with products that Europe wanted, China had maintained an aloofness and power in the trading relationship. But the Industrial Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had led to the development of technology that eclipsed that of China, and in Europe there had been a change in attitudes towards trade itself in the 1830s and 1840s, now seeing trade as a matter of opening markets, rather than just gaining access to goods. By 1800 10-12 million Chinese people were addicted to opium, even though it was illegal. Opium smugglers wanted silver, rather than tea. The emperor sought different opinions about how to deal with the opium problem, and heard opinions that very much echo the current debate over vapes:- should they legalize, tax, or punish the trade? Viceroy of Huguang Lin Zexu was charged with enforces penalties against traders, forcing them to hand over their opium which he then publicly burned. Eliot, the British agent, ordered limited retaliation but mission creep ensued, eventuating in the Treaty of Nanking which opened up treaty ports and put Hong Kong in British hands.
The Rest is History. Luther: Showdown with the Emperor (Part 4) Martin Luther was summoned to the imperial free city of Worms by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, to defend his radical beliefs. He arrived with crowds of followers. Charles V issued an edict condemning him as a heretic, but part of the arrangement for him travelling to Worms was that he was guaranteed safe passage there and back. Luther's protector Ferdinand was starting to distance himself a bit from Luther, but he nonetheless arranged for Luther to 'disappear' into a castle while things calmed down. Meanwhile, Luther himself realized that he could no longer impose himself on the Reformation, and that things were moving beyond him. He began to backtrack on some of his pronouncements.
History Extra British General Elections: Everything You Wanted to Know The British elections were under way when I listened to this. The 1920s saw the emergency of the two-party system, although one of them- the Liberal party- was gone by 1931. The secret ballot changed the nature of elections (and they didn't even mention Australia here!) and the suffrage was gradually extended (again, yeah for Australia even though they ignored the Australian example). Gladstone was the first of the mass, personality-based prime ministers, followed by Lloyd George and Churchill, although you could really only saw that Wilson's leadership was a decisive factor in the result. The 1950s and 1960s saw the growth of opinion polls and focus groups. Britain has first-past-the-post voting.
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