Turning Points in Modern History

Exploring the idea of modernity; defining the turning point; why Chinese admiral Zheng He's voyages promoting the power of China did not continue as part of a larger campaign of discovery; the consequences of Zheng He reaching the Americas.

The end of the Roman Empire and the idea that it happened 1,000 years later than previously noted; the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks; delving deeper into the event; learning the trauma the loss created for Europeans.

How Johannes Gutenberg's introduction of a press with movable type sparked a print revolution; the role of the printing press in the Protestant Reformation, the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, and the standardization of vernacular languages.

Christopher Columbus's search for Asia initiating an event regarded as the most important historical turning point in modern times; how Columbus's encounter with the Americas brought distant peoples together in productive and destructive ways.

The coexistence of the English and Dutch East India companies; how their rivalry soon escalated into war; examining the founding and meteoric growth of the East India Company; the violence that ultimately led Britain to establish an empire.

The Thirty Years' War, its soldiers, and its mass civilian casualties; exploring the significance of the Peace of Westphalia, the settlement that ended the war in 1648; a vital turning point that still shapes how international politics are handled.