History behind the headlines

David Keys
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  • HISTORIA
History behind the headlines

The History Behind The Headlines - Introduction: Politically, culturally and even psychologically, the past, often tragically, helps shape our world's present and its future. So, by more fully understanding history in its broadest terms, we improve our chances of tackling our world's problems. Planet Earth is a pretty horrifying place. Last year statistics show that 120,000 people lost their lives in more than 30 wars in virtually every region of our world. Finding just and lasting solutions to those crises requires huge skill and perseverance. But it also requires the public globally and their politicians to more fully understand the nature and histories of those conflicts. For without a better global public and political understanding of how and why those conflicts and crises evolved in the first place, it's much more difficult to solve them. For the past 15 years my tiny contribution to seeking solutions has been to study and publish detailed analyses of the historical origins of many of the political and military conflicts, crises and potential crises which currently challenge our world. Some of the crises I've analysed are disturbingly violent. Others are more peaceful, yet have the potential to cause substantial economic and social harm. So far I've investigated and analysed the historical trajectories behind more than 70 recent and current wars and crises. My research has involved in-depth interviews with literally hundreds of historians, political scientists, sociologists, and aid workers. My aim has been to be as objective and comprehensive as humanly possible – and to provide a unique record of how conflicts start and how tragically only too often they expand with such lethal consequences. I hope you find this rolling series of podcasts of interest. Here are the first four. If you like them, I'll do more. Thank you, David

Avsnitt

  1. 29 JAN.

    Gaza War series - Episode 6 - Examines the likely and potential global and other consequences of the Gaza war

    Gaza War series - Episode 6Episode 6 examines the likely and potential global and other consequences of the Gaza war

  2. 29 JAN.

    Gaza War series - Episode 5 - Investigates whether or not Israel had any other choice as to how to react to the Hamas attack

    Gaza War series - Episode 5Episode 5 investigates whether or not Israel had any other choice as to how to react to the Hamas attack

  3. 29 JAN.

    Gaza War series - Episode 4 - Tries to shed light on why Israel reacted in such a disproportionate way

    Gaza War series - Episode 4Episode 4 tries to shed light on why Israel reacted in such a disproportionate way

  4. 29 JAN.

    Gaza War series - Episode 3 - Tries to shed light on why Hamas launched its October 7 terrorist attacks against Israel.

    Gaza War series - Episode 3 Episode 3 tries to shed light on why Hamas launched its October 7 terrorist attacks against Israel.

  5. 29 JAN.

    Gaza War series - Episode 2 - Tells the 20th and 21st century history of Gaza itself.

    Episode 2 tells the 20th and 21st century history of Gaza itself.

  6. 29 JAN.

    Gaza War series - Episode 1 - Explains the long-term historical background to the Israel/Palestine conflict as a whole.

    Gaza War series - Episode 1: Explains the long-term historical background to the Israel/Palestine conflict as a whole. Permalink

  7. 2020-02-24

    Introduction to: HISTORY BEHIND THE HEADLINES!

    History behind the headlines

    3 min

  8. 2020-02-24

    Scotland: Will it stay in the UK?

    Brexit of course has huge implications for Britain's relationship with continental Europe. But it also has disturbing implications for the long-term survival of the United Kingdom itself. That's because Brexit has provided renewed impetus to Scotland's independence movement. For many centuries, Scotland traditionally saw itself as being geopolitically closer than England to continental Europe – and indeed the majority of Scottish voters voted against Brexit in the referendum of 2016 and against Brexit-supporting parties in the recent general election. But, apart from Brexit, what lies behind the growth of Scotland’s independence movement and why do so many Scots see their destiny as being so dramatically different to that of the English. What lies behind the spectacularly different national aspirations that currently exist in the two largest nations of the UK. In essence, the transformation has come about through a combination of long-term factors going back many centuries, and more recent developments that have taken place over the past 65 years. Of course, the most important factor is Scotland’s status as a distinct nation – a status that is grounded in its separate political history, its different legal system and different religious tradition. In political terms, Scotland was an entirely separate kingdom with its own monarchy and its own parliament for around 700 and 400 years respectively, before the Act of Union in 1707. Scotland owed its medieval and early modern independent statehood to the fact that it simply hadn’t been conquered or settled, to the same extent, by the peoples and powers that determined most of southern Britain’s history – namely the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans. Instead, Scotland’s own native Pictish tradition of kingship (the kingdom of Fortriu) merged with the western Scottish Gaelic ‘Scots’ royal dynastic system (the kingdom of Dal Riata) to produce a distinctively non-Anglo-Saxon ‘super- kingdom’ in northern Britain. Later on, England’s late 13th/14th-century attempts to conquer Scotland forced the Scottish state to ally itself to continental European powers (especially France) in order to protect itself against English takeover. This fundamentally changed Scottish culture. Educationally and in terms of its legal system it moved closer to Europe than England. Whereas before the English invasion of Scotland, many Scots had been educated at Oxford and Cambridge, after the conflict ended with Scottish victory, they tended to go to Paris and Orleans (in France) and Padua (in Italy). What’s more, competing Scottish and English ecclesiastical claims over who should control the Scottish church had led to the pope enforcing a long-lasting compromise by which the Scottish church had become neither Scottish nor English governed – but, uniquely, a ‘Special Daughter’ of the Papal See. This too led to the Europeanisation of Scottish culture, education and law. A third home-grown development also reinforced these trends. Whereas the medieval English state had become increasingly centralised (partly courtesy of the later Anglo-Saxons and the Normans), the Scottish state system was relatively decentralised with local landowners having substantial political and judicial responsibilities. In order for the system to work, landowners therefore had to be well educated. This, in part, lay behind the Scottish parliament’s decision, in the late 15th century, that the elder sons of all medium to large Scottish landowners had to be schooled in the law, Latin and the arts. This, in turn, contributed to an extraordinary educational expansion in Scotland. Whereas, by 1600, England had just two universities, Scotland had no less than five, albeit smaller ones. The creation of all these universities helped generate a large, highly educated class that wanted political influence and helped produce an extraordinarily vibrant civil society. These devolutionary and ed

    15 min

  9. 2020-02-22

    Kashmir: the fraught history behind the crisis

    India's continued abrogation of normal human rights in Kashmir - the only Muslim-majority region in India – is compromising the world's biggest democracy's relationship with several other key geopolitical players – including Turkey, China, Malaysia and potentially the European Union. An EU/India summit meeting on India/Europe relations is due to take place in Brussels next month. Above all, the situation in Kashmir continues to heighten tension between South Asia’s two great nuclear-armed rivals – India and Pakistan – and the potential for escalation is substantial. Kashmir – where India, Pakistan and China meet – is one of the most strategically and geopolitically sensitive places on earth. Up until the mid-20th century, it formed the north-west part of British India. Now India rules almost half of it, Pakistan controls just over a third – and China rules the remaining 20%. Kashmir has been the cause of four wars and countless terrorist outrages and human rights violations over the past 72 years – an intermittent conflict which has so far cost at least 90,000 lives. In a note to the UN Security Council last year, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, warned that “India should not mistake our restraint for weakness.” The note stated ominously that “if India chooses to resort again to the use of force, Pakistan will be obliged to respond, in self-defense, with all its capabilities.” The past year has already seen a major terrorist attack in Kashmir (by Pakistan-based Islamists) and subsequent Indian and Pakistani air strikes and cross-border shelling. The Indian-controlled part of Kashmir (the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir) is an anomaly – a majority Muslim territory in a majority Hindu country. It is one of the world’s most dangerous political flashpoints. Over most of the past ten days, parts of the region have been in a state of complete lock-down. Curfews have been imposed and more than 1300 Kashmiris - politicians, activists and others - have been arrested. But why has Kashmir become such a fraught and geopolitically volatile place? The story started at least 250 years ago when the great Muslim empires of south Asia – first, India’s Mughal Empire and then the Durrani (Afghan) Empire – went into decline. Up till then, Kashmir had been a predominantly Muslim territory under continuous Muslim rule for more than four centuries. But, in the late 18th century, in lands immediately to the south of Kashmir, the Sikhs (a religious group in Punjab) broke free from the Durrani Empire, created their own imperial state and, early in the next century, conquered both Jammu and Kashmir. The newly acquired territories (including Muslim-majority Kashmir) were now subject to non-Muslim (ie., Sikh) control. But, to the south and east, the British East India Company (which ruled much of India) was deeply unhappy about the political instability within the Sikh empire, and decided to take it over. The Sikhs were defeated in 1846 at the great battle of Sobraon (just 50 kilometres south of Sikhism’s holiest place – the Golden Temple in Amritsar) – and Kashmir consequently fell into British hands. The British then proceeded to sell Kashmir – for 7.5 million rupees – to the very ruler that the Sikhs had previously installed in neighbouring Jammu, a Hindu prince by the name of Gulab Singh, who had sensibly stayed neutral in the Anglo-Sikh war. However under the sale agreement, the prince (now with the title of Maharaja) was to hold Kashmir (and Jammu) as a British vassal. Kashmir therefore became the only major Himalayan state to form part of the British Empire (other key Himalayan kingdoms – Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan – were never part of the British Raj). The British were keen to maintain overlordship of Kashmir for two reasons – firstly because the British Imperial government in far away Calcutta (the other side of India) and in London itself became convinced that

    14 min

  10. 2020-02-22

    Mexicos drug war

    To the south of the United States’ 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico, a terrible war has been gathering pace over the past 13 years. So far, the conflict has claimed 230,000 lives, with countless others maimed, bereaved and impoverished. Tens of thousands of children have lost one or both their parents – and several hundred thousand people have been forced to flee their homes, creating a ever-growing army of refugees. Mexico’s drug war – an ultra-violent multi-sided conflict over who controls the country’s $30bn per year illicit drug trade with the USA – is currently costing almost 3,000 lives per month. But how did it all begin?

    14 min

  11. 2020-02-22

    Israel and Palestine

    IT IS A COLLISION between two nationalisms – both forged substantially in exile. It is a struggle between two peoples whose militant wings both still lay claim to the same territory. It is perceived by some as a clash between the first and third worlds or between Islam and Judaism, even between Islam and the West. At its heart lie thousands of years of history and some of the holiest places on earth. But how did this epic conflict arise and what are the histories of the peoples involved? Today there are 15 million Jews scattered across the world. But originally many of their ancestors came from ancient Judea (formerly the area covered by part of the Biblical kingdom of Judah). The first Israelite (or proto-Jewish) period of statehood lasted from around 1000 BC to the partial destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC. According to biblical tradition there was initially a single Israelite kingdom but after a century or so it seems to have split into two separate Israelite states – the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. The second period of statehood lasted from 165 BC to the Roman Conquest of 63 BC (a period when the area was ruled by an independent Jewish dynasty known as the Hasmoneans). Two short periods of independence followed revolts against Rome in 66 and 132 AD. In between all these periods of statehood, the area was ruled successively by the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. The long exile of Jews from Judea started in earnest after the Babylonian onslaught and accelerated after each revolt against Rome. From the second century onwards the Jewish population of Palestine – the geographical region covering what is now Israel and the West Bank – shrank massively. A limited return of some Diaspora Jews to Palestine only seriously got underway in the 13th century following the Muslim defeat of the crusaders. More than a dozen relatively small waves of Jewish immigration, mainly for religious reasons, took place over the next 700 years. Large Jewish communities developed in Safed (in what is now northern Israel) and in Jerusalem – but as a percentage of the total population of Palestine the Jewish element was small – only around six per cent by 1880. But two phenomena combined to change the situation. Firstly, from 1881 onwards, violent anti-Semitism massively increased in Russia. Secondly most of the peoples in Europe had been developing nationalist ideologies and the continent’s Jewish population now did likewise and developed the concept of Jewish nationalism (Zionism). Over the next 30 to 40 years the Jewish population of Palestine quadrupled – by 1914 accounting for 14 per cent. In 1917/18 Britain captured Palestine from the Turkish Ottoman Empire shortly after Britain’s foreign secretary Balfour had announced that the UK favoured the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. After the rise of Hitler and after the Holocaust, Jewish migration to now-British-ruled Palestine speeded up massively. By 1948, 40 per cent of Palestine’s population was Jewish. As Britain prepared to withdraw, the UN approved a plan – opposed by the Arab countries and the Palestinian Arabs – to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab one. In late 1947 hostilities broke out between Palestine’s Jewish and Arab populations. British control ended in May 1948. The Jewish population immediately declared the State of Israel and regular troops from Arab countries became involved in the fighting. Israel succeeded in capturing substantial amounts of additional territory and emerged victorious. Only the West Bank and Gaza remained of what the UN plan had envisaged as a Palestinian state – these areas were taken over by Jordan and Egypt respectively. The year 1948 marked the final end of partial Jewish exile from Palestine, but it also marked the beginning of a partial Arab exile from the land. We have charted the Jewish relationshi

    14 min
  • 11 avsnitt

Om

The History Behind The Headlines - Introduction: Politically, culturally and even psychologically, the past, often tragically, helps shape our world's present and its future. So, by more fully understanding history in its broadest terms, we improve our chances of tackling our world's problems. Planet Earth is a pretty horrifying place. Last year statistics show that 120,000 people lost their lives in more than 30 wars in virtually every region of our world. Finding just and lasting solutions to those crises requires huge skill and perseverance. But it also requires the public globally and their politicians to more fully understand the nature and histories of those conflicts. For without a better global public and political understanding of how and why those conflicts and crises evolved in the first place, it's much more difficult to solve them. For the past 15 years my tiny contribution to seeking solutions has been to study and publish detailed analyses of the historical origins of many of the political and military conflicts, crises and potential crises which currently challenge our world. Some of the crises I've analysed are disturbingly violent. Others are more peaceful, yet have the potential to cause substantial economic and social harm. So far I've investigated and analysed the historical trajectories behind more than 70 recent and current wars and crises. My research has involved in-depth interviews with literally hundreds of historians, political scientists, sociologists, and aid workers. My aim has been to be as objective and comprehensive as humanly possible – and to provide a unique record of how conflicts start and how tragically only too often they expand with such lethal consequences. I hope you find this rolling series of podcasts of interest. Here are the first four. If you like them, I'll do more. Thank you, David

Information

  • Skapad av
    David Keys
  • Aktiva år
    2020 - 2024
  • Avsnitt
    11
  • Åldersgräns
    Barnvänligt
  • Copyright
    © Copy right David Keys - World news in context
  • Programmets webbplats
    History behind the headlines

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