Year: 2020

192: 1919 – The Near East II

Mark Podcast
Faisal bin Hussein with his delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. The man just behind Faisal and to the right (in the dark headdress) is T.E. Lawrence, famous as ‘Lawrence of Arabia.’

Pursuant to what they had agreed upon in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, France and Britain divided between themselves the most desirable Arab lands—the Fertile Crescent.

The Arabs of the region were not consulted and did not consent to the arrangement, although the British did make one of King Hussein’s sons the King of Iraq and the other the Emir of Transjordan, while adopting a low profile in the governance of those two nations.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Mawwal”
Traditional. Public domain.
Performed by Ahmed Abdul Qadir al-Musili. Public domain recording.
Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

191: 1919 – The Near East I

Mark Podcast
The golden death mask of Tutankhamun.

The European powers intended to divide up the territories of the Ottoman Empire among themselves, just as was the case with Africa.

But the peoples of those regions had their own ideas. Egypt, long ruled by Britain, fought for independence, while Afghanistan broke relations with Britain in the wake of the Amritsar Massacre and declared war.

  • Listen now:



Steve Martin performs “King Tut” on Saturday Night Live, May 22, 1978:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“Rah Wilfy”
Traditional. Public domain.
Performed by Badria Anwar. Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Mask of Tutankhamun photographed by Roland Unger and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

190: 1919 – Africa II

Mark Podcast
The ruins of Great Zimbabwe, in modern-day Zimbabwe.

During the late war, Africa had been both a source of soldiers and a theater of conflict. Yet when the war was over, European powers meant to divide up the German colonies among the victors and continue with business as usual in Africa.

Liberals hoped that the new system of mandates would mark a change from the old way of doing things, while the Communists declared Africans oppressed victims of Western capitalism.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Digya
Composed and performed by Kevin MacLeod; used by arrangement with incompetech.com.
Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

189: 1919 – Africa I

Mark Podcast
The Pan-African flag.

For 500 years, Africa was for Europeans, first, an obstacle to circumnavigate on the way to Asia, and second, a source of slaves. Europeans turned against slavery in a big way in the 19th century, just as new technology was making it possible for Europeans to explore the African interior and enforce their claims upon it.

Europeans took it upon themselves to educate and “civilize” Africans, but two generations later, Africans wanted to know when they would be permitted a say in their own affairs.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Kumasi Groove
Composed and performed by Kevin MacLeod; used by arrangement with incompetech.com.
Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

188: 1919 – The U.S.S.R.

Mark Podcast
Lenin Mausoleum, just outside the Kremlin on Red Square, Moscow.

With the end of the Civil War, the Communists reorganize Russia into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Lenin introduces the New Economic Policy and the leadership of the Socialist Revolutionary Party are tried and convicted of treason.

During this period, Lenin also suffered three strokes, and died in January 1924.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“The Sick Doll,” from The Children’s Album.
Composed in 1878 by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Performed by Louis Sauter and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Photo of Lenin Mausoleum by Wikipedia user Staron used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license. Source. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

187: 1919 – The Caucasus

Mark Podcast
Armenian district of Shusha, destroyed in fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1920.

In 1919, independent nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia emerged for the first time since the Middle Ages, but they would be annexed by Russia after the Civil War.

Afterward, the Communist government in Moscow continued to face political opposition as it struggled to rebuild the Russian economy.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Symphony No. 5 in e minor
Composed in 1888 by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

186: 1919 – Russia IV

Mark Podcast
Lenin, Trotsky, and Voroshilov (standing center, in dark coats) pose with Red Army soldiers in Moscow in 1921.

Beginning in fall 1919, the White movement rapidly collapsed. The Allies began to withdraw their soldiers from Russian soil, and even lift the blockade of Russia.

The Civil War was a natural consequence of the Bolshevik seizure of power. But the White movement was never as well organized as the Reds, and lacked an ideology that could attract a broad base of support.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

In the Steppes of Central Asia
Composed in 1880 by Alexander Borodin. Public domain.
Public domain recording. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

185: 1919 – Russia III

Mark Podcast

The Bolsheviks began the year 1919 thinking the White movement was all but defeated. They were wrong.

Anton Denikin’s Armed Forces of South Russia would give them a nasty surprise, advancing hundreds of miles over the summer, until they were only about 200 miles from Moscow.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Mlada
Composed in 1890 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Public domain.
Performed by The University of Chicago Orchestra, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

184: 1919 – Russia II

Mark Podcast
Another White movement propaganda poster, this one depicting the Bolsheviks sacrificing the bound personification of Mother Russia before an altar to Marx and the International. Note Lenin, in center, in red robes, and Trotsky beside him, in bloody apron.

The Allies invested in the anti-Bolshevik movement in Russia, in the hope of overthrowing Lenin and getting Russia back into the Great War.

Once the armistice was signed, though, the calculus changed. But the West couldn’t just abandon the White movement, could it?

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

The Seasons
Composed in 1876 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Public domain.
Performed by Peter Bradley-Fulgoni, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

183: 1919 – Russia I

Mark Podcast
Propaganda poster from the Russian Civil War. No bonus points for guessing which side produced it.

During the first half of 1918, the new Bolshevik government in Russia and the western Allies maintained a cordial, if not exactly friendly, relationship. Mutual dislike of Germany helped keep them together.

But that ended after the assassination attempt on Lenin. By the end of the year, the Allies had over 100,000 soldiers on Russian soil and were aiding the anti-Bolshevik “White” movement.

  • Listen now:


Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

Études Tableaux
Composed in 1911 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Public domain.
Performed by Peter Bradley-Fulgoni, and used pursuant to a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 license. Source.

Closing Theme 


Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.