Category: history

SubscribeStar Saturday: The Renaissance

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To finish out the school year, I put together a three-day mini-unit for my World History students to familiarize them with some of the major movements in Europe between circa 1300-1600.  The idea is to bridge the gap between the High Middle Ages (specifically, the end of The Hundred Years’ War and the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453) and the Age of Exploration.  That will allow them to start United States History in August with a broad, albeit brief, sense of the context for European colonization of the New World, which is where the US History course begins (along with some history about pre-Columbian native tribes and civilizations).

My “three-day mini-unit” really worked out to be about three-and-a-half days, as I’m attempting to cover some huge changes in European society and faith.  The mini-unit covers the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation (and the Catholic Counterreformation), and European exploration and colonization (the last  of which is a very cursory introduction).

Readers should be able to access the slides here.  They primarily pull information from McDougal Littell’s World History: Patterns of Interaction (2005; that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you), supplemented in my lectures with my own insights, pulled from various sources.  I add quite a bit about the Reformation, for example, in my lectures, and we look at a good bit more Renaissance art than appears in the slides.

Indeed, the Renaissance constitutes over one-third of the slides, because it’s such a transformative movement in its own right.  Literally meaning “rebirth,” the Renaissance represented a fundamental shift in the medieval mind.  Rather than creating art and literature primarily for the glorification of God, the humanism of the Renaissance sought to better understand and to celebrate humanity itself.  The movement’s interest in classical Greece and Rome sought to move beyond mining insights into Christian theology from those pre-Christian sources, but to understand the values of the ancient Greeks and Romans on their own terms.  That represented a shift away from the Aquinian scholastic project of reconciling pre-Christian (and pagan) Greco-Roman philosophy with Christian theology and the revealed Truth of the Bible towards a more historical approach.

That said, the Renaissance was not dominated by atheists.  Indeed, Renaissance humanism was very Christian in nature.  While the emphasis of art shifted to the human, it was in a context of the human as a reflection of God; after all, we are made in His Image.  Michelangelo’s famous painting “The Creation of Adam” on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel demonstrates that God Is firmly Sovereign.  Adam reclines, his hand extended somewhat limply, while God, surrounded by a heavenly host of angels, extends forward, His Finger extended in the act of creation:

“The Creation of Adam”; Image Source: https://www.pickpik.com/sistine-chapel-vatican-michelangelo-museum-rome-143433, accessed 8 May 2026 (image is in the public domain)

Indeed, God’s entire Body is in action, almost Moving towards His Creation.  While Adam’s form is certainly idealized, he is clearly the recipient of the creative act, not the initiator.

The Catholic Church was a major sponsor of the Renaissance, sometimes to its detriment:  one source of complaints from the Protestant reformers was the extreme luxury and decadence of the popes and cardinals.  Many popes embraced the earthier sides of the Renaissance, with its celebration of good food along with good art, and engaged in all manner of sinful activities.  But God Uses even wicked men to His Ends, and in its corruption and venality the Catholic Church of the Renaissance patronized the creation of numerous devotional works of exquisite quality.  In music, for example, a Reformation-chastened papacy would shift away from the garish theatricality of late medieval sacred music and re-embrace the ethereal beauty of composers like Palestrina, whose Pope Marcellus mass is a masterpiece of choral writing.

The humanist genie was out of its bottle, however, and did much to fertilize the soil from which the Reformation would spring.

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Lazy Sunday CCCXLXVIII: Imperial Ambition

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While I was focused on moving most of my junk to the new house (and yet, there’s more bric-a-brac left to move), the United States and Israel let loose the dogs of war against Iran.  In light of that, I thought I’d cast back to some posts from earlier this year about nationalism, imperialism, and the like.

Let Loose the Murph of War

This edition of Lazy Sunday is largely a rehash of Lazy Sunday CCCXLXIII: Empire, but I’m tossing in some spicy Mongol content, too:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

TBT: Midweek Mongol Madness

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It’s my second consecutive year teaching World History (I taught it last school year for the first time since the 2011-2012 school year—whoa!), and I’m pleased to see that I’m two weeks ahead of schedule compared to where I was last year.  That’s likely due to having a bunch of my lessons done this year, so I’m not trying to pad out lectures with a bunch of riffing.

So it is that, as of the time of writing, I’ve just covered the Mongols in detail (minus a couple of slides before we talk about medieval Japan).

The Mongols are wildly fascinating, in part because they were wild—nomadic horsemen who would drink the blood of their horses when they were low on supplies; wore silk underwear that served as protection against arrows; and would switch horses mid-ride, spending as much as ten days in their saddles.  Under Genghis Khan, they spilled an immense amount of blood, slaughtering an estimated 40,000,000 (that’s forty million) people, equivalent to low-end estimates of those who perished in the Second World War.  Again, these are estimates—numbers from the thirteenth century aren’t necessarily reliable—but that comes to roughly 13% of the global population at the time.  Indeed, while writing these numbers, they seemed fantastically large; I had to go back and consult my World History textbook (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you).

Genghis Khan’s conquests, as well as those of his successors, brought an odd peace, the Pax Mongolica (also an Amazon Affiliate link), to Eurasia for about 100 years.  It was the peace of the graveyard, as so many people were killed in the course of these invasions, there was no one troublesome enough left to cause a ruckus.  It also marked one of the few times in human history that a single political unit (sort of) controlled the great Eurasian steppes, allowing for the (alleged) journeys of Marco Polo and doubtlessly thousands of other unsung but intrepid merchants, missionaries, and explorers.

Naturally, the largest land-based empire ever to exist in the world could not long survive.  The Mongol Empire was probably never anything as such—a single, unified political unit—but more of an amalgamation of tribes, peoples, and regions swearing allegiance to the Great Khan.  After Genghis Khan’s death, the empire was divided into four khanates, with an ostensible Great Kahn ruling over the four, but with the regions going their own ways in practice.

Nevertheless, there is something captivating about the sheer scale of these conquests, and the way a nation of clannish, nomadic horsemen swept across the world, spreading their terrible fury and bloodlust as they went (and, it seems likely, the Black Death that would depopulate 25% of Europe).

Will another horde arise from the Eurasian steppes?  If so, let’s pray they fall far short of ambitious conquests of the Mongols.

With that, here is 5 March 2025’s “Midweek Mongol Madness“:

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TBT: The Portly Politico Presidents’ Day Extravaganza

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The United States observed Presidents’ Day earlier this week, and yours portly is enjoying a decadent Winter Break for the next couple of days.  Of  course, the decadence will end abruptly on Saturday when Dr. Wife and I load up yet another U-Haul with the last remaining stuff from her house.

For today, though, I’m enjoying a little bit of time with the dogs while Dr. Wife slaves away at the hospital.  She’s a good woman.

It seems that February is always a bit of a low-point for the blog in terms of my own preparedness and output.  I’m not sure why that is.  Perhaps the initial rush of the New Year has passed, with Reality settling in heavily.  It certainly seems like everything has been busier lately.

Regardless, here’s to a few days off—probably the last for a good while!

With that, here is 17 February 2025’s “The Portly Politico Presidents’ Day Extravaganza“:

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Memorable Monday: Daybreak in America: Trump’s Inauguration, MLK Day, and a New Hope

The Portly Politico16 Comments

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in America, and tomorrow will mark one year since President Trump’s Inauguration.

It seemed fitting that Trump would be inaugurated for his second non-consecutive term on the day set aside to commemorate King, a man who very likely would have descended into grifter status had he lived much longer.  Trump election also continued the rollback of the affirmative action racialist system that King’s successors endorsed.

Most importantly for yours portly, it’s a day off—and a cold one!  I’m looking forward to a quiet morning with Dr. Wife before Murphy and I make the frosty trek back to the South Carolina.

With that, here is 20 January 2025’s “Daybreak in America: Trump’s Inauguration, MLK Day, and a New Hope“:

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Lazy Sunday CCCXLXIII: Empire

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It’s been the week of American imperialism here on the blog, and I don’t necessarily mean “imperialism” negatively.  Here are some posts about how the United States is embracing its destiny (and the peaks and pitfalls of doing so):

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

SubscribeStar Saturday: American Imperialism

The Portly Politico1 Comment

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Apologies for the evening post, dear readers; Dr. Wife and I played a key role in balloon arch construction for a friend’s baby shower, and yours portly took an extended nap after overindulging on chicken wings and fried pickles.  Now that all of that succulence has gone straight to fat, I’m slowly rubbing my neurons together to hammer out this post.  —TPP

The excellent website Free Speech Backlash ran a lengthy essay of mine this past Thursday, 15 January 2026.  “Trump: Nationalist or Imperialist?” is an attempt to place the Nicolás Maduro arrest in the broader context of American diplomatic history, specifically as it pertains to our hemispheric policy.  That policy dates back to the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which received an overhaul in the first years of the twentieth century during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.  The so-called Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine argued that, in order to prevent European intervention in Latin America, the United States would intervene instead.

President Trump is clearly aware of this history—thus his invocation of the “Donroe Doctrine,” his own revival of the Roosevelt Corollary.  Chinese and Russian influence in the Western Hemisphere is increasing, and The Donald has to take action.  The action in Venezuela was not strictly about securing oil—we have plenty of it—but to prevent China from controlling major oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere.  The United States also sought to prevent China and Russia paying for that oil with their own currencies, as the purchasing of oil in US dollars ensures the dominance of our increasingly devalued currency.

China has also sought to make inroads into Panama, where the Panamanians currently run the canal that Roosevelt took drastic steps to ensure could be built—under American auspices.  One reason Trump wants to reclaim the Panama Canal is precisely because if we don’t, the Panamanians will likely fold to the Chinese.

Even Greenland, the most memeable of Trump’s neo-Monrovian ambitions, is an application of the Monroe/Donroe Doctrines.  The Arctic is emerging as a major trade route for global goods—the fabled Northwest Passage now a reality—and China has already made attempts to bring the Danish colony under its thumb.  The Danes lack the will and the capacity to improve and defend Greenland—or even to exploit its vast natural resources effectively—and The Donald sees this island as the key to securing dominance in the Arctic in the Western Hemisphere.

Indeed, it was Greenland that generated the most commentary (and heart-bleeding) in the comments section.  The most common refrain from the opposition was that the Greenlanders have the right to self-determination.  It’s an argument I’m sympathetic with in principle, but in Reality, Greenland has a population of fewer than 60,000 people—only barely double that of the municipal population of my hometown growing up in South Carolina.  If the world were a peaceful place, an independent Republic of Greenland could probably be viable as an extremely small (demographically) nation.  In the world of cutthroat geopolitics, with China and Russia on the rise and the Arctic opening up new strategic challenges and opportunities, an independent Greenland is a costly fantasy.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Prehistoric Exploration: Catan: Dawn of Humankind

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Last night yours portly had his raucous bachelor party, which consisted of eating pizza and play board games with my friends at my younger brother’s house.  The board gaming highlight of the evening was playing Catan: Dawn of Humankind (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link, at no additional cost to you), which my best man purchased as an early wedding gift.

The game can best be described as a blend of the early turns of any Civilization game and Settlers of Catan (more affiliate links), the classic Klaus Teuber game.  The map takes place on Earth, with all players starting with camps and explorers (imagine a blend of the scout and settler in Civ) in Africa.  Players are encouraged via various game mechanics to migrate out of Africa and to explore and populate the rest of the world.

Like classic Catan, the goal is to reach ten victory points.  These points achieved through various means—cultural and scientific development; exploration; and settlement outside of Africa.  Like Catan, players gather four different resources, re-themed to fit the prehistoric setting, by rolling two six-sided dice.  Players may trade these resources or cash triplicates into the bank in exchange for a single resource of another type.

There are some key differences, however:  while Dawn of Humankind is built on the Catan system, it is geared towards exploration and research.  Settlement is a key component of the game, but it’s done by sending out explorers.  Some areas of the map are blocked off by certain research requirements; for example, reaching Australia requires substantial investments into construction (for boats, presumably) and clothing.  Going towards the Arctic requires high clothing investments.  Investing in exploration lets explorers move more quickly, and investing in hunting allows players to move the Neanderthal in Eurasia and the Smilodon (saber-toothed tiger) in the Americas and Australia (these tokens act as the equivalent to the thief in classic Catan.

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Retro Tuesday: Veterans’ Day 2018, Commemoration of the Great War, and Poppies

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Today marks the 107th anniversary of Armistice Day, the day that the Great War (the First World War) ended.

The First World War has come back into vogue as an example of the absurd, murderous capacity of even seemingly enlightened humans to engage in massive, needless violence.  I think that’s true, but I also think the First World War is when the West lost confidence in itself.

Consider:  if the allegedly “enlightened” moderns of Western Civilization could lead their armies into senseless, ceaseless warfare for four years, how did that make us any better than the rest of the world?  Indeed, it seemed to make us and our advancements seem even worse.

That analysis misses some key points, however.  The war wasn’t just about nationalism-run-amok, or secret alliances swinging into a deadly, almost automatic catastrophe of geopolitics gone wrong.  It reflected the dehumanization of modernity itself, the turning of people into, first, mere cogs in vast industrial machines and, second, into fodder for a brutal meatgrinder.

The First World War may have caused the West to lose its “mojo,” as I’ve argued before, but the West was already losing its soul before that great, terrible conflict.  Fast forward 107 years, and Europe is a place so venal, so atheistic, so nihilistic, so devoid of meaning, that it’s gladly and eagerly invited its own replacement by foreign nationals and faiths.  The very same civilization that resisted Islamic domination for 1400 years has now given up without a fight.  As long as the endless welfare benefits keep coming, no one cares.

It’s truly tragic.  The World Wars cost millions of lives and wrought untold damage upon the world.  They also destroyed what little will the West had left to preserve itself, at least in Europe.  The West may very well have died 107 years ago.

I hope I am wrong.

With that, here is 13 November 2018’s “Veterans’ Day 2018, Commemoration of the Great War, and Poppies“:

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Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November

The Portly Politico8 Comments

Today is Guy Fawkes Day (or Night) in merry old England, a holiday that is unapologetically nationalist, monarchist (in the best English tradition of that form of government) and Protestant Christian.  There’s something fun and refreshingly patriotic about a holiday dedicated to burning a treacherous Papist in effigy.  Not to make everything about America, but it smacks of the Fourth of July, albeit without the anti-monarchist undertones.

Most Americans will be familiar with Guy Fawkes Day and the iconic mask from the film V for Vendetta (2005), in which the meaning of Guy Fawkes focuses on the man’s role as a would-be freedom fighter for English Catholics against an oppressive Protestant regime.  In the context of the film, the titular V dons the mask in the context of a freedom fighter against a fascistic, quasi-religious British government.

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