To understand the Anglo-American Empire which rules the world today, we will first look at the rise of the British Empire. And to understand the rise of the British Empire, we first need to discuss the rise of the Spanish Empire. It was the Spanish who were the first

My argument to you today is that Napoleon would not have been possible without Robespierre. To illustrate this point, let us do a thought experiment. I am going to present to you two individuals, and I want you to think about who is the greater genius, who is the more

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the philosopher-poet of the French Revolution. He provided the dream, telling the French that there was a promised land of reason where, if you used God's gift to us, you could build a new society—a utopia, a kingdom on earth. Today, we

The French Revolution is, I believe, the most significant event in human history. To understand its significance, we must first understand that it is the religious worldview that underpins society and civilization; it is what allows society to function. To oversimplify, there have been four major religious worldviews in human

How did Europe, starting around the year 1700, conquer the world? After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe became divided, poor, and weak compared with the rest of the world. But then, starting in 1700, Europe very quickly—in only about 200 years—would go on to conquer the

The European conquest of the New World, meaning North and South America, was led by people called the conquistadors, which is Spanish for "conquerors." These were mercenaries, bandits, and lower-class people who had to leave Spain and Portugal to look for new opportunities in South and Central

It was Dante who helped give birth to the idea of modernity, launching three major movements: the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution. We would not have modernity without Dante. Let's see how the three connect. The Renaissance was a celebration of what makes us human.

This exploration will be conceptually challenging because we will take concepts we learned before and combine them to help explain the world we live in today. The logic must be clear, so if anything is confusing or debatable, it's worth pausing to consider. First, I will explain the

The Renaissance was an intellectual revolution in Europe that would ultimately change the fate of the continent. It was a re-imagining of classical Greece in a Christian European context. The Renaissance combined classical Greece with Christian Europe to create modernity. The ideas and values that underpin modernity—the world

Today we will explore the Crusades, which will lead us into the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Islamic Revolution. We will look at three questions: What were the Crusades? Why did they happen? And why did they stop? To explain the answers, I first need to provide a lot