British History and The Middle East

Thames and Rhine

  • 13,000 years ago: The Thames and the Rhine were part of the same river system.
  • Sea-level rise: Affecting the coastlines of Britain and Europe.

Connection Between Britain and The Middle East

  • Historically.
  • Economically.
  • Culturally.
  • Imagination of the British (national identity and stories).

William Blake

  • Proto-Romantic poet: Lived around the time of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era.
  • Protesting Industrialization: Sucking people into polluted cities and using child labor.
  • Machines replacing human labor.
  • Anti-industrial and against economic corruption.

Poem Adaptation

  • 1916: Poem adapted to music during World War I, a patriotic tone.
  • Middle of World War I: British losing soldiers daily.
  • Hubert Perry: Sets the poem to music with a pro-war tone.
  • Part of popular culture: Played in movie theaters to rile up the British population.
  • Pro-war Patriotic English song: Arrows, swords, chariots.
  • Boys' choir: Theme of innocence with patriotic music.

Blake's Lyrics: Jerusalem

  • Faux naive antique style.
  • About Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
  • Rhetorical question. Is England a Christian nation?
  • Blake is pro-Christian.
  • "And was the holy lamb of God on England's pleasant pasture scene?"

Lamb of God

*Symbol for Jesus.

  • Symbol of innocence.
  • Sheep are famously raised in England.
  • English economy depended on wool production from the 1300s to the 1500s.
  • "And did the countenance divine shine forth upon our clouded hills?"
  • Did God look specifically at England from heaven.
  • "And was Jerusalem builded here among these dark satanic mills?"

Jerusalem

  • Jerusalem was built in Palestine, not England.
  • Contrast between Christ and Satan.
  • Mills: Industrial mills, factories in London.
  • Factories are the work of the devil.

Blake's Fight

  • Mental fight, not physical.
  • "Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand till we have built Jerusalem in England's green and pleasant land."
  • Not literally building Jerusalem but making England good again.
  • References to the Middle East.

William Blake as an Artist

  • Beneficiary of mental disorder: Visions given by God.
  • Illustrated Milton's Paradise Lost, and he would dream the lines of the poem, and then dictate them to his daughters.

Illustration of Paradise Lost

  • The first builder, the first architect.
  • Mallet: Hammering in bricks.
  • Tool for measuring distances.
  • The sun, the moon, and Stonehenge.

Stonehenge

  • Neolithic structure built by proto-Celtic people.
  • Around 5,000 years ago in Southwest England.
  • Mysterious thing for romantics.
  • No historical records.
  • Associated with sunrises and sunsets.

Early British Cultural Historians

  • Made up information when they didn't know the answer.
  • Looked for facts in the Bible to fill in the gaps.
  • Used the Old Testament for historical context.

Biblical History

  • Noah's Ark: Landed in Turkey.
  • All people descended from Noah's sons and daughters-in-law.
  • Pre-Celtic European settlers came from places like Pakistan and The Middle East.

Gildus

  • British historian: During attacks by Norsemen, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Danes.
  • Compared attacks to those by the Philistines on Israel in the Bible.
  • Interpreted contemporary events based on biblical events.

Venerable Bede

  • Traces Britons back to the descendants of Noah.

Barbara Tuchman

  • Search for ancestors.
  • British history fuses biblical stories with scientific knowledge (pseudoscience and theology).

Norman Invasion

  • Normans joined a pan-European Norman trading system.
  • Norman Arab Byzantine culture: Fused with Byzantine culture.
  • Settled in Italy, Sicily, and North Africa.

Architecture

  • Aspects of ancient Roman culture.
  • Norman arch.
  • Arab innovation (the pointed arch).
  • Influences Irish design.
  • Book of Kells: Celtic designs found also in Visigothic manuscripts.
  • Norman sculpture of the period.
  • Stone fortifications.

Family Networks

  • Norman Italy passes to Schwebia due to death and marriage.
  • Frederick the second expels Muslims.
  • Charles the second forces remaining Muslims to leave.
  • Multicultural society becomes segregated.

Old Stock Market in London

  • Facade like the Pantheon.
  • Trading floor where stockbrokers sold commodity shares.
  • Murals showing British commerce throughout history.

Ancient Britons Trading

  • Trading with ancient Greek sailors.
  • Reconstruction of a Cornish dwelling from 600 BCE.
  • Cornwall had high-quality tin.
  • Phoenicians traded purple cloth, medicine, and jewelry for British tin.

Irony in British History

  • Queen Bodicia rebelled against the Roman general.
  • Hebrews in Judea rebelled at the same time.
  • The same Roman general put down both rebellions.

Crusades

  • German princes, French nobility, and the king of England fought to protect the holy land.
  • Richard the Lionheart conquered Cyprus in November.
  • British pilgrims went to Jerusalem until the fall of Constantinople.
  • Chaucer's Wife of Bath had made pilgrimages multiple times.

Protestantism

  • King Henry the eighth switched from Catholicism to Protestantism.
  • Requested a divorce from the Pope, who refused.
  • Henry declared himself head of the Church of England.
  • Took over Catholic properties to pay off debts.

Bible Translation

  • Henry realized the need to translate the Bible into English.
  • The Bible should be accessible for individual interpretation.
  • Focus on the Old Testament.

Hebrew Nation

  • The history, traditions, and moral law of the Hebrew nation became part of English culture.
  • England was famously antisemitic.

English Law

  • Based on common law.
  • Cases are decided based on previous cases.
  • Varies depending on where it's executed.
  • Roman law is the same everywhere.

Trade with The Middle East

  • Fairly brisk trade from 1200 to 1450.
  • Lost connection during the Elizabethan era.
  • The Ottoman Empire became more open to trade.
  • The Battle of Lepanto opened up the Mediterranean.
  • The English Navy defeated the Spanish Navy.
  • Exchanges became more based on commerce and economics.
  • Elizabeth encouraged trade and set up charters.
  • First British embassy in The Middle East in Istanbul (1591).

English Trade Interests

  • Silk.
  • Cotton.
  • Indigo blue.
  • Spices (for preserving foods).
  • Medicines (Herbs).
  • Apothecary drugs.

English Offerings

  • Three different kinds of dogs.
  • Clocks.

Results of Trade

  • Manufacturing shifted from wool to cotton.
  • London unsuitable place for weaving cotton.
  • North of England better for cotton weaving.
  • Industrial system of labor.

Imports from The Middle East

  • Daffodils.
  • Lilies.

Colonial Capitalism

  • England producing a lot of wool and exporting it to be finished into products but buying it back at a losing rate.
  • Britain imported raw materials and made finished products for profit.
  • China's model imports materials and makes cell phones, exporting them for profit.

Colonial Profits

  • Spain imported four times more from its American colonies.
  • The Dutch East India Company gave dividends of 24% to its stockholders.
  • England imported more goods from India and exported to them a bare minimum.

Oliver Goldsmith

  • The deserted village: Bemoaned abandoned villages.
  • England became a nation of shopkeepers.
  • Rural life declined.

Napoleonic Wars

  • English on edge from 1789 to 1815.
  • People concentrated in cities.

Peterloo Massacre

  • Brought on by post-war price inflation.
  • British Parliament represented regions, not population.
  • Rotten boroughs: Unequal representation.
  • Calls for suffrage.
  • The massacre: Police killed protesters.
  • The Manchester Guardian was started to promote the right to vote.
  • British Parliament abolished slavery.

1848 Protest In London

  • Peaceful and fairly successful.
  • Promoted a charter for voting rights.

Charter Asks

  • Vote to everyone that is 21 and male (not until 1918).
  • Secret ballots.
  • Members of parliament don't have to own property.
  • Members of parliament get a salary.
  • End of the hollow boroughs.
  • Annual parliamentary elections.

Post-Renaissance Relations with The Middle East

  • The Middle East was the ancient world, the world of the Bible, and the holy land.
  • Land of religious tourism.
  • Trade opens up further with the Far East.

Suez Canal

  • Jointly undertaken by the British and French governments.
  • Military ships controlled by British and French.
  • Beneficial in world wars.

Collapse of The Ottoman Empire

  • Huge empire spanning different religions, cultures, and languages.
  • Weakening government.
  • Different factions breaking off.
  • Diplomats cutting up parts of the collapsing Ottoman Empire.
  • Zones of French and English control.

Tourism

  • Visiting places for a month or a few weeks.
  • Taking pictures in front of ancient monuments.
  • Cultural consumption through photography and mass tourism.
  • Physically moving ourselves to see the past.
  • Religious tours of Israel.

Google Earth

  • Critics see Google Earth as a tool that gives people a false sense of knowledge.

Colonialism and Oil

  • Europe moves to an oil-based economy.
  • The Red Line Agreement: First oil cartel.

Iran

  • Agreement between British Petroleum and the United States government.
  • Persia was a monarchy/oligarchy.
  • Rulers made bad deals with British Petroleum.
  • Elections in 1951.
  • The CIA overthrew the government to keep the contracts with the oil corporation the same.

Wind Turbines

  • First electricity-producing wind turbine was built in 1887 in Scotland.