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.