Episodes
Monday May 09, 2022
For Strategic Sheep Purposes: The Falklands War
Monday May 09, 2022
Monday May 09, 2022
Prior to April 1982, hardly anyone around the world had heard of the Falklands. Then, in an instant, it became a hotbed of global talk. Argentina, then under the crumbling military regime, had invaded the islands. They were some of the last pieces of the British Empire following decolonization. The Falklands were different, though. Located some hundreds of 8,064 miles from Britain, but were inhabited by mostly British persons known as Falklanders. Now, they were under a new leadership. After a century of back and forth finger pointing, Argentina had finally struck and were preparing to stay.
For the British, they would not back down easily. PM Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady herself, stood before parliament the day after the invasion and said "...the Falkland Islands and their dependencies remain British Territory. No aggression and no invasion can alter that simple fact." Soon after, a Naval task force set course for the Falklands. The confrontation had begun...
Music:
Rule Britannia, performed by Harry Völker
Himno Nacional Argentino
Clips:
"For Strategic Sheep Purposes," Eddie Izzard (Eddie, we love you!)
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Welcome to Hell: The Wars in Chechnya
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Monday Jul 12, 2021
Trigger Warning: Discussions of graphic violence and use of battle sounds.
A message written in red spray paint is sprawled across a collapsed wall. It reads: “Welcome to Hell, Part II.” An ominous message to the Russian forces returning to the remains of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya. When the Soviet Union came to an end, Russia struggled to stabilize itself. Internal strife was brewing, and with all the former Soviet states having managed to obtain independence, several others hoped their time had come as well. Chechnya was by far the most vocal. A region with people who were forced into the Russian fold during the time of the Tsars. Having their language, Islamic religion, and unique culture repressed at every turn, they had enough of living under the Russian boot. Thus, they did what so many others had done in that time: they declared independence. However, Russia had no desire to give up the resource-rich region of the Northern Caucasus, and new president Boris Yeltsin was keen to prove himself a strong leader.
But the war did not end in his favour, nor really did it end well for the Chechens. The Russian government became filled with oligarchs hungry for power, and Chechnya found itself in ruins. New Chechen leaders would rise, ones who were either just as power hungry as their Russian adversaries or clouded by religious extremism. In the end, the wars in Chechnya would bring literal hell to the civilians who lived their, caught between the Russian Bear and Chechen Wolf.
Monday May 03, 2021
Strange Wars in History, Part 1
Monday May 03, 2021
Monday May 03, 2021
War has caused catastrophic damage, from mass destruction to large loss of life. By no means is it something to take lightly, as it continues to devastate places around the world to this day.
History is no stranger to war, with countless numbers fought throughout time. However, this can lead to some bizarre examples of conflicts, from why it was fought, to its outcome, to all manners of different strange variables. Pan Historia sits down to discuss some of the strangest wars fought in history, from the shortest war in history to when an industrial nation lost to a band of giant, flightless birds
Music:
Five Armies, Kevin Macleod
Clip: WKRP in Cincinnati: Turkey Drop
Monday Jun 15, 2020
The Forgotten Pandemic: The 1918 Global Influenza Outbreak
Monday Jun 15, 2020
Monday Jun 15, 2020
In 1918, Death wandered on his horse through the barren grounds of the frontline trenches. The war was nearly over, but the dead continued to rise in numbers. The horrors of this war were unseen up to this point in history; people lost their sons, fathers, mothers, their homes, their everything. What nobody knew is a new horror was lurking, ready to spring up with devastating effect. This came from an unseen enemy, one humanity has faced since the dawn of our existence. Reports of illness sprang up in Kansas, then quickly to the trenches. Spain, uninvolved in the war, began reporting on a strange new type of influenza afflicting the population. Soon, the world referred to this silent killer as the Spanish Flu.
As the war in the trenches continued, a new war ignited, one which infected 500 million people worldwide in 9 months, and kill between 17 million and 50 million. Hospitals became overrun with infected patients, entire Indigenous communities were wiped out, and the bodies of the dead became too much for morgues to handle. At first, governments in Europe and the US denied the severity or even the illness's existence, continuing to hold their patriotic parades and liberty drives, leading to more becoming ill rapidly. A new horseman now walked the Earth on a sickly steed, a horseman named Pestilence. Soon, the horrors of war were accompanied by the horrors of disease.
Music
The Dance Macabre, Camille Saint-Saëns
Monday May 04, 2020
The Hammer Falls: The End of the Soviet Union
Monday May 04, 2020
Monday May 04, 2020
Throughout history, humanity has witnessed the rise and fall of countless empires. Typically, internal unrest either weakened these states into collapse, or vulnerability to invading forces. The Soviet Union was like an empire, one meant to be the beacon of workers around the world. Instead, it ended up ruled by the same elites it aimed to destroy. By the time Gorbachev came along, the cracks had already expanded clear across the country, and it was too late to repair. Gorbachev still tried, with Glasnost and Perestroika aiming to improve both domestic issues and diplomacy with the west.
The various Soviet Republics saw this as an opportunity to to seek self determination instead, bringing the union to its denouement. The 80s ended with civil unrest, ethnic tensions, and even civil war across the land, and only the die hards felt anything could be savaged. On a hot August day in 1991, those die hards attempted to seize control, and save the union. To their shock, the people were beyond done with the old Soviet ways, rallying instead to the reformers Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, unafraid of the soldiers and tanks surrounding them. Before the year's end, the world's first communist state came to an end.
Music
Frank Sinatra, My Way
CornFlakes Strategy, Soviet Anthem - Slow Piano - instrumental 2000 subs special
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
1:23:45: The Chernobyl Disaster
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Tuesday Apr 14, 2020
Most of the city of Pripyat was fast asleep in the early morning of April 26, 1986. It was a relatively quiet night, save for the sounds from the nearby Chernobyl Power Station. All was calm until just before 1:30AM, when a small explosion echoed through the air, followed almost instantly by a second, larger fireball. Emergency operators received alarms of a fire at Chernobyl, believed to be a destroyed control system tank setting fire to the roof. Inside, workers frantically worked to ensure Unit 4s reactor continued to receive cooling water and prevent the fire from causing meltdown.
Firefighters rushed to the scene, most having just gotten out of bed, and wearing nothing but short sleeve shirts, some still in pyjamas. As they assembled their hose equipment, all they could think about was the taste of metal in their mouth. Little did they know, only meters away from them, was a hole where the reactor once lay. It was now nothing more than an inferno, burning as hot as the surface of the Sun, and spewing toxic radiation into the sky. A large plume of black smoke floated over the forest towards Pripyat. When it arrived, the city was darkened by the shadow of death.
Music:
Tower (Metro 2033 Soundtrack) – Alexey Omelchuk
Monday Mar 09, 2020
When Ronnie Met Mikie: The Friendship of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan
Monday Mar 09, 2020
Monday Mar 09, 2020
One was a man born in Russia during the height of Stalinism, who rose to power through hard work and perseverance.
The other was a man, a proud American with great charisma, and once acted alongside a chimpanzee.
Both men were leader of their respective countries, long rivals who on more than one occasion nearly brought about nuclear war. There was little in common between these two men that could possibly bring them together.
Or was there?
Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and American President Ronald Reagan first met at a summit in Geneva in 1985. It was at this first meeting the two would develop a friendship and mutual respect for one another which – through close calls, stalemate, and disagreement – bring about the thawing of relations between their respective countries, and bring about the end of the Cold War only two years later.
Monday Dec 09, 2019
Solidarity: The Polish Workers Strikes
Monday Dec 09, 2019
Monday Dec 09, 2019
Before the Wall came down, before the days of Glasnost and Perestroika, the people of Poland began a series of defiant acts against their communist government. The Polish people suffered heavily during the Second World War under the brutal occupation of both the Nazis and Soviets. Following the end, the state remained a puppet of the Soviet Union. As the 1980s came around, the economy of Eastern Europe had stagnated due to Premier Brezhnev's limits on trade, production, and workers pay on its satellites. Things came to a head in Poland when it was decided an increase of prices was necessary, albeit while keeping salaries the same.
In the appropriately named Lenin Shipyard of Gdansk, the stevedores banded together to demand concessions from the government to improve working conditions in Poland, and bring the country closer to democracy. It was here the Solidarity movement began, the downfall of Poland's communist government commenced, and the ripples spread across Eastern Europe originated, which in turn would bring an end to the Warsaw Pact, and the Cold War itself.
Monday Nov 25, 2019
"You Can't Stop the Spring": The Velvet Revolution
Monday Nov 25, 2019
Monday Nov 25, 2019
"They may crush the flowers, but they can't stop the spring."
-Alexander Dubcek, 1968
Hundreds of thousands of citizens gathered in the streets of Prague, Czechoslovakia, as the country's politburo finally decided there was nothing more they could do. Having witnessed change in Poland, East Germany, and Hungary already come to pass, they knew it was only a matter of time before they were next. In one swift action, the entire politburo resigned, deciding to rip the band aid off quickly, and without further harm. Across town, members of the opposition Civic Forum were in the midst of a press conference when news of the resignations reached them. The room erupted into cheers and applause, and one man even opened champaign in celebration
Alexander Dubcek, former General Secretary of Czechoslovakia, had tried 20 years prior to bring reform to the country. His efforts were crushed beneath the tracks of Soviet tanks, and he was allowed to retire back into obscurity. Now, on that late November evening, the people were once again chanting his name. As he stepped onto a balcony, he was overcome with emotion and unable to speak. Improvising and a massive smile on his face, Dubcek walked to the balcony rails and curled his arms slowly towards the crowd, effectively embracing the them. The Czech and Slovak people were all entwined in an embrace that night. Without a shot being fired, or a molotov flying, Czechoslovakia had become free.
Music:
Nad Tatrou sa blyska (Lightning Over the Tatras), Slovanian National Anthem
Kde domov muj(Where My Home Is), Czech National Anthem
Saturday Nov 09, 2019
Edifice of Fear: The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall
Saturday Nov 09, 2019
Saturday Nov 09, 2019
The Iron Curtain across Europe Winston Churchill described was metaphorical rather than physical, at least at the time he made his famous speech. The divide between East and West had become an ideological conflict, Capitalism versus Communism. The defeated Germany was occupied by the Allies of the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. Furthermore, Germany was organized into two states, the Federal Republic of Germany in the west, and the German Democratic Republic in the east. Along with this, Berlin found itself two separate entities.
Millions of people fled west to avoid falling under the brutal suppression the Soviets had become known for. This resulted in nearly 20% of the GDR's population falling, which included a large number of the country's intellectual population. It was soon clear to the politburo this could not continued. Seemingly overnight in August 1961, the Berlin Wall was erected. With it, the Iron Curtain had a physical representation.
Intro:
Sinews of Peace, Winston Churchill