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POLL: Pick the next Extra History series! Theme is "Great Leaders"!
🕑 Added 2019-01-26 03:06:43 +0000 UTCWhat series would you like us to air on Extra History? Cast your vote(s) below and let us know! This series is expected to air in spring 2019.
Friendly reminder: You can vote for as many choices as you want! This style of voting helps us see what people are most interested in without having to make tough decisions between a couple of close favorites.
The poll will end at 11:59 PM PT on Monday, January 28.
Current Schedule: Sun Yat-sen --> Irish Potato Famine --> The Siege of Vienna+Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba --> Your Vote!
Napoleon Bonaparte: From Artilleryman to Emperor
Born to a minor noble family in Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte didn't learn to speak French until he was ten. Bullied and heckled at school, there was no hint that he would go on to do great things. But in the chaos of the French Revolution he showed both political resolve and military brilliance, shooting up through the ranks through a series of pro-Republican pamphlets and stunning military victories. A general by the age of 24, he climbed the ladder of French society by putting down insurrections, conquering Italy in a year, and invading Egypt (pausing only to write a romance novel). His prize would be a crown, and a position to set the agenda in European politics for a decade—if we get that far! (Full disclosure, this might be a Part I!)
Joan of Arc: The Maid of Orleans
Joan's first trial happened in a French court—convincing local judges that she could not be married against her will. After all, she heard the voices of angels, and they'd told her to take a vow of chastity and save France. Thus begins one of the wildest tales of the Middle Ages, when the teenage daughter of a tenant farmer rallied an army, turned the course of a war, and won her prince a crown. But Joan's miraculous rise would end in just as steep a fall—one that, ironically, would see her canonized as the patron saint of France.
Alexander the Great
A king at twenty, and by thirty, ruler of the largest empire the world had ever seen—but you'd probably do well too, if Aristotle was your private tutor. But this will be about more than his incredible conquests and military career. Because though Alexander died young, his legacy would continue for centuries. He instigated one of the most far-reaching and influential instances of cultural contact and exchange in world history. The Greek world learned how to administer a state from the defeated Persians, and the melding of Greek and Buddhist thought in India helped birth new Greek philosophical movements and change artistic depictions of the Buddha. Hellenism reshaped Egypt. Not bad, for a guy who died at 32.
Otto von Bismarck, Part II
Bismarck has created Germany... now he has to keep it together. In typical Bismarck fashion, he squares up against numerous opponents—the Pope, domestic socialist parties, France, and an economic crisis. In an attempt to "Germanize" his new country, he'll go after Polish and Danish ethnic minorities, and join the Scramble for Africa more for pride than anything else. And he'll do a cautious diplomatic dance with his neighbors, deftly avoiding war in an era where "preventative invasions" became a popular stance in governments. But it would be his last opponent—Kaiser Wilhelm II—that would finally best him and undo so much of what Bismarck accomplished.
Comments
Veteran of the Mushroom Wars
Bismarck has a plan. He always has a plan.
Oh wow. At the moment Joan is ahead. I've been a patron for 2 and a half years now. And I've suggested Joan every time. And now it finally might happen! Really hope I'm not jinxing it. Fingers crossed!
We have seen Bismarck's rise, now we must see Bismarck fall.
