Growing Nations
Stream for free or Download from our Store.
©2018
William the Silent was Protestant, but served King Charles who was Catholic. His son, Phillip, King of the Netherlands attacked the Protestants. William raised an army of "Beggars" who fought King Phillip and made William king. Holland proclaimed its sovereignty in 1581.
Since Mary Queen of Scots was entitled to the throne of England, Queen Elizabeth locked her in the Tower of London then she executed her in 1587. Her son was King James I of Scotland and England.
Henry Hudson explored to find the Northwest Passage, though none existed. Samuel Champlain founded Canada for France. In 1620, English Pilgrims sailed to New England to build their colony, Dutch built New Amsterdam on ManHATtan Island colonizing the New World.
Europeans colonized the new world, capturing Africans from the coast and enslaving them on their farms and plantations. They fought back in 1622. Princess Nzinga of Ndomba fought the Portuguese her whole life. After she died, Portugal took over ' and ruled until 1975.
Abbas I, Shah of the SaFAvid Empire in Persia, avenged his mother’s murder, re-established order in Iran, and hired English adventurers to train his army to win. against the Ottoman Empire and Portugal from 1587 to 1629.
Bohemian Protestants feared losing their freedom because German King Ferdinand II wanted everyone Catholic. After riots, executions, The Thirty Year's War against protestant princes and their allied nations, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 established the Westphalian System of Nation States.
During Ieyasu's Shogunate, Jesuit missionaries spread the Christian faith and European merchants traded in Japan. Iemitsu enacted Sakoku, closing all ports in 1635. He outlawed Christianity so Buddhism thrived.
Khurram the Moghul King of the World with his wife Mumtaz ruled India, but when she died he built the Taj Mahal. In 1658 when Aurangzeb took his father's throne, he enforced shari'ah law, and then expanded India south while England built a trade center in the Eastern city: Calcutta.
Charles I disbanded Parliament, enforced Anglican worship then he was executed by Lord Cromwell's New Model Army. Parliament restored the crown in 1660 to Charles II. 2/5 of London died from plague, then London burned when fires raged.
The Sun King Louis XIV ruled France as an absolute monarch. He expanded France's borders to make a powerful nation. He built Versailles his palace in 1682. Extravagance of the nobility made lower classes destitute.
Though only a prince of Brandenburg, Frederick wanted to be a king. In 1701 he crowned himself King of Prussia. Three generations of Fredericks built a sense of Prussian loyalty. Nationalism the population held in Germany.
Metacom, King Philip of the Wampanoag tribe, waged war against English who took over his land. The Iroquois fought the French in Quebec while Quaker William Penn founded Philadelphia. When Charles II died, Catholic James SECond wore the English crown, but William and Mary became King and Queen in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Peter the Great took the Port of Azov from the Ottoman Turks. He studied shipping ports of Europe and built St. Petersburg. He fought the Great Northern War in 1721, he captured the Baltic Sea from Sweden, expanding Russia to Europe.
In 1683, the Ottoman army laid siege to Vienna attempting to tunnel under its walls. On September 11, German, French and Polish armies repelled the Ottoman Turks who never recovered from this defeat.
Aurangzeb's successors spent India's money, then the Persians looted Delhi. British East India Company with their army colonized India 1818.
In the Seven Years War, General Braddock fought for the English colonies in North America against the French and their Native American allies. Louis XV of France signed the Treaty of Paris to surrender New France to England in 1763.
American colonists revolted against Parliament's Acts of taxes. George Washington commanded the Minutement who fought the British Red Coats. Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence in '76. Troops from France, Spain & the Netherlands helped the colonies win their freedom.
Independent delegates met in Philadelphia to write the Constitution of the new United States. The Bill of Rights amended it to protect the rights of the citizens. States ratified it into law in 1788. They inaugurated Washington, the first US President. He appointed leaders of government and stepped down after eight.
James Cook founded Australia, England's prison settlement. In 1788 Arthur Philip developed the region into farms. He built Sydney and granted land pushing out Aborigines. After four years thousands prospered establishing a colony.
King Louis XVI called delegates to vote in 1789. The working class formed their own assembly and took an oath on the Tennis Court. Parisians stormed the Bastille to arm their revolution. With the royal family imprisoned, all titles were revoked. Robespierre executed on the guillotine 16,000 opposing the cause. Then Robespierre was beheaded and a French Republic was born.
Catherine of Germany married Peter Ulrich who became czar of Russia in 1762. He admired Prussia, Russia's enemy and asked his army to wear new Prussian uniforms, so there was a coup d'etat. They took his throne to make Catherine the Great Russia's new Empress. She expanded Russia's borders, rewrote laws, improved hospitals and then gave people more rights.
Manchu Emperor Chi’en-lung ruled China for sixty years with Eight Regulations on foreigners. In 1793 Macartney came with a message from King George III, but Chi'en-lung refused to open trade with England. English merchants smuggled opium to China, then England won Opium War of 1842.
The French Directory sent Napoleon to invade Austria and Egypt. When he returned, he declared himself Consul, wrote the new French constitution. He sold Louisiana to the United States to fund his invasion on England. In 1804 he crowned himself the Emperor of the French.
In the colony Saint Domingue, enslaved Africans planned to revolt. Toussant L'Overture, a freed man, trained an army to fight the French. L'Overture surrendered, was imprisoned where he died. Then French troops got Malaria. Haitian Africans fought one last time for their freedom from France, founding independent Haiti in 1804.
1760 to 1840 during the Industrial Revolution, factories took over family business. Men, women and children went to work. The Luddites protested with destruction, and Parliament passed Factory Acts. Slums formed outside US cities and diseases spread in fact.
In 1804, President Jefferson commissioned Lewis and Clark. They sailed the Missouri, mapping their journey as they explored the west. Sacagawea translated. Then settlers followed them later. Tecumseh, Shawnee chief, fought the land treaty in Indiana.
In 1803 Napoleon's French troops fought allied nations Austria, Russia, and England. France won Italy and Spain, but when invading Russia, the winter set in and most of the men died. In the War of 1812, provoked by British attacks, the US defended their nation again. British troops burned the capital but then signed a peace treaty. Napoleon returned from exile to fight England at Waterloo.
Simon Bolivar, Venezuelan creole, fought the Spanish Junta to free his colony. He liberated Caracas and partnered with San Martín who marched his army across the Andes. Bolivar attempted to make himself king of a united South America, but each nation resisted and achieved independence from Spain by 1822.
Miguel Hidalgo preached the Cry of Dolores which sparked the New Spain army. In 1810 they captured the city of Guanajuanto. They became a mob, so he retreated to be captured by Spanish forces. Later Iturbide, a creole, won Mexico's independence. Texians declared their independence and named Sam Houston their general. They defended the Alamo Mission but lost in 1836. Then the Texians captured Santa Anna and became the Republic of Texas.
Abolitionists worked to make a law to abolish slavery. Former slaves, Quakers and reformed slave tradERS joined the noble fight. William Wilberforce pressed Parliament to outlaw slave trade. England PASSED the Slavery AboLITion Act in 1833.
Shaka, Zulu warrior king, armed his fighters with new weaponry, taking villages and shattering the tribal system of South Africa. On Cape Horn, English colonists displaced Dutch farmers called the Boers. They fought back in 1854 to found the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.
In 1830 Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act forcing Native American nations to trade their land for reservations west of the Mississippi. US soldiers marched the Creek, Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes; on the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory thousands lost their lives. In Virginia Nat Turner raised an army of enslaved blacks to strike slave owners for their freedom, then laws restricted slaves, preventing more attacks.
Tricked by translation, the Maori people of New Zealand signed the Treaty of Waitangi, losing sovereignty to Britain. Angered, they resisted. Hone Heke fought for 30 years. Becoming a colony in 1840, New Zealand's Maori still protest their fate.
While working Sutter's saw mill in the Sacramento Valley, Jim Marshall found gold! Sam Brannan went to mine gold too, then sold picks & pans at his trading post, and the Forty-niners go. They staked their claim and grew San Francisco. California's boom towns grow full of wealth and people so it joined the USA we know in 1850 singin' "Hi ho."
Check back soon. More music to come!
