Curated playlist
Early modern period
- PeasantPeasant is both a plain word for a farm laborer and, today, a slur. It traces back to a Latin word for a rural district.
- Early modern periodThe early modern period has no agreed birthday. Historians disagree on when this era began or ended.
- RenaissanceFlorence lost nearly half its people to plague in 1348. Yet the Renaissance began there soon after.
- BaroqueBaroque began as an insult for music a critic found confused and absurd. The word was first aimed at a 1733 opera.
- Atlantic slave tradeThe Atlantic slave trade carried an estimated 12 million to 12.8 million Africans across the ocean over a span of 400 years. Ships from both Europe and the New World made the crossings, and some followed a loop called the triangular trade,…
- RococoThe word rococo began as a satirical insult for a decorating style. Art historians took nearly a century to accept it.
- Divine right of kingsThe divine right of kings is the claim that a monarch answers to God and to nobody on earth. In 1193, Richard I of England gave that claim voice at his trial during the diet at Speyer. He said: "I am born in a rank which recognizes no…
- Holy Roman EmpireIn 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne and named him Roman Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire lasted until 1806.
- Kingdom of NaplesThe Kingdom of Naples never officially used the name Naples. Its title meant Sicily on this side of the lighthouse.
- 2nd millenniumThe world's population grew nearly twentyfold between 1001 and 2000. It started at roughly 310 million people.