151. The Founding Fathers: George Washington (Ep 1)

William Kidd, a respectable Scottish privateer during the late 17th century, tasked with hunting down pirates on the orders of a murky cabal of British aristocrats, but with the crown’s blessing, finds himself and his crew frustrated by the absence of pirates in the waters off Madagascar during October 1696. With mutiny brewing on his ship The Adventure, Kidd - ever mercurial in his willingness to abandon the law - brutally killed one of his crew with a bucket, before attacking an apparently French Trading vessel captained by an Englishman - illegally. From that point onwards Kidd went rogue, attacking vessels hither and thither, drubbing and torturing as he went, or so the stories say… So, was Kidd really a devious, thieving pirate, whose innocence was but a calculated ruse, or a truly blameless man, caught up in powers and intrigues above his head, and pushed to the brink by a traitorous mutiny?  Join William and Anita as they discuss William Kidd’s burgeoning pirating career and his turn to the dark side: his spate of violent pillaging, his time on the run from the British government and the famous treasure hoards he buried along the way; culminating in the most famous trial of the century, and a gibbet on Execution Dock…. To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

29 Okt 202440min

Alongside legends like Blackbeard and Calico Jack, William Kidd is one of the most famous pirates to have entered the public consciousness, thanks to Hollywood, sea shanties and literary mythologization. A Scottish sailor and privateer living during the late 17th century, Kidd went from a life of prosperous respectability and high society on Wall Street; hunting down pirates and protecting the trade of the British Empire, to a life spent on the run, pillaging ships as he went. But what was the process by which Kidd turned to the dark side? And was it against his will? His fate changed in 1695 when a murky syndicate of aristocrats commissioned Kidd - with the authorisation of the government - to hunt down pirates and Frenchmen in the Indian Ocean, and protect the trade there. From that point onwards Kidd’s law-abiding life of respectability would spiral out of control… Join William and Anita as they discuss the thrilling and tumultuous early career of the elusive William Kidd: his conversion from family man to pirate, his alleged visits to the famous Pirate utopia in Madagascar, and the acts of violence that would change his life forever… Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

23 Okt 202441min

“At our first salutation he drank damnation to me and my men who styled cowardly puppies saying he would neither give nor take quarter…” By the end of November 1717 Blackbeard had become one of the most feared pirates of his age. Having declared war upon the British empire in revenge for his imprisoned brethren in Boston, he reigned down violence and destruction upon the eastern seaboard of North America, disrupting trade and causing havoc. By 1718 he had a devastating fleet of some six ships, helmed by his own flagship and one of the most famous pirate vessels of all time: the Queen Anne’s Revenge, a former French slaver. Finally, after blockading Charleston in exchange for a mere box of medicine, the British navy decided to take decisive action and hunt Blackbeard down. The man they sent for the job was  Lieutenant Robert Maynard, who finally found his terrifying foe anchored on an island off North Carolina. Taking Blackbeard’s pirates by surprise, a bloody battle ensued that would see a legendary pirate duel to the death… Join William and Anita as they discuss Blackbeard’s terrifying reign of fear, the climax of his cataclysmic career, his downfall, and the astounding duel that would seal his bloody fate… To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition To buy David's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suppressing-Piracy-Early-Eighteenth-Century-ebook/dp/B0917NM46Y/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

21 Okt 202440min

The history of pirates is a thrilling kaleidoscope of adventure, devastation, violence and political intrigue, and never more so than during the 17th and 18th centuries: the golden age of piracy. This saw the rise of some of the most famous pirates of all time, many of them united in the near mythical Pirate Republic at Nassau in the Caribbean. From Calico Jack, the colourful progenitor of the skull and crossbones, to Charles Vane, the pirate king himself who delighted in torturing his captives, and the eccentrically berobed Stede Bonnet, the golden age saw pirates drive the British empire to the brink of despair. None more so than Blackbeard, the famously ruthless pirate captain who supposedly set his beard alight before battle to frighten his enemies. But behind his flaming beard and terrifying reputation, who was the real Blackbeard? And what was it that led him into a life of bloodthirsty pillaging upon the high seas?  Join William and Anita as they discuss the golden age of piracy and the early life and career of the most famous pirate of all time: Blackbeard. To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition To buy David's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Suppressing-Piracy-Early-Eighteenth-Century-ebook/dp/B0917NM46Y/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

16 Okt 202440min

When King Alfonso VI of León took Toledo from the Arabs in 1085, the history of western christendom changed forever. Within the city existed a number of texts full of the ideas that we would call Arabic numerals, but that originated in India. From the libraries of Toledo these were translated and spread through Europe. Enter Fibonacci. A genius Italian mathematician, he instantly recognised the advantages of this number system and so wrote Liber Abaci, distilling these ancient ideas into a Latin text. Once this caught on, it laid the foundation for the modern banking and economic system that underpins the global economy.  Listen as William and Anita discuss how numerical ideas that originated in India came to prevail across the world. To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

14 Okt 202439min

Often called Arabic numerals, the modern number system we use today actually originates in India. Whilst in the west they were using Roman numerals, in India they were using numbers 1-9. Then, the great Brahmagupta in the 7th century made one of the most monumental developments in human history. He invented zero in its modern form. Therefore, these basic rules of mathematics for the first time allowed any number up to infinity to be expressed with just ten distinct symbols: the nine Indian numbers plus zero. Rules that are still taught in classrooms around the world today. This step was a major advance that had never previously been attempted elsewhere and it was this Indian reincarnation of zero as a number, rather than just as an absence, that transformed it and gave it its power. From India, this development then travelled along the Golden Road and into the heart of Barmakid Baghdad.  Listen as William and Anita discuss the origins of the Empire of Numbers. To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

9 Okt 202444min

From India to Africa, the involvement and influence of Scots in the British Empire has been profound. In both arenas, they rose through the ranks as soldiers, merchants and bureaucrats, to carve out, govern and lead the empire overseas. But what of America? Here too the Scottish presence was enormous. From the Scottish diaspora in the Caribbean, where after Culloden Scots rebels were forced to work or they travelled willingly to become wealthy slavers themselves. In North America and Canada they fought in the Seven Years War and American Revolution, quickly came to dominate the fur and tobacco trades, and in many cases developed profitable, amicable and often romantic alliances with the Native Americans and First Nations peoples. With all this and more, the history of Scots in America is rife with adventure and derring-do, success and failure, glory, tragedy, bravery and controversy…. In today’s episode, William and Anita are joined once again by historian Murray Pittock, to discuss the story of Scots in America, and some of the fascinating Scottish characters who made their names there.  To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

7 Okt 202439min

The extraordinary lives of three Scotsmen - John Henderson, Richard Oswald, and David Livingstone - encapsulate the polarities of the Scottish experience in Africa prior to the 20th century. Henderson, formerly a soldier for the Swedes and the Danes in Europe, was captured and enslaved by the Arabs of Zanzibar in the Mediterranean. Before long though, he had won the heart of a princess of Zanzibar, and eloped to Alexandria with her. By contrast, Richard Oswald was a rich and prodigious slaver who went so far as to purchase an island where he would play golf, surrounded by his enslaved golf caddies in tartan, before later playing a major role in negotiating the Declaration of Independence. Finally, there was David Livingstone, a pioneering missionary, explorer and abolitionist, who nevertheless supported British colonial expansion, and whose influence on Western attitudes toward Africa endure to this day. In every case, the story of Scots in Africa is riddled with courage, cowardice, horror and adventure… In today’s episode, William and Anita are joined once again by historian Murray Pittock, to discuss the remarkable lives of the Scots who shaped and were shaped by their interactions with Africa, and the insight they give into the experiences of Scots overall. To fill out the survey: survey.empirepoduk.com To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2 Okt 202443min