The Y in History

Analyzing events in history to understand why they happened. The factors that led to various events at different times in history. The show picks certain eras like post-World War II and tries to connect events that happened across the globe around that time.

Episode 81: Putin and Xi - the powerful Authoritarians 04/27/2024

Episode 81: Putin and Xi - the powerful Authoritarians Putin was a working class outsider who rose through the ranks to the Country's top job. Once at the top, Putin consolidated his position by eiminating opposition and giving Russia a strategic economic advantage. Xi was a Princeling who ended up on the wrong side during Mao's time. But Xi believed in Mao and came back, aspiring to be Mao 2.0 /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/30744088

Episode 80: Cricket - 1950s through 1980s 04/13/2024

Episode 80: Cricket - 1950s through 1980s The West Indies emerge as a force in Cricket as Frank Worrell leads the team to Australia in 1960. South Africa is banned from International Cricket in 1970 due to apartheid. Kerry Packer becomes a major disruptor in International Cricket as he signs up top players for World Series of Cricket. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/30534453

Episode 79: Cricket - early times to 1950s 03/30/2024

Episode 79: Cricket - early times to 1950s Cricket was spread by England through its Colonies. But it needed stars like WG Grace to make it popular enough to become a spectator sport. The England-Australia rivalry led to the Ashes Trophy and containing Aussie star, Don Bradman, led to the infamous Bodyline series between the two sides. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/30330738

Episode 78: 20th Century Political Assassinations 03/16/2024

Episode 78: 20th Century Political Assassinations JFK is assassinated as his convoy drives through Dallas, bringing the US and the rest of the world to a stunned standstill. Egypt's Anwar Sadat is assassinated while inspecting a parade. But Congo's Patrice Lumumba is made to disappear in the most barbaric manner. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/30162943

Episode 77: Silicon Valley 03/02/2024

Episode 77: Silicon Valley Railway tycoon Leland Stanford lived in Santa Clara Valley and founded Stanford University in 1891. Another prominent Stanford University figure, Frederick Terman. invested heavily in businesses that would base themselves in the area and employ talented young people. One such business was the original start-up, an electrical company started in a garage by Stanford alumni William Hewlett and David Packard, Hewlett-Packard. The beginning of Silicon Valley as an epicenter of innovation began in 1955 with the arrival of the Shockley Semiconductors Laboratory. Another revolutionary point was reached in 1968 when Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore left Fairchild Semiconductor to form Intel. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/29965228

Episode 76: Financial Coups - Haiti, FDR and Guatemala 02/17/2024

Episode 76: Financial Coups - Haiti, FDR and Guatemala In 1914, American Marines rob Haiti's National Bank of $500,000 in Gold Reserves at th ebehest of the National City Bank. Wall Street looks to topple FDR and replace him with a business friendly Dictator. United Fruit, now Chiquita engineers the ouster of the democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/29746403

Episode 75: Patterns in History 02/03/2024

Episode 75: Patterns in History Strategic mistakes in the Russia-Ukraine relationship or a leadership vision that led to lasting impact. This episode evaluates patterns that emerge from the learnings we've had across the previous 74 episodes. Impact from the whims of a deranged leader or the ego trip of two super powers. Some interesting patterns emerge as we traverse history. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/29567993

Episode 74: 2016 - the Panama Papers 01/20/2024

Episode 74: 2016 - the Panama Papers The Panama Papers refer to the 11.5 million leaked encrypted confidential documents that were the property of Panama-based law firm . The documents were released on April 3, 2016, by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), dubbing them the “.” The document exposed more than 140 politicians from more than 50 countries, connected to 214,000 offshore companies in 21 different tax havens. Among those named in the leak were a dozen current or former world leaders, 128 public officials, politicians, hundreds of celebrities, business people, and other wealthy individuals. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/29423848

Episode 73: Artificial Intelligence - a history 01/06/2024

Episode 73: Artificial Intelligence - a history The Turing Test in 1950 established the baseline for evaluating the real intelligence of a machine. To this day, no machine or software has been able to pass the Turing test. But do the next generation of ChatBots like ChatGPT have th epotential to pass the test? /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/29210703

Episode 72: The Spice Trade 12/09/2023

Episode 72: The Spice Trade The long-range spice trade began in around 1000 BCE with the movement of cinnamon, and perhaps pepper, from India and Indonesia to Egypt. For the next 1000 years, the Arabs served as the sole middlemen of the spice trade. In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama made the first sea voyage from Europe to India, via the southernmost tip of Africa. The mission was driven by a desire to find a direct route to the places where spices were plentiful and cheap, cutting out the middlemen. This marked the start of direct trading between Europe and South East Asia. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/28985848

Episode 71: Immigration across the globe 11/25/2023

Episode 71: Immigration across the globe Over half of the emigration before the 1870s was from the British Isles, with much of the remainder from northwestern Europe. As migration increased along with new transportation technologies in the 1880s, regions of intensive emigration spread south and east as far as Portugal, Russia, and Syria. Migration to Southeast Asia and lands around the Indian Ocean and South Pacific consisted of over 29 million Indians and over 19 million Chinese. Most migration from India was to colonies throughout the British empire. Legal immigration to the US expanded in the wake of the The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Between 1966 and 1980, the average annual number of immigrants increased by roughly 150,000, compared to the yearly averages between 1952 and 1965. By 1980, 6.2 percent of the 226 million U.S. population was foreign‐born, and 524,295 immigrants entered legally that year. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/28753953

Episode 70: The Middle East Peace Accords 11/11/2023

Episode 70: The Middle East Peace Accords Resolution 242 passed by the UN Security Council on 22 November 1967 embodied the principle that has guided most of the subsequent peace plans aound the Israel-Palestine conflict - the exchange of land for peace. From the Camp David Accords of 1978 to the Oslo Agreement of 1993, several peace accords were signed by the two sides, yet peace continues to elude the region. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/28516889

Episode 69: 1918 - World War I - key battles, the impact and conclusion 10/28/2023

Episode 69: 1918 - World War I - key battles, the impact and conclusion The US entered WWI after the Zimmermann Telegram was intercepted by the British where Germany asked Mexico to join the War against the US. US entering the War turned the tide in favor of the Allies as battle fatigue started overpowering Germany and Russia. Russia saw the Czar abdicating while Germany saw its sailors refusing to fight. The War ended with Germany signing an armistice agreement with the Allies on November 11, 1918. During the course of the war, women employment reached a peak due to labor shortage as a big chunk of the labor force was fighting on the frontlines. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/28401452

Episode 68: 1914 - World War I - the origins and early days 10/14/2023

Episode 68: 1914 - World War I - the origins and early days On the eve of WWI, alliances galore across Europe with Germany aligned with Austria-Hungary and France aligned with Russia. All that is needed is a trigger and that happens on June 28, 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austria-Hungary throne. The alliances declare war on each but Germany ends up fighting on two fronts. The episode explores the conditions that led to the War and the key battles in the initial days of the War, including the first major War Crime of the War, committed by the Turks within the Ottoman Empire. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/28271252

Episode 67: Cold War Era-Eastern Europe Uprisings 09/30/2023

Episode 67: Cold War Era-Eastern Europe Uprisings The East German uprising of 1953 began as a series of strikes and protests at living standards; it soon turned political, with town halls being stormed amid vocal demands for German reunification. The Soviets had to intervene with military force to quell the rebellion. On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague, thereby ending the Prague Spring which had started in January of 1968. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/28155578

Episode 66: Hyperinflation - the worst cases in history 09/16/2023

Episode 66: Hyperinflation - the worst cases in history The conventional marker for hyperinflation is 50% per month, first proposed in 1956 by Phillip Cagan, a professor of economics at Columbia University. Hyperinflation is the rapid, massive, and unmanageable increase in prices. In recent times, the worst cases of hyperinflation in history are Hungary from 1945 to 1946, Zimbabwe from 2007 to 2008 and Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1994. In all the three cases, the decline in the value of the existing currency was massive enough to replace it with a new currency. This episode looks into each of the above cases, their origins and how the hyperinflation was finally controlled. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/28048560

Episode 65: Nearshoring and China+1 09/02/2023

Episode 65: Nearshoring and China+1 With a rise in geopolitical tensions with China, the World is looking to diversify its supply chain. Mexico presents an attractive nearshoring destination for manufacturers because of its proximity to the United States. The NAFTA enables free trade between the three signatory countries (US, Canada and Mexico) by reducing tariffs and other trade barriers. Vietnam, in China's neighborhood is emerging as another competitor to China, but China may beat it on the size of the infrastructure and the size of the economy. Does Africa have any candidates that could become the next manufacturing hub? /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/27889128

Episode 64: Modern Engineering Marvels 08/19/2023

Episode 64: Modern Engineering Marvels On August 16, 1858, Britain sent the United States an inaugural message via a transatlantic telegraph cable. In it, Queen Victoria congratulated President James Buchanan on their countries’ mutual success at building the very cable she was using to talk to him. The International Space Station is a truly global effort: nations ranging from America to Russia provided parts for and assembled the ISS. The assembly alone took more than 30 missions. Travelling at 17,500 mph and orbiting the earth every 90 minutes, the ISS is an engineering achievement that is truly out of this world. The episode also covers the other engineering marvels, like the English Channel Tunnel and the Netherlands Delta Works system which keeps Netherlands' coastal areas safe from floods from the North Sea. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/27793692

Episode 63: 1980 - Iran - Iraq War 08/05/2023

Episode 63: 1980 - Iran - Iraq War In September 1980, Iraqi forces launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Iran, beginning the Iran-Iraq War. Fueled by territorial, religious and political disputes between the two nations, the conflict ended in an effective stalemate and a cease-fire nearly eight years later, after more than half a million soldiers and civilians had been killed. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/27601629

Episode 62: US Political Scandals 07/22/2023

Episode 62: US Political Scandals The Credit Mobilier Scandal centered around Railroad construction and the Teapot Dome Scandal centrered around Oil Field contracts. In both cases, the guilty were mostly let off easy. Same was the case in the Iran-Contra Affair during Ronald Reagan's time. Though the scandal created an uproar, the guilty mostly escaped punishment. The ABSCAM though exposed deep corruption within the corridors of power and lot of the guilty paid with their political careers. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/27472131

Episode 61: China's Territorial Disputes 07/08/2023

Episode 61: China's Territorial Disputes China's territorial disputes exist with several of its neighboring States, but the South China Sea dispute takes them to another level. The US is wary of China's growing assertiveness in the region and this has led to greater US presence and participation in the region. This episode also delves into the East China Sea dispute with Japan and the border dispute with Bhutan. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/27363069

Episode 60: Space Exploration - a history 06/24/2023

Episode 60: Space Exploration - a history The Germans were motivated into Space Exploration due to the allure of rocket technology in design and development of ballistic missiles, which ended up being used in WWII. After the defeat of Germany in WWII, a lot of these scientists moved to the US and played a central role in the early development of space launchers for the United States. But the Soviet Union took the world by surprise in October 1957 with the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. In a matter of months, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Congress initiated measures to build U.S. scientific and engineering prowess, including the creation of NASA, a civilian space exploration agency. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/27243159

Episode 59: A Multipolar World 06/10/2023

Episode 59: A Multipolar World The G7 group of nations finds itself challenged by China and the BRICS group. The US has aligned with a few nations in the Pacific to form the QUAD, mainly to check China's growing influence in the region and the South China Sea. So, is the world turning multipolar? With the economic impact of the G7 waning, it does appear that the world is turning multipolar. But is there a silver lining to it? /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/27089886

Episode 58: Europe-a continent of wars 05/27/2023

Episode 58: Europe-a continent of wars Europe has 4 times more countries per million sq kilometers than Asia and this one of the contributing factors why Europe seems to be always at war. The religious differences and ethnic diversity are other reasons behind Europe's conflicts through history. After World War II, the continent was relatively quiet, but there was a lot of tension within the Soviet Satellite states like East Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The EU was an attempt to unify Europe economically, but Brexit has slammed the brakes on that plan. The Russia-Ukraine War though seems to be a temporary blip due to one sole Dictator. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/26958300

Episode 57: Most Impactful Inventions 05/13/2023

Episode 57: Most Impactful Inventions In 1436, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, setting the stage for a new era in information exchange on a massive scale and kick-starting the era of scientific discovery. The Compass made it possible for sailors to move into deep sea and explore new lands, ultimately boosting international trade. Tune in to this episode to listen to other impactful inventions through history. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/26797305

Episode 56: Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and Iraq - the race to Nuclear weapons 04/29/2023

Episode 56: Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and Iraq - the race to Nuclear weapons In the 1990s, North Korea acquired access to Pakistani centrifuge technology and designs from scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who had directed the militarization of Pakistan’s nuclear program. In exchange, Pakistan received North Korean missile technology. Through his job at URENCO, A.Q Khan methodically stole classified plans for a centrifuge, that would create bomb-grade uranium. In the fall of 1980, Israeli military intelligence reported that the Osiris nuclear reactor, 12 miles southeast of Baghdad, would become operational between July and November of 1981. Failure was not an option for Israel and PM Menachem Begin gave the go ahead to bomb Iraq's nuclear reactor. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/26680653

Episode 55: The British East India Company 04/15/2023

Episode 55: The British East India Company On December 31, 1600, granted to a group of London merchants for exclusive overseas trading rights with the East Indies. The new English East India Company was a monopoly in the sense that no other British subjects could legally trade in that territory, but it faced stiff competition from the Spanish and Portuguese, who already had trading outposts in India, and also the Dutch East Indies Company, founded in 1602. Before the East India Company, most clothes in England were made out of wool and designed for durability, not fashion. But that began to change as British markets were flooded with inexpensive, beautifully woven cotton textiles from India, where each region of the country produced cloth in different colors and patterns. When a new pattern arrived, it would suddenly become all the rage on the streets of London. After the Battle of Plassey in 1757, the EIC earned rights to collect land revenue in Bengal. diversifying it into a tax collector. With the colonization of North America, a vast global market opened up for trade in goods across various colonial regions. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/26481675

Episode 54: Financial Scandals and Cons 04/01/2023

Episode 54: Financial Scandals and Cons In 1920, Charles Ponzi started the Ponzi scheme which promised a 50% return on investments after 90 days. After a few successful months, his luck ran out as new investments dried and Ponzi came under the radar of investigators. Victor Lustig conned two buyers and sold a national monument. The two biggest corporate bankruptcies in the United States came about due to Accounting Fraud. The 1MDB moeny laundering happened at the highest levels of government, in Malaysia. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/26411451

Episode 53: Great Environmental Disasters 03/18/2023

Episode 53: Great Environmental Disasters The Dust Bowl in the 1930s caused by extensive soil erosion in the southern plains region of the United States, led to severe dust storms during a period of extensive drought. For five days in December 1952, the Great Smog of London smothered the city, wreaking havoc and killing thousands. In the early 1950s, the Minamata Bay was the center of the outbreak of the Minamata Disease caused by Mercury poisoning caused by toxic waste from the nearby Chisso Chemical Plant. In December 1984, the world's worst industrial disaster happened in the City of Bhopal in India after the poisonous gas Methyl Isocyanate leaked from the local Union Carbide plant. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/26266227

Episode 52: 1967 - The Arab-Israeli Six Day War 03/04/2023

Episode 52: 1967 - The Arab-Israeli Six Day War On May 15, 1967 Egyptian President Nasser ordered his army to march into Sinai Peninsula and then demanded that the United Nations pull its peacekeepers from the peninsula. Then he declared the Straits of Tiran, closed to Israeli shipping. Subsequently, on June 5, 1967, the Israel Defense Forces initiated Operation Focus, a coordinated aerial attack on Egypt. After catching the Egyptians by surprise, they assaulted 18 different airfields and eliminated roughly 90 percent of the Egyptian air force as it sat on the ground. Israel then expanded the range of its attack and decimated the air forces of Jordan, Syria and Iraq. In the five days that followed Israel routed the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. It captured the Gaza Strip and the Sinai desert from Egypt; the Golan Heights from Syria; and the West Bank and East Jerusalem, from Jordan. And for the first time in almost two millennia the Jewish holy places in Jerusalem were under the control of Jews. /episode/index/show/yinhistory/id/26124720

The Y in History

TOPICS