Extra History Videos

[Maciamo]

I have found an entertaining series of animated videos about various historical periods. They do a fairly good job at introducing or summarising the topics they cover. Everything is well researched. They spend 2 weeks to make a 10 minute episode and many topic run for 5 or 6 episodes (12 for Justinian and Theodora). As the videos are fast-paced, condensed and straight to the point a one-hour series on a topic includes as much information as a 2 or 3 hour documentary from the BBC or the History Channel. It's very time efficient, although the fast pace sometimes made me pause for a minute to let my brain time to absorb everything that was said. I also like to pause to check the Wikipedia page to get more details about a person or event mentioned.

Here are a few examples.

There are occasionally a few mistakes but these are typically corrected in an extra episode at the end called 'Lies'.

 

[Maciamo]

Not many people have heard of Odenathus, the ruler of Palmyra who saved the Eastern Roman Empire from being annexed by the Sasanian Empire in 260 CE. Without him, there would have been no Byzantine Empire and world history would have unfolded quite differently.

 

[bicicleur 2]

Not many people have heard of Odenathus, the ruler of Palmyra who saved the Eastern Roman Empire from being annexed by the Sasanian Empire in 260 CE. Without him, there would have been no Byzantine Empire and world history would have unfolded quite differently.

Palmyra was considered to be the western end of the Silk road.
And before Islam, the Arab tirbes were mercenairies, sometimes for the Roman Empire, sometimes for the Sassinides.
Things changed when Islam united the Arabs for a single common cause.

 

[Wheal]

very cute series! These would be great to show to students in grade schools for a touch of various cultures.

 

[IronSide]

Odaenathus bust

His wife Zenobia is the stuff of legend

Septimia Zenobia (Palmyrene: (Btzby), pronounced Bat-Zabbai; c. 240 – c. 274 AD) was a third-century queen of the Syria-based Palmyrene Empire. Many legends surround her ancestry; she was born to a noble Palmyrene family and married the ruler of the city, Odaenathus. Her husband became king in 260, elevating Palmyra to supreme power in the Near East by defeating the Sassaniansand stabilizing the Roman East. After Odaenathus' assassination, Zenobia became the regent of her son Vaballathus and held de factopower throughout his reign.In 270, Zenobia launched an invasion which brought most of the Roman East under her sway and culminated with the annexation of Egypt. By mid-271 her realm extended from Ancyra, central Anatolia, to southern Egypt, although she remained nominally subordinate to Rome. However, in reaction to Roman emperor Aurelian's campaign in 272, Zenobia declared her son emperor and assumed the title of empress (declaring Palmyra's secession from Rome). The Romans were victorious after heavy fighting; the queen was besieged in her capital and captured by Aurelian, who exiled her to Rome where she spent the remainder of her life.
Zenobia was a cultured monarch and fostered an intellectual environment in her court, which was open to scholars and philosophers. She was tolerant toward her subjects, and protected religious minorities. The queen maintained a stable administration which governed a multicultural multiethnic empire. Zenobia died after 274, and many tales have been recorded about her fate. Her rise and fall have inspired historians, artists and novelists, and she is a national hero in Syria.

 

[Maciamo]

Extra History did a pretty good job with two of the greatest emperors of the 6th century: Justinian of the Byzantine Empire and Khosrau of the Persian Empire.

The series on Justinian runs for 12 episodes, the longest of any topic so far.

I learned a lot in the series about Khosrau Anushirawan, a monarch that I hadn't studied yet. He was the contemporary of Justinian and the two went to war with one another, so it's seems befitting to post both videos together.

 

[Maciamo]

I like the fact that they cover events or historical characters less well known of the general public.

Mary Seacole was a half-Jamaican half-Scottish business woman and nurse who set up the "British Hotel" behind the lines during the Crimean War. Most people know Florence Nightingale, the upper-class English woman who pioneered nursing during that same Crimean War. But Mary Seacole was just as famous among British soldiers at the time and both were celebrated on their return to London after the war. History forgot about Mary Seacole for the next 100 years, but her memory is being revived and she was voted the greatest black Briton in 2004.

Mary Anning was an early 19th-century English fossil collector who pioneered the field of palaeontology.

The 2007-2008 financial crisis affected the lives of most people in developed countries over the last decade. People drew comparisons with the Great Depression of 1929, but one of the worst ever stock bubble burst was actually the South Sea Bubble in early 18th century England, and it was created by the government itself and ended up wiping out the savings of a big part of the population, including the king himself!