EP48 Why Do Today’s Wars All Fail to Escape the Old Frontiers of the Ottoman Empire?
In 1453, the Ottomans captured Constantinople, and Europe trembled. But few people know that in the same century, this empire was also competing with the Portuguese for shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and battling the Spanish for hegemony in the Mediterranean. Few also know that in the Istanbul court, the one who sometimes held the real power was not the Sultan, but black eunuchs from Africa. This is the story told by The Ottoman Eunuchs and The Ottoman Age of Exploration—an imperial history obscured by "Eurocentrism." In this episode, Zhu Ming, a professor in the Department of History at East China Normal University, and historical scholar Sha Qingqing will lead us back into that forgotten Ottoman world.