The Invention of Brazil #3
Getulio Vargas, inventor of Brazil?
Oct 03, 2018•28 min
The Invention Of...
Misha Glenny investigates the borders, the histories and the people that make different nations what they are.
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Episodes
Brazil: Getulio Vargas and the USA
From giant factory farm for Europeans to modern BRIC economy, the story of Brazil's transformation is captured in this final programme in the life of Getulio Vargas - moderniser, dictator, and finally democratically elected president. In the final part of the Invention of Brazil, Misha Glenny explores the life of Vargas, the man who changed Brazil. "I was struck by how short he was ... the crowd went wild with adulation, an enormous mass of people. Their spontaneous shouts made me think I was in...
Oct 03, 2018•28 min
The Invention of Brazil #2
Independence or death!
Sep 21, 2018•30 min
Brazil: The British
Misha Glenny continues his exploration of the little known but extraordinary events that have shaped Brazil. This week, two unexpected events in Brazil's path to independence. The first occurred in 1808, when the entire Portuguese court moved across the Atlantic to escape Napoleon. They lived in Rio de Janeiro, which they enjoyed so much that they stayed on for another 13 years. The second occurred in 1822 when the King of Portugal's son, Dom Pedro, declared 'Independence or Death', breaking Bra...
Sep 21, 2018•30 min
The Invention of Brazil #1
I came by boat
Sep 14, 2018•28 min
Brazil: The Portuguese
Forget the beach volleyball, carnival, and the rest - here's the truth about Brazil. The murder rate is among the highest in the world. The economic inequality is visible wherever you go. Behind the happy cultural imagery there lies a much darker Brazil, the result of an extremely dark colonial history when this land was little more than a giant farm worked by slaves. In The Invention of Brazil, Misha Glenny traces the gaps between the image and reality, beginning with the arrival of the Portugu...
Sep 14, 2018•28 min
The Invention of Spain #3
A sense of disaster
Sep 05, 2018•28 min
Spain: Episode 3
On February 15 1898, an American warship blew up suddenly and sank. The USS Maine had been moored in Havana harbour, sent by President McKinley from Key West to protect American interests in Cuba. It's still unclear if Spanish colonial forces were in anyway responsible for the sinking of the USS Maine. What we know for certain is that the brief, bloody war that followed completely changed the world. In the third and final programme of The Invention of Spain, Misha Glenny charts imperial decline,...
Sep 05, 2018•28 min
The Invention of Spain #2
The heroic last stand
Aug 24, 2018•28 min
Spain: Episode 2
September 11th in Barcelona is celebrated annually as the national day of Catalonia. This year more than a million people marched through the city, waving their distinctive flags - many want independence from Madrid. This is clearly a critical moment in Spanish history, but the mood of separation is not new. In The Invention of Spain, Misha Glenny explores flashpoints and fragmentation in the Spanish monarchy's territorial possessions - from the revolts of Catalonia in both 1640 and 1714, to the...
Aug 24, 2018•28 min
The Invention of Spain #1
What is Catalonia? What's Castille?
Aug 17, 2018•29 min
Spain: Episode 1
Catalonia, Castille, Galicia and the Basques ... it's been said that many of Spain's problems come from the pretence that she is one country. In The Invention of Spain Misha Glenny explores whether this is true. Three documentaries, from 1492 to 1898, from Columbus to El Desastre, tell the story of the rise and fall of an empire. But they also reveal the fractured state of a nation, both in history and now. "I can't imagine Spain ever cohering - if it did it wouldn't be Spain." Felipe Fernandez ...
Aug 17, 2018•29 min
The Invention of Italy #3
Big appetite, bad teeth
Aug 09, 2018•28 min
Italy: Episode 3
Misha Glenny concludes the Invention of Italy in the Alps and Trieste, ambitious targets of Italian warmongers in the First World War. "You need to think of the fighting taking place in Flanders applied in the rocky limestone of the Alps .... the Italians at the bottom, the Austrians at the top." Mark Thompson, The White War In 1915 Italy entered the Great War on the side of France, Britain and Russia. The aim ? To gain new territory up north to the watershed of the Alps; and also east over the ...
Aug 09, 2018•28 min
The Invention of Italy #2
The man in the red cape
Aug 03, 2018•28 min
Italy: Episode 2
Misha Glenny presents a compelling new history of Italy from 1494 to the end of the First World War. In October 1860, on a misty road north of Naples, Giuseppe Garibaldi met the future king of Italy and handed over control of the south. This brief moment in the story of the new Italian state has been often mythologised, but it is not as straightforward as it seems. Violence, civil war, the birth of the mafia - these elements in the story are often overlooked. Beginning with Napoleon's call to th...
Aug 03, 2018•28 min
The Invention of Italy #1
A less than sturdy boot
Jul 24, 2018•29 min
Italy: Episode 1
Misha Glenny presents a compelling new history of Italy from 1494 to the end of the First World War. Piedmont, the Venetian Republic, Mantua, Modena, the Grand Duchy of Florence, the kingdom of Naples, the Papal States - the arrival of Italy as a unified state is a surprisingly recent affair. "We are a new nation," says Professor Marco Meriggi, and this is true - but the 150th anniversary was celebrated two years ago in quite muted style. So forget what you may know about the Roman empire, and e...
Jul 24, 2018•29 min
The Netherlands - Why Belgium?
There is a faultline in Europe, from the North Sea to the Alps. Belgium sits halfway.
Jun 25, 2018•29 min
The Netherlands: Why Belgium?
Misha Glenny ends his Netherlandish travels in Brussels, and asks why does Belgium exist. With details on the brief Kingdom of the Netherlands - a union with the Dutch in the north - and the reason why the British went to war with Germany in 1914. There is a faultline in Europe, running from the North Sea to the Alps, and this is one reason Belgium exists. With contributions from Gita Deneckere of Ghent University; Simon Winder, who's at work on a new book called Lotharingia; and Paul Arblaster,...
Jun 25, 2018•29 min
The Netherlands - The Dutch Golden Age
How Amsterdam became one of the world's leading cities in a few short decades
Jun 18, 2018•30 min
The Netherlands: The Golden Age
Misha Glenny on the Dutch golden age - when a few boggy Netherlandish provinces turned into one of the military and trading heavyweights of the world. In 1607 the Dutch took on and defeated the mighty Spanish in their own backyard at Gibraltar, Sixty years later they sailed up the Medway and humiliated another trading nation by towing away the flagship of the English fleet. It was called the Royal Charles, and parts can still be seen in the Rijksmuseum. This was the golden age - when North Ameri...
Jun 18, 2018•30 min
The Netherlands - Orange Fever
How did a few boggy provinces become one of the trading heavyweights of the world?
Jun 08, 2018•28 min
The Netherlands: Orange Fever
Misha Glenny explores a pivot of Western history - the Netherlands. "Chances are you think we're talking about Holland. But Holland's a province. Go back two centuries and this was a kingdom that included Belgium and Luxembourg. Before that it was the Austrian Netherlands; before that the Spanish Netherlands. And this region was rich!" They call it the golden delta, where the Rhine and the Scheldt run into the chilly North Sea. Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels and Bruges are among European history's...
Jun 08, 2018•28 min
The USA - The Melting Pot
Misha Glenny on the people came to America, and the people who were there first
Jun 04, 2018•31 min
The USA: The Melting Pot
To build a country you need people. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to be free." This quote, from the base of the Statue of Liberty, is part of the great American myth. Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, English, Irish, Poles, Germans, Koreans, Jamaicans - astounding numbers of people have started life again in the US. But not everyone has been welcomed with open arms. Who do you let in, who do you keep out? This has been an American obsession from the very start...
Jun 04, 2018•31 min
The USA - The Borderlands
To invent a country you have to define a country. Misha Glenny on the borders of the USA.
Jun 04, 2018•33 min
The USA: Borderlands
Just two centuries ago, no one had a clue where the borders of the USA actually were. Hemmed in by the Atlantic, the Appalachian mountains and Canada to the north, early Americans could only dream of the massive territory Donald Trump and his government control today. So why is the border with Mexico where it runs today? For that matter what fixed the Canadian border? The answer to both questions is war. Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde travel across Texas and into Mexico to find out what d...
Jun 04, 2018•33 min
The USA - It'll Never Work!
Misha Glenny on the invention of the most powerful country in the world
Jun 04, 2018•28 min
The USA: It'll Never Work
The United States of America is an invention. Before it existed, it needed to be created. Where would its borders be? Who was going to live there? How would it be run? As America's new president approaches his first hundred day, Misha Glenny follows up acclaimed programmes on Germany, Brazil, and France with a timely investigation of the USA. To build a country you need a system of power, but independence from Britain immediately set up a clash - the politicians of the north against the slave ow...
Jun 04, 2018•28 min
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