Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0491: Learn essential Swiss history

Episode Date: January 25, 2016

Eduardo asks about memorizing essential Swiss history. I present a simple timeline with sample mnemonics. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit:��Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Master of Memory 491 Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever. Eduardo submitted a written question at masterofmemory.com slash question. Eduardo says, I'm going to travel to Switzerland and would like to memorize some history before arriving there so I can enjoy a bit more of the trip. What would you suggest that I memorize?

The major cities I've already memorized. Thank you. So, Eduardo, I'd like to start with a really quick and relatable analogy for you. It's great that you've learned the major cities because when you go to Switzerland, no matter where you end up or where you travel, if you're given a map, you'll know where you are in the country relative to those major cities. This means that you can easily learn any smaller towns or other sites that you visit and where they are on the map because of this basic information that you've already memorized. Now, we can apply that to history as well. In order for you to enjoy your trip to Switzerland as much as possible and to make it as enriching as we can,

you want to memorize the minimum information necessary to be able to absorb more information as you experience this trip. So basically, I've chosen just a few significant years in Swiss history, about 10 years, and I'm going to divide Swiss history into three periods. Now, as you learn these years and these events, I would suggest that you choose three general locations in a memory palace to store these in, and then we'll also turn them into memorable sort of objects and images that we'll place in those main areas. So, as an example, you don't have to use this, but I'm going to use it because I'm looking at it right now. I'm at my sister's house and she just bought a grandfather clock.

So I'm going to, since Switzerland is associated with clocks, I'm going to put my memory palace actually on this clock. So the first period of Swiss history, which is generally everything that's before Napoleon, I'm going to place on the top of the clock. And there's a teapot up there. And then everything that happens in the early 19th century, there were several events there when the government was changing and things like that, that will be on the face of the clock. And then everything after 1848, which is basically modern Switzerland, will be in the pendulum area under the face of the clock. So to begin, on top of the clock, I'm putting a tuna can in a boat. So I'm pretending that there's a toy boat up there on top of the clock, and it's in a tuna can. And what they're doing is they're creating a charter of where they're going to go. And this represents the federal charter of 1291, one of the

earliest documents in Swiss history. Now, exactly what that means and everything like that can be learned later. Right now, we're just putting sort of bookmarks in place so that you can learn Swiss history around these basic facts. Next to the boat that's creating a charter with the tuna can in 1291, we're going to have a coin that's rolling along a helium tank. And in order to remember where this is, note that I'm in my mind and looking at the clock sticking the helium tank between two pieces that are sticking out on top of the clock. So I'm really relating it to where it is. And this dime is rolling down along that helium tank and creating a really loud rolling noise. But basically what it's doing is it's collecting lots of things.

That dime is rolling along and collecting a bunch of things together until the Swiss government expands basically to eight states. It's the old confederacy of 1353, which is the dime and the helium tank. 1353. Those are my objects for 13 and 53. So I've already stored two important years. 1291 for the federal charter of 1291, and then 1353 where the old confederacy expands to be eight states. So those are two important years. Next, beside those things, I see this teapot that's actually up there. This isn't a made-up thing. There's a teapot up there that's decorated with birds and things like that. And what I'm going to store on that is I'm going to wrap a rubber tire around the teapot. And I'll imagine that the teapot is smoking. So the two objects

here are a tire and a pipe, and that represents 1499. And what happens here is there was a Swabian war, and that gives some independence within the Holy Roman Empire. So here's Switzerland in the Holy Roman Empire, and it has this victory in the Swabian War, which gives it basically independence even though it Switzerland in the Holy Roman Empire, and it has this victory in the Swabian War, which gives it basically independence, even though it's in the Holy Roman Empire. So that's pretty significant that they are pretty independent and kind of stand alone, which is a major feature of Swiss history, by the way. It's just not just in this particular year, but throughout Swiss history. They kind of do their own thing and are basically on their own, and they like it that way.

So 1499, the tire and the pipe. We have the Swabian War. And for the Swabian War, I might just imagine that the teapot is trying to, you know, we had the boat earlier. So I imagine that the teapot is holding the pipe and the tire and kind of rubbing them against the top of the clock, which is the floor for the teapot, you know, relative to the teapot. And so it's like it's swabbing the deck. So the Swabian War. And from that, I think I can remember that the Swabian War was what gave it some pretty, you know, good independence within the Holy Roman Empire. That image is just really strong in my mind. There's a teapot. It's smoking that pipe pretty happy with where it is and the fact that it has that independence. And then the last object on top

of the clock is 1653. This is just a peasant war that happened within Switzerland. So there was a lot of unrest among the poor. And so there was this peasant war. And it's the only major feature that I really decided to include in the timeline between 1500 and pretty much 1800. So that's kind of halfway in between. So 1653, we have the Swiss peasant war. And my image for this is going to be a Kleenex for tissue for 1.6. And then for 53, we actually have another helium tank. And so I'm going to stick the helium tank in another thing that's sticking out of the top of the clock so I can remember really easily that there are two helium tanks going on. And then the tissue there that's wrapped around it, it's representing 16, so 1653, as opposed to our earlier one, which was 1353.

And this represents the Peasant War. I'm going to find a way to remember that, and I'm improvising here, just so you guys know. Let's see, I think that we'll have the peasants kind of waving this Kleenex around and demonstrating how little they have, because this tissue here is all that they have to wrap around that cold helium tank. So that's the Peasants' War. And now in my mind, and I'm just, again, doing this sincerely, and I just made up these images, but I'm going to review these four items and see if I can remember them on top of the clock. So first of all, we had the boat, and we had the tuna can and so that's 1291 with the original charter. Next we have the dime and

the first helium tank, so that's 1353, and that's where the old confederacy comes and turns into eight states. It expands to being eight states. Then we have the teapot with the tire and the pipe, and that's the Swabian War, where they basically got some independence within the Holy Roman Empire, and that's in 1499. And then finally we have the tissue and the helium tank for 1653, when we have that Peasants' War. Next we'll go down to the face of the clock. You know, old Switzerland is the way it is until 1798 when it's conquered by revolutionary France. My image for being conquered by revolutionary France is going to take place on this face of the clock, but I'm going to replace the hour hand of this clock with

a twig. So that's 17. And then the 98 is going to be a puff. So I imagine a sort of powder puff. And so we're sticking on the end of this, you know, this beautiful clock has this hand, but instead of being a hand, it's a twig and a powder puff. And that represents France taking over Switzerland. That's actually very easy for me to think of that. So, you know, Switzerland does their own thing for the most part. They have these beautiful clocks. But now here's this twig that's invaded their clock face with a powder puff on the end to represent what they might think of the French. So that's France taking over in the twig and the 9-8, the puff, so that's 1798. Next, we have in 1815, the Congress of Vienna, where, you know, Swiss really establishes their independence, and also here they make clear their neutrality. So basically, ever since 1815, Switzerland has not participated in any foreign wars. There was one thing a little bit later in the 19th century where they were obligated to participate in something. But since 1815, Switzerland has been a neutral country and has really had almost no participation in any wars outside of their country. So that's

pretty significant, the Congress of Vienna. Now we're going to remember this with the image for 18, which is Toffee, and then the image for 15 which is a doll and this is a little tricky I'm going to place those on the center of the clock so we have the hour hand that's been replaced by the twig and the puff now on the center we have a piece of toffee that's kind of holding the clock together in the middle there and there's a doll stuck there in the center of the clock and declaring basically that it's a doll stuck there in the center of the clock and declaring, basically, that it's not going to participate in all this outside stuff. So the toffee and the doll, again,

represents 1815, and that's the Congress of Vienna. I might have to create an image for the Congress of Vienna, but we'll see when I review this at the end of this little period here, if I can remember what that is. Two more years in the early 19th century. We have 1839. We have this civil war. It's called the Sonderbungskrieg, but I'm not even going to try to remember that for now. I don't really care about it. There was a significant civil war in 1839. And so we're just going to make that, let's see, 1839. Again, we have toffee, but this time we have a mop to go with it. So the toffee and the mop. And of course, that's going to be the other clock hand. And I think from this point, instead of the twig, the toffee is going to remain a major feature of the rest of the, you know, the dates of the 19th century because it's 1-8 toffee.

So we have the toffee and the doll, which is the dates of the 19th century, because it's 1-8, toffee. So we have the toffee and the dahl, which is the Congress of Vienna. And then we have the toffee and the mop, which is a civil war. It kind of throws things a little bit out of whack. So I think I'll remember that with the minute hand of the clock being replaced by a mop. And then finally, in 1848, they set up their strong federal constitution, which really establishes modern Switzerland. Even though they had the Congress of Vienna in 1815, they really set up this strong federal constitution in 1848 based largely on ideas from the US Constitution. And let's see, so 1848, the image is going to be the toffee with my thing is reef, so that means a piece of coral.

And basically I'm going to make some of the toffee dripping down to the bottom of the clock and filling in the holes of a coral. And that kind of represents that they're trying to fill in the holes of their government and trying to make it as complete as possible using this new and strong federal constitution. Okay, in my head, I'm going to remember, I'm going to go through this palace again, the face of the clock, and remember all of these dates. First, we have in 1798, France takes over. So you have the puff with the twig. So 1798, France takes over. And then, they don't last. Just, you know, to let you guys know. They don't last very long. In 1815, we have the Congress of Vienna with the doll there in the middle.

And that basically establishes Swiss neutrality and independence for the rest of Swiss history. Then we have the Mop there, which is 1839 with this civil war. And then we finally establish the modern constitution, although they did change it in a bit later, as you'll see, but pretty much the modern Swiss constitution in, let's see, Reef, yeah, in 1848 with the coral at the bottom of the clock. So there you go, that's the early 19th century and the major changes that happened between old Switzerland and modern Switzerland. After that point, there really are not very many significant or really large dates in Swiss history, because Switzerland, again, has remained neutral and kind of its own thing ever since then.

I included a few more dates that we could store in the pendulum area under the clock. This episode has run a little bit long, so I'm just going to give you those years and let you establish the images yourself, but just some suggestions that you might include. In 2002, that's the last year, actually, that I've included in the timeline, and that's Switzerland finally joining the UN. So Switzerland is, I think,

the last major significant Western republic to join the UN, and that was in 2002, not that long ago. The images would be, you would tie a 2-0, which is a noose, to a snowball. So you might just imagine what that would be like and relate that to Switzerland joining the UN. And then before that, let's go back to 1971. Switzerland was the last Western Republic to grant women the right to vote. And think about it, 1971, that's pretty late. And that's kind of significant.

And again, Switzerland kind of does their own thing. They are a major country in many, many, I guess, factors and many metrics as far as quality of life, transparency of government, and things like that. But it's just really interesting that it was 1971 that the actual federal government granted women the right to vote. And it was even after that that one of the districts granted women the right to vote. So that's kind of interesting. But the image there would be 1-9 is a tuba, and then 7-1 is a kite. So if you can use that tuba and that kite to grant women the right to vote, you know, just figure that out somehow in the pendulum area of the clock. And then between the 1971 and the 2002, we have 1999, which, and this is really interesting, Switzerland had their

first female president as shortly after 1971 as 1999. And the U.S. still, right now in 2016, hasn't had a female president. So that's kind of interesting that they were the last Western republic to grant women the right to vote, but they had their first female president in 1999. And the images there would be a tuba and a pipe. So you can use whatever you want to represent a woman, you know, being the first female president in 1999. So there you go. There's a sample timeline of Swiss history divided into three eras using a grandfather clock as my memory palace. Thanks for the question, Eduardo. I'm a huge fan of Switzerland. My family is actually descended from the Swiss. So, you know, I love studying the history of these countries.

I'd also love to study any other historic timeline. If anybody wants to submit something, I've devoted Mondays to history. So I'm going to do timelines like this every Monday that I can. If you guys just submit a question about some historical topic that you want to learn. If you want to learn more about the kinds of timelines and things like that that we use, please go to masterofmemory.com slash start. You want to make complete sense of these mops and toffee and dolls and tires and things that we're using in these, you know, weird memory palaces that I'm putting together.

You could have this whole timeline memorized very easily if you know how to use these objects. So just go to masterofmemory.com slash start, and there's no fee or opt-in or anything. It's all just written there in articles for you to learn how to create these timelines and these memory palaces yourself using these images to learn numbers and really anything that you want to learn faster than ever. What do you want to learn? The world's knowledge can be yours. Leave your learning request at masterofmemory.com slash question,

and I'll talk to you again soon.