The Pete Quiñones Show - Episode 1091: The Spanish Empire 1492-1659 - Pt. 3 - Iberia w/ Paul Fahrenheidt

Episode Date: August 11, 2024

69 MinutesPG-13Paul Fahrenheidt is a husband, father, podcaster, writer, and founding member of the Old Glory Club.Paul joins Pete to continue a series on Spain's Golden Age. In this episode Paul gives a description of the intrigues within the Iberian peninsula between 1492 and 1530.A Country Squire's NotebookOld Glory Club YouTube ChannelOld Glory Club SubstackPaul's SubstackPaul on TwitterPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Antelope Hill - Promo code "peteq" for 5% off - https://antelopehillpublishing.com/FoxnSons Coffee - Promo code "peter" for 18% off - https://www.foxnsons.com/Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's Substack Pete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

There's so much rugby on Sports Exter from Sky. They've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter Sports Extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place.

Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jampact with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months, further terms apply. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Frankine Volkswagen?

If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as new car joy. Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic route. If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry. The only known treatment is enjoying your new vehicle. Side effects may also include great value and exceptional customer service. Talk to a friendly professional at Frankine Volkswagen today and see if upgrading your car is the right prescription for a year. On the many days of Christmas, the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee. A visit filled with festivity.

Experience a story of Ireland's most iconic beer in a stunning Christmas setting at the Guinness Storehouse. Enjoy seven floors of interactive exhibitions and finish your visit with breathtaking views of Dublin City from the home of Guinness. Live entertainment, great memories and the gravity bar. My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at Guinness Storehouse.com. Get the facts. Be drink aware. visit drinkaware.e.

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much. Paul Fahrenheit's back, and we're going to delve more into historic Spain. How are you done, Paul? I'm doing very well, Mr. Pete. again for having me back on. This is, I think this is episode, I guess if you count, not counting the disputation of Tortoza, this is episode two of our series, maybe episode three, if you count the disputation. Last time, Mr. Pete, we discussed, you know, just a general, like, you know, scattershot of the relevant constituent parts of European and wider world history, which brought us to this point. For this episode, we're going to primarily focus upon the Iberian Peninsula, particularly in the 15th century and the early 16th century, but really the last sort of century

of Reconquista. I will not be going into as much detail as I would like to, but we're going to try to hit on, I'm going to try to hit on everything I think is important. So we've got the outline. So whenever, I guess whenever you're ready to go. Go right ahead. All right. So one of the big themes of today's episode, I want everyone to kind of keep in their mind, keeping in mind world systems theory, right? World systems theory and sort of the transitional periods of civilizations, right?

The Middle Ages, in just in terms of the political structure of the Middle Ages, were so unbelievably sophisticated. Like feudalism is the best, you know, it's not necessarily wrong. It's just incomplete because, you know, it wasn't necessarily as simple as dynastic succession, right? Dynastic succession was sort of the default, but there was 5,000 different variations of that. And so in the Middle Ages, if you look at just frankly the number of principalities, And that's because that was an era of world historical history, which I think were world historical history. That was an era of world historical politics in which force in a lot of ways was centralized.

It was centralizing, but it was very decentralized, right? And almost anyone with access to land could mobilize an army that could compete with almost anyone else. And Mr. Pete, I think we're actually in our current time in the date of recording, 2024, I believe that we are reentering a period like that. I believe the future power and force application and the ability to fight a war competitively is going to be a lot more, funnily enough, democratized across the various tribes and ethnoses of the world. I wrote a threat on this recently, but I'm not going to plug it here because here's not the place. But in the Middle Ages, it was very similar. And as one of the transitions from this period we're looking at the late Middle Ages into the early modern period was the decentralization of power is, you know, is these tiny little polities which have existed, not just, you know, think Holy Roman Empire, but not just in the Holy Roman Empire that have existed, start getting gobbled up and you start getting larger and larger and larger polities.

And this also necessitates a sort of, you know, this sort of this sort of this libertarian vision, which isn't a bad one of all of the 10,000 different principalities having their own laws and customs and et cetera. Right. And in some ways, that may better govern each individual area than if one homogenous power were to rule that area. However, comma, a lot of what the transition from the medieval period to the modern period, the early modern period was basically taking all of that tradition and idiosyncrasy and complexity. And now that technology is advancing, systems of organization are advancing, et cetera, et cetera, that all gets kind of put to the torch, put to the flame as whoever can innovate the fastest and centralize and organize the fastest. And size doesn't necessarily decide this.

You know, large polities will get gobbled up. Look at the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. Small polities will do exceptionally well. We'll punch far above their weight. Look at Portugal, the Netherlands, and Prussia. And it's just a matter of who can figure out where the game is going the fastest and can mobilize resources to it. And that's going to be a big theme of today when we talk about what's going on in

Iberia around this time. I'm just going to look at my notes real quick. Yeah, and this, and this, I think this is a good place. You know, Mr. Pete, you've talked elsewhere, right, how the Iberian Peninsula, particularly Spain, has always had this issue of these various, you know, disparate regions, even to this day, they have this issue. You know, they all speak slightly different dialects of Spanish that's in some, in some, in some ways and in some cases unrecognizable from the quote-unquote proper dialect and even that

as a concept is is is a is a sort of technique of modernity i guess is the right way of saying that because what happened you know over the over the this this period in the early modern period and into the 19th century this what happened in germany and it these were the last countries this happened to and not the first um but spain spain spain and France where the France was the first and Spain was the second and I guess England was the third. Spain and England kind of happened simultaneous and then Spain kind of catches up. France and England is simultaneous and Spain catches up. Is the sort of like one particular region of the country subdues the rest of a given area and begins kind of homogenizing it, right?

And even in Spain, you still have this, this struggle to this day. Everyone is attempting to speak Castilian, or the government is attempting to get everyone to speak Castilian Spanish and to, you know, practice Castilian customs and things like that. You know, when, you know, Galicians and, you know, people in Andalusians and the Basques very famously or infamously and the Catalans and all these other regions that have different regional. histories. This all comes from the Middle Ages where Galicia was a kingdom, Leon was a kingdom, Castile was a kingdom, Navarra was a kingdom, Aragon was a kingdom. The Catalan countries had their own, you know, I don't know if it was a republic or whatever. I think it was, I think it was something resembling a republic. They had that and then, you know, Al-Andalus in the south and in Portugal, these were all different polities, right? And it's just over time, they all kind of got gobbled up and

homogenized. And this century that we're going to be looking at is sort of the final, the final ending piece of that where Spain as, basically these different polities kind of cease to exist in this idea of Spain as this invented country, which, you know, doesn't really predate the 1500s as a concept, you know, the way we imagine it now, beyond being a Roman province or a place where there's a whole bunch of kingdoms. Although there has been something like that. But basically this is what happens, you know, is all of these various regional powers and polities

with their own histories and their own whatever. There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky, they've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter sports extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup,

and much more. That's the U.R.C and all the best. European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jam pack with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra.

New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Frankine Volkswagen? If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as New Car Joy. Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic group. If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry.

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Live entertainment, great memories, and the gravity bar. My goodness is Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at Guinness Storehouse.com. Get the facts. Be drinkaware. Visit drinkaware.com. Kind of gets put to the sword and they all get homogenized under one major polity. Any questions about that before we start actually diving into the history? itself. No, it's funny, though. I've been reading the rise and fall of the nations by Frank

Kruveld and basically everything you're mentioning, even mentioning Spain, England and France is going right along with everything he says about the rise of the modern state. Absolutely. Well, and I mean, and really, I'm not a, I believe in, I believe in like sort of cycles. There is a cyclical aspect to this. believe in a grand meta-narrative of history like you know the cycles are just simply along a line or a roller coaster as it were but you know but like there is a cyclical aspect to this right is um you know homogenize homogenize homogenize homogenize until eventually you have the world system but then as the world system is unchallenged it starts you know differentiating within

itself over time over time over time over time and then eventually the world system just loses all of its even claim to being a system and then boom, shatters, shatters into a thousand pieces and you have something like the Middle Ages again, you know,

the same thing happened with Rome. Rome, you know, homogenized, homogenized, but then, you know, it's unchallenged and then it starts,

you know, regional differences and decline and whatever. And then eventually one day, it just, it just shatters. All right. And the, you know,

you could almost almost, what's the right even, what, There's a different way I could say it. Maybe this metaphor doesn't work, but it's almost like, it's almost like agriculture, right? You know, if you, you know, how would I? I don't know if I want to fight for this metaphor here, but it's like, you know, it's true. It's like, you know, certain soil that supports civilizations, high cultures, etc.

All right, you can deplete that soil. You can basically have too much history happen in one place. Europe is a great example of that right now. Too much history has happened there. Its potentialities are very few because of how much history it has to deal with. The United States, its potentialities are much greater because of how little history we really have comparatively. And so if you have depleted soil like that, barring a complete, you know, historical wiping of the slate of that and like putting a whole new foreign people there, that, you know, it's, The soil is going to remain depleted. Does that make sense? There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky.

They've asked me to read the whole ad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter Sports Extra is jampacked with rugby. For the first time, we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. That's the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra.

Jampack with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. which extra customers only. Standupressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Frankine Volkswagen? If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as new car joy.

Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic route. If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry. The only known treatment is enjoying your new vehicle. Side effects may also include great value and exceptional customer service. Talk to a friendly professional at Frankine Volkswagen today and see a if upgrading your car is the right prescription for you. On the many days of Christmas,

the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee, a visit filled with festivity. Experience a story of Ireland's most iconic beer in a stunning Christmas setting at the Guinness Storehouse. Enjoy seven floors of interactive exhibitions and finish your visit with breathtaking views of Dublin City from the home of Guinness. Live entertainment, great memories and the Gravity Bar.

My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at Guinness Storehouse. Come. Get the facts. Be drinkaware. Visit drinkaware.a.e. Yeah. 100%. Okay. Keep gone. All right. Um, anyway, so that's neither here nor there, though. Um, now we're gonna, we're gonna start going into what sort of happened in the Iberian Peninsula in particular. So the first thing I want to talk about, I'm not going to talk about this for too long. Um, because this is not a show on Islamic Spain. You could do, you could do a whole series on Islamic Spain. Um, but long story short, Islamic Spain has started a very long decline.

In, uh, 1212 more or less sealed to fate, but they started a really long decline around the 11th century with the fall of the Umayyads of Al-Andalus, you know, as you talked about Pete, one generation would take, you know, a foot from the Moors, the next generation would take a mile, you know, the next generation would take, you know, all, Eventually that strategy started working, the more started getting distracted in campaigns in North Africa and other places. And the Christian princes just very patiently just started taking bits and pieces here. Charlemagne was a windfall, bits and pieces here. The Crusades blew the door wide open.

And then more or less the last battle that I've mentioned several times before, Las Navas de Tolosa, in 1212, which is like this joint effort between all of the squabbling petty kingdoms of that's going to be a recurring theme the squabbling petty kingdoms of iberia kind of unifying alongside the um the knights of santiago the order of calatrava um the spilllers the templars a bunch of crusading knightly orders and just random adventures from a thousand different countries in europe um all unifying at las navas de telosa to smash the al-Mohad caliphate. All right. Now, what was the Almohad Caliphate?

Well, they were the geopolitical entity that directly preceded the Emirate of Granada, the Kingdom of Morocco, and the various other North African polities, although the other one ceased to exist. But the kingdom of Morocco, which is a historical nation state, and is also very understudy, but it's got an interesting history. The Kingdom of Morocco kind of, I think it's been ruled by the Maronid dynasty ever since the 13th century. So that's been a dynasty that's been in charge of Morocco for the last 800 years or so. And they've still got a king there today.

But that starts when they split off from the Almohad Caliphate. Now the Almohads, they're just, you know, they were a bunch of Berbers, you know, who had this weird interpretation of Islam. and then they came and they conquered Iberia and North Africa from the Almoravids who were another weird Berber branch with an interpretation of Islam

who I think took it from the from the you know from the Umahids right and these are these were all of these people all of these were just called the Moors by by Spaniards they didn't really see much difference between them day to day

they were still Berbers they still acted like Berbers But Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 causes the Al-Mohad Caliphate, which was the last kind of unified major Islamic state in Iberia to cease to cause it functionally to collapse. Now, it didn't collapse immediately. It took about 20 years. But in 1232 under the Nazareth dynasty, the Emirate of Granada was founded.

The Emirate of Granada was centered primary around the cities of I think Cadiz, Granada and Malaga. Yeah, those are the, yeah, I think those are their three cities. Cades, Malaga and Granada, all of which would become, well, particularly Cades, but all of which would become extremely important within Spain later on. But Granada existed for really 260 years. You know, they were founded in 1232. They didn't end until like 1492, 1493.

And the reason that they loved. lasted so long. And it's a really it's a tiny little sliver of territory at the south of Spain, of the Iberian Peninsula, rather. And you'd wonder why they didn't just finish the job of the reconquista rather than just letting it sit there. And the reason for this is because of, you know, as always, Mr. Pete, what do, whenever, whenever the crusade achieves the goal or like gets 90% of the way there, what always happens? Tell me, Paul, what always happens. Well, everyone pulls the knives out on each other, you know?

Like, like, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, you've got this grand unity. Okay, we're all, we're all, I'm talking about something else right now. We're all pushing towards this grand ideal. Yeah, let's totally, you know, put aside our little petty differences because we all agree on this one thing. But then what happens when you get like 80, 90% of the way there or you achieve the goal? Oh, then what happens? Huh. Anyway, so this is kind of what happened in the Iberian Peninsula, right?

You had all of these various different kingdoms who, you know, some kingdoms started getting absorbed by other kingdoms. A particular note is the kingdom of the crown of Castile. All right. Now, Castile was, you know, it was a particular area of northern Spain centered around Burgos. called Castilla la Vieja or old Castile all right and it also included the the the old kingdom of asturius eventually it would also absorb leon and galicia and when it absorbed leon and galicia it became the largest and most powerful single entity on the iberian peninsula all right So, what was it?

So I'm, shoot, sorry, I got to go back to my notes. I got to find out where I am. Yeah, so they are, what was it? They have always been, you know, ever since Castile was created with the death of one of the kings of Navarre. Navar, okay, that's where I was going. There's another polity in Iberia about this time is the kingdom of Navar. It is much reduced, much, much, much, much, much, much reduced. It used to be like the power on Iberia, many hundreds of years.

prior to this. But over time, as always happens, you know, the kingdom got split up between heirs and the Kingdom of, the foundation of the Kingdom of Castile was one such case in which this particular region was given to an heir of a king of Navarre. And that's the thing. So Castile started gobbling up all the territories around it. Navarre kind of ceased being relevant. and it was relegated to this one very tiny area towards the north of the peninsula. But simultaneously, a separate kingdom, a second kingdom started developing on the other side of the Iberian Peninsula, which was the crown of Aragon, the kingdom of Aragon, all right? So Aragon was a single county, one individual,

single county that existed in northeastern Spain, in the mountains near Zara. Its traditional capital would be Zaragoza. But I don't think the county of Aragon included that. There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky, they've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes.

This winter sports extra is jam-packed with rugby. For the first time, we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. Thus, the U.S.C. and all the best European rugby all in the same place. more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra. Jampacked with rugby.

Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports Extra customers only. Standard Pressing applies after 12 months for the terms apply. Ireland's largest award-winning light show experience is back. Wonder Lights is now open in three spectacular locations, Malahide Castle and Gardens and Marley Park in Dublin and Photo House in Cork.

Follow the enchanting walking trail that will captivate all ages, as the night comes alive with dazzling displays and unforgettable moments. Who will you Wonderlights with? For dates and bookings, visit wonderlights.I.E. On the many days of Christmas, the Guinness Storehouse brings to thee, a visit filled with festivity. Experience a story of Ireland's most iconic beer in a stunning Christmas setting at the Guinness Storehouse.

Enjoy seven floors of interactive exhibitions and finish your visit with breathtaking views of Dublin City from the home of Guinness. Live entertainment, great memories, and the gravity bar. My goodness, it's Christmas at the Guinness Storehouse. Book now at ginnestorehouse.com. Get the facts, be drinkaware. Visit drinkaware.org. So this county starts progressively growing and growing,

snatching little territory here and there, eventually grows large enough to annex and unify with the county of Barcelona. and annexes pretty much all of the Catalan counties. Then later on, it absorbs Valencia. And you have this whole second kingdom, which comes pretty much out of nowhere, which, you know, unlike Castile, the only direction Castile really had to look in

was towards the Moors and towards Portugal. You know, various, various wars were fought between Portugal and Castile because, you know, Castile wanted to do what it had done to Navarre and Galicia and absorbed Portugal as well. It did not go the way that the Castilians wanted it to, though. But Aragon kind of comes out of nowhere over the same 200 years, from starting in about 1,200 to about 1,400. They kind of go from this one little county to small little polity, and they transform into the second most powerful, whether you, however much you're willing to give respect to. Honestly, yeah, Portugal, Portugal didn't start really getting

influential until it started doing its Atlantic expeditions. But Aragon, Aragon was looking back east. Arragon was looking at the Mediterranean. And Aragon had actually, it passed a system of maritime law that it attempted to enforce in the Mediterranean. It did, it did not work. But they were a thalasocracy. They were the most powerful single polity in the Western Mediterranean. And this was because through a variety of fortunate events, intermarriages, conquests, et cetera, they were able to acquire a patchwork of territories, the province of Provence in the south of France, where Marseille is.

They were able to acquire Corsica and Sardinia. They were able to acquire Sicily. And the whole kingdom of Naples, all of southern Italy was under the control of the Aragonese. And they also, for a time, for a time they could, controlled in the in the 1300s, they controlled Greece. Of note, they also controlled the city of Athens in Greece. And this was before the Byzantines were conquered.

You know, so, and this is part of the reason why the Byzantines were conquered, because they were so weak that Western European polities were just kind of coming into Greece, including the Aragonese were not the only ones to do this. The Venetians also did it. The Genoans also did it. Various other Italian city states did it. The Byzantines were very much like just dead. They were a state waiting to get toppled.

um but yeah so the arragonese build this this this this maritime empire this very this very powerful maritime empire as a composite monarchy which is meant to say that like one king was king over like five or six different bodies of law which was which would prove a nightmare to the um to the nascent spanish state um so yeah so this is so that's that's what's going on there. Crown of Aragon, it's, I honestly, I think it's an understudied, it's an understudied country. It's very interesting. And, you know, it really was, people, we don't think about it this way today, but it really

was like one of, at the time it existed, it was one of the great powers of Europe because of all the influence it had in the Mediterranean. It was able to defeat France and wars and take provinces from, from French Catalonia. So, so yeah, I mean, so the kingdom of Castile and the kingdom of Aragon are kind of the two big dogs. Castile is obviously much bigger than Aragon, all right, on Iberia, but Aragon has, has sea power to it. And they both kind of start, you know, Castile instead of going down to, because here's the thing. The Emirate of Granada, under the Nassarid dynasty, became a tributary to Castile. You know, they were, you know, they would pay the crown a certain amount of money every single year and would remain in exchange.

They would just remain independent, but nominally a puppet, but also continuing to practice Islam and, you know, and all this other stuff. And Castile was distracting itself with, you know, dynastic intrigues and Navarra and trying to bring Navarra, which for a time was under the crown of Aragon, but slipped out again, back under Castilian rule. intrigues in Navarra you know difficulties with with France just to the north and you know attempting to you know whenever it wasn't warring with Portugal having dynastic intrigues in Portugal so Castile instead of instead of just finishing the job

this is funny you know Mr. P's is is this is this kind of culminates across you know not just history but really all realms of reality is that you know, nothing makes someone lazier than getting the job 90% done, you know, um, nothing makes you lulligag more than getting the job 90% done. Granada was a very small little sliver of a single concentrated effort from Castile, as it proved in like 1492 when it finally went and went and just did it.

Yeah, as it proved would just, would just, it would just fold in the reconquista would be complete. and Spain would be completely in the hands of Christians again. But no, no, people started getting greedy and eyeing each other, such as always the case of empire and really politics in general, something I think everyone should remain conscious of, especially if you think that you are any different from all of the historical policies that have happened in ages past. Moving on here a little bit.

All right. So I'm talking about all these dynastic disputes. You know, Portugal, as we talked about last time, is already there. Portugal is the prototype of the overseas European empire. This is why Portugal is so important. All right. Portugal is also the longest lasting European empire. It began in, I think they conquered Seuta in 1412.

I'm going to Google it real quick to fact check myself. But I'm pretty sure Seuda, 1415, all right, three years off. All right. So the Portuguese conquered Seuta in 1415, and that begun, they saw it as like this continuation of the Reconquista, all right, because, you know, North Africa used to be Christian under the vandals. This was one of the various excuses. Like this whole time, like, you know, history at this time was just being used as historical

claims for basically excuses to go and grab land from other powers. And so Portugal does this in Seuta. In 1415, their empire ends. Their empire begins. Their empire does not end until 1975 after the death of Antonio Salazar. And the sort of the communist army officer revolt, which, you know, caused a lot of death in Angola and Mozambique. There's so much rugby on Sports Extra from Sky.

They've asked me to read the whole lad at the same speed I usually use for the legal bit at the end. Here goes. This winter sports extra is jampacked with rugby. For the first time we've got every Champions Cup match exclusively live, plus action from the URC, the Challenge Cup, and much more. That's the URC and all the best European rugby all in the same place. Get more exclusively live tournaments than ever before on Sports Extra.

Jampack with rugby. Phew, that is a lot of rugby. Get Sports Extra on Sky for 15 euro a month for 12 months. Search Sports Extra. New Sports extra customers only. Stand up pressing applies after 12 months further terms apply. Ireland's largest award-winning light show experience is back. Wonderlights is now open in three spectacular locations,

Malahide Castle and Gardens, and Marley Park in Dublin and photo house in Cork. Follow the enchanting walking trail that will captivate all ages as the night comes alive with dazzling displays and unforgettable moments. Who will you Wonderlights with? For dates and bookings, visit wonderlights.i. Have you recently purchased a new vehicle from Frankine Volkswagen? If so, you may be at risk for an exciting condition known as new car joy. Symptoms may include spontaneous smiling, sudden increases in confidence and uncontrollable urges to take the scenic route.

If you experience any of these symptoms, don't worry. The only known treatment is enjoying your new vehicle. Side effects may also include great value and exceptional customer service. Talk to a friendly professional at Frankine Volkswagen today and see if upgrading your car is the right prescript. for you. A couple of deaths in 1975 that affected the Iberian Peninsula in grave waves. Oh no, absolutely. No, yeah. And in many ways, you know, Iberio was kind of spared the horrors of, and I don't know, you know, you could, for whatever reason you could point to. The Iberian Peninsula was more or less spared the horrors of the 20th century, besides the Spanish Civil War.

war, which was rather horrific, but that was just a small little taste of what the rest of the 20th century held in store for the rest of, for the rest of the continent. But for the most part, besides the Spanish Civil War, the Iberian Peninsula more or less was spared from the, from the horrors and the ravages of the 21st century and the cultural acid that came with it, particularly through the long, lives of Salazar and Franco, who were politically savvy enough to understand that they couldn't quite throw completely in with Hitler, but they couldn't, you know, quite, you know, throw them out either. And so they, you know, they looked after they did what I, honestly, what I think I would do in their position is they looked after the interests of their respective countries and made overtures to the allies when they thought it was beneficial, made overtures to Hitler, when they thought it was beneficial and you know they managed to they shoot like their their their regimes only collapsed when

they died you know um and not for lack of attempting to set up successors Franco tried to set up success anyway that's kind of beyond the scope of this um but yes so Portugal Portugal was the prototype and in many ways Spain kind of Castile particularly Castile would later just inherit their model of, you know, what a, what a country in the position of Portugal and Castile, because Portugal and Castile are both in very similar positions. Aragon, and I mean, Aragon, shoot, Aragon, it was colonizing or attempting to conquer, you know, already civilized space in the Mediterranean, but it was, it was still attempting to be the seafaring maritime empire. All right. Castile, on the other hand, it was a land power, but it was a land power. But it was a land power

that only really existed, the whole purpose of it was just to finish the Reconquista. And then after it finished the Reck Enquista, finally in 1492, then it existed to Unify the I, although, you know, Unify the Iberian Peninsula was a new thing that they kind of came up with before they finished the Reck Enquista. And I guess I'll go into that now. But yeah, but suffice it to say with Portugal and Henry the Navigator, they were already going on these expeditions.

And so Castile would later copy their model. But I've talked about all of this dynastic disputes in the Iberian Peninsula. Really, I just want to talk about one single event because of how important it is. And that is the war of Castilian succession. This is another part of the reason why Castile... One of the other big reasons why Castile never got its act together was it was always going through succession crisis for some reason. You know, their kings were always dying inconveniently or disinheriting their kids or

or the nobles were pressuring the king to disinherit their kids or whatever. And so the War of Castilian Succession, I think I mentioned it last time. I'm going to go into more detail of it now. All right. What the War of Castilian Succession really was was, you know, how the Spanish Civil War, Mr. Pete kind of turned into this like arena where foreign powers could kind of compete against each other using it. Yeah, like a proxy kind of what kind of thing. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So something very similar occurred with the War of Castilian Succession, which was funnily enough between two female heirs of of, of, of, the Crown of Castile, the Isabella and Joanna. All right, they were, um, uh, also called Le Beltranjeja.

And that's a reference due to the rumors of why she was. So kind of to make a long story short, and this is, you know, look, I kind of understand the monarchists, but at some, but like I sit there and I study like dynastic politics and like the little pissant disputes they get into and like the and like genealogy books as the foundation of politics. I'm like, you want to bring this back? You want to bring this back? you want to have you want to have this again i mean because because anyway i'm because it's it's just

so silly right it's so silly because so i mean you know if you were to study like um you know today i was just basically looking at spain comparing spain france and england i mean england was probably the one that did it the best you know they had early unification with the norman conquest in 1066 you know, strong monarchies, but William the Conqueror. They came up with royal institutions first. They had common law, taxation, they had a parliament, integration of towns. Their feudalism was rather weak. Royal courts, things like that.

That would be the model you'd want to go for if you were, you know, it's the best you could hope for. Then this is probably why us coming over from there, why we were able to have our colonization last longer than other, um, other kingdoms. No, absolutely. And I mean, and to be fair, I think that's a very good point. To be fair to the, to the, to the, to the Spaniards, right, they were dealing with, like, even in Castile, they were dealing with several different systems of law, all right? In, in some respects, right, Spain is kind of a demonstration of how if you have too many,

if you if you try to homogenize too many things it's just it's not going to work it's going to blow up in your face um england i mean you had you know once you tried to centralize you'd have revolts like the commoneros rebellion and you know in 15 2015 15 21 so you know it's always that's i talk about this all the time the problem with spain has always been that that you have these autonomous. Everyone wants to be autonomous. Absolutely. And the only way Spain can survive and, you know, they have to be an imperium unto themselves. No, absolutely. And I mean, and yeah, like I said, to be fair, this is, this is, this could also just be, you know, you could chalk this up to the fact that like five or six different like 400 year old traditions of law tried to get

homogenized into one country rather than in England, like you said, when it was, it was a, it was a firm, top down, like this was the hierarchy in order, and it had been set that way and, like, tinkered with for the next thousand years. But regardless, here's what happened, all right, more or less. So Joanna was the, what is it? Joanna was the heir. All right, Joanna was the child of King Henry IV of Castile, all right? You know, also called Henry the impotent or Henry the weak. All right. and what was it and i believe isabella was his half-sister um if i i think yeah i think isabella was his half-sister all right so why was there a dispute isabella's his half-sister

joanna is his daughter uh only child born to king henry the fourth why wouldn't it go to joanna well that is because within the court there was a rumor that um um that what was it that Henry's wife, Joan of Portugal, was having an affair with a gentleman by the name of Beltran de la Cueva, who was the Duke of Albuquerque, and that the child, the daughter, Joanna, was a product of him and not the king. And so the nobles took this and used it to pressure the king to disinherit Joanna, all right? Um, but, you know, but, but, you know, and then Henry lost the throne and then we regained it later on. And, and this is, if you ever start studying Iberia, you start to notice that these kings would lose their thrones, but then get it back really quickly a lot.

Um, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just, it's a mess. Um, and, um, but, so functionally, you add these two factions of nobles supported by and around these two claimants supported by two major foreign powers all right um isabella of castile and joanna uh who's called la belle treneja you know which is basically poking fun at her saying like oh you were and this was never proven but you know at this time rumors were enough to kick something off about so Aragon, who at this time was underneath Ferdinand II, who's a very, honestly, I think he's one of the most interesting figures of this period

because he really is like, Ferdinand really is almost the penultimate Machiavellian schemer. He found a way to maneuver himself and his kingdom in such a way that he gained control over a kingdom twice as large and twice as powerful as the one that he inherited. but but basically when the when when Henry the fourth died there was a lot of disputes over who was going to take over who was going to succeed him so Aragon under Ferdinand decided to back Isabella all right

Portugal and France who hated you know who hated Aragon and didn't like where Aragon was throwing in with and wanted more influence over Castile threw in with um uh through him with joanna and you know that you know there's civil war within castile for about four years and to make a long story short isabella's supporters come out on top um and so now that now so war of castilian succession basically it's it's this conflict as to see who is going to get the primary influence over the iberian peninsula because joanna later married the king of Portugal. She very strategically

married the then-batchelor king of Portugal during the succession crisis. And it's very possible that if the other side had won this, if Portugal had won, then Spain would have unified possibly, Iberia would have possibly unified

in a different direction between, you know, Castile and Portugal, rather than Castile and Aragon. And the concept of Spain, as we have, it wouldn't really exist. Aragon more than likely would have continued being this, I don't want to say rump power, but this sort of like backwards-looking Mediterranean polity.

But that did not occur. So with Isabella's supporters coming victorious out of the War of Castilian Succession, you have the sort of the what's called the Iberian Union, right? The Iberian Union. And what this was was, it's most, it's most, notably it was the marriage between Ferdinand the second of Castile and Isabella the first of, or not not Ferdinand the second of Aragon and Isabella the first of Castile. My apologies. And what this begun was a sort of a long, a long process of homogenization and centralization. You know, Spain, they did not start, they didn't call themselves king and queen of Spain. They called themselves, you know, king and queen of Castile and Aragon, respectively.

Um, and simultaneously because they were, they were also the king and the queen of, of their spouses country. Um, but, um, but, but this, they started beginning to homogenize the institutions of of Castile and Aragon. They started combining the, the systems of law. And it proved, like I said earlier, a nightmare. It was, a nightmare. And it really, you know, it didn't fully, you know, the, you had, you had, you had like five different Cortez, you know, just national Cortes, not just in Castile. You had like five different Cortes that they had to deal with. And, and really, it, it would prove enough of a bureaucratic nightmare that functionally Spain had to create the modern state

to step outside all of this and to start homogenizing. And that was done. under Charles the 5th, and we'll talk more about that later. But functionally, this is kind of what was leading up into the part of the story that you all probably already know about, which is the beginning of, I'm going to come back to succession in a minute, but I'm going to take this time now that we've more or less got our pieces in a row. I'm going to start talking about the age of exploration, particularly under Castile and Leon. Do you have anything before I kind of get off this topic?

Nope, keep going. All right. Thank you. Yep. So 1492, everyone knows after, you know, Granada gets conquered, Torquamata says converter leave. And also, Christopher Columbus presents, after being rejected by the king of Portugal, presents his proposal to go find. an alternative sea route to China. All right.

People forget he did not go to find the new world. The knowledge of the new world's existence wasn't really widespread at the time. You know, because, you know, most people just didn't think it existed. Or, you know, or, you know, now they knew that there were other continents out there. You know, they knew about China and they knew about Africa, but they didn't know how big they were really or what they really contained. Um, in Europe prior to this time really was inward looking. I don't want to say backwards, but it was very in insular focus.

That's why you had all of these complicated, you know, you had all these complicated systems of, of, of governance and politics and stuff like that because Europe was a very limited world. But Christopher Columbus comes and he proposes to the, uh, to the king and queen of Castile and Aragon, a proposal to go attempt to find an alternative, you know, inspired by the navigations of Henry the Navigator and all the, Diego Gomez and all the other Portuguese explorers. Columbus wants to attempt to find an alternative sea route to China. Okay, well, why do they want to find a sea route to China in the first place? Well, rewind back to 1453. The Turks conquer Constantinople. Napol has always been the terminus point where all of the goods carried along the Silk

Roads are then exported into the European markets. This is why the Italian city-states were so obsessed with Greece and with the Byzantine Empire. That's why Aragon was involved in this region. This is partly, I mean, when the Crusades, the Crusades gave them the first taste of this. and that's what really kickstarted interests here. But when the Turks conquer Constantinople, right, this traditional market, all of the ports of entry, all of the ports of entry of these goods, particularly spices, although there are other goods that they wanted as well, stop flowing into Europe. Because the Turks, the Ottomans declare, you know, using jihad as their justification

that they are no longer going to export these goods into Europe. So, Europe is now in a commodity crisis. All of these commodities, which the Italian city states, this is also part of the reason why the Italian city states started declining. Because the Renaissance was already going strong at this point. This is part of the reason why the Italian city states started declining is because their markets started freezing up. They stopped being able to buy the goods from the business.

and then sell it to the to the rest of the to the rest of europe and so this leaves countries kind of scrambling to get alternative sources of certain commodities which you know i mean europeans weren't stupid they knew that the commodities came from china and some of them especially as henry the navigator started spreading these these these ideas of maritime navigation and in inventing these techniques. He invented a certain kind of compass. He assisted inventing a new different, a new kind of, um, a stargazing. Particularly, he also helped invented the square rigged sail,

which was a whole, which was a game changer, as opposed to the, to the triangle rigs sale. I'm not a Navy guy, so I could be, you know, people who are like naval historians or know about this stuff could probably crucify me, but, you know, sorry, I just know what I know. And so Columbus proposes to Isabella and Ferdinand, I'm going to go and see if I can find an alternative route to China. Right. Because if he can, then what Castile and, you know, to a certain extent, Portugal, what Portugal was doing in Africa and other places was, you know, they were trying to get to China the other way, right? They were trying to get to China going around the horn of Africa because they thought, because most, Europeans didn't think Africa was that big. They thought Africa kind of stopped around where

West Africa kind of, they thought it was a rather small continent. They could just sail around it, make it to India and then make it to China. But it turns out Africa was a lot bigger than they thought. That was the problem that the Portuguese had to deal with is that Africa was actually much, much, much, much, much, much larger than they thought it was. And that's kind of why they lost out here. because yes, while they went with the with the long road, the Castilians went with the hard road. The Isabella, very famously, I think Ferdinand did not think it was a good idea, but Isabella did.

And so Columbus was able to secure his funding, and they all departed from Cadith, I'm pretty sure. Everyone knows the names of the ships, et cetera, et cetera. Santa Maria and they sail. And to make a long story short, Columbus discovers land. He discovers, they find land at Hispaniola, in Hispaniola. I forget the specific part, but it's in modern-day Haiti was where they discovered this territory.

And everyone kind of knows the rest from there. you know you know Columbus sets up an ex sets up an outpost goes back comes back um starts colonizing the uh the island of hispanola and this really opens up Caribbean settlement you know because Cuba gets discovered and and and you know Puerto Rico and other islands um and this also in many ways this this is this now opens up a convenient place to kick out all a lot of these, a lot of these, uh, problematic, um, people in the south of Spain. Because not all, not all of them were deported to say like the Netherlands, right? A lot of them were deported, especially as, as the, um, uh, Caribbean colonies started opening

up. A lot of them were deported to, uh, to, they have been deported to like the Canary islands or to like, uh, and then later on to like places like Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Um, so yes, I mean, um, so, so essentially, you know, as everyone knows, this is, this is, this completely changes the world because while Columbus initially thought that he had landed off of like an island off the coast of China,

subsequent expeditions, you know, I think even he realized that this is, no, this is, this is a whole new continent, which is almost better than finding China. As Spain would then, as Castile particularly would then later do. This causes such a stir, across Europe that Pope Alexander the 6th, I know, I know, who was Pope at this time, felt it necessary

to kind of get Castile and Portugal together because, you know, you have to understand, right, you know, when massive, when paradigms change, when paradigms change, when markets change, when a new technological innovation, when all of these other things, when they change, all of the hardest thing to update is the mental models people use, is the assumptions people have about what reality is, is the social technology. That is the hardest thing to update. All right. And so this was in the mind of Pope Alexander the 6th when he brought together the Portuguese

who had a pretty good idea of what they were getting into, and the Castilians, he brought them together to sort of negotiate, because, you know, as I said earlier, as I said in the first episode, this is what the Christendom world system does, all right? It is highly possible, and I think the Pope sort of recognized, being the highest arbiter of law of this world system

of the Christendom world system, he realized that very possibly conflict could arise between Castile and Aragon as to who owned what colonies. Because Castile was claiming all of the Americas and, and not Aragon, Portugal, and Portugal was claiming all of Africa and like all of Asia and all these other things. And so the Pope decided,

more or less, to bring them together and they signed the Treaty of Tortillas in 1494. It was one of a series of treaties later on the Treaty of Saragos, was signed in 1529, which set another boundary. But the Pope, the Pope drew a line, which was a little bit further back in the ocean, but, you know, the Portuguese. And there's a theory that the Portuguese had already discovered Brazil at this time. They just hadn't shared it. And so when the Pope, when the line that they argued with the Treaty of Tortoise

kind of fell into a large part of what is present-day Brazil. They kind of took it. But yes, the Treaty of Tortoise is signed, and the world is divided up more or less, all of these newly found American continents, which they're still trying to survey, they're still trying to explore, they're still trying to chart the coastlines of,

are given to Castile, are given to the crown of Castile, and the rest of the world, Africa, Asia, et cetera, is given to the crown of Portugal. All right. And this treaty very much was in effect for a while. You know, the only, this treaty was sacrosanct. You know, people did not violate it. Um, matter of fact, these are the pretty much the two main countries, the main Catholic countries. Um, that started, what was it that started that, that really exploited this, you know, and it wasn't until the Protestant Reformation that this treaty really did start getting violated. And, you know, and later on, you know, when the Iberian Union occurs later in the century, when Portugal and Spain kind of fall under the same monarch. Both empires are then later combined.

But yeah, I mean, you know, so pausing that real quick, returning to succession. All right. So this is the whole purpose of this episode. I probably could have said this at the beginning, but I think I said this last time, is to kind of show all of the historical circumstances that can. came together at the right time that birthed what we understand is the Spanish Empire, right? So in order to do that, I have to go back to succession. I won't spend too much time here. All right.

Isabella and Ferdinand have a daughter by the name of Joanna. All right. Joanna the first. Now, she's a different Joanna. But Joanna the first, she's also known as Joanna the Mad, is the heir because I, you know, I think that's their only kid that they have. All right. she marries Philip von Hapsburg, also known as Philip the Fair. I might have mistakenly said

last time he was Holy Roman Emperor. He was not Holy Roman Emperor. He was just one of the sons of Maximilian von Hapsberg, who was Holy Roman Emperor. But what Philip was was, what was it? What Philip the Fair was, was a convenient, a convenient inheritor of his mother, married, of Burgundy's Archduchy of Burgundy, which I spent a lot of time talking about last time. I won't so much go into that now. But this is important. Remember him because, because, yeah, he was, yeah, so when he inherited,

so basically when Burgundy went from the House of Burgundy to the Hapsburgs, right, to the Hapsburgs, Joanna then marries the Duke of the Duke of Burgundy underneath the Hapsburg monarch, right? And she has a son with him, who they named Charles. Later on, she is imprisoned. Joanna I was in prison for being, quote, unquote, mad. She's, you know, she's insane. She's not in her right mind, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, a lot of people think that she actually was. It's just she was sidelined by, you know, her father at first and then, and then after he died, a whole bunch of the Hapsburg interests. But the Cortez was very hesitant to declare Charles as monarch

because they understood what that would bring in terms of Hapsburg influences onto the peninsula. But after a while, they kind of declare him like co-monarch with Joanna, which is functionally the same as just as he and him ruling because she was in captivity. all right and that is the circumstances of events that led to Charles Charles the 5th becoming king of Spain king of Castile and um um an Aragon although his father Philip the fair was also king of castile and Aragon but he's what's called a Jura Auxorus king which means he's king by right of being married to the actual heir um this this is the same thing that later on Philip the

second would claim England over was being married to, I think it was Mary Stewart. Is who we, yeah, yeah, Mary, yeah, he was, that's, that's what he claimed. I think she was, I think this was the same as, yeah, bloody Mary. That's how he was able to claim, um, England for the Spanish armada later on. Um, but the Cortez do, after a while, confirmed Charles as king. And after his mother dies, he really is full on the king of Spain. All right. Okay, great. So this is this is all cool. Spain is now, you know, has access to the

territory, the very rich territories in Burgundy in the low country. And now they've got a Habsburg monarch who is inherited of almost full Liberian peninsula and is homogenizing the two institutions. But this isn't, you know, while this is certainly a very powerful country in Europe, possibly even the most powerful country. It's not yet leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the country. Some unbelievable good fortune and good marriages and things working out certain ways brought this polity to this position under the now Charles, but it's not yet like an epic shaping world power until two very, very, very, very, very, very, very interesting expeditions occur within about 10 years of each other. One expedition had 200 men, the other one

one had about 30, and both of them completely transformed the entirety of not just Spanish politics, but European politics forever. Because all of the sudden, Spain went from an extremely powerful country in Europe, but not quite super far ahead against, say, a France or in England, or even the Kalmar Union up in Scandinavia or the Holy Roman Empire. But those two expeditions, which I, you know, were almost out of time, and I'm not going to bother recounting because everyone knows the story more or less of both. those two expeditions

pretty much change the destiny of politics forever because they ensure that almost the entirety they ensure that basically Spain's claim on the new world isn't just an empty one Spain's claim on the new world becomes tangible and real because of the success of 200 men under Cortez in Mexico and 30 men under Pizarro in Peru which is even more mind-boggling

and by the end of the of the 1530s Spain is the most powerful is the world hegemon it is the most powerful country on earth and this brings about some significant consequences I mean 38 years

from 1492 when you can say that's when the reconquista was complete to the most most powerful nation on the planet in 38 years. I mean, that's pretty incredible. I think the only person it can make a claim, even starts to make a claim like that,

would, at a much smaller scale, would be the Austrian painter. Absolutely. The true dynamic polities, the true, you know, I guess nations of death, destiny, it seems almost as those circumstances magically make themselves work in that nation's favor. And, you know, with a side-eye glance to a different nation that Yaqui talks about, Spain is absolutely one of those nations, the Iberian Peninsula. It goes from a set of squabbling kingdoms and dynastic disputes that are still more or less backwaters compared to, let's say, or the low countries or England even

or even Italy especially Italy Spain is Spain is a backwater compared to Italy and then 38 years after they finally finished the reconquista they are they are the world hegemon the undisputed master of the earth the largest navy the largest army

the largest economy all of it in a single maybe two generations. And really what you have to you have to look at the fact that they the marriage of

Castile and Aragon is huge. Because we just don't have that for the previous 800 years. Another thing like no one just how they started to centralize even before

1492. to the Corragadores. I can never pronounce that name. Into all the Castilian towns, just like royal officials, extending royal control over everything. Yeah, I mean, the centralization of power to start

even before in 1492 is what led to this. As much as, I think you argue for decentralization, when you're occupied, to a certain extent when you know that you don't have the power to do something, if it's a fight back, maybe that decentralization can, can help you, you can fortify local areas, and then start your reconquies to from there. But when it comes down to it, once you, once you get that power back, you have to centralize everything into one, into one,

one force or else you're it's so easily going to fall away. You do not have the Spanish Civil War. If you do not have Spain, which is this autonomous zone and this autonomous zone and this autonomous zone, where people get to believe and teach whatever they want, you know, to start promoting communism and syndicalism and radicalism. syndicalism in the late 1800s. There are times when decentralization can actually be useful, but when you have power and you and you have good people in power, you need to centralize. And that's what they did. And that's what they had to do coming off of the reclunk used to. Well, yeah, and this is the thing, right, to make a sort of wider, metapolitical point,

decentralization, as advocated by some people, for its own sake, is not a good, all right? It's just a method. Decentralization in many ways could make it harder to root out the evils within the human heart. Centralization on its own is not a bad thing. It's just a method, right? The methods don't matter. The tools don't matter.

I don't want to say they don't matter completely. Yes, there's some things that are, but like that's the thing, right? You know, some methods are evil. Some methods are neutral, all right? Centralization is just is neutral. Homogenization is neutral. You know, there is a such thing as too much diversity as we have right now. You know, homogenization of some kind needs to be restored for coherency to be restored.

Now, we don't live in this time, so this may sound strange to our ears, but there is a such thing as too much homogeneity of, of, of, there. not being basically of any sort of creativity being strangled out by absolute conformity, which is the ultimate end of homogeneity. And this is the thing. You know, it's, I think the point you just made, Mr. Pete, is absolutely right, is if you are outside of power, you advocate for the government to use less power against you. But when you have power, you advocate to secure and enshrine, not your shrine, but ensure your power

basically is unchecked, you know, as much as it possibly can be. Because the alternative is that someone else does the exact same thing to you, through the exact same method. Yeah. Well, this was good, man.

Absolutely. I can't wait until, yeah, can't wait until the next episode. I'd ask you if you want to plug something, but I have an idea what it'll be. Yeah. Like I, like, you know, I really like that you keep doing these streams, basically, just constantly

telling people, look, the time for, for action is now. Because it absolutely is. You know, you all know what the OGC is. You all know what the OGC does. And you all know that what we're doing is, is, I mean, I think it's important. I'm pretty sure you think it's important. You may not think it's important, and that's fine. you can watch us succeed from the sidelines.

But I am absolutely convinced that what we do at the Old Glory Club is very important. And I'm going to be completely straight up right now. This week, we approve two new chapters to be admitted to the Old Glory Club. The time for early adoption is very, very quickly slipping away. And pretty soon we're going to come to a point where all of you who didn't, who weren't willing to put your skin in the game, who weren't willing to take a little bit of a risk, who weren't willing to step forward,

we're going to take that decision, and we're going to take that into consideration that when you come, when maybe one day you come to us, you know, wanting to join. And then you say how, oh,

you used to watch Pete's streams back of the day, or oh, you used to do this, that, or the third, right? Okay, cool. Right now, that means something.

Right now that does mean something. Right now that is a trust I can have in you. But in the future, honestly, I wouldn't know you from Adam. You know, Pete, you have tens of thousands of followers, tens of thousands of subscribers, you know, probably hundreds of thousands of people who have tuned into your various episodes, maybe millions, all right? I can't differentiate from that. The only way I can differentiate from someone is by knowing that you were willing to take a risk

and put your foot forward and join in on what we're doing. Because trust me, one day when we, when all of the fruits of our labor kind of become manifest, and you'll all sit there and you'll regret not having gotten involved now at this point, I have nothing for you because you didn't get involved. You know, I don't mean to be rude, Mr. Pete, but I think that's where things stand with it. Yeah, I mean, it's good to recognize something,

a good thing right from the beginning and jump in and not just be a follower, you know, later on down the line. I know that it's cliche to say that there's obviously we're not stupid we're not going to talk about some things that we have going on in the background and everything. But I mean, if people had any idea, the things that are going on, they'd be shocked. They probably wouldn't believe us and that would be fine too. Yeah. It's like I said on my live stream. you know and Thomas I stole it from Thomas we're not Jovis witnesses not trying to

convince you anything we're not but I want you all to get involved and I'm trying to give you all this like fear of like missing out because I want you all to get involved I want you all to be a part of this I think it's a great thing I think it's going to be good for all of us and and that's why I'm trying to be you know I'm playing a little bit of hard ball because that's what you that's you know Mr. Pete that's your specialty is playing a little bit of hard ball that's what you do here and I want to want to kind of do a little bit of that with you. So anyway, that's, that's, that's, that's all I really had to plug that sort of extended speech about it. Well, I appreciate it. If you're interested, the old glory club

at gmail.com. We actually, I think right now we have like one person, like that's their job, right? It's just to answer emails. Pretty much. Yeah. We, we, we, we realized that emails was, was, was, was one of our weak points. So we brought on a dude just for the, for the, for the exclusive purpose of responding to emails. We've seen remarkable improvements. All right, Paul. Have a good evening. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pete. Take care.