With the Pragmatic Sanction, the Spanish rule passed to Ferdinand VII's young daughter, Isabella, upon his death-and touched off the Carlist Wars, with Ferdinand's brother Don Carlos pitting himself against Queen Regent Maria Cristina. This program employs dramatizations, artwork, maps, film clips, and footage of palaces and other landmarks to make sense of the complex political and social forces at work during the years of the First and Second Carlist...

Today, much of the planet's population lives in a British-shaped world. How did this clutch of islands off the coast of Europe come to dominate the globe? The British presents the history of the British Isles from Stonehenge to World War Two using gripping drama reconstruction, the latest CG, time-lapse and aerial footage. A Tale of Two Cities covers the London Exposition, Industrial Revolution urbanization issues, and Victorian social reforms inspired...

Spain's Golden Age is recognized as the most fertile and glorious era in Spanish arts and letters. Miguel de Cervantes, Francisco de Quevedo, Calderon de la Barca, Diego Velazquez, and many others created works of enduring renown.even as their country fell into ruin. This program contrasts the marvels of the Siglo de Oro through dramatizations, film clips, artwork, and visits to important locales with the ineffectiveness of Kings Philip III and IV-a...

Covering the years from the end of the French Revolution to the zenith of Napoleonic power in 1806, this program opens windows of insight into life under Napoleon through the stories of a merchant apprentice, a young nobleman, a beer brewer, a draft dodger, and a war widow. They tell of industrialization, municipal improvements, the standardization of measurements, the new power of mayors to conduct marriages and authorize divorces, and the body of...

At what point did England's Norman rulers begin to think of themselves as English? This program addresses that question as it surveys the history of the monarchy from Henry III to the birth of Henry Tudor. Recounting the scramble for power that followed the death of King John, the program explores the little-known rule of Louis-the French king "imported" by ambitious barons, then ousted when he wore out his welcome-and explains why it took yet another...

In the early 1800s, an extraordinary event occurred in British politics: a small pressure group successfully lobbied against the entrenched, well-moneyed interests of slavery. This program uses dramatic reenactments, readings of Parliamentary minutes, and expert commentary to tell the story of the three men largely responsible for slavery's abolition: William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, and Thomas Clarkson. Michael Dottridge, the director of Anti-Slavery...

They may try to write me out, suppress me, or alter the facts, but it will be difficult to make me disappear altogether. A military and political leader passionately driven by ambition and possessed of a genius for rallying the French people to his cause, Napoleon Bonaparte is not likely to be forgotten. Filmed at historic locations ranging from Corsica to Egypt and from Spain to Moscow, this epic program tracks the course of events surrounding that...

Historian and professor Jeremy Black explains the unique economic, social, and political conditions that led to Britain becoming the richest, most powerful nation in the 19th century. Factors in this transformation include Britain's coal reserves; the development of political liberalism that fostered innovation; the consumer revolution; and colonization.

Adapted from his book, The Pleasures of the Imagination, this lavish exploration of the arts in eighteenth-century London is presented by historian John Brewer. Illustrated with period prints and paintings, along with artful reenactments of London cultural life, the program considers the world of commerce and celebrity in which Georgian culture was created-a world with many parallels to today. Brewer relates the remarkable stories of entrepreneur...

This documentary on one of the key figures in Irish history traces Parnell's career from his background as Irish Protestant landowner to the pinnacle of his power at Westminster as leader of the Irish people. Parnell's rise was as brilliant as his fall was tragic; for a decade, he blazed like a comet across the Irish and British political sky: idolized by the Irish, hated by Tory England, admired by Gladstone, blinded by love, he was dead at 45. Scripted...