Topics of your interest

I believe that discussing the Spanish Civil War would make a great series. It is criminally glossed over when discussing post WW1 Europe and how a precursor of WW2 was this conflict. Furthermore it's very interesting how Europe dealt with a fascist country in Western Europe after defeating the Nazi's and how the Civil War still shapes/haunts Spanish culture to this day such as in Barcelona, Andalucia and even within families where nationalists and "rojos" have married and had children. I think it's also a unique subject on YouTube as there's not too many videos on the topic and many only scratch the surface. Hopefully this could be on the cards in the future :)

How Japan created modern Asia: A discussion of how Japan refined the Chinese style of bureaucratic government and infused it with Japanese characteristics and later adopted western style economic, political, and military institutions to great effect. An examination of how Japan exported this governmental and economic system to its Asian neighbors directly through colonial administration before and during WWII. Or how it influenced some Asian states indirectly as a response to Japanese colonization/invasion; by resisting the Japanese yet still adopting aspects of or drawing inspiration from its system. Examples of the former: Korea (both of them), Taiwan, China. Examples of the latter: Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, China (yes it doesn’t fit neatly into either box), Mongolia, Myanmar, and Singapore. The synthesis of both the direct colonialism/imperialism and the indirect imperialism examinations could include Japan’s post-war political experience, its economic miracle and the shift in perspective that occurred in many Asian states, the development of soft-power and the use of its culture to spread influence and promote its economic and political system, the promotion of its higher education and instruction of its language in Asia, the role of the military, and investment and the creation of infrastructure. How this influence fits into Japan’s geopolitical strategy, how receptive some countries have been to this economic and political influence both publicly or privately, and what aspects have been embraced/rejected by these states and their people. Competition with China can also be a part of this. How this has influenced people to the extent that it changes the national policy of nations who are apprehensive about Japan or resulted in migration to Japan. Tldr; I’ve been thinking a lot about how North Korea, China, Indonesia etc took Japanese fascism/militarism as a model and the origins of this model. I’m also interested in how Japan has won the hearts and minds of Asia since abandoning fascism/militarism.

I really like historical studies of institutions, structures, and artefacts, "things", in addition to countries. For example, the impact of financial organization on society and vice versa; read "Debt, the first 5000 years" and have intrigued on anthropological/historical studies of economics ever since.

The Glasgow effect, so, Glasgow's poor life expactancy and it's causes, historical and modern.

Another idea: How the Assyrian Empire helped lay the foundations for effective administration and governance, especially as one of the first empires, and providing a framework for future empires.

The Kerala model of development: strong social indicators compared to other Indian states and even other developed countries, despite having a much lower per capita income. This can be attributed to their state's Communist Party and leaders who implemented a sweeping Land Reform Ordinance. Would be interesting to see how land reforms and distributive policies in a developing nation resulted in improved human welfare.

Populist formulas in Europe vs the rest of the world

Remy Rojas

I think Germany's brief stint with colonialism is a fascinating topic. I've read a few Routledge books on the topic and find it interesting that the German Empire receives little to no attention despite its size and the methods by which they governed their various colonies.

Saudi arabia has a weird history of conspiring with the US while pretending its not conspiring with the US which is pretty fun. I've also heard there's some horrendous stuff going on in places like Qatar and the UAE with migrant workers essentially being turned into slaves. I think what I'm saying is the middle east is pretty interesting and has some entertaining stories that can be told. TLDR: The book "Black Wave" by Kim Ghattas covers a bunch of interesting stuff that happened in the region over the last 50 years!

Austin Green

The Fall of Yugoslavia!

Vincent

Firstly, I think that if you study topics that YOU are interested in, then the passion you have comes through on the video. But, having said that, it would be cool to see a political/ economic analysis of how both World Wars managed to destroy various aristocratic oligarchies in Europe. For instance, how the Rothschild banking empire was damaged in such a way that their economic power after WWII was minimal compared to the new banking elites in America (the consipracy theory comments on Youtube will be interesting...)

James Aartsen

A video on the history of counter insurgency