What Came Before

In the summer of 1565, the Ottoman Empire dispatched an armada of nearly 200 ships and 40,000 men to the Mediterranean island of Malta. Their target was the Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military order operating as state-sponsored corsairs.In Part 1 of our two-part series on the Great Siege of Malta, we explore the history between these two factions and how the capture of a single Ottoman galleon triggered a massive invasion. We cover the defensive preparations of Grand Master Jean Parisot de Valette, the divided Ottoman high command upon their arrival, and the grueling, month-long battle for Fort St. Elmo that set the stage for the rest of the siege.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In the aftermath of Lord Asano’s forced seppuku and the total confiscation of the Akō domain, over 300 samurai are abruptly cast out as masterless rōnin. But behind their peaceful surrender to the Tokugawa shogunate, a dedicated core of retainers has secretly sworn a blood oath of vengeance.In this episode, we follow former chief retainer Ōishi Yoshio as he orchestrates a brilliant campaign of psychological misdirection, ending with the the meticulously planned, two-hour siege of Kira’s heavily fortified Honjo estate.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In the spring of 1701, a feudal lord named Asano Naganori was assigned to host imperial envoys at Edo Castle — one of the most important ceremonial duties in Tokugawa Japan. His instructor in court protocol was a senior official named Kira Yoshinaka. What followed was weeks of public humiliation that ended in an act of violence in the shogun's own corridors, a death sentence carried out before nightfall, and the destruction of an entire domain. Over 300 samurai lost everything. But 47 of them refused to accept that the story was over. This is Part 1 of a two-part series on the forty-seven rōnin.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

Churchill becomes Prime Minister as France falls and Britain stands alone. From the Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain to the forging of the Grand Alliance with Roosevelt and Stalin, we follow Churchill through the pivotal moments of the Second World War, and his life following the Second World War. The final episode of our Churchill series takes the story from its dramatic peak to its end — a state funeral within sight of Blenheim Palace, where it all began.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

From the green benches of Parliament to the mud of the trenches, this episode tracks Winston Churchill's turbulent path through the early 20th century. His meteoric rise as a Liberal reformer, the disaster of Gallipoli that nearly ended his career, and his decade-long political exile. We examine how the "Wilderness Years" transformed a political outcast into the lone voice warning the world of the coming apocalypse.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

Born into privilege but dismissed by his father as a failure, young Winston Churchill set out to prove the world wrong. From self-education in India to the last great cavalry charge at Omdurman and a thrilling escape from a Boer POW camp, this episode charts how a "social wastrel" forged his own legend to become a Member of Parliament by the age of 25.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In the summer of 1683, the fate of Europe hung in the balance on the banks of the Danube. A massive Ottoman army led by Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa laid siege to Vienna, intent on capturing the "Golden Apple" of the West. In this episode, we follow the desperate struggle of the city's defenders against starvation, disease, and underground mine warfare.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In the spring of 1989, a spontaneous wave of grief for a fallen leader transformed into a massive movement that paralyzed the Chinese capital. For seven weeks, millions of students and workers occupied Tiananmen Square, erecting the "Goddess of Democracy" and challenging the Communist Party to live up to its own ideals. As martial law failed to break the will of the people, the hardline leadership prepared a ruthless solution to save the regime. We cover the tragic events of June 4th, the violent crackdown at Muxidi, and the iconic defiance of the "Tank Man." Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a decade-long campaign to purify the Communist Party that plunged China into total anarchy. This episode traces the descent into chaos, from the mobilization of the Red Guards and the violent destruction of the "Four Olds" to the factional street battles that brought the nation to the brink of civil war. Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In 1958, the People's Republic of China embarked on one of the most radical social experiments in human history: the Great Leap Forward. Aiming to surpass the industrial output of the West in just fifteen years, Mao Zedong mobilized the nation to replace capital with sheer willpower.This episode details the unprecedented restructuring of Chinese society, from the collective life of the People's Communes and the mania of the backyard steel furnaces to the ecological disaster of the campaign to exterminate the sparrow.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In the finale of the series, we enter the "House of Special Purpose" - the ominous code name for the villa where the Romanov dynasty met its end. As the White Army closed in on Ekaterinburg in the summer of 1918, the Bolsheviks made a cold calculation: the Tsar could not be allowed to live as a banner for the counter-revolution.We follow the family’s descent from imperial boredom behind painted-over windows to the terror of the night of July 16th.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

The most consequential revolution of the 20th century did not happened with a change of the guard. In this episode, we dismantle the myth of the "storming" of the Winter Palace to reveal the reality of the Bolshevik seizure of power: a methodical, invisible coup d'état masterminded by Leon Trotsky. While the citizens of Petrograd rode the trams and attended the opera, the Military Revolutionary Committee quietly seized the city's bridges, telegraphs, and banks without firing a shot.We follow the surreal timeline of October 25th, from Prime Minister Kerensky fleeing the capital in a borrowed American car, to the "siege" of the Winter Palace—defended only by teenage cadets and the Women’s Battalion of Death. The episode concludes in the smoke-filled halls of the Smolny Institute, where Trotsky consigns his political enemies to the "dustbin of history" and Lenin announces the birth of the Soviet state.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

By the summer of 1917, the optimism of the February Revolution had dissolved into violence. Alexander Kerensky, the "Persuader-in-Chief," attempted to save the crumbling nation with a suicidal military offensive that destroyed the last remnants of the army's morale. The resulting power vacuum triggered the "July Days," a premature uprising of armed sailors that forced Vladimir Lenin to shave his beard and flee into the swamps of Finland.The chaos culminated in the Kornilov Affair, a bizarre standoff between the socialist Prime Minister and a general with "the heart of a lion but the brain of a sheep." Facing a military coup, the government made a fatal calculation: opening the armouries and handing 40,000 rifles to the Bolsheviks, effectively arming their own executioners.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In the spring of 1917, the German General Staff decided to deploy a new kind of weapon against the Russian army: a revolutionary exile named Vladimir Lenin. In this episode, we follow the journey of the "plague bacillus", Vladimir Lenin, as he travels from a cramped apartment in Zurich to the steps of the Finland Station.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In the bitter winter of 1917, the 300-year rule of the Romanov dynasty ended with a bread riot. What began as a march by female textile workers demanding food spiraled into a revolution when the Tsar’s ultimate enforcers, the Cossacks, refused to charge the crowd.We follow the chaotic escalation from snowballs to machine-gun fire, leading to the decisive moment when Sergeant Kirpichnikov convinced the Volhynian Regiment to shoot their own officers rather than their people. Finally, we board the "Ghost Train" with Nicholas II, trapping him in a railway siding at Pskov where, isolated and abandoned by his generals, the Autocrat of All the Russias was forced to sign his empire away with a pencil.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

When World War I began, the Allies believed the "Russian Steamroller"—an army of millions—would crush Germany by Christmas. Instead, the Imperial Army marched into a catastrophe that would break the back of the regime. In this episode, we move from the palaces of Petrograd to the frozen trenches of the Eastern Front to witness the military collapse of the Russian Empire.We tell the tragic story of the Battle of Tannenberg, where a personal feud between two generals led to the annihilation of an entire army and a suicide in the dark forests of East Prussia. We explore the horrors of the "Great Retreat" and the "Shell Famine," where soldiers were sent into battle without rifles. Finally, we witness the fatal decision of Tsar Nicholas II to dismiss his generals and take personal command of the war, tying the fate of the monarchy directly to the dying war effort.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

After the chaos of the 1905 Revolution, the Romanov dynasty had one final decade to save itself from extinction. In this episode, we explore the strange twilight of the Russian Empire, a period dominated by two men who could not have been more different: Pyotr Stolypin, the ruthless Prime Minister who tried to force Russia into the 20th century with the "hangman's noose," and Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian mystic who dragged the monarchy back into the dark.From the assassination at the Kiev Opera House to the terrifying secret of the Tsarevich’s hemophilia, we trace the path of a government paralyzing itself from within. Join us as we recount the "Ministerial Leapfrog" of World War I and the bizarre, chaotic night in the basement of the Moika Palace where a prince, a grand duke, and a politician tried to save the Tsar by murdering his favorite holy man.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In May 1941, the balance of the war at sea shifted on a knife-edge. The German battleship Bismarck, the most powerful warship in Europe, slipped into the North Atlantic with orders to sever the convoy lifelines sustaining the United Kingdom. What followed was one of the most intense naval operations in history, spanning thousands of square miles of ocean.In this episode, we follow the narrative of the chase from the first sightings in the Baltic to the freezing mists of the Denmark Strait. We examine the shocking destruction of the HMS Hood, the desperate cat-and-mouse game that followed, and the critical role played by the Swordfish biplanes of the HMS Ark Royal. This is the complete story of the hunt, the tactical decisions made by Admirals Lütjens and Tovey, and the final destruction of the German giant.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml

In January 1066, the death of King Edward the Confessor triggered a succession crisis that would change the course of English history. Three men laid claim to the English throne: Harold Godwinson, the powerful English Earl; William, the bastard Duke of Normandy; and Harald Hardrada, the last great Viking warrior.In this episode, we reconstruct the narrative of the momentous year that followed. We detail the contrasting lives of the three contenders, the exhausting forced march to the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and the tactical stalemate at the Battle of Hastings.

He travelled with a zoo of elephants and giraffes, spoke six languages, and was excommunicated four times. To the Pope, Frederick II was the Antichrist; to his admirers, he was the Stupor Mundi (Wonder of the World). This episode dives into the wild life of the 13th-century Emperor who prioritized scientific observation over religious dogma. From his ruthless experiments on human subjects to winning the Sixth Crusade without drawing a sword.Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcastApple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPtAmazon Podcasts:https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-beforeRSS Feed:https://media.rss.com/what-came-before/feed.xml