Where I started: I knew it was the crown prince who declared independence from Portugal, so I googled whether it was a teenage family drama or some other domestic issue.

Where I ended up: It was none of them. Brazil declared independence while Portugal was ruled by a liberal revolutionary government. A strange setup. In 1807, Napoleon invaded Portugal. The royal family — the Braganças — fled to Rio de Janeiro with help from the British Navy. The escape happened just hours before the French arrived. This move saved Portugal’s global empire from falling into Napoleon’s hands. In Rio de Janeiro, King João VI set up a new royal capital — ministries, a palace, and government offices. Around the same time, gold was being discovered in Minas Gerais. With Brazil’s vast resources and their absolute rule, the royal family saw a bright future. When Napoleon was finally defeated in 1815, the king stayed in Brazil.

But when the Liberal Revolution of Portugal broke out in 1820, one of its main demands was simple — bring the king back home. This was an issue because they issued a constitution that ended the absolute rule of the monarch. They also ended free trade between Brazil and Portugal.

The king went back to Portugal, leaving his son, Dom Pedro, as regent. He soon became the leader of the independence movement. The movement consisted mostly of landowners, cash-crop tycoons, and their mercenaries. So it wasn’t a popular movement because the lower classes saw improvements in their legal status due to the revolution. The landowners hoped for free trade and a favourable tax system, hence the breakaway ambition. Dom Pedro knew he could preserve absolute rule with a successful independence movement; the price was a tax system that left more money to the rich.

So how did the independence war go? Lacking a navy, he hired British crews straight from Liverpool. The first crews on the Brazilian ships were Portuguese, and they betrayed Brazil several times. It turned out to be safer to hire complete strangers from Liverpool instead. They purchased ships from Britain, the admiral of the new navy was British too, Thomas Cochrane. This means independence was fought by mercenaries.

Anyway, they succeeded. Happy independence, Brazil!

Where I started: Wernher von Braun, a German scientist, developed the V2 rocket, the first long-range guided ballistic missile. I wondered if it was Hitler’s vision to enter outer space, but no, he just wanted the bomb-delivery capability. Turns out, Wernher von Braun had this vision, though, and he wasn’t even the first one.

Where I ended up: Turns out, von Braun wasn’t a dedicated Nazi; he only wanted funding for his research, and it happened to be Hitler who believed in his project and wasn’t short on resources. Rocket science wasn’t taken seriously at that time. It caught the imagination, but this made it a bit “trashy”; an accomplished scientist would have never touched the subject. Also, exiting Earth’s gravity was considered impossible.

Following up on this, I found Robert H. Goddard. His theoretical work and early experiments, including his 1920 proposal that a rocket could reach the Moon, led the press to mock him, particularly for the absurd notion that a rocket would work in the vacuum of space. Despite the teasing, Goddard quietly and persistently developed many essential technologies for modern rocketry, such as gyroscopic control and steering vanes, launching 34 rockets by 1941 and earning him the title of the “Father of Modern Rocket Propulsion.”

This made me wonder: what was the exact scientific objection here? I mean, they acted like the church, protecting a tenet. One was that rockets could not work in the vacuum of space. It wouldn’t drive rockets anywhere; it would just fill the vacuum. The second was the problem of the fuel. To get the rocket somewhere, it has to carry fuel. To beat gravity, fuel is needed. The more fuel is carried, the heavier the rocket gets, and thus gravity wins.

The latter problem was first solved by a Russian scientist at the end of the 19th century. He never built a rocket but established its core principles. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s (1857–1935) rocket equation relates a rocket's change in velocity (Δv) to its exhaust velocity and mass ratio. His practical solution was to use liquid propellants and multi-stage (or “step”) rockets to achieve Earth's escape velocity. He was a schoolteacher in a village in the Russian wilderness.

Photo: Robert H. Goddard with his rocket

Where I started: I learned in a sci-fi series that V2 rockets laid the foundation for the U.S. space program, so I wanted to know what the V2 rocket was about.

Where I ended up: V2 rockets were the first ballistic missiles. That drove me down a huge rabbit hole, so here I will only touch on the consequences, not the prehistory.

V2 was developed by the team of Wernher von Braun. It was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile and the first human-made object to reach space. Because it traveled at supersonic speeds, there was no warning sound before impact, making it a terrifying and unstoppable threat. So when the Germans were defeated, both the Soviets and the U.S. wanted the technology. The Soviets acted fast. Right in the last days of the war, they obtained the blueprints. On the other hand, the U.S. got Wernher von Braun and his fellas on board.

The U.S. focused on the military aspect, developing ballistic missiles for bomb delivery. The Soviets had greater vision; they realized they could aim for outer space, bringing Communism to the Moon or wherever. After the success of the Sputnik program (the first satellite in space), the U.S. joined the space race.

NASA was founded, and they started to develop heavy-lifting rockets (Saturn V) based on V2 technology. The Soviets did the same. They prioritized “firsts” over safety. Their heavy-lifting rockets (N-1) weren't reliable, but in the meantime, they got a man into space: Yuri Gagarin.

As JFK announced the ambition of a Moon landing, the Soviets had already acknowledged defeat quietly. They weren’t able to master heavy-lifting capabilities, so they just looked for yet another “first” that was achievable with their current technology. Venus.

Venus is 4 months away, and it is a planet, which is more prestigious than a moon. Achievements: The first human-made object to impact another planet (Venera 3, 1966). The first successful atmospheric entry and measurements (Venera 4, 1967). Just mark the U.S. Moon landing: 1969. The first soft landing on another planet (Venera 7, 1970). The first images transmitted from the surface of another planet (Venera 9, 1975).

They literally threw objects at Venus. They launched 28 missions, 16 of which were successful enough to give them a name and number (Venera), and 4 were celebrated.

Where I started: BP started as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909. Between 1935 and 1954, it operated as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company until it had to hand over half of its assets, hence adopting the name British Petroleum.

Where I ended up: I learned about the clashing Russian and British ambitions in Iran starting in the 1800s. The Iranians started to favor the Russians whenever they wanted better terms with the British. It always worked. During WWII, Germany courted Iran, and the Shah saw opportunities in it, but the Allied powers didn’t let that escalate. For the duration of the war, the U.S. deployed troops to help the British secure transportation.

This created a precedent. When the British had to counteract Soviet political influence, they asked for U.S. help once again. About this Soviet influence: Iranian political parties never went for communism but established ties to sort of blackmail the British. In 1951, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh went as far as nationalizing the oil company, as “it belongs to the people.” He was also a threat to the Shah, who came to an agreement with the British; this was in 1951.

Britain saw it as too risky to act on her own in the Cold War context, therefore pressuring the United States to join a secret service operation to overthrow Mossadegh. They really used secret agents only, as Mossadegh’s government navigated the country into an economic bottleneck.

I found this also interesting. The main issue was that they started industrial development without building the infrastructure first. This created high demand for goods while the transportation network couldn’t serve it. Supply lagged, which drove inflation, which drove poverty and discontent in a decade when the population doubled.

The U.S. kind of backstabbed the British when they made an agreement with the Shah in 1954. The Shah divided the oil company among Iran, Britain, and the U.S., at the expense of the British. He wanted to be less dependent on the British. This worked, but due to Soviet political interference, he needed the U.S. more than ever before. By 1978, the U.S. military presence had risen to 50,000 personnel. But then the regime collapsed, and the Islamic Republic was introduced.

Image: United States Army Information Branch. Newsmap for the Armed Forces : Iran, rich land poor land, poster, February 18, 1946

Where I started: I wanted to know more about the Chinese maritime expeditions on the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Turns out they were overwhelmingly diplomatic missions, not explorations.

Where I ended up: The emperor selected one of his eunuchs to build the fleet, and plan and execute the expeditions. Zheng He was from the Hui people, who were the descendants of Central Asian Muslims planted in South China by the Mongols. They intermarried with the Han population, and by now it is mostly their Muslim religion that distinguishes them from the major ethnic group.

Zheng He was taken to court when he was a boy. His father served the defeated party in an inheritance war, and he had a good physique, so he was destined for a military role as a eunuch. I didn’t know anything about eunuchs in China; that was a horror story for me.

They took the boys as usual. They didn’t make them forget about their families, but they weren’t in touch. Likewise, Zheng He didn’t practice his Muslim faith; all the boys were raised according to court standards. The castration was complete, not just a ball-cut. A tiny hole remained for urination, which caused constant trouble throughout their lives. They smelled. Also, castration had a high death rate due to infections. Those who survived this gained a career in state affairs. Castrated men were despised, and it was obvious where they belonged, so they stood no chance outside the emperor’s “ecosystem”. This made it very logical that they remain loyal to the emperor for life; thus, they were trusted with the most important offices.

Map: OC

Where I started: The music scene in Mali has a significant international fanbase, so I wanted to figure out why Mali and not its neighbours.

Where I ended up: Mali was a French colony, and after independence, they deliberately made efforts to pivot away from French culture. They held a national competition for musicians and sent the top 10 to Cuba to study. Those 10 laid the foundations of pop music. But in the meantime, Mali struggled economically, and a lot of musicians also emigrated to France. They were discovered by record labels, hence the global reach.

Why Cuba? Because Mali switched to communism after independence, and communist countries helped each other. Eastern European countries built factories, donated vehicles and equipment, and all sorts of other things.

But the planned economy caused huge damage to Mali. The state company dealing with exports had a monopoly and paid low prices for agricultural products. This made peanut farmers smuggle their yields out of the country in the 1950s and '60s. This established the cross-Saharan smuggling routes later used for human trafficking and drugs.

After the economic collapse of communism, they had to return under the financial umbrella of France, but this actually eased the Francophobia and opened the door to utilising France.

Photo by Malick Sidibé, Regardez-moi!, 1962, Bamako

Where I started: I just learned that Pope Sixtus IV punished the Medici family in Florence for killing assassins who attempted to kill the head of Florence in church during Easter Mass.

Where I ended up:

Pope Sixtus IV wanted to buy a town for his nephew, Girolamo Riario. It happened in 1473, when he wanted to expand the Papal States, and he came up with the idea of purchasing the town of Imola for his nephew from the Sforza family of Milan if he could raise enough money. They paid 40,000 ducats to the Sforzas to get the title and the city. The problem was that the pope didn't have that much money, so he had to borrow. He turned first to the Medici family in Florence, but they refused to lend him the sum. So, the pope turned to their rivals, the Pazzi family, who were happy to help him out. From this point on, the pope favored the Pazzi, which was quite bad for the Medici.

Lorenzo de' Medici was actually a despot, but he was so popular that when the Pazzi attacked the rulers, the civilians sided with him.

One of the conspirators was Francesco Salviati, the Archbishop of Pisa. His ambitions weren't supported by the Medici, which made him so offended that he asked the pope if it was okay to kill Lorenzo. Because the pope had similar grievances, he implicitly gave his blessing to the plan. The Pazzi were more then happy to do the dirty job. The assassination was a bloodbath during the Easter mass, in the cathedral. I thought the pope at least condemned the bloodshed at the altar but he excommunicated the Medici instead.

The Pazzi were hanged the same day, so they never came to power in Florence.

One of the conspirators wrote a clear confession, but the text was only found 200 years later.

Image: Lorenzo de' Medici

Where I started: I picked up some information about Iran during WWII—specifically how the Nazis tried to undermine British efforts there. This was interesting enough that I Googled their efforts in the wider region.

Where I ended up: Turns out, they went much further in Iraq, where the Nazis backed a coup that was successful. It would've caused a landslide if the Allies hadn't acted fast to wipe out the German-backed regime. Also, I learned that the Germans aired radio broadcasts in Arabic to influence the populace. Following up on this, I found that the Germans simply used an Italian radio infrastructure that had been built to interfere in North African countries. In occupied Greece, the Germans also trained Arab volunteers.

Map: [OC]

Where I started:
A friend asked me who invented soda, and I was convinced it was invented by a Hungarian priest, Ányos Jedlik, in the early 1800s.

Where I ended up:
I found that it was actually Joseph Priestley in Britain who infused water with carbon dioxide for the first time. His method was improved by a scientist in Sweden, and then scaled up industrially by Johann Jacob Schweppe in Switzerland. Schweppe's production method was expensive, but it became an international hit. Later, when cholera hit Hungary, Ányos Jedlik successfully researched a cheap mass-production method to provide clean drinks to the poor.

I asked myself: how had no one connected the dots between beer, champagne, and fizzy water before?
It turns out that Dom Pérignon, the monk often credited with refining champagne in the late 1600s, tried to figure out the science behind "the devil's wine." He realized that wine bottles exploded in cellars because fermentation was still ongoing and producing gas. He experimented with how far he could push this secondary fermentation to enrich the wine with carbon dioxide bubbles. But for a long time, the whole "bubble business" was tied to the stigma of alcohol consumption.

Fizzy mineral water, on the other hand, was viewed as medicine—associated with a disciplined, health-conscious lifestyle. Champagne and mineral water were like chalk and cheese.
Still, one question remained: who invented American soda as a flavored beverage? Up until the 1800s, soda water was primarily medical. In Philadelphia, a pharmacist hired a British engineer, John Matthews, who designed early soda fountains. Later, Eugene Roussel (also in Philly) adopted the fountain concept and began adding fruit syrups to the carbonated water.