Foreign Exchanges

SAVE THE DATE: If you’re able, please catch my new, (hopefully) monthly livestream series with Elizabeth Urban starting Tuesday at 8 PM eastern here at Substack! July 27, 1794: Challenged by Maximilien Robespierre to arrest all those he deemed “traitors” to the revolution, which could have included pretty much any or all of them (he didn’t specify), members of France’s National Convention decide it would just be easier to arrest Robespierre instead.

Hello and welcome to “Ask Derek Anything,” Foreign Exchanges’ weekly AMA/discussion thread for paid subscribers! Here’s how this works: I’m here to answer your questions (briefly; please don’t ask anything that would require 800 words to properly answer), respond to your comments, sympathize with your pain, etc., about any topic related to world affairs… Keep reading with a 7-day free trial Subscribe to Foreign Exchanges to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post...

You’re reading the web version of Foreign Exchanges. If you’d like to get it delivered straight to your inbox, sign up today: SAVE THE DATE: If you’re able, please catch my new, (hopefully) monthly livestream series with Elizabeth Urban starting Tuesday at 8 PM eastern here at Substack! July 25, 1139: An army under the future Afonso I, then Count Afonso of Portugal, defeats the Almoravids at the Battle of Ourique.

In the last two weeks the US and Iran resumed hostilities and proceeded to drag the entire region into conflict along with them. The Iran-allied Houthi movement declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia and struck multiple oil tankers attempting to transit the Red Sea. The US and Saudi Arabia signed a new agreement that would have the US build and maintain the kingdom’s nuclear facilities. Protests erupted in Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelensky sacked Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

SAVE THE DATE: If you’re able, please catch my new, (hopefully) monthly livestream series with Elizabeth Urban starting Tuesday at 8 PM eastern here at Substack! July 24, 1261: With much of the city’s garrison apparently out on a raid, a small group of soldiers from the Nicene Empire enters and seizes control of Constantinople in a nighttime incursion. Latin Emperor Baldwin II and most of the city’s grandees were evacuated by Venetian ships.

You’re reading the web version of Foreign Exchanges. If you’d like to get it delivered straight to your inbox, sign up today: July 22, 1456: An Ottoman siege of the then-Hungarian city of Belgrade (Nándorfehérvár in Hungarian) ends in failure thanks to the city’s strong fortifications and the timely arrival of a relief army under Transylvanian warlord John Hunyadi.

You’re reading the web version of Foreign Exchanges. If you’d like to get it delivered straight to your inbox, sign up today: July 21, 1774: The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca ends the the Russo-Ottoman War of 1768-1774 on decidedly Russian terms. Although the Russians did agree to return territory they’d occupied in Moldavia and Wallachia, the Ottomans gave them control of the city of Azov and thereby satisfied a long-standing Russian desire for a Black Sea port.

Hello FX readers! I imagine that for many of you, the one thing that’s missing in your life is a Foreign Exchanges livestream. Well I have some great news, because starting next Tuesday, July 28, at 8 PM Eastern you’ll be able to catch me with my good friend Elizabeth Urban, from Islamic History for the Curious and Constellations of Resistance, here at Substack.

Upgrade to paid to play voiceover July 20, 1402: An Ottoman army under Sultan Bayezid I runs smack into the famed warlord Timur at the Battle of Ankara and is resoundingly defeated. Timur took Bayezid prisoner and shattered the nascent Ottoman empire, giving most of it back to its former Turkic rulers and leaving several Ottoman claimants to fight over what was left.

Hello and welcome to “Ask Derek Anything,” Foreign Exchanges’ weekly AMA/discussion thread for paid subscribers! Here’s how this works: I’m here to answer your questions (briefly; please don’t ask anything that would require 800 words to properly answer), respond to your comments, sympathize with your pain, etc., about any topic related to world affairs… Keep reading with a 7-day free trial Subscribe to Foreign Exchanges to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post...