Whisky wars and the Lord of Sipan

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We first hear about a bloodless war between Denmark and Canada, that involved whisky.

In 1984, the two nations were disputing the ownership of the tiny Hans Island, just off the coast of Greenland. It might be the friendliest territorial dispute ever.

We hear from Tom Hoyem and Alan Kessel, politicians on either side.

And we have historian Ditte Melitha Kristensen, from the National Museum and Archives of Greenland, to shed some light on the history of the country.

Plus, how Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva discovered the richest tomb ever found in the America’s: the final resting place of the ancient ruler, the Lord of Sipan.

Also, we go back to the 1960s when 1,500 Torah scrolls appeared at a synagogue in London.

And a Crimea double-bill. We go back to 2014 when Russia annexed the Ukranian peninsula, and then back to the 1980s, when it was used as a holiday camp for children across the Soviet Union.

Contributors: Tom Hoyem— Minister for Greenland in Denmark. Alan Kessel— Assistant Deputy Minister for Legal Affairs in Canada. Ditte Melitha Kristensen — Greenland historian. Walter Alva— Archaeologist. Phillippa Bernard — Founder member of Westminster Synagogue. Maria Kim Espeland — One of the thousands of children who visited the Artek holiday camp.

(Photo: Greenland. Credit: Thomas Traasdashi/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi Namalanta Combo here with some very exciting news.
0:04.0	Dear Daughter is back for a new series.
0:07.0	I'm putting together a handbook to life for daughters everywhere
0:10.0	full of stories and advice to help navigate life.
0:13.0	That's Dear Daughter from the BBC World Service.
0:16.0	Find it wherever you get your BBC podcast. Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service
0:29.7	with me Max Pearson the past brought to life by those who were there. This week the discovery
0:35.5	of an ancient tomb in Peru and the need to protect it.
0:39.5	Our task was difficult because the country was experiencing a political and economic crisis. was Also ancient Jewish Torah scrolls saved by a synagogue in London.
0:56.2	The sight of the scrolls was so moving. Many were in tears when they saw them.
1:02.2	Plus the Russian annexation of Crimea and Crimea as a Soviet holiday destination.
1:07.0	That's all coming up later in the podcast.
1:10.0	But first, Hans Island and the so-called Whiskey War.
1:14.0	When we look back in history, it's all too easy to find territorial disputes which have resulted
1:19.2	in bloodshed.
1:20.2	In Ukraine and the Middle East we have examples from the present.
1:24.0	But to find a border dispute which was resolved peacefully, and with humour, we can take the example
1:29.4	of Canada and the Kingdom of Denmark.
1:32.1	For decades the two nations both claimed sovereignty
1:34.8	over an island off the coast of Greenland, but with common sense and a friendly exchange
1:39.7	of alcoholic drinks they found a way forward as Janice Freight has been finding out.
1:45.0	This was not a stunt, it was a deliberately planned, prepared action where you also knew why you were doing it and how you would like to do it and the consequence of that.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -394 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.