James Blake Wiener

James Blake Wiener

James Blake Wiener is a world historian, Co-Founder of World History Encyclopedia, writer, and PR specialist, who has taught as a professor in Europe and North America.

Website: worldhistory.org

Switzerland's role in deaf education

James Blake Wiener 19.09.2023 Around 400 years ago, scholars began to address the education of deaf people and developed sign language for the first time. Switzerland played an interesting, complex and perhaps outsized role in this process.
The French pioneer in deaf education, Abbé de l'Eppé, demonstrates the teaching of deaf children in front of the French King Louis XVI.

Matthäus Schiner: A Valaisan at the centre of power

James Blake Wiener 02.03.2023 From peasant’s son to almost Pope: Matthäus Schiner (c. 1465-1522), who came from the Upper Valais, was a decisive figure in European politics during the height of Swiss power in Europe. He remains controversial to this day.
Matthäus Schiner in a portrait from 1784. Background: Letter from Bishop Matthäus Schiner to the envoy in Rome, no date.

The Walser Migrations

James Blake Wiener 22.11.2022 The Walsers migrated outwards to settle and tame uncultivated pastures in the harsh high altitudes of the Alps between c. 1150-1450. This migration represents one of the last great movements of peoples during the Middle Ages, and the legacy of Walser resourcefulness still looms large in Swiss culture.
The former Walser settlement of Sapün, below Arosa GR.

The Battle on the Planta

James Blake Wiener 10.11.2022 On 13 November 1475, the Valaisans and their Confederate allies defeated the powerful army of Savoy at the gates of Sion. Their victory in the now little-known «Battle on the Planta» was of great importance for the Confederation and decisive for its successes in the Burgundian Wars.
The Battle on the Planta in the Zurich and Swiss Chronicle by Gerold Edlibach, between 1506 and 1566.

When the Magyars invaded St. Gall

James Blake Wiener 01.11.2022 In 926, the notorious Magyars raided and sacked the town and monastery of St. Gall. Thereafter, monks in St. Gall wrote and preserved the most detailed and oldest first-hand descriptions of the Magyar invasions of Western Europe.
The invasion of the Magyars in St. Gall.

The "Camino Español" through Switzerland

James Blake Wiener 03.10.2022 During the Counter-Reformation, Switzerland’s Catholic cantons cultivated strong ties with Spain to counter Protestant ambitions. The “Spanish Road” – a vital artery for the Spanish war effort during the Eighty Years' War – ran directly through Switzerland for a brief period of time.
Central Europe around 1670.

The Siege of Dijon 1513

James Blake Wiener 09.09.2022 The Old Swiss Confederation won a stunning military victory over France at the Battle of Novara in June 1513. Following up on their successes in Italy, the Swiss and their Swabian allies successfully besieged the city of Dijon in September 1513, which marks the apex of Swiss power across Western Europe.
Tapestry of the Siege of Dijon, c. 1514-1520 (detail).

Zenith of Swiss Power: The Battle of Novara

James Blake Wiener 03.06.2022 The Battle of Novara on 6 June 1513 was the last great military victory of the Old Swiss Confederation and marked the peak of its power in Europe.
A Swiss mercenary holds the best hand vis-à-vis the great European rulers in the "Game for Milan". Woodcut by Hans Rüegger, 1514 (detail).