Creative History

History first recorded the existence of the Indian state of Kerala in the third century BCE.  The name originally appeared, chiseled in stone, on an inscription left to posterity by the great Mauryan emperor Ashoka.  Ashoka reigned for more than two decades and in his lifetime he presided over an empire that encompassed nearly the entire Indian subcontinent. Before the birth of Christ in the last century BCE the Roman historian Pliny the Elder as well as many other ancient travelers made note of Kerala as the Roman world’s leading exporter of spices.   Located on the west coast of India, Kerala or the place that westerners once referred to as the Malabar Coast after it was “discovered” by Portuguese explorers looking for a quicker passage to the Spice Islands of the east in the late 15th century CE is today one of India’s wealthiest provinces.  It is a province that contains lush verdant tropical jungles, as well as some of the most beautiful beaches in the wo...

            It is just after sunrise and the heat is already stifling.  The mid-July sun beats down relentlessly on the medieval city of Strasbourg in the Alsace region of France. Strasbourg is a quaint old city with a vibrant market in the center of town, busy but not quite bustling, large enough to have wares from all over Europe, but still small enough for nearly everyone in the market this morning to know each other by name. It is the summer of the year 1518.  The previous year had been a difficult one for the citizens of Strasbourg.  Drought had come to the region in 1517 and the local harvest had nearly failed completely.  In addition to that, the Alsace region due to its central location, has for generations been trapped in a near perpetual state of warfare, with Strasbourg being at the epicenter of that conflict because of its location on the banks of the Rhine River.  Alsace, and by extension the city of Strasbou...