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Documentary, Mankind: The Story of All of Us S01E06 Survivors
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00:01We are survivors.
00:10Mankind brought low by disease, war, and devastation.
00:21But now, we harness new riches and new powers.
00:26We look beyond the world we know.
00:33And together, rise again.
00:45Amidst the chaos of an unforgiving planet, most species will fail.
00:51But for one, all the pieces will fall into place.
00:57And a set of keys will unlock a path for mankind to triumph.
01:04This is our story.
01:07The story of all of us.
01:09Thirteen-fifty-two. The Sahara.
01:20The largest desert on the planet.
01:23A searing wilderness.
01:27The size of the United States.
01:30The toughest challenge an explorer can face.
01:34Ibn Battuta.
01:42He left Morocco at age 21.
01:45Vowing never to travel the same road twice.
01:48He's explored over forty countries.
01:52But this is his first time in the Sahara.
01:58We set off into a desert totally devoid of settlements.
02:03There's no road.
02:04No track.
02:05Only sand.
02:06But at this time, the Sahara holds the key to mankind's survival.
02:19The plague rages through Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
02:34It's killed up to a fifth of the world's population.
02:39In Damascus, Syria.
02:42Ibn Battuta records 2,400 deaths in a single day.
02:47But the Sahara is a barrier against the pandemic.
02:54With temperatures up to 135 degrees.
03:00The plague can't survive the heat of the desert.
03:06Few living things can.
03:10The Sahara is vast.
03:12It's the definition of a horrible place to be.
03:16There's no water.
03:18It's incredibly hot.
03:19Your eyes are playing tricks on you.
03:21Your mind starts playing tricks on you.
03:23It's an incredible ordeal.
03:29The body's cooling system shuts down.
03:33Heat stroke.
03:35Then you stop sweating because you have no ability to get rid of fluid to allow you to cool down.
03:40You stop thinking normally.
03:41And it's that erratic, bizarre behavior that ultimately leads to death.
03:46Ibn Battuta's life in the hands of his traveling companions.
03:57The Tuareg.
03:58The Tuareg.
03:59Of course.
04:00They're there.
04:01I don't have a gun coming from Jihad.
04:02For me, I don't care.
04:03Don't you open the door?
04:04I'm gonna get rid of it.
04:05I'm gonna get rid of it.
04:06Oh, my god.
04:07I'm gonna get rid of it.
04:08I'm gonna get rid of it.
04:09I'm gonna have a gun.
04:10Nomads from North Africa.
04:16They've lived in the Sahara for over a thousand years,
04:21trading something we take for granted today,
04:25what was once one of the most valuable commodities on the planet.
04:33Salt.
04:35Salt was everything.
04:37Salt was, literally, the difference between life and death.
04:45Before refrigeration, salt was the key to preserving food.
04:51It absorbs water and stops bacteria from growing.
04:56Salted food can last for a year without spoiling.
04:59Access to salt determined whether you were powerful enough.
05:09I can't send an army across the water or great distances without provisions.
05:15And their provisions are going to go bad if they are not salted.
05:18The Tuareg have discovered a rich supply under their feet.
05:27Millions of years ago, the Sahara was a sea.
05:31As the water evaporated, it left behind huge salt deposits.
05:41The salt trade is the Tuareg's livelihood.
05:44They mine it at Tekhaza, in the middle of the Sahara.
05:51Then trek hundreds of miles south.
05:56To the markets in the great cities of the Mali Empire.
05:59Jenei, Gao, and Timbuktu.
06:13But it is a dangerous journey in a deadly landscape.
06:17Jenei, Gao, and Timbuktu.
06:18But it is a dangerous journey in a deadly landscape.
06:18Jenei, Gao, and Timbuktu.
06:31The greatest fear of every traveler.
06:38A sandstorm.
06:39Whipped up in seconds by 70-mile-per-hour winds.
06:53When a sandstorm hits, it fills the air with sand, fills your lungs, fills your eyes and
06:58your nose.
06:59You can't see.
07:02This wind and this sand can strip the paint off a car.
07:09You have to get shelter or you die.
07:11Whoo!
07:12Whoo!
07:13Whoo!
07:14Whoo!
07:15Whoo!
07:16Whoo!
07:17Whoo!
07:18Whoo!
07:19Whoo!
07:20Whoo!
07:21Whoo!
07:22Whoo!
07:23Whoo!
07:24Well done!
07:31Randy!
07:44Randy!
07:47One of our party was lost in the desert.
07:52After that, I never went ahead or never lagged behind again.
08:05After two months in the Sahara, Ibn Battuta's camel train reaches its destination.
08:14The cities of Mali.
08:17Travelers have nothing to fear.
08:25They gave me gifts of food and treated me with the utmost generosity.
08:30May God reward them for their kindness.
08:39Tuareg merchants can now trade their precious cargo.
08:44In Mali, salt is so in demand, it's traded for gold.
08:54Today, most gold in the world has to be mined deep underground.
09:04In Mali, it flows out of the bedrock of the river Niger.
09:14At this time, as much as two-thirds of the world's known gold reserves are in West Africa.
09:26The key that turns Mali's rulers into some of the richest men in the world.
09:36And their cities into centers of learning.
09:39To !!
09:40Timbuktu University.
09:41Timbuktu University.
09:42The oldest in the world.
09:46The first in Sub Saharan Africa.
09:50Africa, up to 25,000 people, a quarter of the population, students, over 300,000 scrolls,
10:06one of the greatest libraries in the Islamic world.
10:10Scholars from lots and lots of places went there to study the scrolls.
10:16It was the world wide web. It was the place where information was held.
10:25This is Africa's golden age.
10:34In the south, great Zimbabwe, a gleaming city of stone, legendary site of King Solomon's mines.
10:46In the highlands of Ethiopia, an ancient Christian empire claiming to descend from the Queen of Sheba.
10:57And on the east coast, Kilwa, one of Africa's busiest ports.
11:12Ibn Battuta will return to Morocco and write the oldest surviving account of Timbuktu and the wealth of Africa.
11:27The Tuareg will carry their gold back across the Sahara, its destination across the Mediterranean to Europe.
11:42African gold will be key to the greatest explosion of ideas the Western world has ever known.
11:59It will make some men rich, and others reckless.
12:06Venice, 117 mud islands joined together, become a thriving center of commerce.
12:12Silk from the Middle East, spices from India, and the key to its wealth, gold from Africa.
12:39A young Venetian, Pietro Veniere, hoping to get rich as a partner in a bank, the Priuli brothers.
12:57Seventy years earlier, the plague wiped out half the population of Venice.
13:16But in the story of mankind, disaster creates opportunity.
13:28Venice is the nursery of modern banking and finance.
13:32It is the cradle of capitalism.
13:35In the 15th and 16th centuries, it is the place to be.
13:39It is absolutely the place to be.
13:41In Venice, African gold is minted into ducats, an international currency.
13:54Merchants bank their ducats with men like Pietro Veniere.
13:59Modern banking begins in Italy.
14:06At the benches, the banque, where money changes hands.
14:12They would go to banks to borrow for personal loans,
14:18and they would go to banks or borrow for commercial loans.
14:22Many of the same reasons we go to banks today.
14:25But Venice is a magnet for the disadvantaged, lured by its wealth.
14:40Enrico, an unemployed migrant, hungry and tempted.
14:50huuuuhhh.
14:52SAMURA
15:12340 ducats, over 2 pounds of gold.
15:15Tietro Venier has no choice, he must catch him.
15:30When the trust in your banker disappears, the banker's future has disappeared.
15:38His word doesn't count for anything.
15:40His promises don't count.
15:43And if your promises don't count, you're out of business.
16:13The authorities hang in Rico.
16:20There's no mercy for thieves in Venice.
16:28It's men like Pietro Venier who will finance the Renaissance.
16:43The most flourishing of learning and culture mankind has ever known.
16:50After the devastation of the plague, a rebirth.
16:57We have works of art, works of architecture, palaces, schools, academies.
17:04All of the human arts flourish where banking flourishes.
17:11They were buying collections for themselves, but they were meant for eternity.
17:18Five thousand miles away, China is on the brink of its own rebirth.
17:25The key, a deadly new invention.
17:32For a century and a half, the Mongols have ruled China.
17:39But the plague has killed millions.
17:46Loosening their grip on power.
17:531356, outside Nanjing.
18:24three plots a revolution. Their leader, Zhu Yuanzhang, born dirt poor, orphaned by the
18:39plague.
18:41Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant. He was an ordinary man, but he had extraordinary drive.
18:51His men call themselves the Red Turbans, peasants turned rebels.
19:04People have nothing to eat. And when a rebel leader comes along and says, drive out the
19:11Mongols, there's universal enthusiasm.
19:15By his side, his young wife, Ma. Daughter of a warlord, partner in the revolution.
19:30Ma and Zhu were a match made in heaven. And together, they were perfect partners in this rebellion.
19:40Third member of the gang, Zhu Yu. Master craftsman, weapons expert.
19:52Zhu Yu was not just a soldier, but also one of the great brains behind this operation.
20:00Mongol soldiers are trained to use a bow and arrow with deadly accuracy.
20:13Zhao's response. Gunpowder.
20:23Invented 300 years earlier by Chinese monks looking for the elixir of life.
20:30It's a novelty, used mostly in fireworks, until its power is realized as an explosive.
20:39Zhao designs a weapon he calls human thunder. A small stone, propelled by an explosive charge. A lethal combination.
21:07The future of warfare, rewritten. Power will transform his world.
21:34Once the gun shows up on the battlefield, everything changes. Anyone who picks up a gun is instantly lethal.
21:53The future of warfare.
21:56Zhu is quick to see the potential.
22:00With these fire weapons, I will conquer the empire. As easily as turning the palms of my hands upside down.
22:11Zhu's confidence will soon be put to the test. Against the deadliest fighting force on the planet. The Mongols.
22:20A hundred and fifty years after Genghis Khan invades their homeland.
22:25A hundred and fifty years after Genghis Khan invades their homeland.
22:39Zhu Yuang Zhang leads the Red Turbans at the city of Nanjing. A peasant army to drive the Mongols out of China.
22:49The key to their strategy, a weapon that will change mankind.
22:56The gun.
23:01But their guns are a crude design. And can't be aimed properly.
23:16The problem of early firearms is having the pellets leave the gun and go in the direction you want them to.
23:26It's aim that matters.
23:31Gunmaker Zhao's solution, quantity over quality. A hailstorm of bullets.
23:41To annihilate the enemy, you must wait until just the right moment. The fire must be intense.
23:50One firearm makes no difference. But a hundred firearms makes a big difference. And a thousand makes even more.
24:11It must have been incredibly confusing and incredibly frightening.
24:21It is a game changer. Old school defenses, old school technology is no longer effective against the gun.
24:34This gun levels the battlefield. And allows a band of rebels to take on the deadliest army in the world.
25:04We no longer use horses on the battlefield. We still use gunpowder.
25:11That is a lasting change to the battlefield that cannot be ignored.
25:17Over the next 12 years, the Chinese drive out the Mongols.
25:23Nanjing becomes capital of a free China.
25:28Zhou, a peasant orphaned by the plague becomes the emperor of a new Chinese dynasty.
25:40And his wife, Ma, the empress, the most powerful woman on the planet.
25:49When Zhu Yuanzhang founds his dynasty, he calls it Ning, which means bright.
25:54The Mongols are darkness, and he is light.
25:59The Ming Dynasty lasts for 300 years.
26:05Its rulers live in the Forbidden City,
26:08a vast palatial compound.
26:13No one can enter or leave without the emperor's permission.
26:16It takes up to a million workers, 14 years to build.
26:34On the borders of China, an even greater engineering project.
26:40The largest defensive structure in the world,
26:44begun by China's first emperor,
26:48completed by the Ming.
26:51Over 5,500 miles long,
26:5520,000 towers.
26:58The Great Wall of China.
27:07Now, a technology first developed in China
27:10will be perfected in Europe.
27:14It will change the world as dramatically as gunpowder.
27:241450, Mainz, Germany.
27:30Johannes Gutenberg.
27:35Goldsmith, entrepreneur, inventor of the printing press.
27:41It's still one of the greatest stories in the history of invention.
27:49You'd think about the impact that had.
27:52It's really hard to underestimate.
27:56In 15th century Europe,
27:58books are only in reach of the clergy and the rich.
28:03Handwritten and labor-intensive.
28:04It takes as long as three years to produce one copy of the Bible.
28:13It was like having this powerful force,
28:22knowledge,
28:23that's locked in these objects called books,
28:26and almost nobody has these things.
28:30The Chinese invented woodblock printing 700 years earlier.
28:37But it was slow, complex work.
28:42People knew how to press blocks of wood.
28:50But his innovation was to turn it into an industrial process.
28:56Manufacture books.
28:58No one had ever done that before.
29:00A goldsmith, by trade, he carves letters in metal
29:06that can be moved around and rearranged.
29:10An infinite variety of words and sentences.
29:17To print the text, a modified wine press.
29:22He's been working on his invention for over a decade.
29:30But now he has run out of money.
29:33He persuades a wealthy businessman to see the press in action
29:38and invest in it, if it really works.
29:52Once you lined up that type on that page,
30:14one person could print off a dozen pages or a thousand pages.
30:19It didn't matter.
30:20The information age begins here.
30:33Every page printed in the last 500 years
30:37owes a debt to Gutenberg's invention.
30:40With an investment of 800 guilders,
30:53the equivalent of over a million dollars,
30:58his printing press goes into production.
31:03He prints 180 copies of the Bible.
31:09Another 6 billion have been printed since.
31:23Books can now be produced 2,000 times faster than before.
31:2920 million are printed in 50 years.
31:38As knowledge begins to spread,
31:40it becomes more within reach of ordinary people
31:44in ways we've never seen before in human history.
31:46All these parallels you hear to the Internet,
31:49that's a very good analogy.
31:51Now a book will inspire one man to strike out across the oceans
32:02and change the future of mankind.
32:051476, off the coast of Portugal.
32:18An Italian sailor, shipwrecked and left for dead by pirates.
32:21An Italian sailor.
32:30An Italian sailor, shipwrecked and left for dead by pirates.
32:33An Italian sailor, shipwrecked and left for dead by pirates.
32:37His name? Christopher Columbus.
32:44A dreamer who will unite a divided world.
32:50He believes he's been saved by God for a special purpose.
32:57In certain cases, an individual makes a huge impact.
33:04And Columbus is kind of a pure example of that.
33:15He settles in Lisbon, Portugal.
33:20With the help of his brother, Bartolomeu, he begins to pursue a dream.
33:26He was a guy who had this tremendous personal ambition.
33:30He really, really wanted to pull his family up from the muck and become an aristocrat, become a gentleman.
33:38His dream is inspired by a book, written 200 years earlier, but thanks to the printing press, has become a bestseller.
33:50After the Bible, the most widely read book in Europe.
33:58The Wonders of the World by Marco Polo.
34:04The epic story of a Venetian merchant and his travels east.
34:15Through the Holy Lands, Central Asia, and on to the exotic teeming cities of China.
34:22It is scarcely possible to set down in writing the magnificence of this province.
34:31Here they weave gold tissues, as well as every other kind of silk and cloth.
34:36The city contains merchants of great wealth and an incalculable number of people.
34:41Columbus was a classic example of someone who really was inspired by literature and dreamed big.
34:58He's possessed with this, you know, kind of desire to win the lottery of life.
35:02He wanted to be the next Marco Polo.
35:11Columbus's brother is a map maker.
35:14Together, they plot a revolutionary idea.
35:22To head east by traveling west.
35:30Not over land like Marco Polo, but by sea.
35:38What a great opportunity.
35:39What a wonderful thing to be part of.
35:45When I think of it for myself, it's like, whew, you get a little frisson.
35:53Map makers at the time know nothing about the Americas.
35:58To them, this double continent doesn't exist.
36:03They believe there's a vast uncrossable ocean between Europe and Asia.
36:09Columbus thinks they're wrong.
36:14That the world is smaller than they realize.
36:17And it's quite easy to sail from Europe to China.
36:28When Columbus said, let's sail west.
36:30They had a picture of the earth in their mind.
36:32They said, are you crazy? No.
36:34For almost a decade, Columbus tries to finance his crazy scheme.
36:40He's turned down by the rulers of Portugal, Venice, and Genoa.
36:45But the balance of power in Europe is changing.
36:52With the help of a gun.
36:57It hasn't stayed a Chinese secret.
37:03Almost as soon as the Chinese had invented the first proper gun.
37:09Within 40 years, this had spread all the way to Europe.
37:16No invention had ever moved as fast in the entire history of the world.
37:201486. Southern Spain.
37:31130 years after the Red Turbans, another rebel army fights for independence.
37:42Using the latest in gun technology.
37:45The Arkaboos.
37:56Technology's always improving, but there's nothing like war to give an outsized advantage to whoever has that slight technological edge.
38:10The gun improves when it arrives in Europe by trial and error.
38:16They want to increase their range.
38:18So what are they going to do?
38:19They're going to increase the length of the barrel because they know a bigger powder charge will allow that ball to travel further in distance.
38:28They're going to tighten the tolerances to increase the accuracy of that ball.
38:33They're going to find a way so that it becomes a one-man weapon versus a two-man weapon.
38:38The real breakthrough came with a trigger mechanism.
38:47A lever that operated an arm that brought this burning match cord down into the priming.
38:57Individual soldiers were now armed with something quite deadly, quite accurate and extremely portable.
39:11What happens here in Spain will help propel Columbus to the new world.
39:25Elora, southern Spain, 1486.
39:39A Spanish army below the walls of an Islamic fortress.
39:46The front line in a religious war that will shape the future of mankind.
39:55For more than 700 years, Spain has been run by the Moors, Muslims from North Africa.
40:10They create their own cities with their own architecture.
40:15Centers of learning.
40:17Preserving the knowledge of the ancient world.
40:19But Spanish armies try to reclaim the country for Christianity.
40:36They force the Moors to retreat back to North Africa.
40:40All that remains is the kingdom of Granada on the southern tip of Spain.
40:55Key to the conquest of Granada, the fortress of Elora.
41:00If the Spanish are to reclaim their country, they need to capture this Moorish strongly.
41:06A Spanish captain, Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba.
41:17Young, ambitious, known in court as the Prince of Cavaliers.
41:26Cordoba will become one of Spain's greatest generals.
41:30A tactical genius.
41:32And champion of the Arquebus.
41:36The gun is deadly.
41:39But only at close range.
41:42He needs his men to be nearer the enemy.
41:49For four days, stalemate.
41:53Now, he leads a fresh assault.
42:03Fire!
42:05Fire!
42:06Fire!
42:08Fire!
42:11Fire!
42:13Fire!
42:15Fire!
42:17Fire!
42:18Fire!
42:19Fire!
42:21Fire!
42:22Fire!
42:23Fire!
42:24Fire!
42:26Fire!
42:28Fire!
42:30Fire!
42:32The noise of the Arquebus is the equivalent of a jet engine at takeoff.
42:35Manuel! Manuel! Manuel! Manuel! Manuel! Manuel!
42:38Manuel, miradme! Manuel, miradme!
42:39Tranquilo! Tranquilo! Tranquilo!
42:41Tranquilo!
42:42Miradme a me!
42:43Soldiers deafening.
42:44Let the Spanish regroup and fight on.
42:57The closer they get, the more effective their guns.
43:02The victory at Allora, a turning point in the reconquest of Spain.
43:03The victory at Allora, a turning point in the reconquest of Spain.
43:21Over the next six years, city after city falls to the Spanish.
43:39January 2nd, 1492.
43:47A day that changes the destiny of mankind.
43:52Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, ride victorious into Granada.
43:58Gonzales de Cordoba, helps negotiate the surrender of the Moors.
44:09A Spanish chronicler calls it,
44:12The most blessed day there has ever been.
44:17In the crowd, one man senses an opportunity.
44:24Christopher Columbus.
44:28Everybody's walking around with their chests puffed out, looking for new things to do.
44:37Now that we have our own country back, we can start trading for luxury goods with the Chinese.
44:43And lo and behold, Columbus shows up.
44:49Spain is the new power in Europe.
44:51Ferdinand and Isabella will fund Columbus's dream.
45:01He'll sail under a Spanish flag.
45:08Contact between East and West, once brought death and disease.
45:13But mankind has unlocked the keys to a new future, harnessing the power of gold, gunpowder and the printed word.
45:27History is made by people with ideas, and a spirit of adventure.
45:40People who see opportunity, where others see danger.
45:44A new age is dawning.
45:47That'll unite a divided world.
45:51The age of exploration.
45:57The age of exploration.
46:00The age of exploration.
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