[Narrator]
FROM THE DUST OF EMPIRES, NEW FORCES RISE. NEW IDEAS PROPEL US FORWARD. NEW BELIEFS UNITE US. AND TEAR US APART. AMIDST THE CHAOS
OF AN UNFORGIVING PLANET, MOST SPECIES WILL FAIL. BUT FOR ONE, ALL THE PIECES
WILL FALL INTO PLACE. AND A SET OF KEYS WILL UNLOCK
A PATH FOR MANKIND TO TRIUMPH. THIS IS OUR STORY,
THE STORY OF ALL OF US. ROME, 455AD. AT THE GATES
OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE. GAISERIC... KNOWN AS THE 'SPEAR KING', CHIEF OF A TRIBE OF GERMANIC
WARRIORS: THE VANDALS. THEY'VE CRUSHED ROMAN ARMIES
IN NORTH AFRICA. NOW THEY'RE AFTER THE RICHES
OF ROME ITSELF. TRAPPED INSIDE THE PALACE,
THE EMPRESS, LICINIA EUDOXIA. DAUGHTER OF A CHRISTIAN CONVERT, WIDOW OF A MURDERED EMPEROR. SHE AND HER CHILDREN ARE THE
LAST OF ROME'S RULING FAMILY. [Screaming and shouting] THE IMPERIAL CAPITAL
IS UNDER ATTACK. RULING A FIFTH
OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION... ...HAS STRETCHED THE EMPIRE
TO BREAKING POINT. Like a supernova, the empires
we've seen
on this planet have collapsed
under their own weight. A great mass of energy, there's nothing brighter
in the sky. There was certainly nothing
brighter and more powerful than the Roman empire... ...until it wasn't. ROME, THE WORLD'S
FIRST MEGACITY. POPULATION: ONE MILLION. THE MOST MODERN CITY
IN THE WORLD. NOW, IN RUINS. AN EMPIRE IN MELTDOWN. When you think
about the Roman empire and the
complexity
of the system
that failed, it's
incredibly
frightening. A system that could create
the best army in the world, that could unite the entire
Mediterranean region, the idea that a system like that
can fragment and break apart... ...it's apocalyptic. GAISERIC'S MEN WREAK HAVOC. THE ROMAN EMPIRE
WILL NEVER RECOVER. When you see
that kind of horror, and you're stuck
and trapped inside this city, you start
running out
of options
very quick. You can't run,
you can't hide, you can't defeat this force. They will rape, they will
pillage and they will plunder. BUT THE VANDALS
ARE NO SAVAGES. THEY'RE EDUCATED
AND SKILLED IN WARFARE, THANKS TO THE ROMANS. [Shea] By the time
the Vandals arrived in Rome, they'd been living in the Roman
Empire for a long, long time. These were people
who probably
spoke Latin, who had served in
armies alongside
Roman soldiers, they'd been mercenaries, they'd engaged in trade
with the Roman empire. GAISERIC HAS BEEN FIGHTING
THE ROMANS SINCE HIS TEENS. NOW HE'S IN REACH
OF THE ULTIMATE PRIZE: EUDOXIA. WORTH MORE TO THE VANDAL CHIEF
THAN GOLD, HAVING THE EMPRESS AS HIS
HOSTAGE WILL BRING HIM PRESTIGE. EUDOXIA WILL SPEND THE NEXT
SEVEN YEARS AT GAISERIC'S SIDE. HER DAUGHTER,
FORCED TO MARRY HIS SON. THE EMPRESS OF ROME
ENSLAVED BY A BARBARIAN. THE ROMAN EMPIRE LASTED
FOR FIVE CENTURIES. AT ITS HEIGHT, IT RULED
OVER 60 MILLION PEOPLE AND TWO MILLION SQUARE MILES. AS IT DISINTEGRATES, BARBARIAN TRIBES SEIZE
THEIR OPPORTUNITY. ANGLES AND SAXONS
PUSH INTO BRITAIN. FRANKS SWEEP ACROSS GAUL, GIVING THEIR NAME
TO MODERN FRANCE. VISIGOTHS SEIZE
WHAT IS NOW SPAIN. When power collapses
at anytime, anywhere, it creates a vacuum,
by definition, others come running in,
territory gets grabbed up, ideas are repudiated,
the Romans learned it, we don't know
who's going to be next. WITH THE COLLAPSE OF ROME, EUROPE REVERTS TO A DARK AGE
OF WAR, FAMINE AND SAVAGERY. MANY ESSENTIALS OF ROMAN LIFE
ARE LOST FOR CENTURIES: THE TECHNOLOGY TO BUILD
AQUEDUCTS, THE USE OF COINS, IN SOME AREAS EVEN WRITING. ROME LOSES 95%
OF ITS POPULATION. LONDON IS ABANDONED. The drama of Rome suggests, that civilization
does not progress
in a straight line towards
more prosperity, more order, more law,
more technology. It shows us, in the picture, amazing things being achieved
by the Greeks and the Romans, and then those things
being lost again. WITH THE FALL OF ROME, EUROPE WILL FRAGMENT
AND STAY DIVIDED FOR 1500 YEARS. BUT TWO NEW FORCES EMERGE, KEY TO THE STORY OF MANKIND. FROM THE FROZEN NORTH:
THE VIKINGS. FROM THE SUN-BAKED SOUTH:
THE ARABS. THE ARABIAN DESERT,
1,400 YEARS AGO. BURIED DEEP BENEATH... ...GOLD. IT'LL HELP BUILD
A NEW CIVILIZATION, FOUNDED ON A NEW RELIGION:
ISLAM. THE MAHAD AL DAHAB MINE,
WORKED BY A THOUSAND SLAVES, OWNED BY AL-HAJJAJ AL-BAHIZI. FROM THE SAME TRIBE
AS THE PROPHET MOHAMMED. ALREADY A MINING TYCOON,
SOON WORTH HIS WEIGHT IN GOLD. Gold is an amazing metal, it's easy
to work with,
it doesn't tarnish. And it's
so beautiful that it seems to symbolize
wealth and royalty by its very existence. ALL THE GOLD EVER MINED
COMES FROM OUTER SPACE, FROM A TIME
ALMOST FOUR BILLION YEARS AGO, KNOWN AS
THE 'HEAVY BOMBARDMENT'. ASTEROIDS CARRYING TRACES OF
GOLD RAINED DOWN ON THE EARTH. FOURTEEN MILLION TIMES
RARER THAN IRON, ALL THE GOLD EVER MINED
WOULD FILL JUST THREE OLYMPIC
SWIMMING POOLS. EXTRACTING GOLD IN 7TH-CENTURY
ARABIA IS DANGEROUS WORK. TUNNELS, PROPPED UP
BY SIMPLE WOODEN STRUTS. WITH EACH BLOW, A WORKER
CAN STRIKE IT RICH... ...OR DIG HIS OWN GRAVE. [Low rumbling] A CAVE-IN AT A GOLD MINE
IN THE ARABIAN DESERT. OWNER AL-HAJJAJ AL-BAHIZI
RISKS HIS LIFE TO SAVE HIS MEN
AND HIS INVESTMENT. [Coughing and spluttering] THIS MINE ALONE WILL PRODUCE
50 TONS OF GOLD, WORTH TWO BILLION DOLLARS TODAY. A GOLD RUSH
SPARKS A BOOM IN TRADE AND A NEW CHAPTER
FOR MANKIND. FROM THE TRADING CENTER
OF MECCA, A CHARISMATIC LEADER EMERGES,
THE PROPHET MOHAMMED, AND A NEW RELIGION. IN TWENTY YEARS, ISLAM UNITES
THE WARRING TRIBES OF ARABIA. [Aslan] It was
a particular genius of the burgeoning
Islamic state, to use that gold
to fund a massive army that was able to push
beyond the Arabian Peninsula, to create a new
kind of empire, a distinctly
Islamic empire. FROM MECCA,
IN MODERN-DAY SAUDI ARABIA, ISLAM SPREADS ACROSS
NORTH AFRICA AND INTO EUROPE, DOMINATING LANDS ONCE
CONTROLLED BY THE ROMANS. A NEW CIVILIZATION
REACHES INTO SPAIN AND BUILDS A NEW CITY: CORDOBA. HOME TO A REMARKABLE INVENTOR:
ABBAS IBN FIRNAS. ASTRONOMER,
ENGINEER, INVENTOR. HE'S INVENTED A WATER CLOCK, A PLANETARIUM,
A MAGNIFYING GLASS. NOW, HE'LL RISK HIS LIFE
FOR A NEW INVENTION. A THOUSAND YEARS
BEFORE THE WRIGHT BROTHERS, HE WANTS TO FLY. [Speaking Arabic] AN EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIMENT
IN AN EXTRAORDINARY CITY. CORDOBA IS HOME
TO HALF A MILLION MUSLIMS, CHRISTIANS AND JEWS. IN EUROPE'S DARK AGES, A BEACON
OF TOLERANCE AND LEARNING. 37 LIBRARIES,
THE KNOWLEDGE OF MANKIND, MUCH OF IT RESCUED
FROM ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME. What one wonders about is, if Islamic scientists
had not played this role of nursemaid to science, how would we
have gotten here? Because in
the West, we had
lost that
with our Dark Ages. How would science
have survived in the West if it had not been
for the Islamic scholars? ARABS TAKE
A GREAT LEAP FORWARD IN ASTRONOMY,
ENGINEERING, MEDICINE. THEY CREATE ALGEBRA
AND SIMPLIFY MATH, WITH THE NUMBERS ZERO TO NINE, STILL KNOWN AS ARABIC NUMERALS. IBN FIRNAS IS FASCINATED
BY THE LAWS OF FLIGHT AND HAS BUILT
HIS OWN FLYING MACHINE. What an
extraordinary
thing to try to do. This crazy guy was willing
to jump off a building to improve the state
of human knowledge. "By guiding these wings
up and down, I will fly. "If all goes well,
after soaring for a time, "I will return safely." ACCOUNTS AT THE TIME REPORT: "He attached a couple
of wings to his body, "and from a great height
flung himself into the air. "He flew a considerable
distance, "as if he had been a bird." BUT WITHOUT A TAIL,
HE CAN'T CONTROL HIS DESCENT. [Screaming] HE'LL SUFFER BACK PAIN
FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. BUT HE ENTERS
THE HISTORICAL RECORDS: THE FIRST HUMAN TO FLY. [Laughter] This willingness
to risk life and limb for knowledge
is one of the things that has really brought humans
to where we are today. We wouldn't be here if people
weren't constantly willing to push and experiment
and really risk everything just for a hunch. FIFTY YEARS LATER, TWO AND
A HALF THOUSAND MILES AWAY, ANOTHER ARAB PUSHING
THE BOUNDARIES OF KNOWLEDGE: AHMAD IBN FADLAN. DIPLOMAT, CHRONICLER,
DEVOUT MUSLIM. HIS MISSION: TO SEEK OUT
NEW TRADE ROUTES. IN RUSSIA,
HE MAKES CONTACT WITH PEOPLE WHO WILL DOMINATE
NORTHERN EUROPE: THE VIKINGS. HE RECORDS: "I have never seen more
perfect physical specimens. "They are big men with white
bodies, tall as palm trees. "But they are also the filthiest
of God's creatures. "They drink alcohol
night and day. "Everyone carries an axe. "They are like wild asses." [Speaks native language] Their appearance
to Ibn Fadlan
must've been shocking, because they
were so unabashed
and promiscuous, and completely unaware
of sort of the sense of privacy and properness that Ibn Fadlan
would've carried with him. FROM THEIR NATIVE SCANDINAVIA, THESE VIKINGS HAVE JOURNEYED
1,200 MILES BY SEA AND RIVER, BEFORE SETTLING
IN WESTERN RUSSIA. THIS COUNTRY WILL BE
NAMED AFTER THEM. THE VIKINGS CALL THEMSELVES
THE RUSS - "MEN WHO ROW". We tend to think
of the Vikings as these brutal
and frightening people, but they helped
open up the world, they connected the world in ways
that it had not been before, and we do owe a debt
to them for that. THE VIKING TRADE NETWORK STRETCHES ACROSS
CENTRAL AND NORTHERN ASIA. WHAT THEY OFFER THEIR VISITOR
IS A RARE LUXURY IN ARABIA: FUR. IN EXCHANGE, ARABIAN GOLD. Imagine two people who
cannot communicate verbally, and yet they both come
with something that is of value
in their culture. The exchange is made, and
this is what has created trade across every culture
in every part of the world. IBN FADLAN HAS ARRIVED
AT A MOMENTOUS TIME FOR THESE VIKINGS. THEIR CHIEF HAS DIED.
IT'S TIME FOR A FUNERAL. "They told me, before cremating
their chieftain, "they place him
in a grave for ten days, "while they make
his funeral garments. "Surprisingly, he had
not yet begun to stink." THE DEAD VIKING IS DESTINED
FOR VALHALLA, THE LEGENDARY RESTING PLACE
OF CHIEFS AND WARRIORS. HE WILL NOT GO ALONE. "The chief's son asked
his father's slave girls, 'Who will die with him?' [Speaks native language] "One stepped forward. "Once she had done this,
there was no backing down." [Cheering] THE DEAD CHIEF'S
FAVORITE SLAVE-GIRL CHOOSES TO JOIN HER MASTER, BELIEVING THAT IN VALHALLA
SHE WILL BECOME HIS WIFE. ON THE BANKS OF RUSSIA'S
VOLGA RIVER, A PAGAN PEOPLE, WHO'LL DOMINATE
MUCH OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE. VIKINGS PREPARE THEIR CHIEF
FOR THE AFTERLIFE. ONE OF HIS SLAVE GIRLS
HAS VOLUNTEERED TO BE CREMATED WITH HIM, SO SHE CAN ENTER VALHALLA
WITH HER MASTER. IBN FADLAN,
AN ARAB CHRONICLER, WRITES THE FIRST SURVIVING
ACCOUNT OF A VIKING FUNERAL. "They took the dead man
and carried him onto the ship, "where they laid him
on a quilt." "A woman issued instructions. "They called her
the Angel of Death. [Speaks native language] "The slave girl was given
an intoxicating drink. [Screaming] "The Angel of Death placed
a rope around her neck. "Then she took
a broad-bladed dagger "and thrust it in and out
between the girl's ribs, "while two men throttled her
until she died." [Chanting in native language] THE VIKING CHIEF
TAKES HIS FINAL JOURNEY ON HIS PRIZED POSSESSION: HIS LONGSHIP. [Cheering and shouting] [Shea] We tend to think
of these guys as barbarians, but Vikings were
extraordinary explorers. The Vikings were
on the cutting edge
of human exploration at the beginning
of the mediaeval world. THE KEY TO VIKING EXPLORATION:
THEIR LONGSHIPS. BUILT WITH OVERLAPPING
OAK PLANKS, RIVETED ALONG THE KEEL, THEY ARE STRONG BUT QUICK. POWERED BY SAIL AND OARS,
SOME CAN REACH 20 KNOTS, A GOOD SPEED
FOR A MODERN RACING YACHT. The Viking
longship was
an incredible piece of military
technology. It could cross
vast open ocean, but then navigate
a tiny inlet or river. And when the Vikings came to
attack, the longship was fast, it was stealthy, they could
sneak up unseen, unheard, and make their attack with
incredibly devastating force. THE VIKINGS LAUNCH RAIDS
ALONG THE COASTS OF BRITAIN, IRELAND,
FRANCE AND SPAIN. [Battle cries] 30,000 VIKINGS SETTLE
IN ICELAND IN 60 YEARS. AND THEY SET UP COLONIES
IN GREENLAND. [Shea] The big crisis
in the Viking civilization was farmland. So the Vikings would set off
to find new farmland, and Greenland was one of
the big real estate promotions, they called it green land
to get people to move there. It's not actually green,
you know! FROM GREENLAND, THEY'LL PUSH
ON TO NORTH AMERICA, THE FIRST EUROPEANS,
500 YEARS BEFORE COLUMBUS. BY 1000 AD,
VIKINGS SETTLE AMONG MANY OF THE COMMUNITIES
THEY ONCE ATTACKED. NOVGOROD IN RUSSIA,
KIEV IN THE UKRAINE, ROUEN IN FRANCE, YORK IN
ENGLAND, DUBLIN IN IRELAND, ALL TRANSFORMED INTO CITIES
BY THE VIKINGS. THEY CONVERT TO CHRISTIANITY, REPLACING PAGAN SHRINES
WITH GREAT CHURCHES, REINVENTING THEMSELVES
AS EUROPEAN KNIGHTS. IN RUSSIA, THEY FORM
A DYNASTY OF PRINCES. IN FRANCE, THEY'RE KNOWN AS
'NORSEMEN' AND RULE NORMANDY. THE MOST FAMOUS OF THEM,
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, INVADES BRITAIN
AND BECOMES KING OF ENGLAND. AS RULERS OF CHRISTIAN EUROPE, THE VIKINGS WILL BE
ON THE FRONTLINE IN A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS,
THE CRUSADES. AS THE VIKINGS HELP LIFT
EUROPE FROM ITS DARK AGE, OTHER EXPLORERS CREATE
AN ENTIRELY NEW CIVILIZATION... ...ON AN ISLAND
IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN. MANKIND IS EVER RESTLESS. The urge
to create, indeed
the urge
to glorify, no matter
where we are
in the world, no matter
what our resources are, no matter even
what tools are available, that urge is universal. LIVING IN TOTAL ISOLATION, THESE PEOPLE WILL BUILD
SOME OF THE MOST ICONIC STATUES IN THE WORLD. EASTER ISLAND
IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN. POLYNESIANS CARVE STATUES
FROM ROCK WITH STONE AGE TOOLS. MANKIND THE BUILDER. It's extraordinary
because they were made so many
centuries ago, and yet
they capture
the imagination. They startle us because
they're so mysterious. With all our technology, the statues of Easter Island
still awe us. A MONUMENT
TO AN ANCESTRAL CHIEF. LIKE THE MAN
WHO FIRST LED THEM HERE: HOTU MATU'A. PIONEER, SAVIOR,
FOUNDER OF A CIVILIZATION. DRIVEN FROM HIS NATIVE LAND
BY TRIBAL WARFARE, HE'S TAKEN A FEW DOZEN OF
HIS PEOPLE ON AN EPIC JOURNEY. Hotu Matu'a must have been
an incredible leader, to convince this group of people
to follow him into the unknown. He must have had this great
sense of hope and optimism, which fortunately for him
turned out to be well founded. WITHOUT CHARTS OR COMPASSES, HE HAS TRAVELED 2,500 MILES, TO ONE OF THE REMOTEST
PLACES ON EARTH. A VOLCANIC ISLAND,
HALF THE SIZE OF DETROIT, IN THE VAST EMPTINESS
OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. [Sheridan] I've sailed
across the Pacific and I know how big
that ocean is, it's huge. You're down in a canoe, you can only
see four, five
maybe six miles. You can't see
that far, you're
on the sea level. If you sail past an atoll,
it's only a tree high. If you're ten miles away,
you've missed it. So actually putting
a real needle in a haystack, you'll find that needle before
you'll to find Easter Island. THE KEY TO CROSSING THE OCEAN:
AN INSTINCT FOR NAVIGATION. The Polynesians
were so amazing. Their ability
to navigate, their
understanding
of the stars, celestial navigation
was unparalleled. And they used it to spread
over almost the entire Pacific, all the way to New Zealand. ON EASTER ISLAND,
ENTIRELY ALONE, THEY'LL CREATE
A UNIQUE CIVILIZATION, SURROUNDED BY STATUES
OF THEIR ANCESTRAL GODS. If you think about it, virtually
all the great
monuments of the past were built
for a
spiritual
purpose, as if satisfying the human need
to reach out to the afterlife. And Easter Island
reveals the urge to celebrate,
to commemorate, epic monuments
that are still impressive thousands of years later, and will be
thousands of years from now. [Speaks native language] KNOWN AS MOAI, THE TALLEST IS 33 FEET HIGH
AND WEIGHS 82 TONS, AS HEAVY AS THE SPACE SHUTTLE. [Meigs] Humans work so hard. We never just settle down
and happily farm and live, we're always building something,
exploring something, doing something
that's a challenge, that's bigger than ourselves. LEGEND SAYS THE STATUES
WALK MAGICALLY INTO PLACE. IN REALITY,
THEY ARE DRAGGED OVERLAND. THE FORESTS PROVIDE
ALL THE BUILDING MATERIALS THE ISLANDERS NEED. PALM TREES 80 FEET TALL
BECOME CANOES AND HUTS, AND ROLLERS,
TO TRANSPORT THE MOAI. TO LIFT THEM INTO PLACE, WOODEN LEVERS AND ROPES
MADE FROM TREE FIBER. There is nothing
like these statues, and they were made
with such primitive technology, we are fascinated by them, with these beautiful eyes
staring out at you. It captures something,
I think, in our hearts. THE EASTER ISLANDERS
BUILD 900 MOAI, PROTECTING
THEIR ISOLATED COMMUNITY. BUT IN DOING SO,
THEY HASTEN THEIR OWN DOWNFALL. Unfortunately
their protection
didn't last. Once the forests
were cut down, you had an ecological
disaster on Easter Island. Once the last trees were gone, and they couldn't make
canoes any more, their paradise
became a prison. RELIGION... ...THE MOST POTENT FORCE
IN THE STORY OF MANKIND. IT HAS BUILT CIVILIZATIONS
AND DESTROYED THEM. AS THE EASTER ISLANDERS PAY
HOMAGE TO THEIR ANCESTRAL GODS, ON THE OTHER SIDE
OF THE PLANET HOLY WARRIORS DESTROY
THOSE OF A DIFFERENT FAITH. IN THE MIDDLE EAST,
JERUSALEM, A CITY UNDER SIEGE. INSIDE ITS WALLS,
PANDEMONIUM. [Screaming and crying] OUTSIDE, 12,000 MEN... ...INTENT ON BUTCHERY. CRUSADERS. SPEARHEADING THE ATTACK:
TANCRED DE HAUTEVILLE. A NORMAN KNIGHT,
DESCENDED FROM VIKINGS, FILLED WITH BLOODLUST. So many people have
died in the name of religion. Wars fought
over religious belief have spilled so much blood, but I think
of all the wars
fought over religion, the Crusades belong
in their own category. THE SLAUGHTER HERE
RESONATES TO THIS DAY. TANCRED DE HAUTEVILLE, A CHRISTIAN KNIGHT
ON A MISSION FROM GOD, IN THE HOLY LAND, WAGING WAR ON ISLAM. BY THE END
OF THE 11TH CENTURY, 600 YEARS AFTER
THE FALL OF ROME, THE TWO RELIGIONS
ARE GREAT RIVALS. CHRISTIANITY DOMINATES
IN THE WEST AND NORTH, ISLAM IN THE EAST AND SOUTH. DETERMINED TO CURB
THE ADVANCE OF ISLAM, THE POPE CALLS ON CHRISTIANS
TO TAKE UP ARMS. THEIR TARGET:
THE HOLY CITY OF JERUSALEM. On the eve of the Crusades, Jerusalem
under Muslim rule
was actually a hotbed of creativity and
inter-religious dialogue. There were Jews, there were
Christians, there were Muslims. For the most part,
they lived in relative harmony. BUT EACH LAYS CLAIM
TO THE CITY. JEWS REVERE IT
AS THEIR ANCIENT CAPITAL. MUSLIMS KNOW IT
AS AL QUDS, "THE HOLY". FROM HERE THE PROPHET
MOHAMMED JOURNEYED TO HEAVEN. AND FOR CHRISTIANS,
CHRIST WAS CRUCIFIED HERE. It's amazing
when you go
to Jerusalem, if you just
stop for a second, you'll see that these people
actually have more in common than they have
that are differences. They are the sons
and daughters of Abraham. TO ALL WHO JOIN THE CRUSADE, POPE URBAN OFFERS
ETERNAL SALVATION, DECLARING: "The Lord beseeches you
to destroy that vile race "from the lands
of our friends. "All who die by the way "shall have immediate
remission of sins." A knight could sin
as much as he liked, and simply by going
to the Holy Land, he had been given
forgiveness by the Pope, he had been given
his passport to heaven. He could win fame,
he could win glory, and he could come back
with booty. It is one of the most
shameful undertakings ever embarked upon
by our species. WITH ABSOLUTION ASSURED, NOTHING HOLDS BACK
THE CRUSADERS. ONE RECORDS JOYFULLY: "Piles of heads, hands
and feet were to be seen "in the streets
of the city. "It was a just and
splendid judgment of God "that this place
should be filled "with the blood
of the unbelievers." If I have a belief system
that literally says God tells me
I must slaughter anyone who wants to stop me
from being here, it will allow you to justify
any horrific act you take at that point. TANCRED HESITATES. [Speaks native language] HE DECIDES TO RANSOM THE MUSLIMS
AND STOP KILLING THEM. HE GIVES THEM HIS STANDARD... ...A SIGNAL TO OTHERS THAT
THEY ARE UNDER HIS PROTECTION. AT THE CHURCH OF
THE HOLY SEPULCHER, HE PRAYS. Having a singular belief system where I've deferred
responsibility to God, can allow me to do brutal
things on the battlefield. [Prays in Latin] But I think
when it gets quieter, when the images come back
into the mind, that has an effect
on a human being. Amen. RETURNING, HE FINDS HIS CAPTIVES
SLAUGHTERED BEHIND HIS BACK BY OTHER CRUSADERS. The crusades were as bad
as it gets. Remember that these guys
embrace the same God, many of the same beliefs,
the same prophets, and yet the streets ran deep with their blood
and that of their brothers. It shows the extraordinary
power of ideas to take hold
of people's minds and drive them
to commit acts of great
sacrifice and
love on the one hand, but also acts of tremendous
barbarity and hatred on the other. It's the double edge sword
of religious belief. THE CRUSADES WILL CONTINUE
FOR TWO CENTURIES AND COST MORE THAN
A MILLION LIVES. BUT MANKIND'S GREATEST HOUR
IS TO COME. WE HARNESS NEW RICHES
AND NEW POWERS. BUILD NEW CIVILIZATIONS IN EUROPE & ASIA, RICH IN INVENTION,
CULTURE AND ART. A NEW CHAPTER
IN THE STORY OF MANKIND.
