The Fall of the Aztec Empire | Mankind: The Story of All of Us (S1, E7) | Full Episode | History

we struggle for new land  new opportunities we fight for wealth and power mankind on an epic journey risking all for a  new world its riches pour out across the planet   triggering conflict new connections and  launch a band of pilgrims across an ocean   in search of the promised land 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 from mankind to triumph this is our story the story of all  of us guided by thor god of thunder the vikings set out across the world their longboats are fast rugged designed to  navigate the most treacherous waters on earth   the long boat's almost like an all-terrain water  vehicle but allows these vikings to go further   and deeper and almost anywhere on the planet  from scandinavia warriors stormed through europe   raiding settling founding new  cities connecting the northern world   now they head west across the atlantic ocean mankind on a new journey that  will connect a divided planet the first europeans known to land in the americas thorvald ericsson legendary explorer a hero whose  exploits are remembered in viking legend   they brought the ship to where  they could moor her and torval   walked ashore with his crew this is a fine  place he said i should like to make it my home since human beings first walked out of  africa seventy 000 years ago mankind   seeks new resources and opportunities new  frontiers to explore and conquer there are   always resources and wide open spaces beyond the  next mountain range beyond the next ocean we're   never quite satisfied nor is our curiosity ever  quite satisfying we want to know what's over there but this land belongs to the inu descendants of the first pioneers who  came into america 19 000 years before 90 million native americans   a third of the planet's population  cut off from the rest of the world until now it's like aliens coming from  outer space to land on your beach   they were strangers they looked pale and grisly the inu are expert hunters armed with stone-tipped arrows swift silent deadly the inu were people who hunted they  hunted caribou and moose and bear   they could drop a great moose with their  arrows they could certainly drop a viking the viking weapon of choice the iron broad axe designed to split a skull in a single  blow viking culture was a warrior culture   man's greatest wish was to die in battle doing  a heroic deal that ensured his seat in valhalla the viking history's record they killed eight in you exhausted they made count suddenly they were startled by  the sound of a cry above them so eriksen the first european to die on american soil it will be 500 years before another  european sets foot in the new world in the americas no iron tools  or horses no wheeled vehicles yet america's people engineer great monuments  thousands of years before the egyptians   they mapped the stars with as much  accuracy as any astronomer in europe and high on a mountain lake in mexico they  build one of the greatest cities on the planet capital of the aztec empire  larger than london paris or rome   at its heart a stone temple 100 feet  high where sky earth and underworld meet   the center of a civilization  dedicated to human blood 100 miles from the city aztec warriors are on a hunt they're prey not animals but human they chased down the leader of an enemy tribe the aim is not to kill they need to take him alive to  keep the universe in balance   the aztecs believe they owe  a debt of blood to their gods today a special offering claw wickole skilled warrior bitter rival the aztec's  greatest prize fighting for his life aztec men are trained to fight from puberty the fiercest become jaguar knights they're weapons not metal but obsidian volcanic glass so sharp  some surgeons today favorite over steel it is the most superior cutting material  known to man perfectly capable of cutting   a man into flower core as well  a club decorated with feathers not only is it terrifying if  you were to imagine yourself   in that position it's also the opportunity  to find out what you're made of a fight to the death that will become aztec legend mexico capital of the aztec empire a captive warrior fights for his life ah elite jaguar knights slice  at his flesh to wear him down the aztecs have created one of the most  sophisticated civilizations on the planet a great city with laws against drunkenness  theft and adultery compulsory education   three and a half centuries before the united  states a city of philosophers poets mathematicians   they valued art literature they were  a very very great civilized society but the aztecs believe their gods need human blood eight men down and flower cole is still standing but his strength is fading oh the warrior who cuts him down will get  to wear his flayed skin for 20 days   his family will eat his flesh  giving them the status of gods   aztec priests sacrifice thousands of men  women and children a year up to 20 000   in one of their most important ceremonies one of  the greatest acts of human sacrifice in history the aztecs are very philosophical about  death death is what gives meaning to life   and that by having the idea of death it  makes the here and now sweeter and more beautiful beating heart offered to the god of the sun and  war wheat cilapochli guardian of the universe in return the aztecs believe his blood  will guarantee a bountiful harvest   a crop that will become key to mankind's future corn six thousand years ago early farmers in the  americas turn a weed into a cereal that produces   more calories per acre than any other with  almost twice as many genes as a human being   found in a quarter of all  supermarket products we buy today corn is the staple of aztec life but while aztec power reaches its height events  7 000 miles away are about to change their world forever constantinople the eastern  capital of the christian world founded by rome's first  christian emperor constantine at the city's heart an icon of christian faith fire sofia the largest cathedral of its day the year is 1453. an epic battle is looming  that will shift the balance of power between   east and west and change the story of mankind  constantinople is going to change the entire   picture of the world that we have with  the discovery of new continents the two   events are inextricably linked constantinople is  under siege by the ottoman turks an islamic army   seventy thousand strong leading  the attack sultan mehmet ii scholar warrior obsessed conquering the city has been  his dream since the age of 13. like the mongol hordes of genghis khan  the turks were once nomads from central asia if mehmet can take constantinople they'll control  the key trade routes between east and west   and the city's vast trade in spices they want to take constantinople  it's rich it's the center of   a vast trade of spices and  other things flowing into europe one dried berry makes up as much as  two-thirds of the spice trade into europe a spice that changes  the story of mankind 1 000 tons shipped from southern india every year the sultan wants constantinople as  the jewel of a new islamic empire   there must only be one empire one  faith and one sovereignty in the world but the city has the greatest  defensive walls in europe four miles long up to 100 feet high big challenge was to  bring down the walls of constantinople   no one had ever defeated  the walls of constantinople   now a devastating new use of weapons non-stop  artillery bombardment the key to the future of war artillery becomes the king of battle  and it's proven at constantinople the fate of constantinople will change  lives in every corner of the planet mankind's destiny can turn on a single battle if the walls of constantinople  fall under bombardment by the turks   the world will never be the same again 69 candidates dedicated teams working in shifts cool clean reload each cannon packed with up to 10 stone balls those people in constantinople they never  experienced anything like a cannon bombardment   i have been rocking it now i have been  mortared before and it ain't no fun you know you never know you  don't know where it's gonna land pounding the city round the clock for 53 days the great cannonballs flew over the walls  and crashed through the houses of the city   and then as they struck the ground the stone  shattered and they burst in a shrapnel hail of   jagged little splinters that killed and maimed  and lacerated for hundreds of yards around defenders rebuild but memit breaks through a new era of warfare stone  walls will no longer protect us constantinople had managed to hold out  for a century until my namesake mehmet   to conquer brought his turkish tribes  and was able to invade constantinople   and that one very sleek move tilted the  axis of human history took an entire part   of the planet that had preserved  christianity and made it islamic christian constantinople becomes islamic istanbul   the great cathedral ir sofia becomes  the largest mosque in the world the world's most important trade routes now in  the hands of a new empire hostile to the west   forcing europeans to search for a  new round to the riches of the east 30 years after constantinople a ship heads into  a storm off the coast of southern africa on a   journey that will open a new era of exploration  in command portuguese explorer bartolomeo diaz wealthy nobleman expert seaman risk taker diaz is heading into unchartered waters   searching for a new route to india  around the southern tip of africa these boats were hard to navigate and yet  people got in ships and sailed across oceans   it's really extraordinary how many  of those ships never came back diaz has been using the coast to navigate but as the storm gets worse  his guide becomes his enemy   you don't want to be near the shore because  you don't get driven up on the rocks you're   getting blue water over the deck and things are  breaking and you know all hell's breaking loose   you're terrified you are sure this is it i mean   you're making your peace with  god and and hoping for the best now diaz faces a choice that will  determine the future for all of us head out into unchartered waters or risk death on the rocks a pioneer on a journey that will  change the shape of the world   caught in a storm off the coast of africa  searching for a new sea route to the east bartolomeo diaz has two options risk death on the rocks or head out  into the atlantic ocean and the unknown he lowers the ship's square sails and puts  his faith in an ancient roman technology   that will become the key  to a new age of exploration the triangular latin sail the sail acts  like a wing almost it actually develops   lift much like an airplane's wing and if  you have a strong rudder able to steer   that ship towards the wind it transmits  all that energy into forward motion you can at least make a tiny bit of upwind headway  maybe you can claw your way off those rocks and   not wreck and smash and destroy your boat diaz  turns his ship and heads into the uncharted waters   of the south atlantic risking everything  if he can't find his way back to shore out of sight of land for 13 days no idea what  lies ahead his maps are useless lost at sea his fate now turns on a powerful  force of nature beneath the waves an ocean gyre   a vast circular current caused by prevailing  winds working against the rotation of the earth creating a conveyor belt of water four thousand  times more powerful than the mississippi river so if you're sitting calm in the ocean gyre  it feels like you're you know a painted ship   on a painted ocean nothing's happening but what's  really going on is you're covering ground but the   whole sea is moving in this arc the discovery  of ocean gyres will revolutionize seafaring   but diaz has no idea of the  forces that slingshot his ship from an empty ocean toward  the southern tip of africa   he really had everything going for him he  had the prevailing winds with him he had   the current with him and he was on a ride  that he may not even have fully understood diaz claims the land in  the name of god and country it will become known as the cape of good hope   the key to a new sea route to  the east bypassing constantinople a direct passage to india   within 50 years it becomes one of the busiest  shipping lanes in the world 44 000 tons of goods   shipped around the cape each year building  new empires new connections and a new future   the race to profit from the  riches of the east is on october 12 1492 a date seared onto the hard drive of humanity   spanish sailors discover land leading  them an italian christopher columbus maverick hustler with his own dream  to find a shortcut to the east   his plan to sail west to china he calculates  the journey from spain will take him just   21 days he underestimates the distance by  7 000 miles what was striking about this   is that any educated person at the time would  know that columbus was wrong undaunted convinced   he's right columbus has been all over  europe begging for support for his journey   spanish monarchs ferdinand and isabella throw some  money his way barely enough to fund the expedition   it's kind of the way that a  wealthy person might bet 100   bucks on poker you know without much  expectation but you could afford it after five weeks at sea close to starvation  thousands of miles from his target he reaches land   which he believes is japan in fact it's the  bahamas off the coast of a vast new world   the americans two worlds isolated from each  other for ten thousand years   it's not only a huge event in history but  it's a huge event in the history of life the bahamas are home to the taino people he  sees these people for the most part by european   standards very tall very healthy very good  looking you know living in a state of abundance columbus records their first encounter the people kept calling to us and giving  thanks to god as if we come from heaven i presented them with some red caps  and beads they were much delighted   and became wonderfully attached to us living in a different ecosystem  for thousands of years   the people of the americas have no  immunity to a deadly threat disease europeans were sort of swimming  in this bacterial and viral soup   that was utterly unlike anything over there first contact with an invisible killer that  will one day change the destiny of the new world but columbus is on a search for treasure i kept my eyes open and tried  to find if there was any gold   oh okay i saw some of them had a little  piece hanging from a hole in their nose i gathered that by going further i'd find a  king who possessed in great quantities of gold columbus returns to spain a hero  his journeys open the floodgates all of europe wants a piece of the  americas the old world and the new are on a collision course mexico part of the aztec empire   28 years after columbus the lust for gold is  about to change the destiny of the new world through the ambitions of one man hernan cortes devious charming and ruthless  leading a band of just 500 european adventurers cortez was quite a manipulator  and quite savvy he knows how to motivate   people and the objective is gold and that's  what of course was the prime motivation aztec emperor montezuma the richest most powerful man in the  americas ruler of 25 million people   he's welcomed cortez and his men into his palace  a mistake that will change the fate of a continent   their numbers were small how could they  constitute a threat when you have an army   that's a thousand times ten thousand times larger  than the few hundred souls that they brought right cortez's plan kidnap the emperor part of his calculation was if we can show that we  can take over at this level you know incarcerate   the head of the empire maybe the  rest of the dominoes will fall montezuma's treasuries are filled with gold the  spanish lust for plunder astonishes the aztecs an   eyewitness reports they snatched up the gold like  monkeys they were swollen with greed they hungered   for that gold like wild pigs the people dubbed  their captive emperor cortez's horde and revolt trapped inside the palace cortez  receives word from his men   we're in imminent danger we'll all perish unless  montezuma commands the hostilities to stop is these strangers are my guests lay down your arms the most powerful ruler in the americas murdered by his own people   fighting for their lives cortez and his men barely  escape with a fortune in aztec gold and silver and leave behind a lethal time bomb the conquistadors are going to war with the aztecs  but their biggest weapons aren't the ones they're   carrying in their hands it's the virus in  their bodies smallpox unbeknownst to them   they bring it to battle six months later  half the city is dead from smallpox eleven months after his escape cortez returns his victory complete he's hijacked the mighty aztec empire an empire of 25 million  brought down by just 500 men   1579 the pacific ocean off  the coast of south america a ship on a mission that  launches a new age of piracy   small fast armed with 18 cannons at  the helm an englishman frances drake   farmer's son fearless navigator and  the most successful pirate in history in his sights a spanish galleon loaded with  a metal so valuable it will change the world drake's secret partner in crime is the english  queen elizabeth the first drake was given   letters of reprisal signed by the british  crown which meant that he could go and   raid spanish shipping what he did was piracy  he's already plundered over 70 spanish ships   the king of spain has put a price  on his head 10 million today dead or alive the spanish ship the caca fuego heads for the  coast of panama with the most valuable cargo   ever seen at sea in its whole 26 tons of silver  from the americas worth 30 million dollars today barrels thrown off the stern  slow drake shipped down so he was gaining on her very slowly very  slightly imperceptibly and not looking like a   foreign threat and why would they expect one  there were no foreign ships in the pacific   disguised as a harmless spanish merchant drake's  ship has been chasing the caca fuego for 14 days   nothing works better than deception if you can  do the unexpected if you can set up your enemy   so they think one thing while you do another thing  you're gonna gain an advantage on the battlefield   but drake can't risk an all-out attack instead of  going to flat out war with another vessel where he   takes the chance of sinking that  vessel or having his vessel sank   he wants to get as close as possible  so that he can seize that vessel whole his plan a surgical strike from close quarters  to take out the spanish galleon's main mast success on the battlefield whether it's land or  sea is all about stacking the right advantage   in your favor at the right time so when  the moment comes you execute perfectly two cannonballs chained together smashed through the mast now she couldn't  flee even if she tried she was incapacitated the richest pirate hall the world had ever seen enough to pay off england's entire national  debt and fund its government for a year american   silver the key to a new global economy that  transforms lives in every corner of the planet in 50 years the spanish and portuguese have  carved out vast new empires in the new world   from new mexico in the north to argentina in  the south and high in the andes in south america   a discovery that will launch a  new era in the story of mankind potosi a mountain made of silver formed when continental plates collide 170 million  years ago the andes are the richest source of   silver in the world magma from the earth's crust  pushes rich silver veins towards the surface creating in potosi silver  veins up to 12 feet thick in the next 300 years potosi will  supply 80 of all the silver in the world   we put a great value on that which is rare you  can take silver and break it up into small bits   so that they become a standard value currency  and with that you can purchase and you can   trade with other societies and it's going  to increase the wealth of the entire world but within 20 years the richest silver ore is  mined out leaving spanish engineers with a problem   the remaining ore is too low grade for  the silver to be extracted using heat spanners had never encountered anything  like silver ore before and didn't know   how to refine it the techniques that they use  actually just ended up boiling away the silver the riches of america trapped inside its rocks but in 1553 a man arrives with a secret formula  the key that unlocks the wealth of the new world   or ptolemy medina experimenter innovator entrepreneur   a textiles trader from spain he's  traveled 5 000 miles to make his fortune his idea will build new cities and empires   create new ways of living launch new conflicts and  help to fund some of the man-made wonders of the a world formula for extracting  silver using mercury but at first the method  that worked in europe fails medina doesn't realize that the  silver-bearing rocks of the andes   have fewer traces of copper than those of europe   essential for the formula to work for months  he experiments searching for a solution i've suffered mental anguish i begged  our lady to enlighten and guide me   so that i might be successful who saw a problem and fiddled and  experimented until he came up with a solution finally a breakthrough   the missing ingredient a common substance  used to tan leather copper sulfate reacting with mercury the missing catalyst  that separates the silver from its impurities the key that turns the minds of potosi into the  richest source of silver mankind has ever known what medina did was he made those silver mines  of south america dramatically more productive   and the flow of silver going into  global trade just took off overnight   220 tons of silver mined each year potosi becomes  the busiest industrial complex in the world in each year in three giant furnaces the  spanish mint 2.5 million silver coins pesos pieces of eight the  world's first universal currency   silver becomes the key to mankind's prosperity   these spanish coins are seen everywhere in the  world they unite the world in a web of commerce   a single coin worth the equivalent of eighty  dollars today legal tender in the usa until 1857.   the scroll and pillars of the spanish royal crest  inspires one of the world's most potent symbols   the dollar sign the result is extraordinary  the entire world's economy is affected as this   silver just explodes out of the americas  crosses the pacific crosses into europe   and there's an enormous burst of prosperity  this is the true beginning of globalization   spanish fleets ship 50 000 tons of silver out  of the americas creating a new atlantic trade   suddenly we have mass quantities coming  onto the market which is going to really   transform all of european trade and what we  see is a whole new booming economy in europe   new trading centers rise seville lisbon  london and on the coast of a small new   country the netherlands the world's  richest and busiest trading cities   amsterdam a city of new wealth and new designs  about to trigger the world's most extraordinary   boom and bust and gamble its future  on a flower the tulip amsterdam 1639. a city flush with new money a century after the spanish  conquest of the new world   the riches of the americas and an explosion  of global trade have turned the netherlands   into the richest nation on the planet the  dutch control over half the world shipping more new millionaires than anywhere else on  earth the highest income per head in europe a city in love with gambling caught up in the excitement jan fan hoyan struggling artist looking for  a new way to make his fortune in a wealthy city city of great merchants  and great enterprises he's a guy on the move   and he wants to get in on this action new  wealth drives the demand for new luxuries and one exotic import has captured  the public's imagination the tulip   imported from turkey the patterns  of the most exotic tulips   are created by a virus that attacks only some  bulbs making them rare and hard to cultivate today the tulip bulb sells for about 50 cents   but in holland in 1636 the rarest bulbs are  selling for a hundred times their weight in gold   amsterdam's merchants are inventing new ways  of making money the birth of speculation   in the back rooms of taverns tulip merchants sell  not flowers or bulbs but the rights to next year's   harvest the world's first futures market today all  agricultural products are sold at futures markets   you can buy crops that have not been harvested  yet similarly tulips were bought in advance   of their delivery date in one month in november  1636 the price of tulip shares has quadrupled   fan hoyan sees an opportunity until now if  you weren't nobility or you weren't a great   merchant you you weren't wealthy but here's a  chance for the common people to become wealthy confident of a quick return fan hoyan  invests all his savings in tulip shares by the beginning of december the price of tulip  bulbs reaches 10 times their price a month before   a bubble has started to inflate by  december 12 the price doubles again at an auction in nearby leiden the seven  penniless orphans of an innkeeper pin   their hopes for the future on their dead  father's small collection of tulip bowls in less than an hour each child earns 40 times  the annual income of an average craftsman tulips turn orphans into millionaires  and the price continues to rise   holland is gripped by tulipmania if you  watch the price of tulips go up and up   and up you start to think you're a fool if  you don't get on that escalator and ride it up   three days later fan hoyan like  many others buys more tulip shears you may well know that a tulip is  only worth a tulip and not worth   a fortune but if other people  think it's worth a fortune   then you'll make a lot of money by  january 1637 the price has doubled again now a few wise investors  decide to sell their shares   and make fortunes everything in financial markets  is about timing the time you enter a contract   and the timing you get out  fan hoyan hangs on to his   confident that the market  will continue to rise and rise i could see myself in his shoes   he saw the orphans getting rich he thought  he would like to be in the mix himself that   if he didn't get in that he'd miss the boat he'd  miss his chance unfortunately his timing was walk suddenly on february 3 1637 at  an auction in the city of harlem   a consignment of tulip bulbs goes unsold within days investors panic  and rush to sell their shares but there are no buyers prices tulips once sold for five  thousand gilders now worthless from boom to bust and dutch investors discover a  truth that mankind is still learning today   that the value of investments can go down as well  as up booms and bust have been with us since trade   has been with us but what's special about tulip  mania is the fact that people like van goghian   non-specialist non-traders are not qualified  to understand the value of the bulb they're   getting involved in this trade and frankly  they're not in a position to absorb the risk fan hoyan is ruined he never makes his  fortune but in painting his way out of debt   over 1200 pictures in 800 drawings he becomes one of holland's most  prolific and greatest artists new wealth transforms society in europe  with new desires and new temptations   leading one group of religious radicals  to reject this world is corrupt and   ungodly and set out on a journey that  will transform the future of a continent north america they call themselves pilgrims they arrive in  the new world in search of religious freedom   the pilgrims rejected the society that they were  in they believed that the only way to preserve   their religious belief pristine was to get away  to go somewhere or they wouldn't be bothered   and most importantly where their children  wouldn't be tempted by what they had seen   in holland in england a great hope an  inward zeal we had of laying some great   foundation for advancing the gospel of the  kingdom of christ in these remote parts of   the world america representative clean slate  because to their way of thinking it was empty but within months the pilgrims are  struggling to survive they land at the   start of a bitter new england winter their  crops fail malnutrition starvation disease 102 men women and children make the crossing  six months later 50 of them are dead give us this day our daily bread and give us the pilgrims bury their dead at first  light to hide how weakened they've become because the land they've settled on is  not empty it belongs to the wabanaki an encounter between two worlds is  about to shape the future of mankind in new england 50 pioneers prepare to fight  for their lives the future of a continent   hangs in the balance not all are pilgrims  among them a soldier miles standish brave impulsive the group's military  commander you know help over here there's somebody out there get the gate  in place now now now ladies get inside so welcome englishman welcome 3 000 miles from home the first  native american the pilgrims encounter   greets them in their own language so   a wabanaki chief his english learned  from earlier visitors to this coast   if we think back to how fearful the english are of  being here here's what they might think is a sign   from god he actually speaks our language it could  have been a really violent encounter and samuset   should get a lot more credit for  kind of bringing things down a notch the next day samusett brings  another english-speaking warrior squanto diplomat politician the man who will teach  the pilgrims to survive in the new world   squanto has spent a year in europe kidnapped and sold as a slave in spain   he wins his freedom and makes his  way to london where he learns english hired as an interpreter for english merchants  he eventually earns his passage back home william bradford governor of the pilgrims writes   squanto was a special instrument sent  of god and never left until he died he guides the pilgrims through  his world brokering friendships   alliances their survival guide in their new world he taught them what he and his people had  learned in isolation over the millennia the crops pilgrims bring from europe  have failed in poor sandy soil squanto teaches them to fish and  use their catch as fertilizer   it surely must have come as a revelation to see  people using fish to make the soil more productive   to the early pilgrims it must  have been quite a surprise and a crop they have never seen before corn the key to their survival and still today  the most widely grown crop in the americas william bradford records we set some 20 acres  of corn according to the manor of the indians and now we began to gather up the small harvest   we were well recovered in health  and had all things in plenty they discovered perhaps to their  surprise that the indians weren't simply   savages who simply hunted and fished they had  grown crops there was an exchange of ideas each   side learned from the other and it  seemed like a productive enterprise   on behalf of both sides a moment of cooperation  all too rare in the story of the new world the pilgrims were important for what  they represented in terms of europe's   preparation to essentially explode out  across the atlantic and reproduce itself   not only in north america and south america  and other parts of the world as well   10 of all americans today are  descended from these first 50 pioneers thousands more will follow within a hundred  years they found great trading cities   that rival those of europe charleston  philadelphia new york boston 50 pioneers who turn their back  on a world devoted to making money   lay the foundations of the united states  the greatest trading nation of the future but while corn and cooperation transforms north  america a new commodity sweeping the world   sugar changes the destiny of another continent leading one woman a warrior queen  into a desperate struggle for her kingdom   and her people central africa today part of northern angola in a struggle for  resources that shapes the world we live in today   one woman fights to keep hold of her kingdom skillful strategist warrior queen  hey hey zinga was a ferocious woman   who was a ruler but she was very complicated queen zynga confronts a formidable enemy portuguese plantations in the  new world need a workforce   to produce a new crop  changing mankind's taste sugar humans are drawn to sweetness  more than any other flavor today we eat up to half our  body weight in sugar every year in the americas and caribbean the  spanish and portuguese lay out   vast new plantations of sugar cane people have always wanted luxurious  food that tastes good and the hunt   for luxuries is driven the exploration of  the world and the spread of trade networks   agriculture on a new industrial scale driving  the demand for labor and a new commodity human beings like many african rulers queen zinga   has been selling captives and prisoners of  war to the portuguese the african slave trade   was a conspiracy unfortunately between  avaricious europeans and african elites   and zingo was a slave trader herself like many of  the monarchs in africa at that time but she sold   slaves other africans captives in war to defend  herself against the encroachment of the portuguese but as the sugar trade expands so does  the demand for more african slaves   her former trading partners  have turned against her they now want her people as slaves in a mountain stronghold she  prepares to defend her kingdom   and her people against her not just the  portuguese but their new african allies   she was up against warlords who were taking  advantage of a market for people they were human   traffickers and they were armed with queen and  zinga her sisters princesses mukombu and kofunji yes candy the indongo are outnumbered surrounded princesses mukambu and kofunji enslaved over three centuries european slave traders will  transport 15 million africans to the new world   the majority from central africa  it's one of the most horrendous   painful moments in modern human history  both for europeans and for black africans but queen nzinga herself escapes for the next 20 years until her death   she will fight on and negotiate and bargain  to keep indongo free from portuguese rule i'm fascinated that there was a woman who was as  powerful in the history of africa as queen enzinga enormously complicated and enormously  brilliant diplomatic figure in african history 250 years later slavery will  be abolished and forever free   but mankind's taste for sugar transforms  the face and civilization of two continents   today almost a fifth of the population of the  americas can trace their roots back to africa and while a new world economy transforms  lives in africa across the globe in india   the riches of the americas helped turn  its ruler into the wealthiest man on earth and help build one of the most  epic monuments on the planet 1631 warhammer fortress central india the world's  richest man on campaign to consolidate his power   shah jahan emperor of 100 million  people his name means king of the world shah jahan was the king of kings during  the mughal's golden age he expanded   the reach of the empire shah  jahan's wealth is legendary a chronicler describes just  one of his treasure houses   750 pounds of pearls 275 pounds of emeralds three  silver thrones a hundred golden silver chairs   one hundred thousand silver plates contributing  to this wealth a string of trading ports along   india's coast drawing thousands of european  merchants flush with american silver   silver just opened so many doors for them  at long last they had a trading currency   they had something that the asians wanted  they could acquire textiles cotton silk spices   pepper cinnamon exotic asian commodities 100  tons of silver pours into india each year generating millions in taxes  paid to one man shah jahan a renegade nobleman khan jahan lodi  has rebelled and been hunted down now he pays the price with the emperor on campaign his favorite wife in  labor with their 14th child her name mumtaz mahal   the jewel of the palace he had many many  many wives but she was his first among women   his chroniclers praise her as  the inspiration behind the throne but her life is in danger she's losing blood neither shah jahan's  wealth nor power can save the woman he loves here's this man who has the world  in his hand here's the man who has   riches that can't be counted and he's lost his beloved he  has lost what he cannot hold in grief shah jahan commissions  a tomb for his beloved wife   hundreds of tons of white  marble encrusted with jewels   costing the equivalent of 70 million dollars  today a lasting monument to the power of silver   the taj mahal global trade and wealth on a vast new scale  creates some of mankind's most iconic structures bigger taller we'll spend the next 350 years   building monuments to our economic  power and our connected world the riches of a new world unlock a new global currency launching pirates  across oceans new commodities new desires and new conflicts transforming every continent  on the planet that kind of globalization   that we're in now where bank collapses in  iceland can rip across the american midwest   that all begins in the 16th century and it begins  with the creation of this universal currency now pioneers push further into the  open spaces of the world new adventures discoveries and an age of revolutions that  will launch mankind into the modern world you

Channel: HISTORY

Views: 573,692

Rating: 4.7263455 out of 5

Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, mankind the story of all of us, history mankind the story of all of us, mankind the story of all of us show, mankind the story of all of us full episodes, mankind the story of all of us clips, full episodes, Mankind The Story of All of Us season 1 episode 7, Mankind The Story of All of Us se1 ep7, Mankind The Story of All of Us s1 e7, Mankind The Story of All of Us 1X7, Plague, Episode 7, Fall of the Aztec Empire

Id: Rhb59zhlzPk

Length: 86min 52sec (5212 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2021