The Invention of Gunpowder | Mankind: The Story of All of Us (S1, E5) | Full Episode | History

we are survivors   mankind brought low by disease war and devastation but now we harness new riches and new powers we look beyond the world we  know and together rise again 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 1352 the sahara the largest desert on the planet   a searing wilderness the size of the united  states the toughest challenge an explorer can face ibn batuta he left morocco at age 21.  vowing never to travel the same road twice he's explored over 40 countries but  this is his first time in the sahara   we set off into a desert  totally devoid of settlements there's no road no track only sand   but at this time the sahara holds  the key to mankind's survival the plague rages through asia  europe and the middle east it's killed up to a fifth  of the world's population   in damascus syria ibn records  2 400 deaths in a single day   but the sahara is a barrier against the pandemic with temperatures up to 135 degrees the plague can't survive the heat of the desert few living things can the sahara is vast it's the definition of a  horrible place to be there's no water it's   incredibly hot your eyes are planes fixing  you your mind starts playing tricks on you   it's an incredible ordeal the body's cooling  system shuts down heat stroke then you stop   sweating because you have no ability to  get rid of fluid to allow you to cool down   you stop thinking normally and it's that erratic  bizarre behavior that ultimately leads to that ibn batuta's life in the hands of  his traveling companions the turret nomads from north africa they've lived in  the sahara for over a thousand years trading   something we take for granted today but was once  one of the most valuable commodities on the planet salt salt was everything salt was literally  the difference between life and death before refrigeration salt was  the key to preserving food   it absorbs water and stops bacteria from growing  salted food can last for a year without spoiling access to salt determined whether you were  powerful enough i can't send a an army across   the water or great distances without  provisions and their provisions are   going to go bad if they are not salted the tuareg  have discovered a rich supply under their feet millions of years ago the sahara was a sea as the water evaporated it  left behind huge salt deposits the salt trade is the touareg's livelihood they mine it at tekkhaza in the middle of  the sahara then trek hundreds of miles south to the markets in the great cities of  the mali empire jenne gao and timbuktu but it is a dangerous  journey in a deadly landscape the greatest fear of every traveler a sandstorm whipped up in seconds by 70 mile per  hour winds when a sandstorm hits it   fills the air with sand it fills your lungs  fills your eyes and your nose you can't see this wind and this sand can  strip the paint off a car you have to get shelter or you die yes one of our party was lost in the desert after that  i never went ahead or never lagged behind again   after two months in the sahara ibn patuta's  camel train reaches its destination the cities of mali travelers have nothing to fear they gave me gifts  of food and treated me with the utmost generosity   may god reward them for their kindness tuareg merchants can now  trade their precious cargo in mali salt is so in demand it's traded for gold today most gold in the world  has to be mined deep underground in mali it flows out of the  bedrock of the river niger at this time as much as two-thirds of the  world's known gold reserves are in west africa the key that turns mali's rulers into  some of the richest men in the world   and their cities into centers of learning timbuktu university one of the oldest in  the world the first in sub-saharan africa   up to twenty-five thousand people a quarter of  the population students over three 000 scrolls one of the greatest libraries in the islamic world  scholars from lots and lots of places went there   to study the squirrels it was the world wide  web it was the place where information was held this is africa's golden age in the south great zimbabwe a gleaming city of  stone legendary site of king solomon's minds in the highlands of ethiopia an ancient christian  empire claiming to descend from the queen of sheba and on the east coast kilwa  one of africa's busiest ports will return to morocco and write the  oldest surviving account of timbuktu   and the wealth of africa the tuareg will carry their  gold back across the sahara its destination across the mediterranean to europe african gold will be key to the greatest  explosion of ideas the western world is ever known it'll make some men rich and others reckless venice 117 mud islands join together  become a thriving center of commerce silk from the middle east spices  from india and the key to its wealth gold from africa a young venetian pietro venire hoping to get rich as a partner  in a bank the priuley brothers seventy years earlier the plague wiped  out half the population of venice but in the story of mankind  disaster creates opportunity venice is the nursery of modern banking and  finance it is the cradle of capitalism in the   15th and 16th centuries it is the place  to be it's absolutely the place to be in venice african gold is minted into ducats   an international currency merchants bank  their ducats with men like pietro venier modern banking begins in italy at the  benches the bonkey where money changes hands they would go to banks to borrow for  personal loans and they would go to   banks or borrow for commercial loans many  of the same reasons we go to banks today but venice is a magnet for the  disadvantage lured by its wealth enrico an unemployed migrant hungry and tempted load up 340 ducats over two pounds of gold pietro veneer has no choice he must catch him when the trust in your banker disappears the  banker's future has disappeared his word doesn't   count for anything his promises don't count and if  your promises don't count you're out of business so the authorities hang in rico there's no mercy for thieves in venice it's men like pietro venire who  will finance the renaissance the greatest flourishing of learning  and culture mankind has ever known after the devastation of the plague a  rebirth we have works of art works of   architecture palaces schools academies all of  the human arts flourish where banking flourishes they were buying collections for  themselves but they were meant for eternity 5 000 miles away china is on the brink of its  own rebirth the key a deadly new invention for a century and a half  the mongols have ruled china but the plague has killed millions loosening  their grip on power 1356 outside nanjing   a gang of three plots a revolution  their leader zhu yung zhang born dirt poor orphaned by the plague julian jung was a peasant he was an  ordinary man but he had extraordinary drive his men call themselves the red turbans peasants turned rebels people have nothing to eat and when a rebel  leader comes along and says drive out the mongols   there's universal enthusiasm  by his side his young wife ma daughter of a warlord partner in the revolution mine drew were a match made in heaven   and together they were perfect partners in  this rebellion third member of the gang zhao master craftsman weapons expert xiaoyu was not just a soldier but also one  of the great brains behind this operation mongol soldiers are trained to use a bow and arrow  with deadly accuracy zhao's response gunpowder invented 300 years earlier by chinese monks  looking for the elixir of life it's a novelty   used mostly in fireworks until its  power is realized as an explosive zhao designs a weapon he calls human thunder   a small stone propelled by an  explosive charge a lethal combination the future of warfare rewritten once the gun shows up on the  battlefield everything changes anyone who picks up a gun is instantly lethal jew is quick to see the potential with  these fire weapons i will conquer the empire   as easily as turning the palms of my hands upside  down jews confidence will soon be put to the test   against the deadliest fighting  force on the planet the mongols a hundred and fifty years after genghis  khan invades their homeland zhu yung zhang   leads the red turbines at the city of nanjing a  peasant army to drive the mongols out of china the key to their strategy a  weapon that will change mankind the gun but their guns are a crude  design and can't be aimed properly the problem of early firearms  is having the pellets leave   the gun and go in the direction you  want them to it's aim that matters gunmaker solution quantity over quality a  hail storm of bullets to annihilate the enemy   you must wait until just the right moment the fire must be intense one firearm makes no difference but a hundred   firearms makes a big difference  and a thousand makes even more it must have been incredibly  confusing and incredibly frightening it is a game changer old school   defense's old school technology is  no longer effective against the gun zhou's gun levels the battlefield   and allows a band of rebels to take  on the deadliest army in the world we no longer use horses on the  battlefield we still use gunpowder that is a lasting change to the  battlefield that cannot be ignored   over the next 12 years the  chinese drive out the mongols nanjing becomes capital of a free china   jew a peasant orphaned by the plague  becomes the emperor of a new chinese dynasty   and his wife ma the empress the most powerful  woman on the planet when julian zhang founds his   dynasty he calls it ning which means bright  the mongols are darkness and he is light the ming dynasty lasts for 300 years  its rulers live in the forbidden city   a vast palatial compound no one can enter or leave  without the emperor's permission it takes up to a million workers 14 years to build on the borders of china an even  greater engineering project the largest defensive structure in the world begun  by china's first emperor completed by the ming over five and a half thousand miles long  twenty thousand towers the great wall of china now a technology first developed in  china will be perfected in europe it will change the world as  dramatically as gunpowder 1450 mainz germany johannes gutenberg goldsmith entrepreneur  inventor of the printing press it's still one of the greatest  stories in the history of invention   you think about the impact that had  it's really hard to underestimate it in 15th century europe books are only  in reach of the clergy and the rich   handwritten and labor-intensive it takes as long  as three years to produce one copy of the bible   it was like having this powerful force knowledge  that's locked in these objects called books   and almost nobody has these things the chinese  invented wood block printing 700 years earlier but it was slow complex work people  knew how to press blocks of wood   but his innovation was to turn  it into an industrial process manufacture books no one had ever done that before  a goldsmith by trade he carves letters in metal   that can be moved around and rearranged  an infinite variety of words and sentences to print the text a modified wine press he's been working on his invention for over  a decade but now he has run out of money he   persuades a wealthy businessman to see the press  in action and invest in it if it really works once you lined up that type on that  page one person could print off   a dozen pages or a thousand pages it didn't  matter the information age begins here every page printed in the last 500 years  owes a debt to gutenberg's invention with an investment of 800 gilders   the equivalent of over a million dollars  his printing press goes into production he prints 180 copies of the bible another 6 billion have been printed since books can now be produced two  thousand times faster than before 20 million are printed in 50 years as knowledge begins to spread   it becomes more within reach of ordinary  people in ways we've never seen before in   human history all these parallels you hear  to the internet that's a very good analogy now a book will inspire one man  to strike out across the oceans and change the future of mankind 1476 off the coast of portugal an italian  sailor shipwrecked and left for dead by pirates his name christopher columbus a dreamer who will unite a divided world he believes he's been saved  by god for a special purpose in certain cases an individual  makes a huge a huge impact   and columbus is kind of a pure example of that he settles in lisbon portugal with the help of his brother  bartholomew he begins to pursue a dream   he was a guy who had his tremendous personal  ambition he really really wanted to pull his   family up from the muck and become an aristocrat  become a gentleman his dream is inspired by a book written 200 years earlier but thanks  to the printing press has become a bestseller the bible the most widely read book  in europe the wonders of the world by marco polo   the epic story of a venetian  merchant in his travels east   through the holy lands central asia and  on to the exotic teeming cities of china it is scarcely possible to sit down and  riding the magnificence of this province   here they weave gold tissues as well  as every other kind of silk and cloth   the city contains merchants of great  wealth and an incalculable number of people columbus was a classic example of someone who  really was inspired by literature and dreamed big he's possessed with this you know kind  of desire to win the lottery of life   he wanted to be the next marco polo columbus's brother is a map maker   together they plot a revolutionary  idea to head east by traveling west not over land like marco polo but by sea what a great opportunity what  a wonderful thing to be part of when i think of it for myself it's  like you get a little free song map makers at the time know nothing about  the americas to them this double continent   doesn't exist they believe there's a vast  uncrossable ocean between europe and asia columbus thinks they're wrong that  the world is smaller than they realize   and it's quite easy to sail from europe to china when columbus said let's sail  west you know they had they had a   picture of the earth in their  mind they said are you crazy no   for almost a decade columbus tries to  finance his crazy scheme he's turned   down by the rulers of portugal venice and genoa  but the balance of power in europe is changing with the help of the gun it hasn't stayed a chinese secret almost as soon  as the chinese had invented the first proper gun   within 40 years this had  spread all the way to europe no invention had ever moved as fast  in the entire history of the world 1486 southern spain 130 years after the red  turbans another rebel army fights for independence using the latest in gun technology technology is always improving  but there's nothing like   war to give an outsize advantage to  whoever has that slight technological edge the gun improves when it arrives in europe  by trial and error they want to increase   their range so what are they going to do  they'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 they're going to tighten the  tolerances to increase the accuracy of that ball   they're going to find a way so that it becomes  a one-man weapon versus a two-man weapon the real breakthrough came  with a trigger mechanism   a lever that operated an arm that brought  this burning match cord down into the priming individual soldiers were now armed with something  quite deadly quite accurate and extremely portable what happens here in spain will  help propel columbus to the new world elora southern spain 1486. a spanish army below the  walls of an islamic fortress the front line in a religious war  that will shape the future of mankind for more than 700 years spain has been  run by the moors muslims from north africa they create their own cities  with their own architecture   centers of learning preserving  the knowledge of the ancient world but spanish armies try to reclaim the country   for christianity they forced the  moors to retreat back to north africa all that remains is the kingdom of  grenada on the southern tip of spain key to the conquest of  granada the fortress of elora   if the spanish are to reclaim their country  they need to capture this moorish strong a spanish captain gonzalo fernandez de cordoba young ambitious known in court as  the prince of cavaliers cordova will   become one of spain's greatest generals a  tactical genius and champion of the archibus   the gun is deadly but only at close range  he needs his men to be nearer the enemy for four days stalemate now he leads a fresh assault uh the noise of the archiboose is the  equivalent to the jet engine at takeoff soldiers let the spanish regroup and fight on the closer they get the more effective their guns the victory at allora a turning  point in the reconquest of spain over the next six years city  after city falls to the spanish   january 2nd 1492 a day that  changes the destiny of mankind   spanish monarchs ferdinand and  isabella ride victorious into granada gonzales de cordova helps negotiate  the surrender of the moors a spanish chronicler calls it the  most blessed day there has ever been   in the crowd one man senses an opportunity christopher columbus everybody's walking around with their chests  puffed out looking for new things to do   now that we have our own country back  we can start trading for luxury goods   with the chinese and lo and  behold columbus shows up spain is the new power in europe ferdinand and isabella will fund columbus's dream he'll sail under a spanish flag contact between east and west once  brought death and disease but mankind   has unlocked the keys to a new  future harnessing the power of gold gunpowder and the printed word history is  made by people with ideas and a spirit of   adventure people who see opportunity where  others see danger a new age is dawning that'll unite a divided world the age of exploration you

Channel: HISTORY

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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 5, Mankind The Story of All of Us se1 ep5, Mankind The Story of All of Us s1 e5, Mankind The Story of All of Us 1X5, Plague, Episode 5, Invention of Gunpowder

Id: Jz6vk1xvMIM

Length: 44min 22sec (2662 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 29 2021