S02 Episode 1
Gutenberg, the visionary inventor
1450. Mayence. Johannes Gutenberg has been working on creating a printing press for more than 2 years.
After a not entirely successful demonstration, he tries to persuade the wealthy banker, Johann Fust, to help finance his project.
Fust agrees and lends Gutenberg 800 florins, plus 300 florins per annum for general expenses. This is a considerable sum for the period. The 2 men become partners. Fust and Gutenberg’s choice of the first work to be printed is an astute one: Saint Jerome’s Latin version of the Bible. It enjoys an immediate and resounding success.
30 mins · Sun, 8 Oct 2017
S02 Episode 2
The goldrush for a fistfull of nuggets
January 24 1848. Coloma, California. In a saw mill belonging to Swiss pioneer John Sutter, James W. Marshall, a carpenter finds pieces of shining metal in the stream next to the saw mill: it’s gold!
The news spreads like wild fire and is confirmed by a number of newspapers in March 1848. It’s the start of an unprecedented gold rush.
Waves of immigrants from all over the world arrive in California, raising the population from 15,000 to several hundred thousand. The Indians are driven out, expropriated and decimated by disease. The first transcontinental railroad is built and a Californian constitution is soon passed. Criminality also explodes: this is the beginning of the myth of the “Wild West” and its infamous outlaws. The Gold Rush will end several years later, but California and the American mentality will be changed by it forever.
30 mins · Sun, 15 Oct 2017
S02 Episode 3
The fall of Quebec: France loses America
1756. The beginning of the Seven Years War, which amongst others sets France against England. The conflict spreads throughout Europe, India and North America. On the American continent the war is considerable weakening the French effort as the British strive to eliminate all French presence there.
In 1759 the British launch their offensive and besiege the city of Quebec. After several months of siege the besieged are beginning to run out of supplies. The French general Montcalm organizes several convoys. Wolfe, the English general, seizes the chance: he sends several of his ships to Quebec, which the French guards allow to pass believing them to be the relief.
By the time the ploy is discovered by the French, it is already too late.
30 mins · Sun, 22 Oct 2017
S02 Episode 4
The “Fronde”, the French civil war
1650. The Kingdom of France. Louis XIV is 12 years old and too young to rule. France is placed under the regency of his mother, Anne of Austria, and Cardinal Mazarin. Poor harvests and the fiscal policy imposed by Mazarin spark unrest in Paris. Parliamentarians, nobles and bourgeois rise in rebellion against royal authority. This marks the beginning of the Fronde, which forces Louis XIV to leave Paris.
When the young king re-conquers the capital, a second rebellion breaks out. Louis XIV and his mother are made prisoners in the Palais Royal. This event marks the young man for life.
30 mins · Sun, 29 Oct 2017
S02 Episode 5
Al Capone, child of prohibition
On January 16 1920, the XVIII amendment to the United States Constitution comes into force, one year after its ratification. All sale, production and transport of alcohol are henceforward forbidden in the entire territory of America. It’s the start of Prohibition. Several criminals grab the opportunity to create veritable empires by means of contraband liquor. Al Capone is certainly the most infamous among them. The United States Treasury gives the no less famous Eliot Ness the mission of bringing down Al Capone. Despite the many, and fruitful, operations carried out against his clandestine distilleries, the boss of the Chicago underworld holds out.
Until another solution is considered: charge Capone with tax evasion.
30 mins · Sun, 5 Nov 2017
S02 Episode 6
Black Death, the invisible enemy
1346. Mongols are besieging the Genoese trading post of Caffa in the Crimea (Ukraine). Decimated by the mysterious disease that has pursued them from Central Asia, they give up hope of taking the town. However, before they withdraw, the hurl the bodies of several dead soldiers over the walls using giant catapults. Some of the Genoese defenders take to galleys to flee the epidemic that has stricken Caffa. They carry the disease to all the ports they put into. In a few months, the Black Death spreads throughout Europe before reaching North Africa and Asia…
30 mins · Sun, 12 Nov 2017
S02 Episode 7
The Olympic Games, a mirror to society
The Olympic Games were held every 4 years in Olympia. They were Pan-Hellenic, in other words opened to all Greeks. The events provided the opportunity to win Olympic titles (a wreath of wild laurel) and immense prestige.
For more than 1,300 years, the Games vanish from History and Olympia gradually falls into oblivion. Everything suddenly changes when the ruins of Olympia are rediscovered in the 13th century. Major digs on the ancient sporting site begin in 1875 and once again put the Olympic Games in the world’s spotlight. The Olympic
Games take on new life and henceforth allow the participation of women and all people irrespective of their color.
30 mins · Sun, 3 Dec 2017
S02 Episode 8
The Suffragettes, the battle for the ballot box
From the end of the 19th century, the women of the European countries energetically demand the right to vote, working conditions and education, just like the Suffragette movement in England. Despite some progress, results are slow to come when the year 1914 dawns.
The lack of a male workforce, gone off to the war, forces factories to employ women in positions traditionally occupied by men.
The image in the world of work has changed definitively and forever.
30 mins · Sun, 17 Dec 2017
S02 Episode 9
Dunkirk, resist at all costs
May 10 1940. World War II. The Germans launch an offensive into Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg. The French and British armies are caught off guard and find themselves surrounded.
They are ordered to pull back to Dunkirk. 400,000 men crowd onto the beaches and wait to be embarked back to England: Operation Dynamo begins as General Guderian’s Panzer divisions speed towards the town.
Taking advantage of these 3 days respite, 224,686 British and 123,098 French have time to cross the Channel to safety in England. Figures far higher than the Allies first hoped.
30 mins · Sun, 7 Jan 2018
S02 Episode 10
Cuba, nuclear standoff
1962. The Cold War. American spy planes spot launch ramps in Cuba that are designed for nuclear missiles. President Kennedy orders that the island be blockaded in order to inspect any ship wishing to dock there.
On October 26, Khrushchev tells Kennedy that he will continue his action: “If the United States want war, we shall find ourselves in hell.”. The CIA informs the American President that 24 Russian missiles are now operational and pointing at precise locations in the country.
Off the coast of Cuba, the US Navy confronts the Russian fleet and is hunting down Russian submarines. Two of them break surface. But a third remains submerged, refusing to come up. Three exercise charges are dropped to emphasize the order to surface. Moscow orders its vessel to react. A nuclear torpedo is loaded into launch tube No 1.
But the captain of the Russian submarine finally decides not to fire his nuclear torpedo.
30 mins · Thu, 1 Feb 2018
S02 Episode 11
Hernan Cortes at the heart of the Aztec empire
April 23 1519, Hernan Cortes lands in the Yucatan with the intention of bringing the Aztec Empire to heel and seizing all the wealth of the territory. But the expedition turns to conquest !
Aztec civilisation dominates Mexico with an iron fist. Quickly the Spanish make new friendships with locals who see in the European a good alternative to the Aztecs !
After 3 months of intense fighting, Cortes takes the city on August 13, 1521. Mexico has fallen into the hands of Spain.
30 mins · Sun, 25 Feb 2018
S02 Episode 12
Constantinople. from one empire to another
April 1453. The Ottomans, led by Sultan Mehmed II, lay siege to the city of Constantinople. In the defense of his capital, the Byzantine Emperor, Constantine XI can count upon his citizens, and also upon Genoese and Venetian soldiers came in reinforcements.
But the besieged city holds firm. On May 28th at dawn, the final Ottoman assaults cannot be contained and the weakened and demoralized defenders finally buckle.
The Byzantine Empire, last remnant of the Roman Empire and guardian of the orthodox faith in the East, has just collapsed
30 mins · Sun, 4 Mar 2018
S02 Episode 13
Aral, a sea for cotton
In 1950s, the Soviets decide to turn the vast desert Steppes of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan into fields of cotton and wheat. They divert some of the rivers that feed the lake to irrigate the new crops and thus deprive the Aral Sea. Its surface area is twice that of Belgium. Many towns thrive along its shores, especially from fishing.
In 1987 the level of the water falls so low that the sea splits into two and then, in 2002, the southern part itself divides into two parts. In 2014, the eastern part of the Aral Sea disappears forever.
Man’s unregulated actions caused an ecological disaster.
30 mins · Sun, 1 Apr 2018
