1 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:09,920 Late summer, 1498, Milan. 2 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:14,320 Leonardo da Vinci had just put the finishing touches 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,760 to a defining image of the High Renaissance. 4 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:24,800 This wasn't just a decisive time in the history of art, 5 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:29,080 but also for the world's competing civilisations. 6 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,160 After centuries of relative dullness, 7 00:00:32,160 --> 00:00:36,520 Europe was now home to the most dynamic culture of all. 8 00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:40,040 Why? 9 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:42,640 The answers are a little unexpected. 10 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:48,440 The story of Europe's rise 11 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:51,000 from what used to be called the Dark Ages 12 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,600 is often presented as a purely European story. 13 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:57,840 Somehow the glories of the Classical Age 14 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,480 are rediscovered, and then the sculptures 15 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:05,240 and the paintings just get better, and the churches get flashier, 16 00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:07,760 and the kings get mightier. 17 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,000 Go, those Europeans! 18 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:11,040 Not quite. 19 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:19,640 Europe had been outclassed and outshone by the Chinese and Muslim civilisations. 20 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:22,840 And it was only by learning, 21 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:27,560 and then profiting from the misfortune of others, 22 00:01:27,560 --> 00:01:30,200 that Europe rose and shone. 23 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:34,320 YELLING AND CLASH OF BLADES 24 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:41,040 Europe's emergence would involve explosive brutality far way... 25 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:44,240 EXPLOSIONS AND SCREAMING 26 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:48,960 ..other cultures Europeans barely new... 27 00:01:51,120 --> 00:01:52,720 ..Oriental inventions... 28 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:56,120 ..titanic sieges. 29 00:01:56,120 --> 00:01:57,600 YELLING 30 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,680 Few cultures just keep going all by themselves. 31 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:06,640 They steal rivals' ideas. 32 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:11,120 They flow into the gaps that others leave behind. 33 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:15,160 Civilisations aren't just shaped at the centre 34 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:20,000 but also at the margins, on the edges, 35 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:27,120 in the empty spaces where one day something unexpected arrives. 36 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:43,160 BIRDSONG 37 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:51,840 After the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD, 38 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:56,600 Europe huddled, her optimism froze. 39 00:02:58,640 --> 00:03:01,680 Strange migrants poured in from the east. 40 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:06,080 Towns shrunk. Learning was forgotten. 41 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:13,000 The vitality came not from the old centres but from the edges. 42 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,040 And no people were more vital, 43 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,080 more unexpected 44 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:24,640 than the Vikings. 45 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,960 Crossing the seas and oceans by flat-bottomed boat, 46 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,280 the Vikings had already terrorised 47 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:44,520 and begun to colonise the British Isles, Iceland and France. 48 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:47,080 They'd even reached Greenland and North America. 49 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:53,240 Now they were heading deep into the heartlands of eastern Europe. 50 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:57,920 BIRD CALLS 51 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:01,200 When it comes to civilisation, 52 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:06,800 the Vikings from Norway, Sweden and Denmark haven't had a very good press. 53 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:14,120 Europeans tended to see them as ravening marauders, pagans without mercy. 54 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:19,120 They prayed to God, "Preserve us from the fury of the Norsemen." 55 00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:26,280 And raid they did, quite a bit of ravening. 56 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:28,560 But the reason the Vikings really matter 57 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:32,960 is because their greatest talent was for settling down. 58 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:39,880 And one morning in the year 882, 59 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,520 a group of Slavs in the small trading settlement of Kiev 60 00:04:43,520 --> 00:04:49,560 were about to be confronted by this strange talent of the men from the north. 61 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:57,200 We know what happened next, 62 00:04:57,200 --> 00:05:00,520 astonishingly enough, through written records. 63 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:03,680 Though only from the point of view of the Vikings, 64 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:05,600 or the Rus', as they were known. 65 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:11,560 Below the ancient Monastery of the Caves in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev 66 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:15,960 is a labyrinth of cells and underground churches - 67 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:19,760 the last resting place of mummified monks. 68 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,640 And here, in the early 10th century, 69 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:30,560 some of the monks wrote what became known as The Russian Primary Chronicle. 70 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:37,840 The great thing about The Primary Chronicle 71 00:05:37,840 --> 00:05:40,120 is that it is the Vikings speaking. 72 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:43,920 It's quite clearly the Viking world view still. 73 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:48,480 And the story it tells is that the local Slav tribes had no law 74 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:50,680 and rose up against one another. 75 00:05:54,280 --> 00:05:58,120 And so they went to the Rus' and they said, 76 00:05:58,120 --> 00:06:02,640 "Our land is vast and rich, but it has no order in it. 77 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:06,400 "Come in and rule over us." 78 00:06:11,080 --> 00:06:15,280 Is it likely that the invitation was quite so polite? 79 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:18,560 No. But come the Vikings did. 80 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:27,760 At the head of their expedition was Oleg, a Viking prince and leader of the Rus'. 81 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:32,520 He now staked his claim to Kiev. 82 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:34,720 SPEAKS NORSE 83 00:06:37,320 --> 00:06:39,160 YELLS 84 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:50,240 SCREAMS 85 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:52,840 YELLS IN TRIUMPH 86 00:06:52,840 --> 00:06:57,760 Victorious, Oleg declared himself the new prince of Kiev. 87 00:06:59,160 --> 00:07:03,760 And Kiev grew into the royal capital of a region that became known 88 00:07:03,760 --> 00:07:05,880 as the land of the Rus'. 89 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:08,760 Or as we'd say today... 90 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:10,640 Russia. 91 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:14,200 Kiev still celebrates Oleg's victory 92 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:18,720 as its real founding moment. And quite rightly, 93 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:23,840 because what Oleg achieved was he united all the tribes around 94 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:26,320 and forced them to pay tribute. 95 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:29,040 He and the Vikings now had a stranglehold 96 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:31,840 on all the trade running from north to south. 97 00:07:36,160 --> 00:07:41,280 Many great civilisations have begun on river banks. 98 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:42,640 And here on the Dnieper, 99 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:46,560 furs, wax and slaves went south, 100 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:49,840 while silver - mined in Afghanistan 101 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:53,840 by the powerful, new civilisations of Islam - went north. 102 00:07:55,440 --> 00:07:58,440 At the mouth of the Dnieper was the Black Sea - 103 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:02,480 gateway to the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, 104 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:04,920 Miklagard, 105 00:08:04,920 --> 00:08:07,400 the Viking name for Constantinople. 106 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:13,440 A source of trade and ideas, 107 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:17,520 it was also home to the Greek Orthodox Christian Church. 108 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:22,840 BIRD CALLS 109 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,080 A century after its birth, 110 00:08:29,080 --> 00:08:32,760 Kiev was still as pagan as its Viking founders. 111 00:08:34,680 --> 00:08:38,120 Its ruler at the time, Vladimir the Great, 112 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:41,360 wasn't an obviously religious man. 113 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:46,680 One chronicler described him as "Fornicator immensus". 114 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:51,760 But Vladimir decided that an up-and-coming city 115 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:55,520 needed one of these fashionable, new-fangled religions. 116 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:59,920 And he came up with his own unusual way of choosing which one. 117 00:09:01,160 --> 00:09:04,960 It's said that he asked representatives of Roman Catholicism, 118 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,800 Greek Orthodox Christianity, Judaism and Islam 119 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:11,160 to come here and persuade him. 120 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:13,720 "Go on, argue. Convert me." 121 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:16,880 The old Viking warrior was quite interested in Islam 122 00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:21,120 until he heard that it would involve giving up alcohol, at which point he said, 123 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:23,680 in effect, "OK, you're out." 124 00:09:23,680 --> 00:09:28,000 In the end, he chose Greek Orthodox Christianity 125 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,400 and began to build the first stone church in Kiev. 126 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:32,920 It was a momentous choice 127 00:09:32,920 --> 00:09:38,080 because so much of what we think of as the look of old Russia, 128 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:43,640 those onion domes, the priests and the monasteries and the icons, 129 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:46,840 all goes back to Vladimir's decision. 130 00:09:57,240 --> 00:10:00,480 What had started with trade - furs and silver - 131 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:04,840 had flowered into culture, architecture and religion. 132 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:06,880 By the 10th century, 133 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:11,800 Europe had an eastern Christian border, drawn by the Vikings 134 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,560 and lasting to the present day. 135 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:24,960 Inside that border, Christian Europe still seemed unsophisticated, a bit ploddy. 136 00:10:27,160 --> 00:10:32,160 Particularly compared to the vibrant, intellectual culture developing 137 00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,160 across huge areas of the world under Islam. 138 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:44,120 The year 827. 139 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:49,880 A team of astronomers and mathematicians was at work in the Sinjar Desert, 140 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:51,840 in north-western Iraq. 141 00:10:51,840 --> 00:10:55,600 They were led by Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi, 142 00:10:55,600 --> 00:10:58,680 an Uzbek scholar from the House of Wisdom, 143 00:10:58,680 --> 00:11:02,280 the great centre of Islamic learning in Baghdad, 144 00:11:02,280 --> 00:11:06,280 itself the heart of the new Muslim civilisation. 145 00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:19,920 Al-Khwarizmi was struggling with 146 00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:23,080 one of the biggest scientific puzzles of the time - 147 00:11:23,080 --> 00:11:27,520 trying to accurately measure the circumference of the Earth. 148 00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:35,960 This trek across the desert was only the first stage in a project 149 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:40,640 which had been commanded by the Caliph of Baghdad, Al-Ma'mun, 150 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:44,360 who wanted him to use his great scientific understanding 151 00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:47,120 to produce an accurate map of the world 152 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:51,640 which would show the huge extent of the Islamic empire. 153 00:11:56,440 --> 00:12:00,720 Islam already dominated an area bigger than the Roman Empire. 154 00:12:02,080 --> 00:12:06,880 By the ninth century, Muslim rulers had more than 30 million subjects, 155 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:12,160 stretching from today's Pakistan in the East to Spain in the West. 156 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:27,040 This is the age of vigorous, young, inquisitive Islam, 157 00:12:27,040 --> 00:12:30,160 bringing together ancient texts from all around the world, 158 00:12:30,160 --> 00:12:35,040 trying to understand them, pushing forward in science and maths. 159 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:38,320 This is Islam's golden age. 160 00:12:43,520 --> 00:12:48,200 Al-Khwarizmi's idea was to measure the Sun's angle to the Earth 161 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:51,160 until it changed by one degree. 162 00:12:51,160 --> 00:12:57,800 He worked out that his men had walked 64.5 miles before the angle changed. 163 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:00,600 Using just sticks and a simple brass instrument, 164 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:06,920 he calculated the circumference of the Earth to be 23,200 miles - 165 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,200 a figure that, remarkably, 166 00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:12,760 is very close to the accurate calculation. 167 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:23,800 Al-Khwarizmi went on to create a series of charts, listing more than 2,000 cities 168 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:27,800 and geographical features right across the Islamic empire. 169 00:13:30,920 --> 00:13:36,000 Al-Khwarizmi was taking breakthroughs in trigonometry and arithmetic 170 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,480 and putting them together and explaining them. 171 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:41,840 His books were still being used hundreds of years later, 172 00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:45,640 and his real speciality was algorithms. 173 00:13:45,640 --> 00:13:50,120 In fact, the word comes from the Latin version of his name, Al-Khwarithmi. 174 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:54,800 And of course algorithms are essential in modern computer programming, 175 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,640 so every time you pick up your mobile phone, 176 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:02,600 remember, there is an old Uzbek Muslim hidden inside it. 177 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:11,440 At this time, the Islamic world had Christian Europe surrounded. 178 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:16,080 The Spanish city of Cordoba was a glittering western outpost 179 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:20,240 of the Muslim world, and the second-largest city on the planet, 180 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:22,360 after Baghdad. 181 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:28,080 It was a sparkling rebuke to the more meagre, muddy 182 00:14:28,080 --> 00:14:30,840 Christian kingdoms of northern Europe. 183 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:38,640 At its centre stands the Great Mosque. 184 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:42,000 In its praying hall 185 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:47,760 shimmer 850 pillars of marble, onyx and jasper, 186 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:51,640 an imaginative mingling of Roman columns 187 00:14:51,640 --> 00:14:56,360 and the memory of palm trees in some distant oasis. 188 00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:59,320 Fusion architecture. 189 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:08,440 Cordoba's Royal Library was said to hold 400,000 books, 190 00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:13,720 at a time when the largest Christian libraries contained a few hundred. 191 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:19,840 And where East met West, ideas were shared. 192 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:25,040 Places like Cordoba were wonderful 193 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:29,000 at taking the news from one part of humanity and passing it on, 194 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:31,880 so, ancient Greek learning, Jewish philosophy, 195 00:15:31,880 --> 00:15:36,480 Hindu mathematics, Muslim astronomy and engineering 196 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:39,760 were passed to the Christian world. 197 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:43,920 Eventually, the Christians would destroy the kingdom of Al-Andalus, 198 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:49,440 but not before one enemy had passed on the torch of learning to the next, 199 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:56,760 so that what we call the Dark Ages was lit up by Muslim Spain. 200 00:16:02,800 --> 00:16:05,600 At this point, you might have assumed 201 00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:08,920 the Islamic world would just keep advancing, 202 00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:12,640 that the future was scientific and Muslim. 203 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:24,440 The answer to why it wasn't can be found in another story from the margins, 204 00:16:24,440 --> 00:16:28,280 from a world of remote grassland and forests. 205 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:34,640 There's a very simple way of telling the human story. 206 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:37,360 First, hunter-gatherers and then farmers, 207 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:40,160 and then towns and cities and all the rest of it. 208 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:45,800 But there's one group of people who stand completely outside this story, 209 00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:48,560 and they are the nomads, 210 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:53,600 living on grassland which is too thin for farming 211 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:57,520 but is wonderful for sheep and yak and goats, 212 00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:00,200 and so they move with the seasons. 213 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:03,960 In many ways, the nomads are the people who tread most lightly 214 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:08,920 on the surface of the Earth and leave least behind. 215 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:12,240 But there is always an exception to the rule. 216 00:17:16,720 --> 00:17:19,800 In the 12th century, the Mongolian Steppe 217 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:24,320 was home to hundreds of rival nomadic tribes. 218 00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:30,280 Into this world of feuding and violence, a boy was born. 219 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:32,920 His name was Temujin. 220 00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:35,360 SPEAKS IN MONGOLIAN 221 00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:42,320 When Temujin was nine, his father was poisoned by a rival tribe. 222 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:44,600 SPEAKS IN MONGOLIAN 223 00:17:47,640 --> 00:17:52,360 Cast out with his mother and brothers, the young Mongol stayed alive 224 00:17:52,360 --> 00:17:54,040 by foraging and hunting. 225 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:07,120 THEY SPEAK IN MONGOLIAN 226 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:15,000 Temujin would never forget a lesson his mother taught him. 227 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:20,800 "Brothers who work separately, 228 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:24,560 "like a single arrow shaft, can be easily broken. 229 00:18:24,560 --> 00:18:30,520 "But brothers who stand together against a world, like a bundle of arrows, 230 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:32,160 "cannot be broken." 231 00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:37,920 From unity came strength. 232 00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:43,000 This single piece of learned wisdom 233 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:47,320 would be the basis of everything that Temujin would achieve. 234 00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:58,360 As he got older, Temujin fought and manoeuvred his way to lead his clan. 235 00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:04,640 But his ambition was much greater than that. 236 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:10,800 Temujin's greatest achievement was to unite the tribes of the Steppes. 237 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:15,480 When he defeated them, instead of offering them exile and disgrace, 238 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:22,040 he would offer them brotherhood and a share in the spoils of future wars. 239 00:19:22,040 --> 00:19:24,280 And quite soon, 240 00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:30,120 the rival tribes were being melded together into one people, 241 00:19:30,120 --> 00:19:33,880 one army, riding and fighting together. 242 00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:44,160 In 1206, Temujin took the title "universal ruler", 243 00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:46,480 or Genghis Khan. 244 00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:57,320 And he began to expand his empire beyond Mongolia. 245 00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:01,080 In just six years, his army swept across northern China 246 00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:04,880 and in 1215, ransacked Beijing, giving the Mongols 247 00:20:04,880 --> 00:20:07,320 weapons they'd never seen before. 248 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:13,080 Defeating the Chinese gave Genghis Khan access 249 00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:15,920 to awesome new military technology - 250 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:21,160 battering rams, scaling ladders, monster-sized crossbows, 251 00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:24,680 and catapults that could fire firebombs. 252 00:20:32,320 --> 00:20:35,920 With China now absorbed into his growing empire, 253 00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:38,640 Genghis turned his army west 254 00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:41,480 and marched into Central Asia 255 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:44,360 to confront the greatest adversary of all - 256 00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:46,120 the forces of Islam. 257 00:20:50,400 --> 00:20:53,680 In the spring of 1220, 258 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:58,080 the Mongols reached the magnificent Eastern outpost of the Islamic empire, 259 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:00,160 Bukhara. 260 00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:06,280 Bukhara, like Merv, Baghdad, and Samarkand, 261 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:11,120 was where the rich, optimistic heart of the Islamic world could be found. 262 00:21:13,280 --> 00:21:15,080 SHOUTS ORDERS 263 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:22,600 But Bukhara had never experienced anything like the Mongols. 264 00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:27,360 The combination of Chinese technology 265 00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:33,520 and Genghis Khan's disciplined, fearsome army of nomad horsemen 266 00:21:33,520 --> 00:21:38,840 produced a new kind of army, a new kind of threat. 267 00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:49,320 The siege of Bukhara raged for 15 days, 268 00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:52,520 until the city was finally scorched into submission. 269 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,920 When Genghis entered Bukhara, his army showed no mercy. 270 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:09,560 And Genghis himself was honoured, as always, 271 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:12,080 with the first pick of the captured women. 272 00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,400 Bukhara was only the start. 273 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:25,960 One by one, the other great Muslim treasure-house cities were annihilated. 274 00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:31,760 By 1223, Genghis Khan's destruction 275 00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:35,960 of the Muslim empire in Central Asia was complete. 276 00:22:40,560 --> 00:22:45,080 Within 20 years, the Mongol empire stretched from Beijing in the East 277 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:48,560 right through the land of the Rus', into eastern Europe, 278 00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:50,880 almost to the gates of Vienna. 279 00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:53,600 Genghis Khan's belief in strength through unity 280 00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:57,920 had resulted in the largest land empire in history. 281 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:05,880 In his homeland today, the great warrior emperor is revered as a national hero 282 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:11,920 and immortalised by this 40m-high steel monument. 283 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:18,000 But it seems as if Genghis Khan, 284 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,000 a man of many concubines and conquests, 285 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:24,720 may have achieved immortality of a different kind. 286 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:30,640 In 2003, scientists discovered a specific genetic marker 287 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:32,720 in men in Europe and Asia, 288 00:23:32,720 --> 00:23:37,040 which originated a little less than 1,000 years ago, 289 00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:41,640 in an area suspiciously close to that of the Mongol empire. 290 00:23:41,640 --> 00:23:48,960 And they concluded that probably 16 million men alive today 291 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:54,600 really did spring from the loins of Genghis Khan. 292 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:05,680 By wiping out the heart of the original Muslim civilisation, 293 00:24:05,680 --> 00:24:08,120 Genghis Khan left the way clear 294 00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:11,400 for another part of the world to begin to grow. 295 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:14,000 Christian Europe. 296 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:26,760 Trade flourished between East and West in the century after Genghis died, 297 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:32,520 an era of peace known as the Pax Mongolica. 298 00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:43,040 Flashy fabrics and pungent spices had travelled along the Silk Road 299 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:46,600 to Europe from ancient times, but the lands they came from - 300 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:49,960 China, indeed all of the Far East - 301 00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:53,200 remained a mystery in the West. 302 00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:59,320 After the victories of Genghis Khan, the Silk Road was opened to outsiders. 303 00:25:00,920 --> 00:25:06,360 And soon, it would set the imagination of Europe aflame. 304 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,920 Genoa, 1298. 305 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,920 Two political prisoners share a prison cell. 306 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,600 One man is Rustichello of Pisa, a writer of popular tales. 307 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:35,720 The other...is a gabby Venetian with a fabulous story to tell. 308 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,200 E dopo tre giorni di cammino sulle montagne... 309 00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:45,480 And in Rustichello, Marco Polo had found his perfect ghost writer. 310 00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:55,360 Marco Polo was a new and adventurous kind of European merchant. 311 00:25:55,360 --> 00:25:58,600 And Venice was becoming the essential hub 312 00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:02,240 for trade between Europe and the rest of the world. 313 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:10,680 Its prosperity was built on ruthless commercial attitudes 314 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:16,560 and a navy mass-produced at its world-famous shipyard, the Arsenale. 315 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:28,160 But the Venetians were less interested in conquering than doing deals. 316 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:35,040 And in a world that craved foreign tastes, you got the best deals by looking east. 317 00:26:38,360 --> 00:26:43,280 The Venetian fleets were tightly tied into a huge trade network 318 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:45,480 dominated by the Muslim world, 319 00:26:45,480 --> 00:26:48,680 and dealing not just in slaves but in timber, 320 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:53,760 fur, salt and the incredibly valuable spices. 321 00:26:55,480 --> 00:27:01,120 The young Marco Polo's world was already flavoured 322 00:27:01,120 --> 00:27:05,880 and scented with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and pepper. 323 00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:10,600 This was literally the smell and taste of the East. 324 00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:15,960 And he dreamed from an early age of following the ancient Silk Road 325 00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:17,640 which led to China. 326 00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:24,520 In 1271, aged just 17, he was offered 327 00:27:24,520 --> 00:27:28,240 a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with his father and his uncle. 328 00:27:29,240 --> 00:27:33,360 He set out east from Venice, bearing greetings from the most powerful man 329 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:36,720 in Western Europe, Pope Gregory X. 330 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:44,480 Most Europeans barely moved more than a few miles from their birthplace. 331 00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:46,640 Heading out so far into the unknown 332 00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:50,040 must have felt like launching yourself at the moon. 333 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:09,560 The trek took them more than three years 334 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:13,560 through the deserts and the mountains of Asia. 335 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:29,480 Finally, in 1275, they reached their destination. 336 00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:40,000 The court of Kublai Khan in Shangdu, 337 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:42,680 better known as Xanadu. 338 00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:55,080 Xanadu seemed an earthly paradise. 339 00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:07,800 Kublai Khan was entranced by the civilisation he now ruled. 340 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:10,800 He was a Mongol becoming Chinese. 341 00:29:12,200 --> 00:29:16,640 His court celebrated the flow of ideas. 342 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:22,200 This was a land of safe roads, broad canals and manufactured goods. 343 00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:30,360 Still, he was fascinated by his visitors from Italy 344 00:29:30,360 --> 00:29:32,360 and their message from the Pope. 345 00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:35,840 He briefly considered turning Christian himself... 346 00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:37,240 briefly. 347 00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:41,560 Pleased with their tales of distant lands, 348 00:29:41,560 --> 00:29:47,320 he invited them to be part of his inner circle of diplomats and advisers. 349 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:49,800 Marco Polo told Rustichello 350 00:29:49,800 --> 00:29:53,120 he travelled to distant corners of China 351 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:56,360 on diplomatic missions for his patron. 352 00:29:56,360 --> 00:30:02,560 Later, he'd tell of astonishing things never seen in Europe, 353 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:05,800 such as money made of paper, 354 00:30:05,800 --> 00:30:09,640 the burning of pieces of black stone for fuel, 355 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:13,440 and the practice of eating snakes and dogs. 356 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,600 Though other things you'd think he'd notice, 357 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:21,760 such as chopsticks or the Great Wall of China, 358 00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:25,560 were missing from his tales when he finally got home. 359 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:38,200 Around some men, stories gather like flies. 360 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:42,080 It's said that when Marco Polo returned to Venice 361 00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:46,640 after 24 years travelling in China and the Far East, 362 00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:50,760 dressed in greasy furs and filthy silks, 363 00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:54,880 he simply slit open the seams of his clothes, 364 00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:59,000 and a cascade of rubies and emeralds poured out. 365 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:01,840 It's a good story, but take it with a pinch of salt, 366 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,720 because even in his lifetime, Marco Polo was known 367 00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,960 as Marco Il Milione - Marco Millions. 368 00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:11,400 Not because of his wealth but because of his exaggerations. 369 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,680 Millions of this, millions of miles, millions of that. 370 00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:24,000 At this point, Marco Polo might have disappeared from the pages of history. 371 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:27,240 Instead, he dictated himself into them. 372 00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:30,280 ..arrive su un alto... 373 00:31:30,280 --> 00:31:33,680 During their imprisonment, Rustichello of Pisa 374 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,080 noted down his cellmate's stories. 375 00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:38,400 ..trovi un fiume bellissimo! 376 00:31:38,400 --> 00:31:44,160 And in 1298, copies of the manuscript began circulating around Europe, 377 00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:47,600 as Marco Polo's Description Of The World. 378 00:31:49,040 --> 00:31:51,760 And Europe was gripped. 379 00:31:56,120 --> 00:32:00,240 Marco Polo's message was simple and seductive. 380 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:06,240 There was a fabulous world of wealth and opportunity beyond Europe. 381 00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,560 But as Europeans would soon learn, 382 00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:22,120 there was also a dark side to this new international network. 383 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:25,920 Seven years after Marco Polo's death, 384 00:32:25,920 --> 00:32:31,320 a strange epidemic in China started killing people in huge numbers. 385 00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:38,240 Very soon, the Black Death, carried on ships, probably by rats, 386 00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:41,960 spread into the Mediterranean region and then beyond. 387 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:47,520 The same exchange of goods and people that had made Venice so rich 388 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:50,360 was now taking a terrible revenge. 389 00:32:51,400 --> 00:32:55,880 Across Europe, bustling markets became ghost towns, 390 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:58,160 villages emptied, 391 00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:02,320 literacy retreated, authority tottered. 392 00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:09,080 Marco Polo had issued a great, optimistic rallying call, 393 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:13,880 but Europe was simply too weak to respond. 394 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:21,560 The old core of the Islamic empire had been destroyed by Genghis Khan. 395 00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:26,200 But the decimation of Christian Europe by the Black Death 396 00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:31,800 meant that the stand-off between these two great religions would go on. 397 00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:45,560 Yet trade between them always continued, too, 398 00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:47,480 especially between Venice 399 00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:50,920 and the fabulously wealthy Muslim city of Cairo. 400 00:33:53,920 --> 00:34:00,480 And in July 1324, something appeared on the horizon 401 00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:04,400 that would have a startling effect on Cairo's economy. 402 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:09,720 A train of up to 60,000 soldiers, 70 camels, 403 00:34:09,720 --> 00:34:14,800 and 500 slaves carrying sceptres of gold. 404 00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:26,000 Leading this astonishing procession was an African king, Mansa Musa, 405 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:29,280 on a pilgrimage to Islam's holy city, Mecca. 406 00:34:32,520 --> 00:34:38,200 They had spent a year marching more than 2,000 miles across the vast desert 407 00:34:38,200 --> 00:34:42,600 that separated most of Africa from the Mediterranean world. 408 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:55,640 Mansa Musa was king of the greatest of the African empires south of the Sahara. 409 00:34:55,640 --> 00:35:01,560 Mali was a Muslim society where lots of people could read and write. 410 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:05,280 It was a rich land based on farmers and fishermen, 411 00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:10,440 and on trading towns like Timbuktu and Djenne on the River Niger. 412 00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:22,680 The Niger was the lifeline of Mansa Musa's vast empire... 413 00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:28,760 ..carrying good throughout his kingdom, which occupied 414 00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:32,000 nearly half a million square miles. 415 00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:37,720 But the most significant source of Mansa Musa's prosperity 416 00:35:37,720 --> 00:35:41,320 was a commodity craved by rulers all over the world... 417 00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:44,440 ..gold. 418 00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:49,640 Mali was an African El Dorado, 419 00:35:49,640 --> 00:35:52,920 and most of the world knew nothing about it. 420 00:35:56,840 --> 00:35:58,280 Until now. 421 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:07,360 When Mansa Musa's glittering caravan stopped off in Cairo, on its way to Mecca, 422 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:09,760 he was an immediate sensation. 423 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:13,280 He and his entourage spent three months 424 00:36:13,280 --> 00:36:16,880 in the city as guests of the Egyptian ruler, 425 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:21,360 freely handing out gold to its astonished residents. 426 00:36:37,240 --> 00:36:42,480 Cairo at the time was the world's largest gold market. 427 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:48,840 But he threw around so much of the stuff that the price of gold plummeted. 428 00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:53,440 Indeed, merely because of Mansa Musa's tips, 429 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,720 the economy of Cairo, it is said, 430 00:36:56,720 --> 00:36:59,360 took ten years to recover. 431 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:08,800 The sudden appearance of Mansa Musa and his gold was a revelation. 432 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:11,800 The world had just got bigger and richer. 433 00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:21,800 By the end of the 14th century, two-thirds of the gold in Europe came from Mali. 434 00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:28,920 It's thanks to the Muslim trading world 435 00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:32,880 that Mali was able to touch hands with Europe. 436 00:37:32,880 --> 00:37:36,440 And it's thanks to the Muslim travellers and writers we know so much about it. 437 00:37:36,440 --> 00:37:38,440 But Mali was not alone. 438 00:37:38,440 --> 00:37:42,560 There were plenty of other African civilisations at this time. 439 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:46,640 There was Zimbabwe, with its great stone-city dwellers. 440 00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:49,400 There was Benin, with its amazing metalworkers, 441 00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:53,600 who could rival anything in Italy or Germany at the time. 442 00:38:01,400 --> 00:38:06,120 But it was gold and glittering Mali that had caught the European imagination. 443 00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:12,960 And in 1375, when map-makers in Spain produced a series of charts, 444 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:15,480 known as the Catalan Atlas, 445 00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:20,080 Mansa Musa was shown sitting at the centre of Mali. 446 00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:25,880 Mansa Musa had quite literally put Africa on the European map. 447 00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:35,400 Wherever European Christians reached outwards in the Middle Ages, 448 00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:38,040 they found Islam. 449 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:43,200 These two great religions of the Book had been at war for centuries. 450 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:50,320 The Christian Crusades to gain control of the Holy Land 451 00:38:50,320 --> 00:38:54,160 and the city of Jerusalem had inspired Europe, 452 00:38:54,160 --> 00:38:56,720 but then the tide turned, 453 00:38:56,720 --> 00:39:02,040 and Muslim Turks, the Ottomans, pushed deep into once-Christian lands. 454 00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:10,160 But all that time, religious propaganda cast a discreet veil 455 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:16,440 over a flourishing web of trade and ideas passed between the rivals, 456 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:21,480 and that is true even of the most epic moment in the story - 457 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:24,000 the Siege of Constantinople. 458 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:35,160 May, 1453. 459 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:40,280 The Ottoman leader Mehmet II had dreamed of possessing Constantinople 460 00:39:40,280 --> 00:39:42,280 since he was a small boy. 461 00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:49,560 It was a vital trading crossroads at the edge of Christian Europe, 462 00:39:49,560 --> 00:39:52,720 protected by massive Roman walls. 463 00:39:57,640 --> 00:39:59,480 For more than 1,000 years, 464 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:03,560 these were the most awesome defences in the Western world. 465 00:40:03,560 --> 00:40:08,880 They kept out rebels and renegades, and Islamic armies too. 466 00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:15,080 If a massive Arab siege in the early 700s had succeeded in breaking these walls, 467 00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:20,840 then there's no reason why the armies of Islam wouldn't have reached the North Sea. 468 00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:22,920 We've heard of the Great Wall of China - 469 00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:25,880 well, these were the great walls of Europe. 470 00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:37,920 Established by the Romans on seven hills, 471 00:40:37,920 --> 00:40:44,600 Constantinople had always seen itself as the new Rome, and its people Roman. 472 00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:50,400 They were fiercely proud of its imperial past and its magnificent churches. 473 00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:55,360 Including the greatest one in Christendom, Hagia Sophia. 474 00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:06,480 The city was still a storehouse of classical learning and ancient ritual. 475 00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:08,480 It was still hypnotic. 476 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:16,320 But now, it faced its fiercest threat yet. 477 00:41:21,360 --> 00:41:24,360 SCREAMING 478 00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:33,640 In Mehmet, the Ottomans had a cool and calculating leader. 479 00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:35,520 SPEAKS IN TURKISH 480 00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:37,280 He was a pious Muslim, 481 00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:43,040 though there were plenty of Christians among his army of up to 400,000 soldiers. 482 00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:51,960 By contrast, Constantinople was seriously undermanned. 483 00:41:51,960 --> 00:41:57,480 The army defending the city numbered fewer than 5,000 people. 484 00:41:57,480 --> 00:42:04,360 Most of Christian Europe was far too busy making money to bother to come to its aid. 485 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:14,960 Among the few who did was Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, 486 00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:19,760 a mercenary from Genoa and an expert at siege warfare. 487 00:42:35,200 --> 00:42:39,360 As the weeks passed, the city was slowly throttled. 488 00:42:46,040 --> 00:42:47,560 For the people of Constantinople, 489 00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:51,080 the days before the final attack were days of bad omens. 490 00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:52,760 WOMAN SHOUTS 491 00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:58,920 The priests carried a huge icon of the Virgin Mary through the streets, 492 00:42:58,920 --> 00:43:01,200 praying for her to intercede. 493 00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:05,600 But the icon seemed strangely heavy, and they slipped and almost dropped it. 494 00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:07,240 Bad omen. 495 00:43:07,240 --> 00:43:10,880 Then, there was a terrible rainstorm, turning the streets into rivers, 496 00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:13,320 worse than anyone could ever remember. 497 00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:15,160 Bad omen. 498 00:43:15,160 --> 00:43:21,200 And finally, there was an unearthly, eerie, red glow in the sky 499 00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:24,360 which seemed to bathe the dome of St Sophia 500 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:28,000 with a colour rather like that of human blood. 501 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:31,080 You don't get many omens worse than that. 502 00:43:31,080 --> 00:43:36,480 It seemed to the people of what had once been called the city of God 503 00:43:36,480 --> 00:43:40,280 that perhaps God was deserting them. 504 00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:47,600 BELL CHIMES 505 00:43:51,440 --> 00:43:58,320 At 1.30am on the night of the 29th of May, the city came under all-out assault. 506 00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:02,040 EXPLOSIONS 507 00:44:07,240 --> 00:44:12,920 Giustiniani rallied every able-bodied defender to the walls. 508 00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:16,920 Facing him was, well, Christian technology. 509 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:24,000 Awesome siege guns made for Mehmet by Hungarian and German technicians. 510 00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:31,880 Constantinople managed to hold off the remorseless attackers for five hours. 511 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:40,520 But then, Giustiniani was mortally wounded. 512 00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:45,920 Panic quickly spread amongst his exhausted men. 513 00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:49,560 SHOUTING 514 00:45:01,680 --> 00:45:06,640 Wave upon wave of Ottoman soldiers now smashed their way into the city. 515 00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:22,440 On that final morning, Hagia Sophia was crammed with the last of the Romans. 516 00:45:25,160 --> 00:45:30,280 Terrified people, old men and children, nuns and noblemen, 517 00:45:30,280 --> 00:45:33,520 crammed in here for a final mass. 518 00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:38,000 Up there on the altar, the priest would be chanting and praying, 519 00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:42,960 and yet above their voices was the sound of the great oak doors 520 00:45:42,960 --> 00:45:45,760 splintering under Ottoman axes. 521 00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:49,080 And as the screaming inside the church got louder, 522 00:45:49,080 --> 00:45:52,240 and the chanting by the priests got louder, 523 00:45:52,240 --> 00:45:54,200 so did the sound of the axes, 524 00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:57,920 until finally...the doors gave way. 525 00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:09,920 So the most coveted city in the world was taken. 526 00:46:09,920 --> 00:46:15,720 And soon the great Christian cathedral of Hagia Sophia 527 00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:18,640 resounded to Islamic prayers. 528 00:46:18,640 --> 00:46:21,000 It's been a mosque ever since. 529 00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:37,840 Later that day, a triumphant Mehmet rode through the city. 530 00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:43,160 Even he was shocked by the scale of the slaughter. 531 00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:53,040 And so an empire which had lasted for more than 1,100 years gave way to the Ottomans. 532 00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:56,240 Christianity was replaced by Islam. 533 00:46:58,400 --> 00:47:02,480 The news of the fall of Constantinople arrived in the rest of Europe 534 00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:06,240 like a thunderclap, and it spread like wildfire. 535 00:47:06,240 --> 00:47:11,560 But no sooner was the blood dry on the corpses of the defenders, 536 00:47:11,560 --> 00:47:16,240 including many heroic Genoese and Venetians, 537 00:47:16,240 --> 00:47:20,600 than boats were setting sail again from Genoa 538 00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:24,360 and from Venice back to Ottoman Istanbul, 539 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:27,440 seeking terms of trade with the Sultan. 540 00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:33,560 Almost as soon as the gunpowder smell had faded, 541 00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:37,920 it was back to business as usual. 542 00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:40,440 Business never rests. 543 00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:51,040 The capture of Constantinople was the Ottomans' greatest victory. 544 00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:54,120 But it also marked the end of an era. 545 00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:57,120 This was the last great medieval siege. 546 00:48:01,080 --> 00:48:03,840 And what Mehmet could not have realised 547 00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:10,080 is that the most advanced, pushy part of the world had already moved on. 548 00:48:10,080 --> 00:48:13,120 The great new cultural clash 549 00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:18,360 was between the rising and fiercely competitive city states of Italy. 550 00:48:21,720 --> 00:48:27,320 Now brimming with wealth from trade and new ideas from around the world, 551 00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:32,840 Christian scholars who had fled from Constantinople found these buzzing towns 552 00:48:32,840 --> 00:48:36,880 to be citadels of knowledge, and from within their walls, 553 00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:39,360 Europe would be reborn. 554 00:48:43,680 --> 00:48:45,200 The Renaissance. 555 00:48:45,200 --> 00:48:47,640 Europe's rebirth. 556 00:48:47,640 --> 00:48:52,880 Well, it was a long and painful birth - it went on for about 200 years. 557 00:48:52,880 --> 00:48:55,400 We're told that the Renaissance was all about 558 00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:59,040 the rediscovery of classical learning, and it's absolutely true 559 00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:02,680 that in this period the great Latin and Greek writers 560 00:49:02,680 --> 00:49:06,280 begin to bubble back into Europe's consciousness. 561 00:49:11,040 --> 00:49:14,920 But, really, the Renaissance is about the new. 562 00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:16,120 New ways of building, 563 00:49:16,120 --> 00:49:19,440 new ways of painting and making, 564 00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:22,520 new money and new confidence. 565 00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:25,920 Not coming from empires or nation-states 566 00:49:25,920 --> 00:49:29,200 but from the great city-states of Europe 567 00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:33,440 and, in particular, the great city-states of northern Italy. 568 00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:35,320 Genoa. 569 00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:36,520 Pisa. 570 00:49:36,520 --> 00:49:38,520 Florence. Venice. 571 00:49:38,520 --> 00:49:39,840 And Milan. 572 00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:46,760 1495. 573 00:49:49,920 --> 00:49:52,960 For 13 years, Leonardo da Vinci 574 00:49:52,960 --> 00:49:58,480 had been employed at the court of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. 575 00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:05,800 Every week, he bombarded the duke with new ideas and schemes 576 00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:09,920 for portable bridges, fighting machines... 577 00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:12,160 deep-sea diving suits? 578 00:50:14,040 --> 00:50:17,080 His talents were prodigious. 579 00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:23,040 A prolific inventor, he was also a musician, an engineer and an artist, 580 00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:28,800 and he had found the perfect place to fulfil his talents. 581 00:50:30,240 --> 00:50:34,600 Milan in the late 15th century was the wealthiest city in Italy. 582 00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:40,440 With its ambitious duke, 583 00:50:40,440 --> 00:50:45,280 it offered a fertile environment for new thinking, risk-taking. 584 00:50:45,280 --> 00:50:47,280 The duke's family, the Sforzas, 585 00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:50,640 were part of a new political class who had grown rich 586 00:50:50,640 --> 00:50:54,800 from Europe's ever-expanding trade networks. 587 00:50:54,800 --> 00:50:58,920 Like present-day oligarchs, they dealt in money and power, 588 00:50:58,920 --> 00:51:03,960 but what they craved was respectability. 589 00:51:06,960 --> 00:51:09,360 Ludovico wasn't exactly aristocracy. 590 00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:14,280 His father had been a mercenary warlord who kept changing sides. 591 00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:16,600 Fight for absolutely anybody. 592 00:51:16,600 --> 00:51:19,720 And he'd ended up effectively grabbing Milan. 593 00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:27,280 The Sforzas didn't exactly need bling, but they needed some class. 594 00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:30,680 They needed some artistic bedazzlement 595 00:51:30,680 --> 00:51:36,040 to try to make the people out there forget where they'd come from. 596 00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:44,760 Leonardo was paid to provide this. 597 00:51:45,880 --> 00:51:48,240 But he wasn't a day-job kind of man. 598 00:51:48,240 --> 00:51:53,520 He filled notebooks with sketches and scribbled thoughts, 599 00:51:53,520 --> 00:51:58,800 digging into the underlying structures and curious parallels 600 00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:01,280 he found all around him in nature. 601 00:52:03,600 --> 00:52:10,520 In Leonardo's time, there is no division between art and science. 602 00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:14,080 The artist studies the laws of perspective, 603 00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:16,520 works out how colours change, 604 00:52:16,520 --> 00:52:21,000 looks very closely at the underlying structure of things. 605 00:52:23,200 --> 00:52:28,160 The artist learns how to grind lenses to look more closely, 606 00:52:28,160 --> 00:52:32,680 learns how to cast metal to create a statue. 607 00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:38,240 Science is just knowledge, and learning 608 00:52:38,240 --> 00:52:44,040 the practical skills which allow other things, including art, to be made. 609 00:52:47,200 --> 00:52:51,240 And now the Duke gave Leonardo a chance to pull together 610 00:52:51,240 --> 00:52:55,160 his studies of geometry and perspective and human anatomy 611 00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:58,240 for one spectacular painting. 612 00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:16,080 Sforza commissioned Leonardo to paint Christ's last supper with his 12 disciples 613 00:53:16,080 --> 00:53:18,600 on the wall of the monks' dining room 614 00:53:18,600 --> 00:53:22,120 in the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie. 615 00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:28,840 It was a traditional scene, one that had been painted many times before. 616 00:53:28,840 --> 00:53:31,480 Io voglio un grande... 617 00:53:31,480 --> 00:53:32,560 va bene? 618 00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:37,800 Above all, the Duke wanted his Last Supper to be big and impressive. 619 00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:41,640 But Leonardo realised this was an opportunity 620 00:53:41,640 --> 00:53:44,480 to do something genuinely new. 621 00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:52,200 Leonardo was obsessed by the now and the future. 622 00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:54,360 He was a compulsive experimenter. 623 00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:58,320 Like modern scientists, he was fascinated by finding 624 00:53:58,320 --> 00:54:01,440 the hidden patterns underneath reality. 625 00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:03,440 He wasn't about looking back. 626 00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:06,920 He was about looking better, looking more intently, 627 00:54:06,920 --> 00:54:10,040 looking around him and looking ahead. 628 00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:20,240 Leonardo decided to freeze one dramatic moment in time. 629 00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:25,520 The climax of the story, when Christ revealed to his disciples 630 00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:27,560 that one of them would betray him. 631 00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:37,760 And every posture, every gesture, 632 00:54:37,760 --> 00:54:43,440 every facial expression in the painting would be taken from real life. 633 00:54:46,880 --> 00:54:52,840 Leonardo ransacked the streets of Milan looking for faces for the disciples. 634 00:54:52,840 --> 00:54:55,960 The really difficult one was Judas. 635 00:54:55,960 --> 00:54:58,360 And, apparently, he spent nearly a year 636 00:54:58,360 --> 00:55:04,200 looking for somebody with the right mix of cruelty and evil to play Judas. 637 00:55:08,240 --> 00:55:12,120 Leonardo drew on a series of his own anatomical sketches 638 00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:15,200 to capture the essence of human expression. 639 00:55:19,560 --> 00:55:24,880 Slowly, the painting and its characters began to emerge. 640 00:55:34,120 --> 00:55:40,960 Finally, after three years of painstaking work, The Last Supper was finished. 641 00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:48,800 Boungiorno signore. Per favore. 642 00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:51,400 Posso... Aspetta. 643 00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:30,240 Art and science had come together in miraculous harmony. 644 00:56:31,480 --> 00:56:38,360 Leonardo had humanised the disciples by allowing them to show raw emotions. 645 00:56:38,360 --> 00:56:40,440 Shock. 646 00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:42,560 Grief. 647 00:56:42,560 --> 00:56:44,400 Anger. 648 00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:50,400 Building on Islamic scholarship of optics and perspective, 649 00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:55,240 he draws our eye to Christ at the centre of the table. 650 00:56:55,240 --> 00:56:58,040 Everything radiates from him. 651 00:57:04,160 --> 00:57:06,240 For the people who first saw it, 652 00:57:06,240 --> 00:57:10,240 this would have been almost like a hallucination. 653 00:57:10,240 --> 00:57:14,400 Sitting and eating in this room, they would have been drawn towards Christ 654 00:57:14,400 --> 00:57:19,760 almost as if they were sitting and eating with Christ in person. 655 00:57:20,800 --> 00:57:23,880 In its day, this was the shock of the new. 656 00:57:28,840 --> 00:57:35,840 Leonardo remains a standard-bearer for the new confidence of Christian Europe, 657 00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:40,600 but its journey to Renaissance was far more than simply a European story. 658 00:57:40,600 --> 00:57:48,080 That muddy backwater had absorbed wealth and ideas from all around the world. 659 00:57:48,080 --> 00:57:51,920 Some of that mud was now paved with marble, 660 00:57:51,920 --> 00:57:57,840 and the backwater now thronged with merchants' ships, adventurers. 661 00:57:57,840 --> 00:58:01,640 Europe was ready to spread her sails. 662 00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:08,600 In the next programme... 663 00:58:08,600 --> 00:58:09,880 EXPLOSION 664 00:58:09,880 --> 00:58:12,480 ..the age of plunder. 665 00:58:12,480 --> 00:58:15,480 Exploration, conquest... 666 00:58:16,800 --> 00:58:19,720 ..and the birth of capitalism. 667 00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:25,640 If you'd like to know a little bit more about how the past is revealed, 668 00:58:25,640 --> 00:58:30,120 you can order a free booklet called How Do They Know That? 669 00:58:30,120 --> 00:58:33,120 Just call: 670 00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:38,280 Or go to: 671 00:58:40,720 --> 00:58:43,640 And follow the links to the Open University. 672 00:58:49,600 --> 00:58:53,080 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd