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NIALL FERGUSON:
Just over three centuries ago,

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the fate of Western civilization
hung in the balance.

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ln 1683, just outside
the Austrian capital Vienna,

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two armed forces
were pitted against each other...

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...the Muslim East...

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...against Christian West.

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The resuIt of this confIict
wouId be decisive for the West,

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and uItimateIy fataI
for its enemies in the East.

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The Siege of Vienna was one of many
attacks that, throughout history,

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Western civilization has faced
from its enemies in the East.

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But, for most of the past 300 years,
give or take the odd temporary setback,

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the West has always won.

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Why?

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In this series,
I'm identifying six unique factors,

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I'm caIIing them the kiIIer appIications -
that put the West on top.

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The first was the competition between
Europe's warring IittIe kingdoms

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that propeIIed them ahead
of China's monoIithic empire.

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In this fiIm, I'm turning
to kiIIer app two - science -

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and, in particuIar, the science
that heIped the West to win at war.

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But I'm aIso asking,
if we Iose our scientific pre-eminence,

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couId the West be consigned to history?

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(INDISTINCT SPEECH OVER RADIO)

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Without superior science, there would be
no Western superpower today.

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But it wasn't always like this.

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1,000 years ago, it was the Muslim world
that was at the cutting edge of science.

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Building on Greek and lndian foundations,
Muslim mathematicians invented algebra.

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Libraries like the House of Wisdom
in Baghdad had no equal in the West,

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and Arab science meant
improved navigation and weaponry.

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So, how did the Muslim world
later come to lag so far behind the West

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when it came to science?

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And how did a scientific revolution help
Western civilization take over militarily,

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as well as academically?

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To answer those questions,
you need to take a trip back in time...

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(SLOW TICKING)

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...back more than 328 years

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to the Iast time
an IsIamic empire menaced the West,

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and you need to foIIow an Eastern invader

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aII the way from IstanbuI
to the gates of Vienna.

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(GIVES ORDER)

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(DRUMMING)

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(BAND STARTS)

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lt was to be the battle
that decided the fate of the West.

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On one side
was the Ottoman Sultan's army,

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led by Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Koprulu.

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On the other
were the defending forces of Leopold l,

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Holy Roman Emperor
and the Habsburg ruler of Austria.

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This was the turning point
in a clash of civilization

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that had begun when lslam first burst from
the Arabian desert in the 7th century.

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ln July 1 683, with the Ottoman army
surrounding Vienna,

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the prospects for the Christian
defenders looked bleak indeed.

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(BELLS RINGING)

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Bells rang out in Vienna
and all across Central Europe,

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summoning the faithful
to pray for divine mercy.

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(BELLS RINGING)

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You can get an idea of the desperate
yet defiant mood in Vienna

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from the graffiti in the oId beII tower
of the cathedraI.

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This says, ''Mohammed, you dog -
du hund - go home!''

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But it wasn't the Muslim Turks
who'd turned tail.

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To the disgust of many,

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the Christian Emperor Leopold decided that
discretion was the better part of valour,

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and stole away.

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By the middIe of JuIy,

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the Turkish armies had come
to within 450 paces of the city waIIs.

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The fate of the West hung in the baIance.

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It was one of those moments when
it couId aII have gone horribIy wrong.

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An Ottoman victory seemed inevitable.

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But then, fatally, Kara Mustafa hesitated.

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His men had marched
far beyond their naturaI range.

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SuppIies were running short.

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What's more, even if Vienna feII, he had
no pIan for its Iong-term occupation.

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How Iong wouId they have to stay there,
so far from home?

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WouId the army
actuaIIy survive the winter?

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He might win the siege,
but couId Kara Mustafa win the peace?

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Kara Mustafa's hesitation gave the West
vital time to gather allies

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and work out a military strategy
to repel the Ottoman horde.

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A relief force of 60,000 men
now advanced on Vienna

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under the command of Jan Sobieski,
the King of Poland.

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Sobieski was portly and past his prime,
but intent on glory.

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On 12th September 1683,

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the Christian army came charging
down these hiIIs above Vienna,

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as one Turkish eyewitness put it,

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''Iike a fIood of bIack pitch
coming down the mountain,

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''consuming everything it touched''.

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(BOOMING EXPLOSIONS)

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At 5.30 in the afternoon,
Sobieski entered the tent of Kara Mustafa,

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but it was deserted.
He had fIed. The siege was over.

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The West was saved.

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Sobieski was exultant, telling the Pope,
''We came, we saw, and God conquered. ''

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Captured Turkish cannon
were melted down

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and turned into the main bell
of St Stephen's Cathedral.

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''The Boomer'', as it was known,

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was emblazoned
with the heads of six Turks.

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For his part, Kara Mustafa
paid a high price for failure.

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He was executed on the orders
of the Sultan -

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strangled with a silken cord.

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For the Ottoman Empire,
it was the beginning of the end,

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a moment of imperiaI overstretch
with disastrous consequences.

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It was actuaIIy the first time the
Ottomans had had to accept a peace treaty

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from victorious Christian adversaries.

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From that point on,

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from the Iate 1 7th century untiI the
empire's dissoIution in the earIy 20th,

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Turkish power in Europe
was inexorabIy roIIed back.

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At the same time,

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the Austrian Empire rose to a position of
splendid predominance in Central Europe.

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The raising of the Siege of Vienna was
a pivotaI moment in the rise of the West.

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In the years that foIIowed, there was
an upsurge of Western interest

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in the science of warfare
and of government.

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Indeed, if there was one reaI difference
between the West and the East,

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it was the wideIy varying degrees

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to which science was systematicaIIy
pursued and appIied

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in the fieId of power poIitics.

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Why did the IsIamic worId get it so wrong?
And why did the West get it so right?

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7 0 years after the Siege of Vienna,

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two men came to personify
the widening gap

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between Western civilization
and its biggest rival in the East.

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ln lstanbul, Sultan Osman lll presided
over an ever-weakening Ottoman Empire...

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...while in Potsdam,

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the Prussian King, Frederick the Great,
embarked on a programme of reforms

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that would ultimately give
not just Prussia, but the entire West

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an unassailable advantage
over its rivals.

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Frederick the Great lived here,
just outside Berlin,

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in a palace he designed himself.

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He called it Sanssouci, ''without a care'',

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but Frederick was anything but careless
when it came to running his country.

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In 1 752,

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Frederick wrote the first of two poIiticaI
testaments intended for his successor.

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In it he said, ''The ruIer is
the first person of the State.

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''He's paid weII in order to maintain
the dignity of the office.

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''But in return,

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''he's required to work diIigentIy
for the weIIbeing of the State.''

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In other words,
Frederick firmIy subordinated

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his own personaI gratification

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to the interests of the Prussian State.

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The simple design of this modest palace,

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maintained by an astonishingly small
retinue for a major European monarch,

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served as an example
to the entire Prussian bureaucracy.

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Following the King's example,

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the office-holding class worked
in an environment of discipline,

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routine and zero tolerance for corruption.

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There could scarcely be a greater contrast
than with the stultifying atmosphere

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in which the heirs of the Sultan
were raised here

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at the Topkapi Palace in lstanbul.

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7 0 years after the disastrous defeat
at the Siege of Vienna,

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Sultan Osman lll's life
was one of cloistered indulgence.

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And this is it, the ''ha-rem'',

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or harem, as we wouId say,
aIso known as ''the cage''.

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It was here
that Osman spent his time,

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stuItified with sex and Turkish deIight,

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and whoIIy untutored
in the business of government.

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By the time he finaIIy became
SuItan at the age of 57,

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he'd spent 51 of the previous years here,
banged up with the concubines.

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He'd deveIoped such an aversion
to women by that time

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that he devised a speciaI way
of keeping them out of his way.

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He wore iron-soIed shoes.

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At the sound of the imperiaI footfaII,
the Iadies were supposed to scuttIe away.

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Half a century of dodging concubines

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was hardly the best preparation
for government.

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Here in IstanbuI, this degeneration
of Ieadership became systemic

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untiI it began to infect
the entire cuIture of government.

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The schooI here at the Topkapi PaIace

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had once been considered
the best in the Empire

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and it was here that taIented
Christians who'd been ensIaved

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were trained to serve the SuItan.

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The resuIt of this creaming off of taIent

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had been a civiI service that was
meritocratic and non-hereditary

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at a time
when no such thing existed in Europe.

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And yet, graduaIIy,
things began to change.

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Native-born Turks
gained admission to the civiI service,

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and promotion came to depend more
on bribery and favouritism than on merit.

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Expenditure ran ahead of tax revenue.

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lnflation surged.

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Corruption was rife.

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Centrifugal forces were strengthening.

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And there was religious strife too
between fundamentalists and Sufi mystics.

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This was a threadbare empire.

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Here in the Ottoman Archives in IstanbuI,

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you can get the impression
of a system of government on the sIide.

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Now, I don't want you to get the idea that
I can actuaIIy read Ottoman caIIigraphy,

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because I can't,

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but I can teII neat handwriting
from sIoppy handwriting.

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So, Iet's take a Iook
at this Iand register from 1 458,

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which is meticuIous, absoIuteIy beautifuI,
aImost a work of art,

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and compare it
with another Iand register

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from aImost 250 years Iater in 1694.

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This one's, frankIy, a bit of a mess.

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It's fuII of crossings out,
there are Iots of smudges.

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It seems to have been done in
much greater haste, with much Iess care.

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I suppose they may have
been getting more efficient,

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but they certainIy
weren't getting more orderIy.

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ln comparison with the decadence
of Osman lll's administration,

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Frederick the Great was committed
to the rational rule of Prussia.

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And you can see just how weII run it was

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by coming here
to the secret state archive,

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where you'II find the minutes, perfectIy
preserved, of Frederick's cabinet,

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page after page
of royaI decisions and Ietters.

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August 1 756
was an especiaIIy busy month for him

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because that was the month when he ordered
the invasion of neighbouring Saxony

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at the beginning of the Seven Years' War.

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WeII, it was this kind
of cIockwork organisation

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that reaIIy set the West
apart from the rest,

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and it was the Iack of it that condemned
the Ottoman Empire to inexorabIe decIine.

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For Frederick, the ruIer was the servant,
not the master of the state.

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''I can have no interests,'' he decIared,
''which are not equaIIy those of my peopIe.

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''If the two are incompatibIe,

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''the preference shouId aIways be given

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''to the interest
and advantage of the country.''

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In other words, the state wouId be
strengthened rather than undermined

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by education, cuIture and toIeration.

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And to ram the point home,

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he set out to construct a whoIe series
of spectacuIar buiIdings.

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While his private palace
may have been modest,

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these grand public buildings
were intended as political statements.

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One of the first edifices

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in what Frederick thought of
as a kind of forum in the heart of BerIin

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was this wonderfuI theatre,
the State Opera House.

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UnIike any other in Northern Europe,

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it wasn't connected
to a royaI paIace or court.

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It was a compIeteIy
freestanding institution.

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The aim was not royaI gratification,
it was pubIic enIightenment.

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Next to the opera house, Frederick built
a Roman Catholic cathedral.

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Although he himself was agnostic,

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Frederick was prepared
to tolerate religion

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provided it didn't interfere
with the political life of the nation.

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PeopIe in Prussia
were free to pray as they pIeased

225
00:18:13,846 --> 00:18:17,236
as Iong as their beIiefs didn't stand
in the way of scientific enquiry

226
00:18:17,286 --> 00:18:19,402
and technoIogicaI progress.

227
00:18:19,446 --> 00:18:21,516
This was a secuIar state.

228
00:18:21,566 --> 00:18:25,354
Power had been taken away
from the pastors and priests.

229
00:18:25,406 --> 00:18:27,397
(CALL TO PRAYER)

230
00:18:33,446 --> 00:18:38,839
ln stark contrast, the Ottomans'progress
was severely hampered by religion.

231
00:18:43,966 --> 00:18:46,241
ln the words of one Muslim cleric,

232
00:18:46,286 --> 00:18:50,518
''lt is rare that someone becomes
absorbed in this foreign science

233
00:18:50,566 --> 00:18:55,356
''without renouncing religion and
letting go the reins of piety within him. ''

234
00:19:01,366 --> 00:19:05,325
Muslim scientists couldn't even access
the latest research from Europe,

235
00:19:05,366 --> 00:19:09,120
because their religion now prevented
them from reading printed books.

236
00:19:10,526 --> 00:19:12,835
For the Ottomans, script was sacred.

237
00:19:12,886 --> 00:19:15,559
There was a religious reverence
for pen and ink,

238
00:19:15,606 --> 00:19:18,723
a preference for calligraphy
over printing.

239
00:19:20,366 --> 00:19:24,996
Scholar's ink, it was said,
is holier than martyr's blood.

240
00:19:30,206 --> 00:19:34,358
lf the scientific revolution was a kind
of network of scholars all over Europe

241
00:19:34,406 --> 00:19:35,805
corresponding and publishing,

242
00:19:35,846 --> 00:19:40,283
then the Ottoman Empire
was effectively offline.

243
00:19:44,846 --> 00:19:49,795
ln 1 51 5, a decree of Selim l
had threatened with death

244
00:19:49,846 --> 00:19:52,997
anyone involved
in the development of printing.

245
00:19:53,046 --> 00:19:56,402
This taboo lasted into the 1 8th century.

246
00:20:00,726 --> 00:20:05,038
This faiIure to reconciIe science
and IsIam was to prove fataI.

247
00:20:05,086 --> 00:20:06,644
By rejecting the printed book

248
00:20:06,686 --> 00:20:09,837
and insisting on the Iaborious work
of the caIIigrapher,

249
00:20:09,886 --> 00:20:13,037
the Ottomans were cutting themseIves
off from Western knowIedge

250
00:20:13,086 --> 00:20:14,599
and hence from progress.

251
00:20:14,646 --> 00:20:18,082
In fact, the onIy work of science
to be transIated into Ottoman

252
00:20:18,126 --> 00:20:19,559
in the 1 7th century

253
00:20:19,606 --> 00:20:22,598
was a treatise
on the possibIe cures for syphiIis,

254
00:20:22,646 --> 00:20:24,682
which I suppose gives you some idea

255
00:20:24,726 --> 00:20:27,399
of the priorities of the SuItan's court.

256
00:20:35,206 --> 00:20:41,202
ln Ottoman schools, science
yielded to narrowly religious study.

257
00:20:44,006 --> 00:20:46,520
Nothing iIIustrates better the contrast

258
00:20:46,566 --> 00:20:49,000
between the cuItures
of Frederick and Osman

259
00:20:49,046 --> 00:20:54,279
than the fate of an observatory
that was buiIt here in IstanbuI in 1577

260
00:20:54,326 --> 00:20:57,443
by the renowned astronomer Taqi aI-Din.

261
00:21:01,166 --> 00:21:05,398
Taqi al-Din was a religious man,
who taught in an lslamic school,

262
00:21:05,446 --> 00:21:10,474
but he was also a scientist
of astonishing breadth and inventiveness.

263
00:21:10,526 --> 00:21:12,437
Like earlier Persian philosophers,

264
00:21:12,486 --> 00:21:15,159
he held rational investigation
of the natural world

265
00:21:15,206 --> 00:21:17,800
to be compatible with lslamic faith.

266
00:21:20,006 --> 00:21:23,715
From his observatory,
as well as from the Galata Tower,

267
00:21:23,766 --> 00:21:26,405
Taqi al-Din studied the solar system.

268
00:21:26,446 --> 00:21:30,678
The author of numerous treatises
on astronomy, mathematics and optics,

269
00:21:30,726 --> 00:21:34,605
he also designed his own
highly accurate astronomical clocks,

270
00:21:34,646 --> 00:21:37,206
and even experimented with steam power.

271
00:21:39,286 --> 00:21:45,077
But on 1 1 September 1 577
Taqi al-Din made a momentous mistake.

272
00:21:48,166 --> 00:21:51,442
A comet observed in the sky
over lstanbul caused panic.

273
00:21:57,486 --> 00:22:00,000
Asked for an astrological opinion,

274
00:22:00,046 --> 00:22:01,798
Taqi al-Din predicted that it might signal

275
00:22:01,846 --> 00:22:05,885
a forthcoming Ottoman
military victory over the Persians.

276
00:22:12,846 --> 00:22:14,916
UnfortunateIy, Taqi aI-Din got it wrong

277
00:22:14,966 --> 00:22:19,039
and, as a resuIt, he and his observatory
were bIamed for the defeat.

278
00:22:19,086 --> 00:22:22,158
An irate SuItan gave in
to reIigious pressure

279
00:22:22,206 --> 00:22:26,518
and in January 1580,
just three years after its compIetion,

280
00:22:26,566 --> 00:22:29,160
Taqi aI-Din's observatory was destroyed.

281
00:22:29,206 --> 00:22:32,004
The powerfuI MusIim cIergy
had effectiveIy snuffed out

282
00:22:32,046 --> 00:22:34,924
any possibiIity
of Ottoman scientific advance

283
00:22:34,966 --> 00:22:38,038
at the very moment
when the Christian churches in Europe

284
00:22:38,086 --> 00:22:42,238
were reIaxing their grip
on free pubIic enquiry.

285
00:22:48,326 --> 00:22:51,124
All across Europe
by the late 1 7th century,

286
00:22:51,166 --> 00:22:55,523
rulers were actively promoting science.

287
00:22:56,606 --> 00:23:03,000
ln 1 662, the Royal Society of London
received its charter from King Charles ll,

288
00:23:03,046 --> 00:23:07,756
a model for similar institutions
in Paris, Vienna and Berlin.

289
00:23:08,926 --> 00:23:12,885
Among the society's founders
was Christopher Wren,

290
00:23:12,926 --> 00:23:17,795
architect, mathematician,
scientist and astronomer.

291
00:23:20,446 --> 00:23:22,243
When CharIes II commissioned Wren

292
00:23:22,286 --> 00:23:25,676
to buiId this observatory
at Greenwich in 1675,

293
00:23:25,726 --> 00:23:29,241
it wasn't a matter of royaI prestige
or personaI interest.

294
00:23:29,286 --> 00:23:32,961
He understood that science
was in the nationaI interest.

295
00:23:38,486 --> 00:23:40,681
What made the RoyaI Society so important

296
00:23:40,726 --> 00:23:44,924
was that it promoted
a new kind of scientific community

297
00:23:44,966 --> 00:23:48,720
which aIIowed ideas to be shared and
probIems to be coIIectiveIy addressed.

298
00:23:48,766 --> 00:23:52,361
A cIassic exampIe
is Isaac Newton's theory of gravity,

299
00:23:52,406 --> 00:23:53,964
which he couId never have come up with

300
00:23:54,006 --> 00:23:59,080
without the prior work
of RoyaI Society founder Robert Hooke.

301
00:23:59,126 --> 00:24:02,038
Even geniuses can benefit from teamwork.

302
00:24:02,086 --> 00:24:05,362
(SLOW TICKING)

303
00:24:09,486 --> 00:24:14,037
ln the West, science and enlightened
government worked in tandem,

304
00:24:14,086 --> 00:24:18,159
and no monarch understood this
better than Frederick the Great,

305
00:24:18,206 --> 00:24:23,405
who offered scientists cash prizes
for solutions to unsolved problems.

306
00:24:26,926 --> 00:24:29,804
Yet ruIers Iike Frederick
were interested in science

307
00:24:29,846 --> 00:24:32,838
for more than pureIy inteIIectuaI reasons.

308
00:24:32,886 --> 00:24:38,597
They saw that scientific knowIedge couId
be cruciaI to Western miIitary power.

309
00:24:38,646 --> 00:24:42,480
What began as schoIarship
wouId end as conquest.

310
00:24:58,966 --> 00:25:00,604
ln the middle of the 1 8th century,

311
00:25:00,646 --> 00:25:03,285
Frederick the Great of Prussia
personified the nexus

312
00:25:03,326 --> 00:25:06,318
between science and military power.

313
00:25:12,286 --> 00:25:16,245
The centre of his sphere
of operations was Potsdam.

314
00:25:19,246 --> 00:25:22,522
Today it's just another
dowdy suburb of Berlin.

315
00:25:23,646 --> 00:25:29,164
ln Frederick's time, however, most of the
inhabitants of Potsdam were soldiers.

316
00:25:33,046 --> 00:25:35,435
Almost all the buildings in Potsdam

317
00:25:35,486 --> 00:25:38,796
had some sort of military connection
or purpose.

318
00:25:40,206 --> 00:25:45,758
Today it's a bank, but in Frederick's day
that was the guardhouse...

319
00:25:47,966 --> 00:25:52,278
...and this Baroque beauty
was the miIitary orphanage.

320
00:25:52,326 --> 00:25:55,398
Back there is where
the garrison church used to stand,

321
00:25:55,446 --> 00:25:58,882
and this is aII that's Ieft
of the riding schooI.

322
00:26:06,446 --> 00:26:09,677
Even in this seemingly ordinary
residential street,

323
00:26:09,726 --> 00:26:14,880
the houses were built with an extra
top floor for use by lodging soldiers.

324
00:26:14,926 --> 00:26:19,761
The army ceased to be merely
an instrument of dynastic power.

325
00:26:19,806 --> 00:26:23,003
lt became an integral part
of Prussian society,

326
00:26:23,046 --> 00:26:27,801
with Junker landlords as the officers
and peasants as the men.

327
00:26:33,606 --> 00:26:35,881
It was once famousIy observed,

328
00:26:35,926 --> 00:26:39,714
''The Prussian monarchy
is not a country which has an army.

329
00:26:39,766 --> 00:26:41,802
''It's an army which has a country.''

330
00:26:41,846 --> 00:26:45,395
Here, society and the miIitary
became inextricabIy intertwined.

331
00:26:45,446 --> 00:26:49,155
If you were a Iandowner,
you were expected to serve as an officer.

332
00:26:49,206 --> 00:26:52,596
Ordinary men took the pIace
of mercenaries in the ranks.

333
00:26:52,646 --> 00:26:56,161
Prussia was the army,
and the army was Prussia.

334
00:26:59,526 --> 00:27:04,316
A focus on drill and professionalism was
paramount in Prussia's military success.

335
00:27:04,366 --> 00:27:06,277
The discipline and speed

336
00:27:06,326 --> 00:27:10,399
with which the Prussian infantry
could redeploy in the midst of battle

337
00:27:10,446 --> 00:27:12,516
was legendary.

338
00:27:15,326 --> 00:27:17,681
This IoveIy contemporary map

339
00:27:17,726 --> 00:27:20,877
aIIows you to foIIow the course
of the BattIe Of Leuthen,

340
00:27:20,926 --> 00:27:23,565
fought in December 1 757,

341
00:27:23,606 --> 00:27:26,564
when the very existence of Prussia
was threatened

342
00:27:26,606 --> 00:27:31,043
by a formidabIe coaIition
of France, Russia and Austria.

343
00:27:33,326 --> 00:27:38,878
Not for the first time, and not for
the last, the West was at war with itself.

344
00:27:38,926 --> 00:27:42,965
But it was precisely this kind of conflict
that spurred innovation.

345
00:27:44,846 --> 00:27:46,802
ln this 1 930s reconstruction,

346
00:27:46,846 --> 00:27:51,476
you can see how the Prussian infantry
surprised the long Austrian line

347
00:27:51,526 --> 00:27:53,596
on its southern flank.

348
00:27:54,646 --> 00:27:58,559
As the Austrians were roIIed back,
they tried desperateIy to regroup,

349
00:27:58,606 --> 00:28:02,042
but they were hit first
by the Prussian cavaIry,

350
00:28:02,086 --> 00:28:04,759
and then by Frederick's
IethaIIy accurate artiIIery.

351
00:28:08,286 --> 00:28:11,915
It was a devastating Iesson
in the science of war.

352
00:28:15,126 --> 00:28:19,677
ArtiIIery was as cruciaI as mobiIity
and discipIine to Prussia's rise.

353
00:28:19,726 --> 00:28:22,718
''We are fighting against more than men,''
Frederick argued.

354
00:28:22,766 --> 00:28:27,282
''The wars we're waging from now on
wiII be a question of artiIIery dueIs.''

355
00:28:27,326 --> 00:28:31,604
At Leuthen, the Prussians
had 63 fieId guns and 8 howitzers.

356
00:28:31,646 --> 00:28:34,763
They had ten
so-caIIed Brummer, ''growIers'',

357
00:28:34,806 --> 00:28:38,242
known as such because of the rumbIing
noise they made when fired.

358
00:28:38,286 --> 00:28:42,757
Weapons Iike these exempIified
the appIication of scientific knowIedge

359
00:28:42,806 --> 00:28:45,081
in the reaIm of miIitary power.

360
00:28:48,486 --> 00:28:54,402
Mobile, accurate artillery was the key
to a Western military predominance

361
00:28:54,446 --> 00:28:57,404
that lasted for more than 200 years.

362
00:28:57,446 --> 00:29:01,519
The appIication of science
to artiIIery perfectIy iIIustrates

363
00:29:01,566 --> 00:29:05,115
the process of cumuIative advance
that was happening in Europe

364
00:29:05,166 --> 00:29:09,444
as rivaI states competed with one another
and Iearnt from one another.

365
00:29:10,526 --> 00:29:14,883
The scientific revolution
was a field day for creative nerds.

366
00:29:16,086 --> 00:29:20,682
ln the 1 7 40s, a self-taught mathematician
called Benjamin Robins

367
00:29:20,726 --> 00:29:24,275
applied Newtonian mechanics
to the problem of artillery,

368
00:29:24,326 --> 00:29:28,205
using differential equations
to provide the first true description

369
00:29:28,246 --> 00:29:32,478
of the impact of air resistance
on high-speed projectiles.

370
00:29:34,206 --> 00:29:36,162
By measuring
the influence of wind and air,

371
00:29:36,206 --> 00:29:42,042
Robins was able to achieve an epoch-making
improvement in the accuracy of field guns.

372
00:29:44,886 --> 00:29:49,323
lt didn't take Frederick the Great long
to commission a German translation

373
00:29:49,366 --> 00:29:52,164
of Robins's New PrincipIes Of Gunnery.

374
00:29:53,606 --> 00:29:57,485
The translator Leonhard Euler
couldn't resist improving on the work

375
00:29:57,526 --> 00:30:00,165
by adding a comprehensive
appendix of tables

376
00:30:00,206 --> 00:30:03,915
determining the velocity, range,
maximum altitude and flight time

377
00:30:03,966 --> 00:30:08,801
for a projectile fired at a given
muzzle velocity and elevation angle.

378
00:30:11,446 --> 00:30:16,520
The killer app of science had given
the West a truly lethal weapon -

379
00:30:16,566 --> 00:30:19,444
accurate artillery.

380
00:30:23,166 --> 00:30:25,157
But this baIIistics revoIution

381
00:30:25,206 --> 00:30:29,245
was something from which
the Ottomans were IargeIy excIuded.

382
00:30:36,446 --> 00:30:39,518
Only slowly, in the course
of the 1 8th century,

383
00:30:39,566 --> 00:30:43,275
did it dawn on the Ottomans
that they had to get up to speed

384
00:30:43,326 --> 00:30:48,480
with the Western revolutions
in science and in government.

385
00:30:48,526 --> 00:30:53,077
And one obvious way to do that was
to start pubIishing and reading books,

386
00:30:53,126 --> 00:30:57,244
instead of reIying on the traditionaI
scribbIings of the caIIigraphers.

387
00:31:02,366 --> 00:31:06,518
Among the first Ottoman printers
was lbrahim Muteferrika,

388
00:31:06,566 --> 00:31:10,605
an Ottoman official and polymath
born in Transylvania.

389
00:31:15,486 --> 00:31:20,276
In 1 731 , Muteferrika presented
to SuItan Mahmud I this book,

390
00:31:20,326 --> 00:31:23,636
his Rational Bases
For The Politics Of Nations,

391
00:31:23,686 --> 00:31:27,804
and in it he asked the question
that's haunted MusIims ever since.

392
00:31:27,846 --> 00:31:30,918
''Why is it,'' he asked,
''that the Christian nations,

393
00:31:30,966 --> 00:31:34,197
''which used to be so weak
compared with the MusIim nations,

394
00:31:34,246 --> 00:31:36,396
''now dominate so many Iands,

395
00:31:36,446 --> 00:31:40,564
''and even infIict defeats
on the once victorious Ottoman armies?''

396
00:31:40,606 --> 00:31:44,155
WeII, Muteferrika's answer
to the question ranges pretty wideIy.

397
00:31:44,206 --> 00:31:47,915
It covers, for exampIe, the Dutch
and EngIish parIiamentary systems,

398
00:31:47,966 --> 00:31:51,038
the Christian conquest
of the New WorId and the Far East,

399
00:31:51,086 --> 00:31:52,724
and he aIso makes the point

400
00:31:52,766 --> 00:31:57,556
that whereas the Ottomans ruIed
on the basis of sharia Iaw, reIigious Iaw,

401
00:31:57,606 --> 00:32:02,236
in Europe, he says,
''The Iaws are invented by reason.''

402
00:32:02,286 --> 00:32:04,004
The message is reaIIy cIear.

403
00:32:04,046 --> 00:32:07,277
The Ottoman Empire has to get
the scientific revoIution

404
00:32:07,326 --> 00:32:08,725
and the EnIightenment

405
00:32:08,766 --> 00:32:11,917
if it's to remain credibIe
as a great power.

406
00:32:20,406 --> 00:32:22,715
Books alone wouldn't suffice.

407
00:32:22,766 --> 00:32:26,759
Military reform meant
importing Western expertise.

408
00:32:27,766 --> 00:32:31,236
A French officer of Hungarian origin,
Francois de Tott,

409
00:32:31,286 --> 00:32:36,485
was brought in to oversee the construction
of new defences around the capital.

410
00:32:42,166 --> 00:32:43,918
Boating his way aIong the Bosphorus,

411
00:32:43,966 --> 00:32:48,357
de Tott noticed that many of the
fortifications were quite wrongIy Iocated.

412
00:32:48,406 --> 00:32:51,682
Any enemy ship wouId have
been compIeteIy out of range.

413
00:32:51,726 --> 00:32:54,524
The Ottomans might as weII
have been firing bIanks.

414
00:32:57,646 --> 00:33:01,195
ln his memoirs,
de Tott was scathing about the Ottomans,

415
00:33:01,246 --> 00:33:04,841
calling their castles
''more like the ruins of a siege

416
00:33:04,886 --> 00:33:07,605
''than preparations for a defence''.

417
00:33:09,206 --> 00:33:13,199
Determined to modernise
the Sultan's antiquated armed forces,

418
00:33:13,246 --> 00:33:17,558
de Tott started a course
in mathematical science for the navy.

419
00:33:17,606 --> 00:33:22,043
He built a new foundry
for the manufacture of howitzers,

420
00:33:22,086 --> 00:33:25,840
and encouraged the creation
of mobile artillery units.

421
00:33:27,486 --> 00:33:31,684
Even the Ottoman army
had to march to a brand-new beat.

422
00:33:31,726 --> 00:33:35,514
Just imagine arriving here
in IstanbuI in the mid-19th century.

423
00:33:35,566 --> 00:33:39,320
You'd probabIy have expected to be
greeted by those terrifying drums

424
00:33:39,366 --> 00:33:44,565
that put the fear of AIIah and Mohammed
in the defenders of Vienna back in 1683.

425
00:33:44,606 --> 00:33:48,315
But instead, the sound that wouId have
greeted your ears

426
00:33:48,366 --> 00:33:51,244
wouId have been composed
by Giuseppe Donizetti,

427
00:33:51,286 --> 00:33:53,197
who'd been imported from ItaIy

428
00:33:53,246 --> 00:33:57,478
to compose a speciaI ItaIian-styIe
and rather operatic nationaI anthem

429
00:33:57,526 --> 00:33:59,005
for the Ottoman Empire.

430
00:33:59,046 --> 00:34:01,844
(ANTHEM PLAYS)

431
00:34:19,486 --> 00:34:22,956
The most enduring symbol
of the era of reform

432
00:34:23,006 --> 00:34:26,442
was built by Sultan Abdulmecid l.

433
00:34:26,486 --> 00:34:28,158
A fluent French speaker,

434
00:34:28,206 --> 00:34:34,156
Abdulmecid was determined to emulate
Western civilization in every respect.

435
00:34:36,646 --> 00:34:40,719
So, he moved from the cushioned
comforts of the Topkapi Palace,

436
00:34:40,766 --> 00:34:43,439
the ancestral home of the Sultans,

437
00:34:43,486 --> 00:34:49,322
to a new custom-built Westernised seat
of government, the Dolmabahce Palace.

438
00:35:01,286 --> 00:35:04,517
Built between 1 843 and 1 856,

439
00:35:04,566 --> 00:35:10,482
the Dolmabahce Palace
has no fewer than 285 rooms, 44 halls,

440
00:35:10,526 --> 00:35:13,404
and one spectacular crystal staircase.

441
00:35:18,126 --> 00:35:22,677
1 4 tonnes of gold leaf
were used to gild the palace ceilings

442
00:35:22,726 --> 00:35:26,321
from which hung
a grand total of 36 chandeliers.

443
00:35:31,846 --> 00:35:35,759
The grandest room is this,
the Muayede lounge.

444
00:35:38,486 --> 00:35:41,637
lt has the largest one-piece carpet
in the world

445
00:35:41,686 --> 00:35:44,917
and a chandelier
that weighs over four tons.

446
00:35:50,326 --> 00:35:53,079
This pIace is so wiIdIy over the top,

447
00:35:53,126 --> 00:35:55,321
it's Iike a cross
between Grand CentraI Station

448
00:35:55,366 --> 00:35:57,800
and a stage set at the Paris Opera.

449
00:36:00,406 --> 00:36:04,035
But it shows just how far
the Ottomans were prepared to go

450
00:36:04,086 --> 00:36:06,441
to imitate the ways of the West.

451
00:36:10,086 --> 00:36:13,283
This extraordinary cIock
teIIs you aII you need to know.

452
00:36:13,326 --> 00:36:15,123
It's not just a cIock, actuaIIy,

453
00:36:15,166 --> 00:36:19,284
it's aIso a thermometer,
a barometer and a caIendar.

454
00:36:19,326 --> 00:36:22,523
And it was a gift
from the Khedive of Egypt to the SuItan.

455
00:36:22,566 --> 00:36:25,080
It's even got
a IoveIy Arabic inscription on it,

456
00:36:25,126 --> 00:36:27,799
''May your every minute
be worth an hour

457
00:36:27,846 --> 00:36:30,360
''and your every hour, a hundred years.''

458
00:36:30,406 --> 00:36:33,443
It Iooks Iike a masterpiece
of OrientaI technoIogy,

459
00:36:33,486 --> 00:36:38,514
except for one smaII thing -
it was made in Austria by WiIheIm Kirsch.

460
00:36:43,326 --> 00:36:46,477
As Kirsch's clock perfectly illustrates,

461
00:36:46,526 --> 00:36:50,439
the mere facade of Westernisation,
no matter how impressive,

462
00:36:50,486 --> 00:36:54,479
was no substitute for a home-grown
Ottoman modernisation.

463
00:36:58,286 --> 00:37:00,561
The Ottomans stiII didn't reaIIy get it,

464
00:37:00,606 --> 00:37:03,120
because if they were serious
about catching up with the West

465
00:37:03,166 --> 00:37:07,045
they needed so much more
than just a Western-styIe paIace.

466
00:37:07,086 --> 00:37:11,602
They needed a new constitution,
a new aIphabet, a whoIe new state.

467
00:37:11,646 --> 00:37:15,036
And the fact that they uItimateIy
ended up getting aII of these things

468
00:37:15,086 --> 00:37:18,999
was thanks in very Iarge part to one man.

469
00:37:24,366 --> 00:37:27,005
His name was Kemal Ataturk.

470
00:37:27,046 --> 00:37:31,005
His mission was to be
Turkey's Frederick the Great.

471
00:37:47,046 --> 00:37:49,037
For six centuries,

472
00:37:49,086 --> 00:37:52,362
the Christian West
and the Ottoman Empire in the Muslim East

473
00:37:52,406 --> 00:37:54,840
had been locked in conflict.

474
00:37:55,886 --> 00:38:00,084
Now, under the rule of Kemal Ataturk
in the early 20th century,

475
00:38:00,126 --> 00:38:03,277
that conflict
would finally come to an end.

476
00:38:06,966 --> 00:38:08,445
For centuries, Ataturk argued,

477
00:38:08,486 --> 00:38:12,638
Turks had been waIking from the East
in the direction of the West.

478
00:38:12,686 --> 00:38:16,599
Now, under his Ieadership, they wouId
finaIIy reach their destination.

479
00:38:16,646 --> 00:38:18,523
Here on the banks of the Bosphorus,

480
00:38:18,566 --> 00:38:23,082
East wouId meet West
not just geographicaIIy, but cuIturaIIy.

481
00:38:27,286 --> 00:38:31,962
Central to the western
reorientation of Turkey

482
00:38:32,006 --> 00:38:34,918
was the introduction
of a secular form of government.

483
00:38:36,286 --> 00:38:41,121
No longer would religion be allowed
to dominate the political arena.

484
00:38:41,166 --> 00:38:45,398
There would be secular laws
for a secular state.

485
00:38:47,446 --> 00:38:51,325
Ataturk's idea was that you couIdn't
drag Turkey into the modern worId

486
00:38:51,366 --> 00:38:55,200
as Iong as IsIam pIayed
such a dominant roIe in pubIic Iife.

487
00:38:55,246 --> 00:38:58,636
What he wanted to do was to scythe
reIigion ruthIessIy away from poIitics

488
00:38:58,686 --> 00:39:01,678
to create a truIy secuIar state.

489
00:39:01,726 --> 00:39:04,798
Of course, that whoIe notion
of the separation of Church and State

490
00:39:04,846 --> 00:39:07,440
was itseIf a very Western idea.

491
00:39:11,886 --> 00:39:14,480
To give impetus to scientific research,

492
00:39:14,526 --> 00:39:18,883
Ataturk created a new
Western-style University of lstanbul.

493
00:39:20,246 --> 00:39:26,481
And one of the first scientific facilities
he built was an observatory.

494
00:39:26,526 --> 00:39:29,962
Whereas Taqi al-Din's observatory
had been destroyed

495
00:39:30,006 --> 00:39:33,840
under pressure from the Muslim clergy
in the 1 6th century,

496
00:39:33,886 --> 00:39:40,155
now, at last, Turkish scientists could do
their work unimpeded by religion.

497
00:39:45,566 --> 00:39:50,435
Scientific advance and miIitary power
went hand in hand in Ataturk's mind.

498
00:39:50,486 --> 00:39:54,240
Science, he argued,
was the onIy true guide in Iife.

499
00:39:54,286 --> 00:39:57,801
Here at Iast was a Turkish Ieader
who reaIIy got it,

500
00:39:57,846 --> 00:40:02,442
and it was enough to transform Turkey into
the modern nation state we know today.

501
00:40:02,486 --> 00:40:07,002
What it couIdn't do was to saIvage
the Ottomans' most expIosive Iegacy -

502
00:40:07,046 --> 00:40:09,480
their Empire in the HoIy Land.

503
00:40:25,926 --> 00:40:30,317
When the British commander
Edmund Allenby marched into Jerusalem

504
00:40:30,366 --> 00:40:32,880
on 1 1th December 1 91 7,

505
00:40:32,926 --> 00:40:37,556
it marked the end of Ottoman rule
in the Holy Land.

506
00:40:39,766 --> 00:40:42,917
The question was,
who would rule there now?

507
00:40:52,366 --> 00:40:56,678
This is the Jaffa Gate,
which AIIenby waIked through in 191 7.

508
00:40:56,726 --> 00:41:01,481
Now, in order to defeat the Turks and end
their 500-year controI of JerusaIem,

509
00:41:01,526 --> 00:41:05,155
the British had to make promises
to the SuItan's internaI enemies.

510
00:41:05,206 --> 00:41:08,482
To the Arabs they promised
independent kingdoms.

511
00:41:08,526 --> 00:41:11,802
To the Jews they promised a nationaI home.

512
00:41:11,846 --> 00:41:15,805
It was obvious Iong before
the British Ieft this pIace in 1948

513
00:41:15,846 --> 00:41:19,475
that these two promises
were fundamentaIIy incompatibIe.

514
00:41:24,606 --> 00:41:27,643
- (INDISTINCT SPEECH OVER RADIO)
- (RADIO BLEEPS)

515
00:41:32,286 --> 00:41:36,916
Jerusalem today is the modern
equivalent of Vienna in 1 683 -

516
00:41:36,966 --> 00:41:42,040
a fortified city on the frontier
of Western Civilization.

517
00:41:44,566 --> 00:41:51,165
Founded in 1 948 as a secular state
by Jews but not exclusively for Jews,

518
00:41:51,206 --> 00:41:58,078
lsrael is unquestionably a Western outpost
but it's a beleaguered one.

519
00:42:03,046 --> 00:42:06,322
This is part of the security waII
that divides JerusaIem,

520
00:42:06,366 --> 00:42:08,243
which IsraeI regards as its capitaI,

521
00:42:08,286 --> 00:42:10,322
from the occupied West Bank.

522
00:42:10,366 --> 00:42:13,199
Now, it's not exactIy a popuIar
structure round the worId,

523
00:42:13,246 --> 00:42:17,444
but when you spend time in IsraeI
you can see why peopIe feeI insecure.

524
00:42:17,486 --> 00:42:22,640
They feeI threatened by Hamas in Gaza,
by HezboIIah in neighbouring Lebanon.

525
00:42:22,686 --> 00:42:27,396
They feeI threatened by Syria, by
the MusIim Brotherhood in Egypt, by Iran,

526
00:42:27,446 --> 00:42:29,516
not forgetting Saudi Arabia.

527
00:42:29,566 --> 00:42:34,117
Even Turkey has turned away recentIy
from the secuIar Iegacy of Ataturk

528
00:42:34,166 --> 00:42:39,445
to embrace IsIamism and, some wouId
say, a neo-Ottoman foreign poIicy.

529
00:42:43,886 --> 00:42:49,597
As a result, many people in lsrael feel
as threatened as the Viennese in 1 683.

530
00:42:49,646 --> 00:42:54,800
They feel besieged
by an implacable religious foe.

531
00:43:06,246 --> 00:43:09,318
Here too, however, they have
the killer app of modern science

532
00:43:09,366 --> 00:43:11,926
to keep their enemies at bay.

533
00:43:15,606 --> 00:43:17,836
As an authentically Western society,

534
00:43:17,886 --> 00:43:23,119
lsrael is at the cutting edge of
scientific and technological innovation.

535
00:43:26,806 --> 00:43:31,675
This company near TeI Aviv is pioneering
a new network of eIectronic cars

536
00:43:31,726 --> 00:43:33,444
that wiII be abIe to change batteries

537
00:43:33,486 --> 00:43:38,196
as easiIy, if not more easiIy,
than you now fiII your car with fueI.

538
00:43:40,006 --> 00:43:47,515
ln 2008 alone, lsraeli inventors
applied to register 9,591 new patents.

539
00:43:47,566 --> 00:43:50,876
The equivalent figure for lran was 50.

540
00:43:52,286 --> 00:43:54,004
(CAR HORN)

541
00:43:54,046 --> 00:44:00,838
lsrael has more scientists and engineers
per capita than any other country.

542
00:44:00,886 --> 00:44:03,002
The lesson of history

543
00:44:03,046 --> 00:44:06,436
is that a small country
can overcome numerous adversaries

544
00:44:06,486 --> 00:44:09,762
provided it has science on its side.

545
00:44:09,806 --> 00:44:12,479
Think of Frederick the Great's Prussia.

546
00:44:15,486 --> 00:44:21,277
Yet today the scientific gap between
West and East shows signs of closing.

547
00:44:26,206 --> 00:44:30,882
Until now, lsrael has been the sole
nuclear power in the Middle East.

548
00:44:30,926 --> 00:44:34,999
But today, lran is closing in
on its long-cherished dream

549
00:44:35,046 --> 00:44:38,595
of owning the ultimate weapon
of mass destruction.

550
00:44:41,206 --> 00:44:44,835
More than three centuries
after the Siege of Vienna,

551
00:44:44,886 --> 00:44:49,880
the lslamic world is finally acknowledging
that there's no power without brain power.

552
00:45:00,046 --> 00:45:01,604
From Tehran to Riyadh,

553
00:45:01,646 --> 00:45:05,002
to the private Saudi-financed
Muslim girls' school

554
00:45:05,046 --> 00:45:07,924
l visited last year in west London,

555
00:45:07,966 --> 00:45:11,595
the taboo against educating women
is receding.

556
00:45:15,366 --> 00:45:19,996
The majority of these girIs at the King
Fahad Academy in Acton in west London

557
00:45:20,046 --> 00:45:22,879
are wearing headscarves,
as their reIigion requires.

558
00:45:22,926 --> 00:45:26,919
This is a schooI that offers
an expIicitIy IsIamic-based education

559
00:45:26,966 --> 00:45:28,365
but, as you can see,

560
00:45:28,406 --> 00:45:31,443
that doesn't stop them studying
the principIes of biochemistry,

561
00:45:31,486 --> 00:45:33,636
compIete with Bunsen burners.

562
00:45:38,446 --> 00:45:39,845
The key question is,

563
00:45:39,886 --> 00:45:45,279
how far the West today is still capable
of maintaining the scientific lead

564
00:45:45,326 --> 00:45:50,764
on which, among other things, its military
superiority has for so long been based.

565
00:45:52,006 --> 00:45:58,764
ls this just another killer app that
the rest have succeeded in downloading?

566
00:46:05,046 --> 00:46:08,800
Yet, as we'll see
in the next episode of CiviIization,

567
00:46:08,846 --> 00:46:11,235
science is only one
of the six killer applications

568
00:46:11,286 --> 00:46:13,959
that set the West apart from the rest.

569
00:46:15,926 --> 00:46:21,637
The lranians may eventually be able
to copy our most lethal weaponry...

570
00:46:22,686 --> 00:46:24,836
...but what about our democracy?