1 00:00:22,740 --> 00:00:27,636 From the start of the First World War, Germany seized on Britain's greatest weakness: 2 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:31,235 a vast empire, hard to defend, fatal to lose. 3 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:36,669 The gamble was that Britain might risk everything to protect it, 4 00:00:36,760 --> 00:00:38,716 even victory on the Western Front. 5 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:47,636 War for Europe meant war for the world. 6 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:31,669 It was Germany's idea to take the war beyond Europe, 7 00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:34,797 but it wasn't a bid for expansion, let alone world domination. 8 00:01:37,440 --> 00:01:42,992 The aim was to take the pressure off her armies in Europe by attacking the British Empire, 9 00:01:44,160 --> 00:01:49,996 hoping to divert Britain's troops, ships and resources to defend distant colonies. 10 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,950 Britain also had no thought of a bigger empire. 11 00:01:55,040 --> 00:01:58,077 She just didn't want to lose the one she had. 12 00:01:59,160 --> 00:02:02,232 So while Germany wanted to open the war up around the globe, 13 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:04,470 Britain was desperate to close it down. 14 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,870 Maurice Hankey, Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence, 15 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:15,394 realised the Empire was Britain's Achilles heel, 16 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:19,678 and warned against letting Germany use it to distract Britain from her war effort. 17 00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:26,115 Forces must not be diverted to minor operations, 18 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:31,274 to the prejudice of the concentration in the main theatre and the safety of the trade routes. 19 00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:40,838 15 years before, Germany had proclaimed herself an empire-builder. 20 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:45,152 The Kaiser had taken his country into the 20th century 21 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:48,915 as a German admiral creating a global German Navy. 22 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:58,071 Weltpolitik was the big idea; a policy of overseas imperialism, 23 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:01,197 the brainchild of his Foreign Secretary, Bernhard von Bulow. 24 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:07,719 The days when the Germans left the earth to one neighbour, 25 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:12,874 the sea to another and kept only the heavens for themselves, are over. 26 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,354 We don't want to put anyone in the shade, 27 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:19,512 but we too demand our place in the sun. 28 00:03:21,920 --> 00:03:24,718 Germany had come late to the game of empires, 29 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:31,148 but by 1900, she had Togoland, Cameroon, German South West Africa, now Namibia, 30 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:33,629 and German East Africa, now Tanzania. 31 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:38,678 Her flag flew over patches in the Pacific: 32 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:42,719 New Guinea, Samoa and Micronesia. 33 00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:47,358 She had a vital toehold in China at Tsingtao, 34 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,000 where she re-coaled her ships, and brewed beer. 35 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:55,710 Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz saw this as just the start. 36 00:03:57,720 --> 00:04:02,475 We are now standing only at the beginning of a new division of the globe. 37 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:11,078 Germany alarmed the world with her imperial tub-thumping. 38 00:04:11,160 --> 00:04:16,794 She eyed up Puerto Rico and considered pouncing on the Panama Canal the minute it was completed. 39 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:25,479 But the boldest of all the Kaiser's schemes was Operational Plan Three. 40 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:32,712 The East Coast is the heart of the United States and this is where she is most vulnerable. 41 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:35,678 New York will panic at the prospect of bombardment. 42 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,070 By hitting her here we can force America to negotiate. 43 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:48,993 Germany's secret plans from 1903: 44 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:53,153 to attack the Eastern seaboard with 60 ships and 100.000 men, 45 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:56,073 to shell Manhattan and capture Boston. 46 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:09,275 The outlandish scheme was driven by the Kaiser's resentment of America's growing power in the Pacific. 47 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:15,514 He believed in a militarist state, and increasingly hated what the West stood for. 48 00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:21,674 Service to mammon, greed, self indulgence, 49 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:26,595 land-grabbing, lying treachery and not least, murder. 50 00:05:28,880 --> 00:05:31,155 The Kaiser thought capitalism was vulnerable, 51 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:36,519 that a strong enough attack on its international systems of trade, credit and insurance, 52 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:39,672 could bring the edifice tumbling down. 53 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:46,118 Operational Plan Three was dropped, but not the hostility towards capitalist empires. 54 00:05:55,840 --> 00:06:01,233 By 1912, Germany had traded in Weltpolitik for a more realistic policy. 55 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:06,710 Now her military machine prepared for a European, not a global war, 56 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,394 and the Army got the budget increase, not the Navy. 57 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:18,590 The first day of war found Germany's High Seas Fleet trapped by the mighty British Navy in the North Sea. 58 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:25,557 And all the German Navy had to threaten the entire British Empire, 59 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:30,350 was a scattered force of 17 cruisers, linked by a wireless network to Berlin. 60 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,591 There was the Königsberg off East Africa, 61 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:42,433 the Göben and the Breslau in the Mediterranean, 62 00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:46,668 the Dresden and Karlsruhe in the West Indies, 63 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:51,155 the Leipzig off the west coast of America. 64 00:06:52,920 --> 00:06:55,275 But the greatest concentration of cruisers, 65 00:06:55,360 --> 00:07:00,514 was Admiral Graf von Spee's powerful East Asiatic Squadron, based at Tsingtao in China. 66 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:12,277 Tsingtao gave Germany a huge area of operations, 67 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:15,272 across the South China Sea and into the Pacific. 68 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:18,720 Seizing it would cut the squadron's lifeline. 69 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:23,870 Britain saw the urgency but lacked the resources. 70 00:07:23,960 --> 00:07:28,033 So, two days into the war, she turned to her ally Japan. 71 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:39,389 Japan was a growing power. Britain's call for naval help suited her ambitions perfectly. 72 00:07:42,520 --> 00:07:49,277 Together, Britain and Japan would capture Tsingtao vital German base, and the Kaiser's pride and joy. 73 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:57,278 It would shame me more to surrender Tsingtao to the Japanese than Berlin to the Russians. 74 00:07:59,200 --> 00:08:05,435 On the 2nd of September 1914, 60.000 Japanese troops landed up the coast, 75 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:07,476 violating China's neutrality. 76 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:14,757 They met up with 2.000 British, and closed in on the German garrison of 4.500. 77 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:23,552 It's unbearable. All we can do is sit and wait for this bunch of monkeys to arrive. 78 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:26,712 Every day they get a bit closer. 79 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:29,917 No-one expects to get home in one piece. 80 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:32,434 No hope of reinforcements. 81 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:36,229 The noose around our necks is getting tighter and tighter. 82 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:47,713 For a solid week, the Japanese battered Tsingtao. 83 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:54,633 On the 7th of November, they entered the town in triumph. 84 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:04,829 Some Germans sneered at the token British force for getting the Japanese to do their dirty work. 85 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:08,150 The brave British! 86 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:13,712 They played no part in the capture of Tsingtao but they joined in the victory parade. 87 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:18,715 As they went by, we Germans were ordered to turn our backs on them. 88 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:22,429 The English complained to the Japanese commander, but he simply said: 89 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:25,956 "Well, we can't repeat the whole procession just because of that." 90 00:09:32,560 --> 00:09:37,475 The capture of Tsingtao gave Japan a launch pad to pursue her empire building. 91 00:09:37,560 --> 00:09:41,439 Within weeks, she demanded territory and trading rights from China. 92 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:46,389 Japan also seized all German possessions north of the equator. 93 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:51,829 Australia and New Zealand were quick to steal those to the south. 94 00:09:56,200 --> 00:10:00,273 Much to America's frustration, Britain had empowered Japan in the Pacific, 95 00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:07,634 key stage in a process that would lead, a quarter of a century later, to Pearl Harbor. 96 00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:19,755 Germany's loss of Tsingtao, far from neutralising Spee's squadron, 97 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:22,912 ensured its destructive power would be felt around the globe. 98 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:30,598 The best German cruiser commanders, like Spee, were fearless mavericks, 99 00:10:30,680 --> 00:10:32,557 whom the war turned into heroes. 100 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:35,871 Superb sailors with the instincts of pirates. 101 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:41,556 The Kaiser had given them full authority to make their own decisions in wartime. 102 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:49,356 The heavy responsibility of the officer in command will be increased by the isolated position of his ship, 103 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:52,796 but he must never show one moment of weakness. 104 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:56,077 Above all the officer must bear in mind 105 00:10:56,160 --> 00:11:00,312 that his chief duty is to damage the enemy as severely as possible. 106 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:05,276 Spee now split his squadron. 107 00:11:07,280 --> 00:11:12,912 The light cruiser Emden, under Captain Karl von Muller, made for the Bay of Bengal. 108 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:16,470 Spee, in the Scharnhorst, led his other ships across the Pacific. 109 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:24,679 I am quite homeless, I cannot reach Germany. 110 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:28,389 I must plough the seas of the world doing as much mischief as I can. 111 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:37,348 At the Admiralty in London, Winston Churchill fretted about where Spee would show up next. 112 00:11:39,880 --> 00:11:44,317 The vastness of the Pacific and its multitude of islands offered him their shelter, 113 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:48,712 and once he had vanished, who should say where he would reappear? 114 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:55,876 He was a cut flower in a vase, fair to see yet bound to die. 115 00:11:55,960 --> 00:12:02,195 But, so long as he lived, all our enterprises lay under the shadow of a serious potential danger. 116 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:08,955 Spee had a constant worry. 117 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:14,549 Cruisers needed coal every eight or nine days or they'd be dead in the water. 118 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:20,676 He made for neutral Chile where he had coal waiting for him. 119 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:30,392 On the 1st of November 1914, he ran into a British fleet off Coronel. 120 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:41,156 The battle which followed inspired a post-war feature film. 121 00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:46,949 The British commander was Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock, 122 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:49,600 under orders from London. 123 00:12:49,680 --> 00:12:55,949 It appears that Gneisenau and Scharnhorst are working across to South America. 124 00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:57,996 Be prepared to meet them in company. 125 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:03,473 Cradock had one ship that could outgun Spee's fleet, 126 00:13:03,560 --> 00:13:05,790 but she was slow and had been left behind. 127 00:13:07,320 --> 00:13:11,518 Now Cradock raced towards enemy ships better armed than his. 128 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:13,158 He had ignored his own rule of thumb. 129 00:13:18,440 --> 00:13:22,911 A naval officer should never let his boat go faster than his brain. 130 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:29,239 I immediately ordered Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to go full steam ahead, 131 00:13:29,320 --> 00:13:33,108 and within 15 minutes, I was racing against heavy seas at 20 knots, 132 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:35,270 and came to lie parallel with him. 133 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:43,950 Cradock's ships were no match for Spee's. 134 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:48,158 Good Hope and Monmouth were obviously in distress. 135 00:13:48,240 --> 00:13:50,959 Monmouth yawed off to starboard, burning furiously. 136 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:57,834 There was a terrible explosion on Good Hope, between her main mast and her after funnel. 137 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:00,514 The gust of flames reached a height of over 200 feet, 138 00:14:00,600 --> 00:14:04,354 lighting up a cloud of debris that was flung still higher in the air. 139 00:14:12,880 --> 00:14:16,031 1.600 British sailors were lost. 140 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:18,953 It was Britain's worst naval defeat for 250 years. 141 00:14:21,120 --> 00:14:23,634 The global war was going Germany's way. 142 00:14:30,400 --> 00:14:34,439 It is only when you get to see and realise what India is, 143 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,869 that she is the strength and the greatness of England, 144 00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:43,238 it is only then that you feel that every nerve a man may strain, 145 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:48,838 every energy he may put forward cannot be devoted to a noble purpose 146 00:14:48,920 --> 00:14:54,517 than keeping tight the cords that hold India to ourselves. 147 00:14:56,040 --> 00:15:01,239 Britain's empire and trading network was the single biggest resource she brought to the war. 148 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:05,076 And India was at the heart of it. 149 00:15:07,880 --> 00:15:11,236 The cords were never tighter. 150 00:15:11,320 --> 00:15:13,993 All the more reason for Germany to want them cut. 151 00:15:19,160 --> 00:15:22,596 These slender lines on the map were now the focus of intense study, 152 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:25,956 in the British and German admiralties, in the chart rooms of warships. 153 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:28,270 Fingers traced the vital shipping lanes: 154 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:30,157 through the Suez Canal, 155 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:32,196 around South Africa's Cape. 156 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:37,394 Minds pondered how to protect them, how to sever them. 157 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:44,678 And one of the sharpest minds was on the bridge of the German cruiser Emden. 158 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:47,672 A month after she left Admiral Spee's squadron, 159 00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:50,558 Captain Karl von Muller steered her into the Bay of Bengal. 160 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:57,359 In 1932, the Germans made a feature film about his odyssey. 161 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:07,112 He had an indescribable power over the entire crew. 162 00:16:08,120 --> 00:16:10,634 He never gave orders, he just expressed a wish. 163 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:16,232 From the moment he took command of the ship, he never left the bridge again. 164 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,710 This is where he stood, slept, sat, studied the maps. 165 00:16:19,800 --> 00:16:23,588 This is where he wanted to be, stand or fall. 166 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:32,677 The Emden sometimes rigged a dummy funnel to look like a British cruiser. 167 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:42,875 A large steamer appeared dead ahead and thinking we were an English man-of-war, 168 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:46,270 was so overjoyed at our presence that she hoisted a huge Britih flag 169 00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:50,069 I'd like to have seen the look on her captain's face, 170 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:55,792 when we hoisted our flag and invited him most graciously to tarry with us awhile. 171 00:16:57,640 --> 00:17:03,910 Captain Muller became famous for taking all crew and passengers safely onto the Emden before sinking their ship. 172 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:11,719 We always allowed them time to collect and take with them their personal possessions. 173 00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:15,031 They usually devoted most of this time to making certain 174 00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:19,591 that their precious supply of whisky was not wasted on the fishes. 175 00:17:20,800 --> 00:17:23,268 Muller regularly released his grateful captives. 176 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:30,275 Such was the Emden's impact, 177 00:17:30,360 --> 00:17:33,875 that the British Admiralty later drew up this chart to track her movements. 178 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:42,069 Muller even had the audacity to steam into the Indian port of Madras, 179 00:17:42,160 --> 00:17:44,515 as a crew member recorded in his diary. 180 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:49,594 22nd of September 1914, 181 00:17:49,680 --> 00:17:51,796 9:30 p.m. 182 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:56,590 The Emden sneaks closer then fires 125 shots. 183 00:17:56,680 --> 00:17:59,148 Some hit boats in the harbour. 184 00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:02,277 Huge columns of fire rise above the oil tanks. 185 00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:05,636 The coastal defences open fire but they all fall short. 186 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:10,758 23rd of September. 187 00:18:10,840 --> 00:18:12,592 We are now 100 miles away. 188 00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:15,194 We can still see the fires at Madras. 189 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:25,159 In the City of London, freight rates and shipping insurance rocketed. 190 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:32,476 At one point, the entire British trade fleet in the Bay of Bengal was kept in harbour, 191 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:35,233 rather than fall prey to dashing Captain Muller. 192 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,879 Germany's rogue cruisers were starting to harm Britain's war effort. 193 00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:48,556 Three transports are delayed in Calcutta through fear of Emden. 194 00:18:48,640 --> 00:18:53,555 This involves delaying transport of artillery and cavalry. 195 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:55,676 The Cabinet took a strong view. 196 00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:59,594 The extirpation of these pests is a most important subject. 197 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:05,879 While the Emden ran the British ragged at one end of the Indian Ocean, 198 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:09,350 25 Royal Navy warships hunted the cruiser Königsberg at the other, 199 00:19:09,440 --> 00:19:12,113 off the coast of Germany's East African colony. 200 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:19,998 She had raided Zanzibar and sunk a British light cruiser from her secret hideout in the Rufiji Delta. 201 00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:25,871 The frustrated British decided to strangle all her possible bases, starting with the port of Tanga. 202 00:19:34,240 --> 00:19:38,836 On the 2nd of November 1914, the British steamed into this bay. 203 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:44,393 In the global war, imperial powers got others to do their fighting. 204 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:46,311 Most of the British troops were Indian. 205 00:19:52,240 --> 00:19:54,708 Their arrival was closely watched by Thomas Plantan, 206 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,473 a 16-year-old African fighting for the Germans. 207 00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:03,397 The approaching Britih ships had all their lights blazing 208 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:07,553 and seemed to be making no attempt to conceal their presence. 209 00:20:07,640 --> 00:20:11,428 We were in position with machine guns, waiting in ambush for them, 210 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,637 and many of them were killed when they started to come ashore. 211 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:18,235 A lot of them were killed before they even got out of the water. 212 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:28,673 Thomas Plantan was one of 2.500 men under German commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. 213 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:35,789 The British thought taking Tanga would be a pushover, but they reckoned without Lettow. 214 00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:41,596 He was a professional Prussian soldier, hard as nails, charismatic. 215 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:45,798 Von Lettow was a remarkable soldier 216 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:50,112 but stubborn and single-minded to a degree I have fortunately never experienced before. 217 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:54,591 His most remarkable quality was the reckless energy with which he pursued his goal. 218 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:58,637 This was often covered up by his persuasive charm, 219 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,029 which he could switch on if he wanted to. 220 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:09,591 On the ship to Africa, von Lettow had met Karen Blixen, who would later write "Out Of Africa". 221 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:11,796 He clearly turned the charm on for her. 222 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:18,080 A German officer, von Lettow, who belongs to a very old Mechlenburger family, 223 00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:20,799 has been such a friend to me. 224 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:23,872 You should hear how they talk about him out here, 225 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:26,110 as the greatest genius of the age. 226 00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:33,874 Despite losing men during the landing, the British now threatened Tanga. 227 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:39,830 Governor Schnee ordered Lettow to evacuate the town rather than see it destroyed, 228 00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:42,639 but Lettow had come to Africa to fight. 229 00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:48,514 It was crucial to prevent the enemy from gaining a foothold in Tanga, 230 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:51,114 thus giving him a base from which to advance north. 231 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:57,028 I couldn't let the Governor's order to spare Tanga take precedence over this priority. 232 00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:05,113 Lettow reckoned the British positions himself, on his bicycle. 233 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:12,837 He also called in reinforcements. 234 00:22:13,920 --> 00:22:18,436 Three companies of German troops came by rail to Tanga. 235 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:25,437 Here, on the 4th of November 1914, they met the British Indian soldiers, raw and poorly trained. 236 00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:35,078 British intelligence officer Richard Meinertzhagen watched the ensuing rout. 237 00:22:35,160 --> 00:22:39,790 Half the 13th Rajputs turned at once, broke into a rabble and bolted. 238 00:22:39,880 --> 00:22:42,110 I could not believe my eyes. 239 00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:46,557 They were all jabbering like terrified monkeys and were clearly not for it at any price. 240 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:53,198 Everyone in the dense forest, friend and foe, was mixed up together, 241 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,352 shouting in all sorts of languages. 242 00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:58,556 The enemy ran off in wild disorder, 243 00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:02,474 and our machine guns mowed down whole companies to the last man. 244 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:08,513 Von Lettow was based here, at the German hospital. 245 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,194 After two days of heavy fighting, 246 00:23:16,280 --> 00:23:19,511 the British sent Richard Meinertzhagen to negotiate a surrender. 247 00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:24,834 The Germans were kindness itself 248 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,629 and gave me a most excellent breakfast, which I sorely needed. 249 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:33,235 We dicussed the fight freely, as though it had been a football match. 250 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,195 It seemed so odd that I should be having a meal today 251 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:41,238 with people whom I was trying to kill yesterday. 252 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:46,033 It seemed so wrong and made me wonder whether this really was war, 253 00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:48,475 or whether we'd all made a ghastly mistake. 254 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:55,476 The German officers were all hard-looking, keen and fit. 255 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:57,949 They treated this war as some new form of sport. 256 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,911 The British failed to take Tanga and suffered 700 casualties. 257 00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:08,956 Lettow lost just 65. 258 00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:12,718 Germany hailed him as a hero. 259 00:24:14,520 --> 00:24:19,275 A German David is fighting alone against the Britih Goliath in Africa. 260 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:22,796 If we cannot fight by his side, 261 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:27,556 at least we must make sure that he is well supplied with shot for his sling. 262 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:33,354 But the British blockade of Germany prevented reinforcements reaching Lettow. 263 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:42,555 Further east, across the Indian Ocean, Muller was still causing havoc. 264 00:24:43,960 --> 00:24:47,919 He'd sunk two warships and captured 23 merchant ships. 265 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:53,632 On the 9th of November 1914, 266 00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:57,474 the Emden anchored at the Cocos Islands to destroy the British wireless station. 267 00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:04,876 But the radio operator spotted the Emden's bogus fourth funnel, and put out a call for help. 268 00:25:06,160 --> 00:25:12,034 The Australian cruiser Sydney picked up the message and ended the Emden's maverick career. 269 00:25:21,000 --> 00:25:23,912 Captain Muller was taken prisoner. 270 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:26,958 He and the other survivors were well looked after. 271 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:31,437 Dear loved ones, I'm well and healthy. 272 00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,795 The Britih were very friendly. 273 00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:38,159 They took loads of photos of us and asked for our addresses to send us the snaps. 274 00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:40,196 Yours, Walter. 275 00:25:46,600 --> 00:25:49,068 Now Admiral Graf von Spee's luck also ran out. 276 00:25:50,440 --> 00:25:54,877 Britain took the risk of detaching two of her latest battle cruisers 277 00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,758 from the crucial North Sea blockade of Germany to deal with him. 278 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:06,671 On the 8th of December 1914, German commander Hans Pochhammer sighted their huge masts, 279 00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:10,275 as they re-coaled in Port Stanley on the Falkland lslands. 280 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:15,188 He realised the Germans were out-gunned and out-paced. 281 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:20,229 We choked a little at the neck, our throats contracted and stiffened, 282 00:26:20,320 --> 00:26:25,872 for that meant a life-and-death grapple or rather a fight ending in honourable death. 283 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:32,708 The German fleet tried to get away, but the British battle cruisers were too fast. 284 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,353 At 1:25 p.m., Spee turned to face them. 285 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:44,799 But the British were careful to stay out of range of his guns, firing their own from 16.000 yards. 286 00:26:55,320 --> 00:27:00,156 Lieutenant Harry Bennett on HMS Canopus watched what happened and painted these watercolours. 287 00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:08,075 At 4:17 p.m., the Scharnhorst went down with Admiral von Spee and all hands. 288 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:19,318 At 6:02 p.m., the Gneisenau sank with most of its crew, including Spee's younger son Heinrich. 289 00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:24,549 His other son Otto was on the doomed Nurnberg. 290 00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:30,034 The sight was one of fearful awe. 291 00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:33,749 She turned over and sank with a graceful gliding motion, 292 00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:37,435 as would a tumbler pressed over in a bowl of water. 293 00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:39,829 Those who went down in her were game to the end. 294 00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,230 For we saw a party of her men standing on the quarterdeck, 295 00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:46,710 waving the German ensign as she sank, 296 00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:49,360 and so they went down into their watery grave. 297 00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:57,676 The Battle of the Falklands heralded the end of Germany's cruiser campaign. 298 00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:02,469 Her global war would increasingly have to be fought on land. 299 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:07,759 Again, her commanders would stretch slim resources to lead the British Empire a dance. 300 00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:29,470 The Suez Canal presented a rare opportunity for Germany to harass the British Empire, 301 00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:34,552 a crucial British sea lane, vulnerable to attack by land forces. 302 00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:40,878 But Germany couldn't spare any men from the Western Front, 303 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:45,112 so Berlin turned to Ottoman Turkey, her ally since November 1914. 304 00:28:56,800 --> 00:29:02,432 The Turkish 4th Army was stationed in Palestine, just 150 miles from the Suez Canal. 305 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:13,635 The Turks agreed to help capture Suez, assigning these 19.000 troops. 306 00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:19,152 They saw it as the first stage in their own re-conquest of Egypt and Libya. 307 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,111 We marched at night and only by moonlight. 308 00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:33,638 My heart was filled with a deep melancholy, mingled with great hope of success, 309 00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:37,474 at the sound of the song "The Red Flag Flies Over Cairo", 310 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:41,189 to the accompaniment of which, the advancing battalions forged ahead 311 00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:47,677 over the endless waste of desert, feebly illuminated by the pale gleam of the waxing moon. 312 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:58,633 The Turks had to transport howitzers, floating pontoons, food and water across the Sinai Desert and didn't lose a single man. 313 00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:08,515 In the early hours of the 3rd of February 1915, they reached the Suez Canal. 314 00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:14,190 The German colonel who had planned the operation now watched it go horribly wrong. 315 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:18,792 A sentry noticed our attack and fired. 316 00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:21,678 The shots created panic. 317 00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:24,399 The English then blasted the banks with machine-gun fire. 318 00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:37,477 The Turks found the Canal defended by nine British warships 319 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:41,599 and 30.000 Indian troops, dug in to defensive positions. 320 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,913 The Ottoman troops suffered 1.200 casualties. 321 00:30:47,080 --> 00:30:49,355 The survivors retreated across the desert. 322 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:59,477 The attack had failed, but Africa was now a battleground in Germany's global war. 323 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,032 She had three bases of operations: 324 00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:07,908 the Cameroons, German East Africa, where Lettow was still at large, 325 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,629 and German South West Africa, with its ports and wireless stations. 326 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:17,239 Luckily for Britain, she had a colony right next door. 327 00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,710 Unluckily, it was the one whose loyalty she could least rely on. 328 00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:28,397 The Union of South Africa was racially diverse: 329 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:32,149 Blacks, Boers and British settlers. 330 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:38,990 Just 15 years before, Britain had fought a long, bloody war against the Boers. 331 00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:45,119 Many still had little love for Britain. Their loyalty could not be counted on. 332 00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:49,193 As one commander told South Africa's prime minister, Louis Botha: 333 00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:53,831 My men are ready. Whom do we fight? The English or the Germans? 334 00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:01,396 But South Africa was ideally situated to launch an attack on German South West Africa. 335 00:32:03,320 --> 00:32:06,756 British Colonial Secretary, Lewis Harcourt, took the gamble. 336 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:15,555 If your ministers desire and feel themselves able to seize such part of German South West Africa, 337 00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,518 as will give them the command of the wirelss stations there, 338 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:22,832 we should feel this was a great and urgent Imperial service. 339 00:32:24,760 --> 00:32:27,354 South Africa's government readily agreed, 340 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,876 because it had mini-imperial ambitions of its own. 341 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:33,918 It wanted to seize German South West for itself. 342 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:42,112 On the 14th of September 1914, 343 00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:45,317 South African forces crossed the Orange River into German South West. 344 00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:52,510 But the Germans were one jump ahead, 345 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:57,276 as the South Africans found out when they paused at the watering hole of Sandfontein. 346 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,429 The South Africans were beaten. 347 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:25,431 But there was worse to come. 348 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,032 Part of South Africa now rose up in armed rebellion. 349 00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:45,476 Commanding the forces in the Northern Cape was Manie Maritz. 350 00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:48,870 Fearless and uncompromising, 351 00:33:48,960 --> 00:33:52,509 Maritz had fought a vicious guerrilla campaign against Britain in the Boer War. 352 00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,916 His sympathies lay entirely with Germany. 353 00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:05,710 I received a telegram ordering me to take a large commando into German South West Africa. 354 00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:09,509 I was determined not to fight on behalf of the Britih Empire, 355 00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:12,637 and my officers and troops were in full accord with me. 356 00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:21,876 In October 1914, Manie Maritz crossed the Orange River to German territory at Schuit Drift to enlist German support. 357 00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:42,315 Two days later, Maritz addressed his troops under this tree. 358 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:49,950 Now men, we don't want to be ruled by the Jews and the financiers of England. 359 00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:57,674 General Beyers, General De Wet and myself have decided to form an independent South African Republic, 360 00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:02,595 and have entered into an agreement with the Governor of German South West Africa. 361 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:07,279 They will provide us with arms and ammunition, guns. 362 00:35:09,240 --> 00:35:14,553 On this step depends the freedom of the masses of the country. 363 00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:24,070 Britain's request for help had brought her dominion to the brink of civil war. 364 00:35:26,200 --> 00:35:31,912 In London, the Colonial Secretary Lewis Harcourt feared the break-up of the Union of South Africa. 365 00:35:33,120 --> 00:35:38,035 He secretly ordered 30.000 Australian soldiers diverted to the Cape to smother the rebellion. 366 00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:43,750 Safety of the Union is first and paramount consideration. 367 00:35:43,840 --> 00:35:49,392 We attach no importance to German South West Africa in comparison. 368 00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:54,114 The Australians weren't needed. 369 00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:59,354 In the winter of 1914, the loyal South Africans defeated the Boer rebels. 370 00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:04,519 This is rare film of 50 of them being led to trial in Cape Town. 371 00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:07,034 But they never caught Manie Maritz. 372 00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:14,757 By July 1915, South Africa cornered the Germans, 373 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:17,229 forced their surrender and annexed their colony. 374 00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:23,792 And Britain had more work for South Africa, 375 00:36:23,880 --> 00:36:27,031 north this time, to deal once and for all with von Lettow. 376 00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:34,868 London turned to South Africa's Defence Minister to lead the campaign, Jannie Smuts. 377 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:41,039 Smuts too had fought in the Boer War, but was now passionately pro-British. 378 00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:47,594 More a statesman than a soldier, Smuts made an indifferent general of conventional forces. 379 00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:50,716 And he was up against Lettow. 380 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,913 British officer Richard Meinertzhagen was now Smuts's intelligence officer. 381 00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:03,316 Smuts is quite determined to avoid a stand-up fight. 382 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:08,873 He told me he could not afford to go back to South Africa with the nickname Butcher Smuts. 383 00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:13,511 If von Lettow is clever and Smuts not clever enough, there is going to be trouble. 384 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,356 Lettow was clever. 385 00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,591 Here at his headquarters at Moshi railway station, 386 00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:26,389 he thought through the idea of depriving Britain of manpower in Europe, 387 00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:29,040 by opening up the war in Africa. 388 00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:33,716 The question was, could we, with our small forces, 389 00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:37,634 prevent considerable numbers of the enemy from intervening in Europe, 390 00:37:37,720 --> 00:37:41,554 or inflict substantial damage on their armaments and troops? 391 00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,518 I strongly believed that we could. 392 00:37:55,600 --> 00:38:00,037 By August 1916, Lettow had become expert at his cat-and-mouse game. 393 00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:04,909 Von Lettow is slippery and is not going to be caught by manoeuvre. 394 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,036 He knows the country better than we do. 395 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:10,396 I think we are in for an expensive hide-and-seek 396 00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:15,592 and von Lettow will still be cuckooing somewhere in tropical Africa when the cease-fire goes. 397 00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:21,834 Smuts has cost Britain many hundreds of lives and many millions of pounds. 398 00:38:28,320 --> 00:38:34,350 Lettow ran his force of up to 15.000 soldiers, mostly Black, on scrounging and improvisation. 399 00:38:35,720 --> 00:38:38,359 No supplies from Germany reached him after March 1916, 400 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:44,117 but he made a little go a long way, as Ludwig Deppe, one of his medical officers, noted. 401 00:38:46,720 --> 00:38:51,669 When there was no ammunition, Lettow would try to produce his own cartridges. 402 00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:56,993 If the men asked the commander for weapons or clothes they were told, "Take it from the enemy." 403 00:38:58,160 --> 00:39:00,116 Lettow made war at cost-price. 404 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:06,071 You'd have been justified in displaying this war at a country fair with a for-sale sign: 405 00:39:06,160 --> 00:39:08,116 "Cheapest war in the World." 406 00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:19,716 Jannie Smuts had five times Lettow's force and resources to match. 407 00:39:21,200 --> 00:39:26,115 But the further he went into German East Africa, the more stretched his supply lines. 408 00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:31,956 And he reckoned without the killer tsetse fly. 409 00:39:32,040 --> 00:39:36,113 The life expectancy for his 50.000 horses was just four weeks. 410 00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:46,551 Torrential rain, mud, dust and boiling heat, further slowed his progress. 411 00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:51,832 Intelligence was sketchy, maps inadequate. 412 00:39:53,560 --> 00:39:58,759 Telephone cable often had to be raised to eight metres to avoid damage by giraffes. 413 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,917 This is like warfare of bygone days. 414 00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:08,760 We come along where no road had ever been, 415 00:40:08,840 --> 00:40:11,559 where probably White man had never trod before. 416 00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,677 The river is in flood and we can't get across. 417 00:40:17,520 --> 00:40:19,988 On the other side the German patrol are watching us, 418 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:24,039 but the crocodile hold the peace between us very successfully. 419 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:35,913 Lettow played with Smuts, refusing to fight, slipping away, luring him deeper into Africa. 420 00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:43,033 As they went, they spread the war's grief and destruction, 421 00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:45,429 dragging in more and more of the people of Africa. 422 00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,751 This war was being carried on the backs of Black Africans. 423 00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:07,550 For the Lettow campaign alone, the British recruited over a million Black porters. 424 00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:15,190 One in five died, from malnutrition and disease, 425 00:41:16,240 --> 00:41:19,391 death rates comparable with those on the Western Front. 426 00:41:21,680 --> 00:41:24,513 They endured their ordeal quietly. 427 00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:27,831 They only had duties and hardly any rights. 428 00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:30,753 They tumbled into the splashing mud with their heavy loads, 429 00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:34,196 and were then ruthlessly forced to move on and catch up. 430 00:41:39,640 --> 00:41:41,870 "Oh the Lindi Road was dusty 431 00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:43,393 And the Lindi Road was long 432 00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:47,314 But the chap what did the hardest graft who could not do but wrong 433 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:51,598 Was the Kavirondo porter with his Kavirondo song 434 00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:53,591 It was 'Come here porter!' 435 00:41:53,873 --> 00:41:55,817 It was 'Omera! Here! Yeah?' 436 00:41:56,760 --> 00:41:59,877 And Omera didn't grumble, he simply did his bit" 437 00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:14,037 What Smuts saves on the battlefield he loses in hospital, 438 00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:18,398 for it is Africa and the climate we are really fighting, not the Germans. 439 00:42:22,840 --> 00:42:28,437 Out of 20.000 South Africans, over half were invalided home by the beginning of 1917. 440 00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:34,077 They were replaced by Black troops from Nigeria and Ghana. 441 00:42:35,880 --> 00:42:38,553 Recruitment of Blacks soared in East Africa as well. 442 00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:45,197 Over the course of the war, the King's African Rifles rose from 3.000 men to 35.000. 443 00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:53,111 Fololiyani Longwe spoke for many Black soldiers. 444 00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:58,918 Think of yourself buried in a hole with only your head and hands outside, 445 00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,197 holding a gun, death smelling all over the place. 446 00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:08,276 Listen to the sound of exploding bombs and machine guns, 447 00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:13,275 smoke all over and the vegetation burnt, and of course deforested. 448 00:43:14,240 --> 00:43:18,756 Watch your relatives getting killed, crying, finally dead. 449 00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:22,037 These things we did experienced and saw. 450 00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:29,995 Lettow survived undefeated to the very end, marching triumphantly through Berlin in 1919. 451 00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:36,751 The British never caught him, even though they turned it into an African war 452 00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:38,796 and set an army on his tail. 453 00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:49,954 But Britain and France had such reserves of manpower in their colonies that, from 1914, they shipped them to Europe. 454 00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:58,831 Remarkable French colour photographs of the world that came to serve on the Western Front. 455 00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:14,117 French General Charles Mangin had calculated that France could raise up to 300.000 from her empire for Europe. 456 00:44:14,200 --> 00:44:16,191 No-one believed him. 457 00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:21,310 But, in fact, they mobilised double that number. 458 00:44:26,600 --> 00:44:33,151 Black troops have precisely those qualities which are demanded in the long struggles of modern war, 459 00:44:33,240 --> 00:44:36,152 endurance, tenacity, the instinct for combat, 460 00:44:36,240 --> 00:44:40,791 the absence of nervousness, and an incomparable power of shock. 461 00:44:41,920 --> 00:44:46,471 Not only do they enjoy danger, a life of adventure, 462 00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:48,755 but they are also essentially disciplinable. 463 00:44:55,080 --> 00:44:57,958 People started hiding and running away from the camp. 464 00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:01,794 There were all kinds of illnesses, even psychological illness. 465 00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:05,873 People didn't know where they were going or even why they were fighting. 466 00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:10,590 There were rumours that we would never come back, that we are going to be sold as slaves. 467 00:45:16,960 --> 00:45:19,997 India provided Britain with 1 3/4 million men in the war. 468 00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:25,439 They had been thrown into some of the toughest fighting from the start. 469 00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:34,510 One Indian wrote to a friend: 470 00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:42,356 The war is a calamity on three worlds and has caused me to cross the seas and live here. 471 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:46,592 The cold is so great that it cannot be described. 472 00:45:46,680 --> 00:45:49,717 We have not seen the sun for four months. 473 00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:52,189 Thus we are sacrificed. 474 00:45:52,280 --> 00:45:55,431 I have neither slep by night nor ease by day. 475 00:45:55,520 --> 00:46:00,992 There can never have been such a war before nor will there ever be again. 476 00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:11,992 Some men like Jason Jingo, used to the habitual racism of colonial rule, 477 00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:14,355 returned home with greater self-esteem. 478 00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:25,517 We had liked our time in France. 479 00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:30,515 It was our first experience of living in a society without a colour bar. 480 00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:33,239 We were different from the other people at home. 481 00:46:33,320 --> 00:46:36,153 Our behaviour, as we showed the South Africans, 482 00:46:36,240 --> 00:46:39,516 was something more than they'd expected from a native. 483 00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:45,869 We had copied the manners and customs of the Europeans and not only copied, we lived them. 484 00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:57,076 But it wasn't the same Africa Jason Jingo and the other survivors came back to after the war. 485 00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:06,876 The empires which once carved it up had now turned parts of it into a wasteland, 486 00:47:08,000 --> 00:47:10,150 as German medic Ludwig Deppe realised. 487 00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:19,149 Behind us we leave destroyed fields and for the immediate future starvation. 488 00:47:20,000 --> 00:47:22,468 We are no longer the agents of civilization. 489 00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:28,112 Our path is marked by death, plundering, and deserted villages. 490 00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:42,073 It would be years before African nationalism took off, but a few had begun the journey. 491 00:47:43,920 --> 00:47:49,711 In 1914, John Chilembwe challenged the basis of the war and Africa's place in it. 492 00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:54,917 And his words would haunt colonial officials for years to come. 493 00:48:00,160 --> 00:48:02,879 Let the rich mean bankers, titled men, 494 00:48:02,960 --> 00:48:06,839 storekeepers, farmers and landlords, go to war and get shot. 495 00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:12,631 Instead the poor Africans, who have nothing to own in this present world, 496 00:48:12,720 --> 00:48:19,273 who in death leave only a long line of widows and orphans in utter want and dire distress, 497 00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:22,989 are invited to die for a cause which is not theirs. 498 00:48:33,240 --> 00:48:35,595 Germany had fought a remarkable global war. 499 00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:41,992 But it cost her her cruisers, her wireless network, and all her colonies. 500 00:48:45,640 --> 00:48:50,475 Yet Germany had forced Britain and France to call on their empires and lean on their allies. 501 00:48:52,160 --> 00:48:57,029 In the process, these flexed their muscles and formed empires of their own. 502 00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:05,230 The First World War saw the last scramble for Africa. 503 00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:14,119 And the ideas the Kaiser had so hated, land-grabbing, avarice and capitalism, 504 00:49:14,200 --> 00:49:16,031 had in fact been spread wider. 505 00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:22,036 For the moment, imperialism looked more successful than it had ever been. 506 00:49:32,240 --> 00:49:35,437 In the next episode of the First World War: 507 00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:39,513 the call goes out for jihad, holy war, in the Middle East, 508 00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:43,354 the nightmare of Gallipoli and the agony of the Armenian people.