The ENTIRE History of Human Civilizations | Ancient to Modern (4K Documentary) [Full Movie]

The history of our story began long ago. (dramatic music) At one point in time, around 3 billion years ago, we were floating around as little tiny atoms in the little Petri dish of the world.

Fast forward to around 6 million years ago, and we see the emergence of the first hominids, the family of primates that include humans. 1.9 million years ago, homoerectus was the first species to leave Africa and colonize other parts of the world. They had larger brains than their primate ancestors.

Around 400,000 years ago, the first evidence of the Neanderthals, their bodies were adapted to the cold environments of Europe and Western Asia. Their distinctive facial features were some of the most human-like ever seen.

Then came us, the only surviving species of the homo genus. But how did homo sapiens rise into a global dominance through the mechanism of civilization? (dramatic music)

We begin our story in the fertile lands of Mesopotamia in 4,000 BCE, nestled between the great Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the Sumerian city of Uruk. Instead of relying on hunting and gathering like our ancestors of the past, the citizens of Uruk were able to develop a way to harvest cereal grains like wheat and barley. However, turning cereal grains into edible foods took a lot of work. In the beginning, they had to use an invention called a hand mill, which consisted of two stones. As the grains were crushed between the two stones, the flour was collected in a container and stored for future use. This was the start of something great. This complex strenuous process was our modern world's first example of agriculture. We no longer depended on hunting animals or picking berries for our food. Rather than using human ingenuity, we can create our own food source. This allowed Uruk to prosper into a place with over 50,000 residents.

However, this change did have a change on the human body. The average height of men drastically shrunk from five foot nine to five foot three, and for women, they shrunk on average from five foot, three to five feet. Instead of being the super athletes we were of the past, we were smaller, less noticeable farmers. People also became landlocked, changing the very essence of what it means to be human.

In the early 3000 BCE, according to legend, King Gilgamesh began his rule as a Sumerian king of his region. However, by the end of 3000, BCE, the Acadians ousted the Sumerians. Sargon the Great took power and conquered all of Sumeria.

While in the Indus Valley in modern day Pakistan, a new civilization was growing. The Indus Valley civilization, 3300 to 1300 BCE was most notable for its highly advanced toilet system. The toilets were built with a seat and a chute that led to the underground drainage system. The sewage was then carried away from the homes through a network of covered drains, preventing disease spread. The waste was treated and disposed outside of city limits, helping to keep the cities clean and hygienic.

While in Egypt, they were more consumed with building pyramids than basic human plumbing. This was because in ancient Egyptian religion, it was believed that when a Pharaoh was to die in the physical world, his spirit would continue to live on in the afterlife in which they would continue to rule in perpetuity and where they would be worshiped by the living. Inside these pyramids, the Pharaoh's body was carefully mummified. A process believed to preserve his physical form and help ensure his spirit's journey to the afterlife. The pyramid was also filled with offerings and treasures intended to provide the Pharaoh with the resources he would need in the afterlife. Every Pharaoh wanted to make sure they were immortal. They wanted to succeed in the afterlife. They wanted to be worshiped forever. That's why it was an utmost priority for Egyptian Pharaohs to build pyramids for themselves when laid to rest. It started when Pharaoh Djoser, 2667 to 2648, BCE, built the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, followed by Sneferu, 2613 to 2589 BCE, who built several pyramids such as the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. Then came the Pharaoh Khufu, 2589 to 2566 BCE, who built the famous Great Pyramid of Giza in a labor intensive 20 year process, one that the world still marvels at today. Khufu was then followed by Pharaohs Khafre and Mekaure who built these slightly smaller second and third pyramids of Giza respectively.

While over in China in the year 2100 BCE, the first Chinese dynasty was upon us. Like the people of Mesopotamia, the Chinese were ever reliant on agriculture, producing rice, wheat, and barley among other crops. However, as legend has it, the Yellow River flooded. These massive floods would destroy all the crops leading to massive famine and suffering. However, not all was to be lost because Yu The Great was on his way. Yu was so distraught by this problem that he would spend his days traveling up and down the Yellow River. He found ways to divert the rivers by building levies and dikes so that he could regulate the waterways. Then after 13 years of hard work, the floods could no longer wreak havoc on the land. The people were overjoyed and Yu was hailed as a savior. That was the start of the first Chinese dynasty, the Xia Dynasty. Though the accuracy of this tale is questioned by historians, it does establish an important precedent. The idea is that power ought to follow one's merit. An individual who deserves absolute power shall have absolute power. This idea would shape the world for years to come and cause the people of ancient China to follow him to create the first ever Chinese dynasty.

While back over in Mesopotamia around 1772, BCE, a Babylonian king named King Hammurabi created the basis of the legal system as we know it today. Hammurabi ordered the creation of a seven foot tall, two foot wide stone slab. Written on it was a system of 282 laws that each citizen of his kingdom was to follow. Such laws included various laws such as law one, if a man brings an accusation against another man, charging him with murder, but cannot prove it, the accuser shall be put to death. Law 196, if a man destroys the eye of another man, they shall destroy his eye. Law 197 says, if he breaks another man's bone, they shall break it. Law 199, if he destroys the eye of a man's slave or breaks the bone of a man's slave, he shall pay one half his price. However, what King Hammurabi did was create a society based on laws. He laid out strict laws, placing people into certain casts of life and value. Everyone was worth a different amount based on what class they were in society. There was no illusion of equality in ancient Babylon. Instead, it was pretty clear the value of a noble's bone was worth more than a plebeian's which in turn was worth more than a slave's. An idea we continue to see throughout history.

While in modern day Turkey, a lesser known civilization came to power, the Hittites' Empire under the charismatic rule of the leader, Labarnas, 1680 to 1650 BCE. He was a skilled ruler with a single vision in mind. Uniting the Hittite city states under a single rule. Labarnas led his army from city to city, conquering neighboring city states and making alliances with their leaders. He was a shrewd diplomat and he used his diplomatic skills to win over the hearts and minds of the people. Eventually, Labarnas became the ruler of all the Hittite city states and established the empire. He was a just and fair ruler and was loved by his people. Under his rule, the Hittites prospered and their territory expanded, leaving them right next to their neighbors in Egypt.

While in modern day Greece, a collection of city states emerged on the European continent. Mycenean Greece, 1600 BCE to 1100 BCE was dominated by an elite warrior society and consisted of a network of palace centered states that developed rigid, hierarchical political, social, and economic systems. At the head of this society was the king. However, unlike a unified civilization, each city was on its own. A city state is a city that with its surrounding territory forms an independent state. The development of city states such as Troy, Mycenae, and Pylos start to grow. The first remnants of the Greek written language known as Linear B, also started to emerge. The first record of any Indo-European Greek record we have today.

While back in Egypt, they started to create a social pyramid of another type, the Egyptian social pyramid. Like the Great Pyramid of Giza, it is more prominent at the bottom and tinier at the top. At the bottom lays the peasants and the slaves, they were responsible for doing all the manual labor. They worked on the lands. They would spend the day in and day out farming, producing food for all of Egypt. Then when the season to farm was over for the year, they would work on the Pharaoh's massive building projects. Literally building the pyramids. Slightly above the slaves came the artisans. They were the stone masons, the plasters, and the sculptors who created the exuberant art the wealthy desired, and for Egypt is most known for today. Then came the merchants who spent their days in navigating the Nile, trading gold, papyrus and linen to anyone who could afford it. They were well respected and able to make a healthy profit by selling. Then came the scribes. These masters of the word would go to specialized scribe schools just to master the language of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. In practical use, these scribes took account of the stores of food, various tax documents, and even the daily lives of the Pharaoh. After the scribes came the soldiers, the soldiers were tasked with protecting the Egyptian empire. They dedicated their lives to defend or make preemptive strikes against their enemy. Generally, they were well fed. Then near the top came the bureaucrats. These high ranking government officials did essential tasks at the top of society, like the viziers who ran the logistical tasks necessary to run a civilization. The priests oversaw taking care of the temples to ensure the gods were well cared for. The nobles oversaw specific regions of the empire and kept order in said regions. At the top, the purpose of everyone below was the pharaoh, the king, and the mediator between the gods and the world of men. The Pharaohs will be known to be supreme and all must succumb to it. When the Pharaoh dies, he will be buried in a pyramid in which he will help eternally rule over the Egyptian empire. Egyptian society was created to serve the Pharaoh. Taxes were taken from the farmers for the Pharaoh, and artisans made unique crafts for it. The merchants ensured the Pharaoh was well supplied with the needed goods. The scribes would follow the Pharaoh and record his thoughts. The soldiers made sure his empire was protected. The bureaucrats did the jobs the Pharaoh couldn't do. While the Pharaoh sat at the top and communicated with the gods. Pharaoh Ramesses II, 1279 to 1213 BCE, accomplished many extraordinary things by living in this social system. He orchestrated the construction of the temple of Abu Simbel, the Ramesseum and the Temple of Karnak. He was also able to grow the Egyptian empire and re-conquer lands lost by other Pharaohs. Except for the land claimed by the Hittite empire.

The Hittite king of the time, Mutwalli II, 1295 to 1272 BCE was notorious for ordering his troops to attack his Egyptian neighbors. Following the example of Labarnas, Mutwalli wanted to unify the world under Hittite rule. However, Ramesses had enough. Other Pharaohs in the past have tried to stop the Hittites, but he knew if his empire was to ever succeed, he needed to attack back. His target is the city of Kadesh. Ramesses rode in on his chariot with four divisions of 20,000 men ready to dominate and kill Mutwalli. However, the Hittites already knew of the incoming Egyptian invasion through espionage. They fortified their city with 40,000 of his own men, a war was about to commence. Ramesses decided to split up his divisions to force Mutwalli out, but yet Mutwalli never did, a gruesome mistake. Splitting up his forces left him exposed, unable to get an advantage, allowing Mutwalli and the people of Kadesh a chance for victory. Historians believe that all they did was come out from the fortification of Kadesh and trap Ramesses II's forces in his army by the river. But yet for some unknown reason, they never did. Leaving the battle of Kadesh to end in a draw. After the battle though, both sides decided it would be best to stop attacking each other, that they should live in peace and unity in this world. Then after the death of Mutwalli the new king, Hattusili III, took the throne of the Hittite empire. Through the means of messengers, in the year 1258, BCE, both Ramesses and Hattusili signed the first peace treaty to ever exist. Reading in part, "Ramesses the Great King, the king of the country of Egypt shall never attack the country of Hatti to take possession of a part of this country. And Hattusili, the great king of the country of Hatti, shall never attack the country of Egypt to take possession of a part of that country." Then a period of friendship occurred between these two, once warring nations, the Hittites were skilled in metalwork and taught the Egyptians to make superior weapons and tools. At the same time, the Egyptians, master of agriculture shared their knowledge with the Hittites. Trade for the benefit of both civilizations, both civilizations prospered because of this, peace can lead to prosperity. The agreement was kept in place until around 1200 BCE, because that's when the Hittite empire fell because of the constant attacks they faced from the sea people. Leaving the Hittite empire to be lost in the state of history.

While on a continent far away, the first civilization in the Americas was taking foot in modern day Mexico. The Olmec civilization, 1200 BCE to 400 BCE is often considered the mother civilization of Native American civilizations. However, sadly though not much is known about them. Mainly due to their writing in a hieroglyph historians still can't decipher. One of the few remains we have are these 17 colossal stone heads. In Meso American culture, there is this belief that the head alone could contain an individual's emotion, experience, and soul. We may not know their leaders' names like of other civilizations like Ramesses and Hammurabi. When looking through the eyes of a stone head, we can still feel their presence, and in some ways, they remain immortal, enshrined in history. For one day, we may learn who they are.

While in the East, the Zhou Dynasty, 1046 to 256 BCE in China was taking its stride. The Zhou Dynasty gained power because of the failures of the less critical Shang dynasty, they believed in the idea of a mandate from heaven. This resulted in four principles in the Chinese dynastical structure that would be repeated repeatedly. One, heaven grants the emperor the right to rule. Two, since there is only one heaven, there can only be one emperor at any given time. Three, the emperor's virtue determines his right to rule, and four, no one dynasty has a permanent right to rule. A ruler in dynasty could lose the mandate from heaven, and the heavens weren't always on the side of the rulers. Over time, it will fade into another dynasty. The heavens would send signs of droughts, famines, floods, and earthquakes across the land, signaling they'd lost the blessing from above. This is how the Shang dynasty fell, and the Zhou Dynasty grew to prominence. The Zhou Dynasty brought another style of government and the creation of feudalism. The system was straightforward, leading to another social pyramid. At the bottom lay the peasants who were tied to the land and whose job was to produce crops for the empire. Then came the soldiers whose job was to protect the lands from foreign invaders. Then the lords who owned the land and taxed the peasants a portion of their crops, who in turn, the lord gave some of their crops to the king. The person in charge of the whole empire, the king would then receive more crops and become very wealthy. All profits go to the king and all work goes to the masses. Why would anyone just settle for a life of farming day in and day out? There are two reasons for this phenomenon. The first reason was due to necessity. It took many more people to feed an empire and a family back then, and the second reason being philosophy. Towards the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the beginning of Eastern philosophy was created. Confucius created a philosophy system justly named Confucianism, which is focused on the importance of respect, loyalty, and responsibility in all relationships in life. A central concept of Confucianism is called Li, which can be translated as rituals, customs, or manners. Li refers to the formal and informal social conventions that guide societal behavior. It is seen as maintaining order and harmony in social relationships. While Lao Tzi created another philosophy called Taoism. The word Tao means the way or the path, and Taoism teaches that individuals should seek to align themselves with the natural flow of the universe rather than fighting against it. Live your life as peacefully with yourself as possible, and don't worry about external things outside your control. Just focus on your farming. One of the most famous contemporaries from Taoism is the idea of yin and yang, representing complimentary and interdependent forces in nature, such as light and dark, hot and cold, or masculine and feminine. Taoism teaches that by balancing these opposing forces, individuals can achieve harmony and fulfillment. Confucianism and Taoism made life bearable for ancient Chinese farmers.

But as time progressed, the city states that occupied ancient Greece grew. Around 800 BCE, the Greek city started to realize that the land they occupied was practically infertile. So to produce an essential staple of grain, they had to import it. Hence why the Greek states had to colonize the world around them. The city state Miletus, at its height, had over 90 colonies throughout Europe, producing food for the Greeks. At its height, the Greek had set up colonies from modern day Marseille in France to Rostov-on-Don in Russia.

One of these new emerging city states was Rome. As legend has it, Romulus and Remus were twin brothers, abandoned by their parents and placed into the river Tibet. As the basket floated across the river, a female wolf discovered the two orphans and nursed them back to health. When Romulus and Remus became adults, they decided to find the city where the wolf rescued them. However, this created turmoil as both brothers wanted the site to be named after themselves. As Romulus and Remus fought relentlessly, eventually, Romulus came up with the final blow and killed Remus, creating Rome in 753 BC.

While the Greek city states might have been colonizing, Cyrus the Great was about to take over an empire. At the time, the Persians were subjugated to the rule of the Medes empire. According to legend, after his grandson, Cyrus was born, King Astyages of Medes had a vivid dream that his little grandson would one day stage a revolt against him. King Astyages knew what to do and ordered his chief advisor to kill the baby, but the chief advisor gave the baby off to a shepherd to be raised instead. However, troubles weren't over for Cyrus. When he was 10, King Astyages found Cyrus. King Astyages wanted to kill him because the dream was very clear. This man will revolt against you. Yet against his better senses, Cyrus was allowed to live. King Astyages' biggest mistake. When Cyrus was a man, he gathered his army and revolted against his maternal grandfather, the two, but as prophecy had it, Astyages surrendered in 550 BCE. However, Cyrus wasn't done conquering. He conquered Babylon and became the supreme ruler of Mesopotamia and even the Indus Valley civilization. The world was in Cyrus's hand. Cyrus then took over the Greek colony of Ionia in Asia Minor, leading a great Persian empire, and then he died, leaving it all in the air for the next great Persian king, Darius The Great.

While back in Greece, various city states started to gain power, but two were at the forefront, Sparta and Athens. Sparta was a military powerhouse. The famous Spartans believed everything should focus on physical strength and war. When a new young Spartan was born, it would be slaughtered if it didn't look healthy. Boys were taken from their families at a young age and were trained to become soldiers. The brutal training included physical conditioning, weapons training, and harsh living conditions. The entire life of a Spartan was to win a war. Their society reflected with three main groups. The ruling class consisted of aristocrats who held political power, the free non-citizens who were not allowed to participate in government, but were still expected to serve in the military. And the helots, a group of enslaved people that provided labor for the Spartan state. Life in Sparta was harsh, brutal, and militaristic.

While their neighbors up north were experimenting with this idea of democracy, Athenian democracy was a highly complicated mess. There were two branches, the Council of Five Hundred and the Assembly. The Council of Five Hundred was selected randomly by a process known as sortition. Athens itself was made up of 10 different tribes. Each tribe was responsible for providing 50 citizens to serve for one year in the Council of Five Hundred via random selection. Each eligible citizen would be given a personalized token. Those tokens were inserted into a particular machine called the Kleroterion. This long lost technology included tubes and balls, which somehow selected 50 residents of each tribe to join the illustrious Council of Five Hundred. While in the assembly, there was a system in place that said that every single citizen had a vote. Of course, to be a citizen, you had to be a male and not a slave, and either born in Athens or to Athenian parents. The Council of Five Hundred would create the agenda for the main assembly to vote on because over 30,000 people could have a vote at any given time. It was total chaos. So to quell this, the council would nominate nine presidents the morning of the meeting, and it was their job to ensure all the rules and procedures were being followed. Since they were appointed right before the assembly met, they were almost impossible to bribe. Somehow the assembly would loudly vote on whether a bill would pass. They would vote on matters like appointing generals, various laws, and other government bureaucracy.

However, not everyone liked this Athenian democracy. The famous Greek philosopher Plato thought the idea was barbaric. In book six of his seminal book, "The Republic," Plato writes, "the true navigator must study the seasons of the year, the sky, the stars, the winds, and all the other subjects appropriate to his profession, if he is really fit to control the ship." Think that it's quite impossible to acquire the professional skill needed for such control, and that there's no such thing as the art of navigation. How much could a randomly selected member of the Council of Five Hundred really know? How much could he fully contribute to society? Should we allow a random member of society to have any power? Instead, Plato would advocate for the idea of a philosopher king, a man who studies wisdom, logic, and reasoning. A man who dedicates his life to understanding how to be just, a man who will become the navigator of wisdom. Plato would rather say, "the society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end to the troubles of the states or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers become rulers in this world or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands."

There's just one issue with Plato's quote. Every leader thinks they're a philosopher king. Everyone thinks their thoughts are the best. Everyone thinks their ideas are the wisest. From Yu the great in China, to Labarnas of the Hittite Empire, to Siddhartha Gautama, of the kingdom of Magadha in India.

While not so far away in the Indian Kingdom of Magadha, a spoiled prince named Siddhartha Gautama, 500 BCE, lived in luxury inside a palace. Inside this palace, Siddhartha could have anything he wanted, all the jewels, all the wealth, all the finest goods thrust upon him. His world inside of the palace was a utopia on Earth. There was no want, need or desire, and it was perfect. Until he went outside his palace compound, the only place he ever knew. As he took his first steps outside of his palace, what he saw struck a chord. He saw an old man dying right on the street, in front, he realized that the human experience wasn't something that was perfect and sublime. Instead, it was death. As Gilgamesh realized many years ago, this was an inevitable part of the human experience. Siddhartha left his life of luxury behind and began a quest for knowledge and enlightenment. He studied with spiritual teachers and meditated for many years, searching for answers to life's big questions. Finally, after six years of seeking, he sat down under a fig tree and meditated until he achieved enlightenment. Enlightenment is a state of inner peace in which one has transcended the limitations of the ego and is in touch with a universal consciousness or divine essence. It isn't a fixed and permanent thing, but rather an ongoing process of growth and development. But under that fig tree, Siddhartha became known as The Buddha or The Awakened One. He would spend the rest of his life traveling the countryside, becoming close to the enlightenment.

Darius was determined to follow in his father's footsteps and take over the world. After finalizing their rule over the city state of Ionia, the Persians were on a quest to take over Greece. Darius and his 20,000 men came to the city of Marathon in the year 490 BCE, a city 26.2 miles away from Athens. The Athenians were vastly outnumbered, with only 10,000 men. As the Persians were trying to regroup, the powerful Greek hoplites crushed the weaker Persian foot soldiers, by routing the wings before turning towards the center of the Persian line. The remnants of the Persian army fled to their ships and left the battle. Early historians believe the battlefield littered 6,400 Persian bodies, while the Athenians lost only 192. So the Persians retreated and an Athenian messenger named Pheidippides ran the 26.2 miles from Marathon to Athens. Exclaiming with joy, how the Athenians just beat the mighty Persian empire. All of Athens went crazy with this fantastic news, hence leading to Pheidippides' historic trek to be sketched into history as the world's first marathon.

However, the Persians weren't done. Even with Darius I dying of mysterious circumstances, his son Xerxes I took over the crown and wanted to complete his grandfather's legacy. In 480 BCE, Xerxes I wanted revenge, so he brought his enormous invasion force of over 100,000 soldiers and was dead set on conquering Greece. Then at a narrow pass at Thermopylae, the Spartan King Leonidas had his force of 7,000 Spartans maintain the defense. Leonidas knew of his disadvantage and developed a bold and daring plan to defeat the Persians. Rather than waiting for the Persians to attack, Leonidas ordered his soldiers to make a surprise attack on the Persian camp, catching the Persians off guard and disrupting their formation. Despite their success, the Greek army was ultimately overwhelmed by the Persians who attacked from all sides and eventually broke through the Greek defenses. Leonidas and his soldiers fought with courage and determination. Still, they were ultimately defeated.

Then came the battle of Salamis where the Greeks could change the tilt of the war in a naval battle between the 500 Persian trireme and 300 Greek trireme, it didn't look good for the Greeks. Still the great Athenian general, Themistocles, employed his plan to move the Persian fleet into the narrow straits of Salamis, and hit the enemy fleet so hard that it had nowhere to retreat. After a massive sea battle, Themistocles won Greece the victory and changed the face of the war. The Persians still had their goal, conquer the Greek city states. Xerxes had returned to Persia, leaving Persian general Mardonius in charge of the Persian force, for most of the significant battle yet, after diplomatic talks ceased, Persia knew they had to attack. As the Persians sent their troops to Platea, the Greeks knew they had to work together. With 30 various Greek city states working together, they were able to fill the massive 110,000 hoplite army with the primary purpose of defeating Persia. Though that was nothing compared to the estimated 150,000 man army of Persia, the battle was fierce and intense. With both sides fighting with ferocity and determination, the Greek hoplites continued to be effective against the Persian (indistinct) and archers. The Greeks also strategically used the terrain, fighting on a slope that helped offset the Persian numerical advantage. In the end, the Greeks defeated the Persian forces and secured a decisive victory. The Persians suffered heavy losses and Mardonius was killed in the fighting. The battle of Platea marked the end of the Greco Persian wars and the Persian threat to Greece.

After the Persian war, life in ancient Greece was spectacular. A golden age of culture was upon us, with no longer having to face the threat of war, Athens was able to create architectural wonders such as the Parthenon. The Parthenon sits upon the Athenian Acropolis, a prominent hill overlooking the city of Athens to show its wealth and culture. No matter where you'll go in Athens, you can still see the great Parthenon, even today. Then came the theater. Around this time, the state would sponsor the most significant poets to create stories in the Athenian Festival, called the City Dionysia. A festival designed to worship the Greek God of theater and fertility, Dionysus, creating playwrights such as Sophocles, Aeschylus and Aristophanes.

States were hungry for power. Athens was recruiting city states into their Delian Alliance. While Sparta was recruiting city states into their Peloponnesian Alliance, both Sparta and Athens felt like they should control the City of Korkyra. Hence, why in 434 BCE war was upon the Greek peninsula. Resulting in naval battles, such as the Battle of Sybota, and the Battle of Pylos. By 421 BCE, a short peace was negotiated. However, this peace would not last, and Athens had their eyes on Sicily. Initially, the expedition was going well. The Athenians established alliances with several Sicilian cities and won several minor skirmishes against the Sicilian forces. But soon, Alcibiades, one of the greatest naval generals in history, was recalled to Athens to face charges of sacrilege. The Athenian fleet was left without his leadership. In his absence, the expedition began to unravel. The Athenians could not take the city of Syracuse, which had fortified its defenses and was well prepared for a siege. The Sicilians were aided by reinforcements from Sparta, which saw an opportunity to strike a crippling blow against its arch rival Athens. The Athenians suffered from a lack of supplies and were plagued by disease. At the same time, the Syracusans launched a series of surprise attacks and ambushes. Finally, after months of grueling fighting, the Athenian fleet was destroyed in a decisive battle. Thousands of Athenians were killed, and many more were captured and enslaved. A decade after that, Athens fell to the Spartans. The age of legendary Greece was now over. Both Athens and Sparta were significantly weaker, never to regain the same power they once had. Leaving the world ready for a philosopher king to conquer it all.

Then in the East, the mandate of heaven was up. The Zhou Dynasty, after a long 800 year rule, it was deemed by the heavens that their empire was up, which led to a period known as the warring states, 474 to 221 BCE. This resulted in Han Feizi who created a new philosophy called legalism. Followers of legalism believe that people were inherently selfish and would only act in their own self-interest, and that the only way to keep them in line was through a system of rewards and punishments that was clear and consistently enforced. This resulted in Feizi claiming that the best way to achieve social order was by establishing a powerful ruler, responsible for enforcing the law and punishing wrongdoers. He also believed the ruler should have complete control over the military, the economy, and society.

While in the heart of the Oaxaca region of Mexico, the Zapotec civilization started to flourish. The capital city of Monte Alban was being built on a mountaintop, overlooking the entire Oaxaca Valley. Perched on the mountaintop overlooking the valley of Oaxaca, the city was home to a ruling elite who oversaw a hierarchical social structure that included middle class artisans and lower class farmers. The people of the Zapotec civilization were known for their innovative agricultural practices, including the cultivation of maize and other crops, which sustained their communities in times of drought and other environmental pressures. They also developed an early writing system, which used a combination of symbols and glyphs to represent words and ideas. They developed an advanced calendar system based on 260 day and 365 day solar cycles.

In Greece during the year 356 BCE in the City of Pella in the kingdom of Macedon, the greatest commander in history was born, Alexander the Great, grew up knowing he would be a leader and was the son of King Philip II and Queen Olympia. But the teacher was much more impressive. Since he was a kid, Alexander was tutored by Aristotle. Aristotle is the man who is known as the father of logic. He created the fields of biology and taxonomy by introducing a way to think called the scientific method, a method that is still taught in schools to this day. He also wrote extensively about philosophy, ethics, and art, changing the face of the world as we know it today. This is the man who was in charge of teaching Alexander the Great. Alexander was 20 when his father was assassinated, but his excellent education allowed him to take over the rest of the world. After his father died in 336 BCE, Alexander was hellbent on keeping his family's power. So when the Greek City of Thebes decided to revolt, Alexander and his army marched 240 miles in 14 days. When Thebes refused to surrender, he razed the entire city to the ground, and 6,000 were killed, and the rest were sold into slavery. The rest of the Greek city states recoiled in fear, allowing Alexander to do as he pleased, leaving for his new target to be Persia and the new Persian king, Darius III.

In 333 BC, Alexander faced the Persian army at the Battle Of Issus. This significant engagement saw the Persian king, Darius III defeated and forced to flee. Alexander then captured several key cities, including the vital port of Tyre, which had resisted his initial siege. In 331 BC Alexander faced Darius III again at the Battle of Gaugamela, near the Tigris River in modern day Iraq. Despite being outnumbered, Alexander won a decisive victory using superior tactics and mobility. The Persian army was shattered, and Darius III fled once again. Alexander then proceeded to capture the Persian capital of Babylon and took control of much of Mesopotamia. He continued his campaign eastward, winning battles in what is now modern day Iran and Afghanistan. In 330 BC, he captured the Persian capital of Persepolis, a city of great wealth and cultural significance. But Alexander wasn't done. He wanted to expand eastward, eventually crossing the Hindu Kush mountains into India. However, his troops grew tired of the endless fighting and refused to go any further, and Alexander was forced to turn back.

However, after Alexander failed in the Indian subcontinent, a powerhouse emerged in India called the Mauryan Empire. At its height, it spanned over much of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. However, this conquering came at much of a cost for its leader, Ashoka the Great. In 261 BC, after the death of his parents, Ashoka decided that his empire needed to expand. In his sights, the kingdom of Kalinga. The war was bloody, the war was fierce. Over a hundred thousand people died. Ashoka couldn't sleep with himself. He didn't know how to deal with his actions that resulted in so much death, so he turned to the teaching of the Buddha. Under Ashoka's rule, the Mauryan Empire became known for supporting Buddhist teachings and promoting nonviolence. Ashoka issued a series of edicts inscribed on rocks and pillars throughout the empire that promoted principles such as kindness, respect for all religions and the abolition of slavery. Certain traits were not shared in the West by Alexander. In the West, it was deemed honorable to die in combat, and a hero's death would be remembered forever. A farmer will die in anonymity. Alexander died a few years later in Babylon at the age of 32. Throughout his expedition, Alexander was spreading Greek ideas founded by his once wise teacher, bringing the rise of Greek ideals across the land, starting the seeds of the Western cultures we see today.

Once Alexander died, his empire just could not sustain itself. His generals feuded as to who should be the leader of this great empire. Everyone wanted power, yet in fighting left to waste in oblivion. Eventually, in 323 BC after senseless wars, the Greek generals divided the world into three major empires. The Ptolemies in Egypt, the Seleucids in the east and the Antigonids in Greece. Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals led Egypt into a period of prosperity. Inspiration by his former leader, Ptolemy built the library of Alexandria, a hub for an intellectual scholarship. Intellectuals from all over will come to the library to exchange ideas and thoughts throughout the world, leaving us to have great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle to be the backbone of our culture. While the general Seleucid was given the keys to the city of Babylon, Babylon at this time was a cultural hub, melting Greek, Persian, Indian and central Asian cultures. Seleucid though preferred Greek ideas and Greek language. The Seleucid Empire was at its height, during the reign of King Antiochus III 223 BC to 187 BC. Under King Antiochus III, the Seleucids encompassed a vast territory from modern day Turkey to modern day Pakistan, one of the largest empires on record until the rise of the Romans. While the Antigonids did not have nearly as much success. By the time Antigonus I took power, the Greeks were just a shell of what they once were. The Ptolemies, the Seleucids and the Antigonids went astray from the Roman Empire.

However, for Rome to rise, it had to face a powerful foe, Carthage. Both Rome and Carthage had a desire for the same city state, Messina on the island of Sicily. This would give either civilization a foothold to grab power in the Mediterranean. The first Punic war was upon us, and after 20 years of fighting in the year 241, BCE, and the defeat of Carthage, the Treaty of Lutatius was signed. The peace though was shortlived. In 218, BCE, the second Punic Wars began when the Carthagian General Hannibal invaded Italy with his army, including elephants to conquer Rome. Hannibal won several early battles, including the Battle of Cannae in 216, BCE. Still, he was ultimately defeated by the Roman general Scipio Africanus, at the Battle of Zama in 202 BCE. The war resulted in the complete defeat of Carthage, which was forced to cede its territories to Rome and the end of the Carthaginian Empire. There was no doubt in the world anymore that it was time for the Romans to take charge in the West.

While in the East, after the end of the warring states period. Qin Shi Huang and the Qin Dynasty were an absolute power. 221 BCE to 206 BCE, Qin was determined to turn diverse China into a unified Chinese empire. He divided the lands into 36 command areas supervised by a governor, military commander, and imperial inspector. It was expected that you followed the will of Qin or else you would face harsh penalties, the basic ideas of legalism in action, strong government, harsh laws, and inheriting knowing that humans were necessarily selfish. However, their mandate from heaven ran quite quickly. After Qin Shi Huang's death, China was in turmoil with another dynasty on foot. Liu Bang, leader from 206 to 195 BCE, after leading a revolt against the Qin was declared emperor of the New Han dynasty. Instead of following the strict legalistic mindset of the Qin, Liu decided to set his empire as a Confucianist paradise. The ideals of moderation, virtue and piety as set through Confucianism were marched throughout the empire, weaving the cocoon of a powerful dynasty. During the Han Dynasty, the production of silk was ever increasing, and the idea of profits was in the minds of all. So in 138, BCE, Emperor Han Wu sent an imperial convoy to make contact with cultures of Central Asia and the Mediterranean. Then after the routes were established, Chinese merchants and traders would bring their silk across the Silk Road to the Middle East and eventually Europe, where it would be sold at high profits. Though in the beginning, the route was relatively short because in 97 BC Ambassador Gan Ying was sent to Rome with gifts of silk for their empire. However, Gan only got as far as Mesopotamia because he was told by the Parthians, the dominant empire in Iran at the time that the journey would take years. Little did Gan know that he was misinformed, that the journey would've been relatively shorter, but the Parthians wanted to keep their spot as the middlemen. They did not want China and Rome to have contact with one another, creating a system of three empires smooshed right up against each other, Rome in the west, Parthians in the center, and China in the east.

Then in 86, BCE, Greece already being weakened by the conquest of Alexander The Great was now the target of the Roman Empire. General Lucius Cornelius Sulla led an army of legions to the forefront of Athens. He besieged Athens for several months, brutally torturing the citizens within. Eventually when Athens fell, he ordered his soldiers to loot and pillage the city, destroying many important cultural treasures. This takeover cemented Rome as a superpower. Athens no longer had the power, but rather it was in Rome.

While in 63, BCE, General Pompey was tasked with capturing Jerusalem and the region of Galilee. The Romans quickly captured the cities, forcing Galilee to be placed under Roman rule, including a small village called Nazareth. The Romans desire to expand didn't end in Galilee though. In 58, BCE, Julius Caesar was appointed governor of the Roman provide of Cisalpine Gaul, Northern Italy, with the express assignment of conquering the rest of the Gauls. At the time, the Gauls were a group of Celtic peoples who lived in that area that is now France, Belgium, and parts of Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. However, it was Caesar's job to take over these Celtic tribes, while the Gauls who were insistent on their independence all had to work together under the leadership of Vercingetorix, in a last ditch attempt to stop the Romans. As Caesar brought his troops to Alesia in 52 BC, war was upon us. Alesia was surrounded by a double wall and a ditch with additional fortifications on the town's heels, Vercingetorix had gathered a large force of Gallic warriors inside the town. In contrast, Caesar had assembled a sizable Roman army outside the walls. Caesar realized that a direct assault on the town would be complex, so he surrounded the Gallic forces and starved them into submission. He ordered the construction of a series of fortifications around Alesia, including a circumvallation wall that encircled the town and a second wall, and ditch that faced outward to defend against any attempts to break out. Over several weeks, Caesar's forces engaged in a grueling Siege of Alesia with both sides suffering heavy losses. The Gallic warriors inside the town made several attempts to break out, but they were repelled by the Roman forces. The tide of the battle turned in favor of the Romans. When a second gallic army, led by Vercingetorix's ally Commius, attempted to relieve the siege. Caesar sent a detachment of his forces to intercept the gallic reinforcements. After a fierce battle, the Roman soldiers emerged victorious. With his forces surrounded and facing starvation, Vercingetorix was forced to surrender. He emerged from Alesia and offered himself as a prisoner to Caesar, effectively ending the Gallic resistance to Roman rule. Throughout the next two years, Caesar crossed the Gallic empire conquering and implementing it into Rome. The Gauls were implemented into Rome, even gaining citizenship within the empire.

However, the Senate was not happy with Caesar. Even though he had great success against the Galls, the Roman Senate wanted him to stop. They did not like the popularity Caesar was gaining, nor the power he was controlling. So the Roman Senate called upon Caesar to resign his command and disband his army, or risk being declared an enemy of the state. This led Caesar to an essential choice to make. Will he either follow the wheel of the Roman Senate or ignore them and start a bloody civil war? Roman law at the time prohibited any general from crossing the Rubicon River and entering mainland Italy with a standing army, without the expressed permission of the Roman Senate. To do so would be treason, and this tiny stream would reveal Caesar's intentions and mark the point of no return. Civil war was imminent as Caesar and his army marched over the Rubicon. Battles in Corfinium and Pharsalus showed the Senate that Caesar was a worthy foe. So the Roman Senate appointed his son-in-law, Gnaeus Pompey, to lead the Roman forces against his father-in-law. Both parties knew the importance of Spain, due to it providing a link between Italy and the rest of Europe. The two armies clashed near the town of Ilerda in Northeastern Spain. Caesar's army was significantly outnumbered, but he could use his superior military tactics and training to gain the upper hand in the battle. After several days of intense fighting, Caesar emerged victorious, forcing Pompey's forces to retreat, declaring Caesar as the new leader of Rome. When Caesar made it back to Rome, the crowds were chanting hail Caesar, hail Caesar. The people then decided that he would be the dictator of Rome for life. Caesar immediately set to work, implementing a series of reforms and policies aimed at improving ordinary Roman's lives and strengthening the central government's power. He ordered the construction of new infrastructure such as roads, bridges, and aqueducts, which helped to connect different parts of the city and improve trade and commerce. Caesar also enacted a series of political and social reforms, including granting citizenship to many people living in the Roman Empire and creating new laws and customs that were based on Roman practices.

He encouraged the spread of the Latin language and culture throughout the city and established the Julian calendar, which is the basis of the calendar we use today.

However, Caesar's reign was short-lived because two years later in 44 BC, he was stabbed to death by two loyal senators, Cassius and Brutus. The assassination of Caesar led the Roman world into disarray. The world was filled with factions, vying for government control without a strong leader.

Octavian, Caesar's son, who was 18 then, came to Rome to claim his inheritance and assert his place in the political landscape. He quickly aligned himself with Caesar's loyal Lieutenant Mark Antony. Together, they defeated Caesar's assassins at the Battle of Philippe in 42, BCE.

However, tension soon arose between Octavian and Antony as both men vied for control of the Roman empire. In 31 BCE, their forces clashed in the naval battle of Actium, which resulted in Octavian emerging as the clear victor. Antony fled to Egypt with his lover Cleopatra and the two committed suicide the following year.

With Antony's defeat, Octavian emerged as the undisputed ruler of Rome. In 27, BCE, he was appointed Augustus and became the first Roman emperor.

During Augustus's reign, a man who would change the world was born in the Roman occupied city of Bethlehem, Jesus Christ. The gospel of Luke says, "in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria and all went to be registered, each to his own town." Luke two, one through three.

This census was an essential factor in Roman society because it established the population counts in these various communities making it possible to tax these various citizens. So the highly pregnant Mary and her betrothed husband, Joseph had to travel 90 miles on foot from Nazareth to Bethlehem to complete this legally required Roman census.

When they arrived in Bethlehem, many other descendants of the king of David or members of the Jewish faith were also going to Bethlehem for the census. They found out that there was no room for them in the inn, so they were forced to take shelter in a stable where Mary gave birth to Jesus. Jesus was later named King of the Jews.

After Jesus' birthday and the completion of the census, Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth with their extraordinary son. As the years of Jesus went on, stories about him grew. More and more followers began to worship Jesus as their Messiah. They claim that he can catch an endless amount of fish. They claim that he can cure the blind, and they claim that he was the son of God.

So these followers, specifically his disciples, started to write down his entire life journey. Four of his closest disciples, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, wrote down the main chunks of the book in these parts called gospels. Each of these gospels covered almost all of the same events, the narrative life of Jesus Christ. This narrative testimony of a child born in a stable changed the world forever.

Even though many loved Jesus, some viewed him as a threat. Emperor Tiberius succeeded Augustus and reigned from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was notorious for his delators, a network of informants rewarded for spying and reporting on suspected traitors and criminals. Criminals reported on by the delators had to face a treason trial, often resulting in executions or forced suicides.

His prefect of Judea at the time, Pontius Pilate was no stranger to the harsh punishment of traitors. As Jesus was influencing more and more people, he became more of a political threat. So following the guidelines of Emperor Tiberius, Pilate was given no practical political choice other than to execute Jesus on a cross. Roman law was evident then. One must follow the emperor's will, or else they will perish.

As Jesus was crucified on the cross, a new religion was born, Christianity. In the beginning, Christianity was just a small sect of Judaism. Nevertheless, its growth would be unparalleled. Paul of Taurus would take the word of his chosen lord across the known world, from Greece to Turkey to Syria, the word of Jesus Christ spread. His missionary tales are now documented in the New Testament as the Book of Acts.

The more Paul went to different places, the more followers he gained. On the same token, it created more enemies. The divide between monotheism and polytheism was on the rise. It was beginning to get a lot tougher for Romans to accept a religious population that didn't believe in gods like Mars and Jupiter.

So when the great fire of Rome occurred in July of 64 AD Emperor Nero quickly blamed it on the Christians. The Great Fire was an event that destroyed two thirds of the city of Rome. So in order to pay for these massive repairs, Nero instituted heavy tributes across the empire to meet at least a proportion of the costs, Nero also started to print more Roman currency, creating an inflationary effect for the first time in the empire's history.

However, the individuals who lived under Roman rule, which wasn't in Rome proper, were upset by this new policy. So in the holy city of Jerusalem in 66 AD, a revolt was on. At first, the first Jewish revolt succeeded, and the Jewish forces quickly expelled the unprepared Roman army. Then the rebels gained some traction in the neighboring villages in Galilee.

In response, the Roman emperor Nero sent the general Vespasian to meet the Jewish forces, an endeavor that pushed most rebels into Jerusalem proper, by the time Vespasian was proclaimed emperor in 69 CD, then around Passover in 70 AD, Vespasian and his forces sieged the city depleting it of food and water, within the walls of Jerusalem, the Jews started to quarrel within, leaving them more vulnerable to attack. By August, the Romans breached the defenses, killed much of the population and destroyed many of their holy sites. With the Jews decimated, the strength of polytheism lived long.

Then in 98 to 117 AD under Emperor Trajan, the Roman Empire was able to expand its greatest territorial extent, spanning all the way from modern day Britain to the Persian Gulf. Roman rule was everywhere. Well, except for in the Americas, because the Romans didn't even know they existed.

In the Americas, we can see the growth of various civilizations across the Andes located in modern day Peru, in Chile, the Moche civilization was able to build monumental structures like the Huaca del Son and Huaca de la Luna, impressive pyramids that were the center of their religions. They also created advanced fertilization techniques that used bird droppings as fertilizer. Their highly centralized government made everyone know their place in society.

While a little bit more south, the Nazca civilization is one enthralled in mystery, the people of Nazca created a series of large scale geoglyph consisting of hundreds of individual figures, including geometric shapes, animals, and human-like figures. By removing the dark, reddish brown iron oxide coated pebbles covering the surface of the Nazca desert. These lines are now called Nazca lines. The purpose of which is still unknown to this day, and subject to conspiracy theory today.

Around 100 AD, the Zapotec started establishing Monte Alban, their capital. It was one of the first examples of urban planning in the Americas. The city was laid out in a grid pattern with main roads and smaller side streets leading to plazas and public buildings. The city was also divided into different districts, each with specialized functions such as residential, administrative, and religious, leaving it to be in use for a thousand years after that.

While back in Rome, after the end of Trajan's reign in 117 AD, a new emperor with a purpose was in hand. Hadrian was a man tasked with a near impossible, keeping the massive Roman empire, under one rule, he first had to deal with a crisis with the newly colonized Roman Britain. Like their predecessors, in Judea, the Roman Brits did not like being Roman, so they started to cause unrest, and in the eyes of Hadrian, a real threat of revolution was on his mind. So Hadrian had ordered a massive wall aptly named Hadrian's Wall, which spanned almost coast to coast, keeping it sunk in the conquered people's minds that the Romans were here, staving off revolution in one region.

However, in Galilee, things weren't as peaceful. Simon bar Kokhba led a rebellion of the Jewish people to free themselves from Roman rule. As you see, Rome was developing a new city called Aelia Capitolina over the ruins of Jerusalem. From the last revolt with temples dedicated to polytheistic gods like Jupiter. By 132, bar Kokhba took the (indistinct) of Nasi, head of state. Many Jews regarded him as the Messiah, who would save the Jewish people and restore their independence. Kokhba's troops would storm Aelia Capitolina, almost knocking out entirely the Roman garrison controlling the city.

Hadrian, though would not have it. So he sent a force of 120,000 men to the lands of Judea to conquer and force the Jewish people into submission. As Cassius Dio says, in the History of Rome, "50 of their most important outposts and 985 of their most famous villages were razed. 580,000 men were slain in the various raids and battles and the number of those that perished by famine, disease, and fire was past finding out. Thus, nearly the whole of Judea was made desolate." History of Rome 69.14, one to two. Rome made it clear that it was not to be taken lightly.

While in China, the message was quite different. The ideas of Buddhism were spreading, along with the Chinese philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism and built a dynasty. These three philosophies work together to make the Han Dynasty stronger and more united in many ways.

While in America, the Mayan architects went across Northern Peten and designed a series of short, broad temples with wide staircases, flanked by enormous stucco masks. These stucco masks were made of plaster and some burned and powdered limestone. The Mayans built these stone armatures into elaborate deity faces to capture the soul of the gods and bring it to the people. A temple like the E seven sub. Yes, historians named Mayan temples like military submarines, is a pyramid with 16 stucco masks. Each allows us to go deeper into the souls of these deities of the past.

In the Middle East, a new empire was emerging with roots in the past, a man named Ardashir claimed to have a royal blood that traced all the way back to Cyrus the Great. Ardashir claimed that he should be the true ruler of the Persian Empire, not those frauds of the Parthians. Ardashir was able to unite the various tribes of Persia. In 224 AD Ardashir I led his forces against the Parthian King, Artabatus V, in a significant battle at Hormozgan, the Sasanian forces known for their cavalry defeated the Parthians and captured Artabatus V. With this victory Ardashir I declared himself king and established the Sasanian empire. Ardashir I quickly established a centralized government and built a new capital at Ctesiphon on the Tigris River, he reestablished the Zoroastrian religion, which had been suppressed by the Parthians as the empire's official religion. He also built a powerful military machine with skilled cavalry and archers. He began to expand his territory by conquering neighboring regions.

As the Parthians were on their way out, so were the Han. The Han Dynasty's downfall was marked by political instability, economic problems, external threats, internal rebellions and power struggles. The weakening of central authority allowed regional warlords to seize power, and the government's attempts to address economic issues were unsuccessful. External threats and rebellions weakened the dynasty even further. A warlord named Cao Pi declared himself emperor and established the Wei Dynasty, officially ending the Han Dynasty.

While back in Rome, Emperor Diocletian, 284 to 305 faced a problem. Rome was becoming too large and impossible to manage. So Diocletian created the tetrarchy and divided the region into four, where each region was governed by a separate emperor. Within the tetrarchy, there were two types of emperors, Augustus and Caesars. Dian chose Maximilian to be his equal to Augustus. In contrast, Galerius and Constantius were appointed to be Caesars. However, this system created uncontrolled chaos and anarchy. Each emperor had desires for power and ambition, and it all came to a head in 305 when power shifted, both Diocletian and Maximian retired, and in 306, Constantius died. Three out of the four original leaders were left out of the system leading to a power vacuum to come.

Emperor Constantine the Great was appointed by his father's army unilaterally as an Augustus and a Caesar at the same time to replace his father. At the same time, Maximian's son Maxentius felt as though he should have been appointed Caesar instead of Valerius Severus. So in 307, Maxentius sent his army and forced Valerius Severus to surrender. Come 308, Galerius appointed Licinius to replace him. So on the west side of Rome, two emperors wanted to rule. Constantine ruled over Gaul in Britain and Maxentius ruled Italy and North Africa.

Maxentius had a difficult time consolidating his power, and he faced increasing resistance from the people of Rome. To try and secure his hold on power, Maxentius ordered the construction of a new bridge across the Tiber River near Rome, known as the Milvian Bridge. Constantine saw Maxentius as a threat to his power, so he decided to march on Rome to confront him.

As the two armies approached each other near the Milvian Bridge, Constantine had a vision of a cross in the sky with the words in this sign conquer. Some accounts suggest that this vision may have been a dream or a hallucination. While others suggest that it may have been a sign from God. Regardless of the nature of the vision, Constantine took it as a sign that he would be victorious in battle if he fought under the sign of the Christian Cross. He had his soldiers paint this symbol on their shields and banners, and he went into battle with renewed vigor and confidence.

The battle was fierce and brutal with both sides suffering heavy losses. Maxentius had a larger army, but his troops were spread out and disorganized. Constantine was able to take advantage of this and he was able to push Maxentius' forces back towards the Tiber River. In the chaos of the retreat, Maxentius was forced off the Milvian bridge and into the water where he drowned.

Shortly after his victory, Constantine met Licinius at Mediolanum, modern Milan, to confirm several political and dynastic arrangements to produce the Edict of Milan. This edict gave power for Eastern Rome to Licinius and Constantine sole power of the west. More importantly though, this document extended religious tolerance for Christians and restored any properties confiscated from them, during the persecution, however, the peaceful coexistence of both rulers was short-lived. Though the edict allowed for the safety of Christians, Licinius was still very much a paganist. Their differences started to grow. All came near the city of Chrysopolis in 324 AD where both armies went and fought. Constantine's military might was on display. He was able to force the Eastern Roman army towards the sea, leaving many to be killed or captured. Constantine was declared the sole leader of Rome and Licinius was declared dead by hanging. He renamed the Eastern Roman capital from Byzantium to Constantinople to celebrate his victory.

Then in 325 AD, Constantine presided over the First Council of Nicea when the 300 bishops established the now famous Nicene Creed which declared that Jesus Christ was begotten, not made, and of one substance with the Father. Constantine was finally baptized as a Christian on his death bed, in 337 AD.

Come 370 AD, a new player was on the scenes. The Huns were a barbaric nomadic civilization who were masters of warfare. According to legends, they were taught horsemanship as early as the age of three. Also, they would attack their own with a sword to teach them how to endure pain. These people weren't to be messed lightly with. When they crossed the Volga River in 370 on their horses and lusted for blood, the Alans civilization didn't stand much chance. Two years later, they attacked the Ostrogoths, an eastern tribe of Germanic Goths, who harassed the Roman empire by frequently attacking their territories. By 376, the Huns had attacked the Visigoths, the Western tribe of Goths and forced them to seek sanctuary within the Roman Empire. As the Huns dominated Goth and Visigoth lands, they earned a new reputation as the new barbarians in town and seemed unstoppable.

By 395 AD they began invading Roman domains, and some Roman Christians believed they were devils who arrived straight from hell. The reason they started invading Rome was because of the death of Theodosius the Great, his shining achievement as emperor was keeping the Goths and the Huns at bay, but on death, he decided to follow the ideas of Diocletian and split the empire up again. Splitting up control between his two sons, Arcadius in the east and Honorius in the west, making Theodosius the last leader of a united Rome. With Honorius in charge, the incapable general made Western Rome an easy target to be bullied. The Visigoths looking for a new place to live had their eyes set on Rome. So throughout the early 410s, the Visigoths ransacked various Roman cities. Then on August 24th, 410, the Visigoth sacked Rome, taking control of this historic city. It was the first time in nearly 800 years that a foreign army occupied the city of Rome. However, the Visigoths couldn't maintain control of Rome. Instead, they continued to ransack Roman territories until they established their kingdom in 418, in modern day Spain.

While the prospects of existence weren't so much better in Eastern Rome, the notorious Attila the Hun was gaining power and his brutal tactics called him the Scourge of God. After a failed peace attempt in 441, Attila and his army stormed through the Balkans and the Danubian frontier. Another peace treaty was forged in 442, but Attila attacked again in 443, killing, ransacking and pillaging his way to the well fortified city of Constantinople. However, due to Constantinople's high walls, Attila couldn't conquer it. Instead, Attila was able to muster another peace agreement. He would leave Constantinople alone in exchange for an annual tribute of 2,100 pounds of gold, a staggering sum.

Then in 451, the Huns invaded the Gauls, allowing the once enemies of the Visigoths and the Romans to wise up and work together to fight the Huns. According to legend, the night before the imminent battle, Attila consulted sacrificed bones and saw that thousands of his army would fall in the fight. The next day, his premonition came true. In the battle of the Catalaunian planes, after hours of ferocious fighting, tens of thousands of soldiers lay dead, giving Attila his first and only military defeat in history.

However, even after the loss, Attila and his army marched on and returned to Italy, continuously ravaging the cities. In 452 with Rome in sight, he met Pope Leo I who acted as an emissary between Attila and Rome. There's no record of what they discussed. Still, according to legend, the apparitions of St. Paul and St. Peter appear to Attila. They threatened to kill him if he didn't negotiate with Pope Leo I. Attila decided to pull out of Italy and return to the great Hungarian plane, whether because of his fear of the Pope and his saintly allies or because of his troops were stretched too thin and weakened by malaria.

However, the struggle for Western Rome wasn't over. In 476 AD, the young emperor Romulus Augustus had trouble keeping power for himself, as many Romans felt he was illegitimate. So the Eastern Roman empire sent the Germanic general Odoacer and his mercenaries to suppress a revolt by the Roman army in the region. However, instead of supporting the Eastern Roman empire, Odoacer saw an opportunity to seize power for himself. He turned against the Roman government and deposed the last Western Roman emperor, Romulus Augustus, effectively marking the end of the Western Roman empire. As the steps of his victory, Odoacer was declared the king of Italy. However, Odoacer's victory was short-lived because in 493, Theodoric the Great of the Ostrogoths with the support of Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno came in and created the Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy, sending Odoacer to meet his fate.

While Europe was in the crux of a dark age, India under the Gupta Empire was in a mathematical golden age. Great mathematicians like Brahmagupta started using zero as a placeholder and as various solutions for mathematical equations. The astronomer Aryabhata was able to calculate the circumference of the Earth. He proved the world was round long before it was globally accepted. Aryabhata was also able to develop methods for calculating pi and square roots. However, his crowning achievement was creating the concept of an asymptote, which is a line that approaches the curve but never touches it.

The Franks under Clovis I had been an engaged with the Alamanni, another Germanic tribe and tensions between the two groups were running high. In 496 AD in the battle of Tolbiac, Clovis I led his forces into battle against the Alamanni, with both sides eager to gain the upper hand in the ongoing struggle for power and territory. As the Alamanni began to push the Franks to defeat, in a moment of desperation, Clovis called out to the Christian God for assistance, promising to convert to Christianity, if he emerged victorious. According to legend, a sudden thunderstorm appeared and the Franks could regroup and launch a successful counter attack against the Alamanni. The battle ended in a decisive victory for the Franks and Clovis kept his promise and converted to Christianity, officially cementing Christianity to the forefront and birthing the Frankish kingdom.

While the western Roman empire might have fallen. In the East, the Roman Empire was changing. Many historians argue that the Eastern Roman empire based out of Constantinople should be considered a part of Rome. However, it is undeniable that under Justinian I would lead the Eastern half into its next chapter in life. The Byzantine Empire, whether it's a continuation of the Roman Empire before, is a debate for another (indistinct). Under the leadership of Justinian I, like many Roman emperors before him, he would expand the Byzantine Empire to reach places such as Italy, North Africa, and even Spain. He also commissioned a team of legal scholars to codify all the laws of the Roman Empire, known as the Corpus Juris Civilis which became the basis of the European laws we know today. He also commissioned the world-renowned Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, where this beautiful cathedral, adorned with intricate mosaics and marble decorations became the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

However, Jesus wasn't the only prophet at the time. In the small town of Mecca, a nomadic tribe called the Quraysh gave birth to a man who would change the religious world, yet again, Muhammad. Muhammad was orphaned at an early age and was raised by his grandfather and later his uncle. As he grew up, he worked as a merchant, which earned him the nickname al-Amin, meaning the trustworthy.

On one of his pilgrimages in 610, Muhammad meditated in a cave on Mount Jabal al-Nour, the angel Gabriel appeared and relayed the word of God. Recite in the name of your Lord who creates, creates a man from a clot. Recite for your Lord is most generous became the opening verses of Surah chapter 96 of the Quran. At first, Muhammad was reluctant, not knowing how to disclose this information. However, soon enough, Muhammad began to gather a small following, which was mocked by the pagans of Mecca. However, when Muhammad denounced idol worship, the leader of Mecca knew that he was through. So through the resistance from Mecca, Muhammad and his followers were eventually forced to immigrate to Medina, a city 260 miles away. There Muhammad was instrumental in ending various civil wars creating a prosperous Muslim community.

Nevertheless, this prosperity would be challenged by the members of Muhammad's old tribe, the Quraysh and their allies who marched up to Medina with a large army to attack the Muslims. Muhammad devised a plan that they could defend the city if they dug a trench around its perimeter, making it near impossible for enemy forces to penetrate. For several weeks, the Quraysh tried to break through the trench, trying and trying yet again. Eventually, strong wind and heavy rain caused the Quraysh forces to abandon the siege, marking the Muslims as victorious.

In 630, the Muslim army marched into Mecca, taking the city with minimum casualties. Muhammad gave amnesty to the enemy leaders who once supposed him, converting most of the Meccan population to Islam. At the time of Muhammad's death, the Muslims had successfully united the Arabian Peninsula under the banner of Islam.

After Muhammad's death, a series of Caliphs or leaders took over the leadership of the Muslim community, beginning with Abu Bakr, a close companion of the prophet. Under the leadership of the Caliphs, the Muslim community continued to expand its territory, conquering new lands, and spreading the message of Islam. At first, Aku Bakr had his eyes set on the Byzantine Empire's provinces of Syria, taking over the crucial cities of Damascus and Jerusalem. Then in 636, the Arab forces invaded the Sasanian Empire, taking over their capital city in 637, marking the end of the Sasanian empire. Onward to Egypt, they went, where after years of fighting, they successfully defeated the Byzantine to take over the city of Alexandria in 642 AD, economically crippling the Byzantines. By 716, the Arab forces had conquered much of North Africa, Carthage, and Spain, so that by 716, the Arabs had an extensive empire from Lisbon to China.

After consolidating their hold on the Iberian Peninsula, the Arabs launched raids into neighboring Francia, modern day France. In 732 AD they launched a significant invasion to expand their territory northward. The Arabs forces led by Emir Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi quickly conquered several cities in the region, including Bordeaux and Tours. However, Charles Martel, the military leader of the Franks, assembled a large army to meet the Arabs in battle, the battle of Christianity versus Islam. Both empires wanted to keep their own faith. The Arabs wanted to impose their religion onto the Franks. The two forces clashed near Tours on October 10th, 732 AD. The battle was fierce and lasted several days with both sides suffering heavy casualties. In the end, though, Charles Martel and the Franks emerged victorious and the Arab forces were forced to retreat back to Spain, ending the massive expansion of the Arabic empire.

While in the West, the definition of God was war. In China, during the rule of the Tang, religions like Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, all coexisted peacefully, a citizen was able to believe what they wanted to believe, leaving for many temples and pagodas to be built across the empire. Also, during the Tang, the height of Chinese poetry was upon us. Poets like Li Po and Du Fu created poems that later became the foundations of Chinese literature. Li Po wrote a poignant poem called Zazen on Ching-t'ing Mountain, translated by Sam Hamel, "the birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away. We sit together the mountain and me until only the mountain remains."

Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great became the king of the Franks in 768, Charlemagne was a skilled military leader who expanded the Frankish empire, through successful campaigns. He conquered much of Western Europe, including modern day France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Charlemagne was also a devout Christian and worked to spread Christianity throughout his empire.

In 785, Harun was declared Caliph, instead of focusing on conquering like his brethren, he instead focused on the scientific growth in the new capital city of Baghdad. Harun al-Rashid wanted to create the House of Wisdom, a library and research center that attracted scholars from around the world. These scholars would come to the House of Wisdom with the desire to learn. They've translated the works of the past as well as developing the science of algebra, chemistry, sociology, and the concept of infinity.

While the Vikings had a different idea of progress, the Vikings were a group of uncivilized pagans from modern day Scandinavia who wanted to gain material wealth. So June 8th, 793 AD marked the beginning of the Viking Age in Europe. Lindisfarne was a small isolated island off the northeast coast of England that was home to a famous monastery and considered one of Europe's most important centers of learning. On the day of the raid, a group of Viking warriors, likely from Norway or Denmark, landed on the island and attacked the monastery. The Vikings pillaged the monastery, killing many monks and taking others as slaves. The raid was a brutal, an unexpected attack on a place of great religious and cultural significance, and it sent shock waves throughout Europe.

In 799 in Rome, Pope Leo III was attacked by a faction of Rome who believed that the Pope was guilty of tyranny and serious personal misconduct. So Pope Leo III ran away to the Frankish kingdom. After this, Charlemagne and his Frank army provided an escort for the Pope and restored him to the papal office. But yet the power of the papacy was being questioned with many people wanting it to go away, which caused Charlamagne to go to Rome in late 800 to fight for his Pope. For his loyalty, on Christmas day in the Basilica of St. Peter, Pope Leo III placed a crown on Charlamagne's head, declaring him the new Holy Roman emperor, creating a new Roman empire, the Holy Roman Empire, or at least the first rendition of it.

Under Charlemagne, the foundations of a genuinely great empire were forming. But once Charlemagne died in 814, the new empire was bludgeoning with problems. His son, Louis the Pious, 788 to 840, inherited an empire filled with problems. Many of his own citizens viewed him as a strong Catholic who was well intentioned, but was incredibly weak and unable to do anything. As the Vikings continued their raids along the Rhine River attacking Holy Roman Empire cities such as Cologne, Trier And Mainz, raiding various Catholic monasteries and destroying religious artifacts caused fear and hatred among his citizens. Why would anyone trust a leader if they can't stop barbaric pagans? So various local leaders started to focus on defending their land rather than relying on the central government for defense. Hence beginning the process of independently recreating the Chinese system of feudalism. At this time, people would willingly farm on lands, giving up their freedom to these local leaders to protect them from the Vikings, creating the basis of a new system of feudalism.

While the Holy Roman Empire might have been fighting with the Vikings and the Byzantines were fighting with the Arabs. In 820, a group of Arab raiders landed on the island of Crete. Over the next several years, Arab forces gradually gained control of the island, overcoming the resistance of the Byzantine defenders. The conquest was completed in 827, and Crete became part of the Arab Empire. The conquest of Sicily and Sardinia followed a similar pattern. In 827, a large Arab fleet landed on Sicily and Arab forces quickly gained control of much of the island. They then moved on to Sardinia, which fell to the Arab invaders in 828.

In the Holy Roman empire, once Louis the Pious died in 840 AD, so did the Charlemagne Empire. The infighting between family members grew leading to the Holy Roman empire being divided between three family members, in the famous Treaty of Verdun. In the West, the formation of the West Frankish kingdom was given to Charlemagne's grandson, Charles the Bald in modern day France. In the East, the East Frankish kingdom was given to another grandson Louis the German, which was obviously settled in modern day Germany, while the Middle Kingdom was given to Charlemagne's eldest son, Lothair. However, being squeezed in between the west and East Frankish kingdoms gave the middle Kingdom a short lifespan and was practically irrelevant.

The Vikings weren't just a problem for mainland Europe. They were pillaging everything in mainland England. So in 871, the new king of Wessex, Alfred the Great rose to power with one thing in mind, keeping everyone safe. Alfred built a network of fortifications known as burrows, designed to protect his people from Viking attacks. He also developed new military tactics and strategies and fostered alliances with other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Unlike in Great Britain, though, the Vikings were actually invited to Russia. According to Russian legend, the tribes in Russia were tired of dealing with political strife. So they invited the Varangians, a sect of Vikings to establish order and a government over there. Hence, Rurik came with his two brothers to the city of Novgorod, and using the Vikings' famous force, they were able to establish order in the city. Declaring Rurik as their new king, creating the Kievan Rus' dynasty. Under the military leadership of Oleg, one of the Rurik kingsmen, the Kievan Rus' started establishing Smolensk and Kiev in modern day Ukraine, creating the forefront of Russia today.

While back in England, expanding upon his grandfather Alfred the Great's alliance network, Athelstan was declared king of Essex. Athelstan was able to get all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to work together to fend off the Vikings of the British Isles. He was declared to be the first king of England due to his ability to navigate alliances and keep everyone safe, beginning one of the longest monarchies in human history.

While the East Frankish kingdom was facing a similar problem, the pagan Magyars were attacking everyone across the kingdom, leaving the kingdom to live in fear. However, King Otto of the East Frankish Empire was able to defeat the pesky Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955. Then in 961, he could fully conquer all of the kingdoms of Italy, restoring Christiandom to all the former pagans. So in 962, Otto I was coronated to Pope John the 12th in Rome to be the new Holy Roman emperor.

In France, though, the West Frankish kingdom was struggling because in 987, King Louie the V, a direct descendant of Charlemagne died at age 20 without leaving an heir to take over their dynasty, leaving the French monarchy in peril. So the French aristocracy had an election between Hugh Capet, a noble with extensive lands in the region of Isle de France, and Charles Duke of Lower Lorraine. With the support of Adalberon, the Archbishop of Reims, Hugh Capet became the first king of France, starting the Capetian Dynasty.

However, at this time, the typical person in Europe was always living in fear. Every civilization was on the verge of conquering. They've all become land hungry and were willing to fight for it. So across Europe at this time, every civilization started to entrench their society in the ideas of feudalism leading to another social pyramid. At the bottom, lay the serfs. Their job was to farm the land and ensure everyone was fed. Then came the knight who provided protection for the people. Then came the nobles who ruled over a specific territory owning the land. Then came the kings as previously mentioned, who gave lands to the nobles, but all the way at the top was the Pope because the Pope could speak directly to God and had God-given ownership of all the lands.

In the early 11th century, Leif Erikson was sent on a voyage to discover lands west of Greenland. If you look at a map, west of Greenland is the Americas. So Leif and his crew ventured to this new mystical land called Vinland. In modern day, New Finland, Canada. Leif and his crew spent the winter in Vinland, establishing a small settlement and trading with the local indigenous people. They also explored the surrounding area, which they found rich in natural resources, including timber, fish, and game. Leif and his crew returned to Greenland in the spring where they were greeted as heroes for discovering new lands. Little did Leif know that he discovered a new continent for his European people.

Though significantly less is known about the Americas, some historians believe that at the time a similar type of expansion happened in the American continent, like in Europe. Sadly, we just don't have the historical records from this unique period. We know that the Mayans down in South America were building the impressive cities of Tikal, Palenque, and Chichen Itza, having a population of anywhere between two and 10 million. We also know that there were various tribes across the north, including the Cherokee, the Navajo, and the Inuits. The Inuits are most likely to have interacted with Leif's fleet.

While back in Europe, in the holy city of Jerusalem laid the very famous church, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. According to Christian belief, this church was built on the day Jesus was crucified and resurrected. However, in 1009 AD Arab Caliph Al-Hakim ordered the destruction of this sacred holy site. All of the sacred sites were destroyed, leaving them completely annihilated. When the news reached Europe, Christians were horrified. Pope Sergius IV sent a circular letter to all churches calling for a holy fight in the Middle East and the expulsion of Muslims from the holy land. But yet, the Arabs of the Abbasid Caliphate would actually be expelled by another before Jerusalem, the Seljuk Turks, a central Asian Turkish people of the Muslim faith were beginning to grow their empire. In 1055, they took over the Abbasid Caliphate capital city of Baghdad. The Celtic Turks initially respected the Caliph but the Celtics took over the city over time. In 1076, they captured Medina followed the next year by the capturing of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.

Due to this, the Muslim world wasn't ready for Pope Urban II at the Council of Claremont in 1095 to call upon all Christians to take up arms and liberate the holy land from Muslim rule. The Pope promised spiritual rewards and forgiveness of sins to those who joined the crusade, and many knight, nobles and peasants were inspired to take up the cause. Many European nobles, such as Godfrey of Bouillon, Toulouse, Bohemond of Taranto and Robert of Flanders, brought their armies from Europe on their journey to Jerusalem. While the Christians were united, the Muslims were divided and unable to put up a strong defense against the Crusaders. Hence, the Christians took over the County of Edessa in 1098 and finally the holy city of Jerusalem in 1099.

However, the crusade wasn't done. In 1144, the Muslim forces led by Turkish ruler, Ahmad ad-Din Zengi, launched a siege against Edessa. The city was poorly defended, and the crusaders could not resist the Muslim forces for long. After a siege of several weeks, the city was breached and the Muslim forces overran the city, killing or enslaving much of the population, but the Christians weren't happy with that. So in 1147, the massive armies of Europe came back with attempts to free Edessa. The crusaders faced significant logistical challenges, including shortages of food and supplies. They were also plagued by infighting and political rivalries, which called the campaign to be in ruin after the disastrous loss of the Battle of Inab in 1149, which resulted in the capture of King Louis VII and the loss of much of the crusader army.

While the Christians and Muslims were fighting, the Hindus in the Khmer Empire under King Suryavarman II built a fantastic temple for the Hindu God Vishnu called the Angkor Wat. Vishnu is an important God in Hinduism known as the preserver and protector of the universe. He has 10 incarnations or avatars and is often depicted as having blue skin and holding four objects. As you approach Angkor Wat, you are greeted by a massive moat and a grand entrance gate adorned with intricate carvings of mythological creatures and deities. The main temple rises like a towering mountain with intricate carvings and reliefs that tell the stories of Hindu mythology and the history of the Khmer Empire. The temple's galleries are lined with stunning bass reliefs depicting scenes of battles, ceremonies, and daily life in ancient Cambodia. At the heart of the complex is the central sanctuary, a massive pyramid-like structure surrounded by smaller temples and courtyards. The sanctuary is considered the most sacred part of the temple, adorned with intricately carved statues and images of Hindu gods and goddesses. It was an incredible feat of human ingenuity.

But yet in 1187, the Muslim commander from Egypt, Saladin became fed up with the Christian rule of Jerusalem, so he declared a Holy War across the Muslim world, in order to re-conquer Jerusalem from the Christians. The battle occurred on a scorching hot day in the hills near the Sea of Galilee. Saladin's forces numbered around 20,000. The Crusaders had a much smaller force of around 12,000 knights, soldiers and civilians under the aptly named king, King Guy. The battle began with skirmishes between the two sides, but soon escalated into a full scale engagement. Saladin's forces could use their superior cavalry to encircle the crusaders who could not break through the Muslim lines. The heat and thirst soon took a toll on the crusaders who were weakened and disoriented. The Muslim forces took advantage of the situation. They launched a fierce attack, breaking through the crusader lines and capturing many nights. King Guy and a small group of knights were able to escape the battlefield. Still, the majority of the crusader army was destroyed. The loss of the battle was a severe blow to the Christian forces in the region, and it paved the way for Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem, but the Christians weren't going to allow that. So guess what happened? Another crusade. This time, the three most powerful monarchs at the time, Emperor Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire, King Richard I of England, and King Philip II of France sent their best armies to reconquer the holy city of Jerusalem. However, all the force in the world couldn't retake Jerusalem, from the grips of Saladin. Leaving the third crusade to be a failure.

Genghis was born to a mother kidnapped by his father and forced into marriage. Legend holds that he came into this world clutching a blood clot in his right hand. Before he turned 10, his father was poisoned to death by an enemy clan. Genghis' clan then deserted him, his mother, and his six siblings to avoid having to feed them. However, he soon began to make friends with the other clans throughout the Mongolian mountain side. By 1206, he had united all the various tribes, uniting 1 million people. For the time, Genghis was quite progressive. He made it illegal to sell and kidnap women, banished the idea of enslavement of any Mongol and even allowed freedom of religion.

When it came to war though, Genghis was as barbaric as the next one, his first campaign was against the Xi Xia Kingdom in 1209, his army of mostly cavalry men on horses quickly outnumbered and destroyed the kingdom. His next target was the Jin dynasty in China. From 1211 to 1214, the outnumbered Mongols ravaged the countryside, causing food shortages, resulting in the Jin Army killing tens of thousands of their own peasants just so their elites could live. In 1214, the Mongols besieged the capital of Dadu, now Beijing and burnt it to the ground.

In the early 13th century, King John was facing increasing pressure from his barons who were demanding greater rights and protections under the law. In response to their demands, John agreed to meet with the barons and negotiate a settlement. The result of these negotiations was the Magna Carta, a document that set out a series of rights and freedoms that the king could not violate. Among these rights were the right to a fair trial, the right to due process of law, and the right to be protected from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. The Magna Carta also established the principle of habeas corpus, which required the government to produce a prisoner in court and provide a lawful reason for their detention. This principle has been a cornerstone of modern legal systems around the world.

Then in 1217, there was another crusade. This time led by King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria, with the same goal in mind, to take over Jerusalem. The crusaders successfully captured the city of Damietta in 1219, but they could not advance further into Egypt. After a series of setbacks, including capture and imprisonment of many crusaders, the Christian forces were forced to abandon their campaign in Egypt. The crusaders eventually agreed to a treaty with the Muslim forces, allowing them to leave Egypt unharmed, but without achieving their ultimate goal.

Genghis Khan wasn't done though. In 1219 went to war against the Khwarazmian Empire. In present day, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. During his raids, the Mongol horde swept through one city after another, taking over the likes of Bukhara, Samarkand and Urgench. Skilled workers, such as carpenters and jewelers were usually saved while aristocrats and resisting soldiers were killed. Unskilled workers meanwhile were often used as human shields during the next assault. No one knows with any certainty how many people died during Genghis Khan's wars, in part because the Mongols propagated their vicious image as a way of spreading terror. At Genghis Khan's death, he controlled a massive territory from the sea of Japan to the Caspian Sea. However, even more impressively, around 8% of the men in South Asia descend from Genghis Khan today.

In 1228, Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire tried to conquer the Holy land, but failed, ending the sixth crusade. Of course, the Holy Roman Empire couldn't be the only one crusading. King Louis IX of France in 1248 decided to start the seventh crusade to retake Jerusalem, but he was taken prisoner by the Muslims and forced to pay a hefty ransom as he retreated. However, that didn't deter King Louis IX, because in 1270, he was at it again, trying to free Jerusalem from the grips of Muslim rule. But this time, he died of dysentery. Once King Louis IX died, his troops retreated creating the eighth and final time there was a crusade.

In England though in 1295, England was making a diplomatic headway. In a letter summoning Parliament, King Edward I wrote "since the most righteous law of the emperors ordains that what touches all should be approved by all. So it appears that common danger should be met by remedies agreed upon and common. As King Edward, I would then request a 10th of the incomes of nobles and an 11th of the income of knights," creating one of the first parliaments we would see in the new age.

While down in Africa, a leader of extravagant wealth, Mansa Musa, was gaining power. On his famous Hajj, a religious Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim should make at least once in his life. Mansa Musa with his caravan of camels and an army of scholars gave vast amounts of gold to any poor person he saw, hence crashing all of the economies in northern Africa due to the inflation of gold. When Mansa Musa returned to Mali, he made it his life purpose to make Timbuktu the Muslim capital of knowledge. So Mansa Musa invested heavily in building the University of SanKore. Various Islamic faith scholars quickly made their way to SanKore to study Islamic theology.

law, and literature with over 1 million manuscripts. Mansa Musa was also a very religious man with a policy that he commissioned a new mosque every Friday. However, sadly though, only the Djingareyber Mosque in Timbuktu stood the test of time.

In the Americas though another built on riches was being created. As Aztec legend has it, the God Huitzilopochtli directed them to build where they saw an eagle perched on a cactus, eating a snake. When they saw this exact scene on an island located in what was once Lake Texcoco, they interpreted it as a sign from their God and founded Tenochtitlan on that island. As time passed, Tenochtitlan started to build impressive temples such as The Great Temple. The Great Temple comprised of two main structures dedicated to the gods Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. The city itself was most fascinating. It was designed with a complex system of canals and causeways to help control flooding and facilitate transport across the city. While they started to farm on floating gardens, known as chinampas on the shallow waters of Lake Texcoco, which were used to grow crops such as maize, beans, and squash.

As Mali and the Aztecs were building their cities, England and France were in war for 100 years, the origins of the conflict lay with the status of the duchy of Guyenne. In basic capitalistic terms, this was owned by the British crown. However, the land itself was in France. The second reason was that the last direct descendant of Charlemagne, King Charles IV died in 1328. So the next closest relative was Edward III the King of England. So King Edward III claimed the rule of France in 1337, which was not liked by the French people.

As the petty erratic Hundred Years War raged on, the people of the world had to face a pandemic like no other, the bubonic plague. As the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio wrote. "At the beginning of the malady, certain swellings either on the groin or under the armpits, waxed to the bigness of a common apple, others to the size of an egg, some more and some less, and these the vulgar named plague boils." Historians believe this pandemic was spread by rats traveling through ships across Europe and merchants throughout the Silk Road. No matter how this plague was produced, around 75 to 200 million people died, with the death of so many people, especially the poor, landowners and nobles were required to allow farmers to keep more of the product they farmed, leading to more workers' rights.

In China, though a group of rebels known as The Red Turbans revolted against the Mongol rulers of China. The Red Turbans were led by a man named Zhu Yuanzhang, born into a poor peasant family. Zhu built a strong following among the rebel forces and eventually emerged as their leader. In 1368, Zhu declared himself emperor and established the Ming Dynasty, marking the beginning of a new era in Chinese history.

In 1428, at the age of 16, Joan left her home in the village of Domremy, and traveled to the court of Charles VII where she asked for permission to lead the French army against the English. At first, her request was met with skepticism and disbelief. Still, Joan persisted and eventually won the support of the French Commanders. Joan's first major military victory came in the Siege of Orleans in 1429, she led the French troops in a series of daring attacks on the English forces, and she broke the siege and liberated the city. This victory boosted French morale and helped to turn the tide of the war in their favor. Over the next several months, Joan led the French army to victories against the English, including the Battle of Patay in June 1429. However, her success also made her enemies in the English and French court. In 1430, she was captured by the English and put on trial for heresy and witchcraft. Joan was subjected to a grueling trial. She was accused of various crimes, including dressing in men's clothing, practicing sorcery, and hearing voices. Despite the odds against her, Joan remained steadfast in her faith and her belief that she was carrying out God's will. In the end, Joan was found guilty and sentenced to death by burning at stake. She was executed on May 30th, 1431 at 19.

Then 20 years later, in the Battle of Castilian, Charles II of France led a French army, which defeated the English army, effectively ending English territorial claims in France.

While back in the great city of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire was declining, weakened by years of war, political instability and economic turmoil. In contrast, the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Mehmed II was on the rise, and Sultan saw an opportunity to expand his empire and gained control of the strategic city of Constantinople. By 1453, Mehmed II led an army of 80,000 soldiers, including elite janissary troops and a powerful artillery force to besiege Constantinople. The Byzantine defenders led by Emperor Constantine XI were vastly outnumbered and outgunned. They faced a seemingly impossible task to hold off the Ottoman assault. The Ottomans bombarded the city with artillery for nearly two months, causing extensive damage to the walls and fortifications. The Byzantine defenders meanwhile struggled to maintain morale and keep their troops fed and supplied. Then on the fateful day, May 29th, 1453, the Ottomans launched a massive assault on the city, climbing up covered by siege towers, they were able to breach the walls and gain access to the city. Despite putting up a valiant defense, the Byzantine defenders were overwhelmed, and the Ottomans were able to storm the city and capture the capitol causing the great Byzantine empire to fall, in 1453, all paths no longer led to Rome and all traces back to the empire of Caesar were erased. It was replaced by the beginning of utter Ottoman domination in the region, ushering in a new era of Turkish power and influence in the Mediterranean.

While the Byzantines might have been falling, the Russians were finally gaining their independence. At the time, the Mongol Empire was ruling over Russia, demanding that various Russian towns pay tribute or face the wrath of the Mongols. However, in 1472, Ivan the Great refused to pay such tribute. Over the next several years, he built up his military strength and was able to drive out the Mongol garrisons from various cities and towns throughout Russia. In 1480, the Mongols demanded that Ivan pay tribute or face military action, but after a tense standoff, they finally retreated. Ivan's victory was the beginning of a free Russia and the a decline of the Mongolian empire.

Then in 1492, as Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, the Europeans discovered the new world. Set initially on finding a path to India, instead, he landed on an island in The Bahamas, which he aptly named San Salvador. When he and his crew set up camp, he met the Lucayans, skilled fishermen and farmers who welcomed him and his crew and provided them with food and supplies.

While back in Europe, a golden age of culture was upon us. In 1503, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. Da Vinci's biographer, Walter Isaacson says, "the Mona Lisa to me is the greatest emotional painting ever done. The way the smile flickers makes it a work of art and science, because Leonardo understood optics, the muscles of the lips and how light strikes the eye, all of it goes into making the Mona Lisa smile so mysterious and elusive." In 1504, Michelangelo sculpted David, Michelangelo would say, "in every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped in perfect in attitude and action, I have only to (indistinct) away the rough walls that imprisoned the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it. While in 1506, Michelangelo was painting the magnificent painting of the Sistine Chapel.

While in the political world, Niccolo Machiavelli is one of, if not the most influential pieces of literature we have today. "The Prince" is a political manifesto that comments on the past civilizations we've heard about in this video. Machiavelli writes, "it is much safer to be feared than loved because love is preserved by the link of obligation, which owing to the beastness of men is broken at every opportunity for their advantage. But fear preserves you by a dread of punishment, which never fails." Think about the ordinary farmer. Think about the man who spends generations of their life farming, giving heavy taxes to a noble lord for doing nothing except protecting them. Why won't the farmers rebel? It's because they're afraid of what would happen without their leaders. Without the elites, the Huns or the Mongols can come to your farm and destroy you on their own, so you live in fear as to what might happen to you, leaving you to give your wheat to said leader.

Martin Luther, though didn't just report on the basics of human nature. Martin wanted to make a difference and was sick of the Catholic church. At the time, the Catholic Church was selling indulgences, which were certificates that people could purchase to reduce the amount of time they would spend in purgatory after they died. Luther believed this practice was corrupt and went against the Bible's teachings, which emphasized the importance of repentance and faith over material wealth. In protest, he wrote a series of 95 thesis or arguments challenging the church's authority and calling for reform. On October 31st, 1517, Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, which was a common way of announcing a public debate or discussion. Luther's 95 thesis sparked a debate within the church and among European scholars and theologies. Some people agreed with his criticisms of the church, while others saw him as a heretic and a threat to the established order. The beginning of Protestantism was upon us.

In 1519, though the Spanish conquistadors under the leadership of Hernan Cortez arrived on the Aztec shores. They were greeted by the Aztecs who gave gifts of gold and silver of incredible wealth to the Spanish as they believed that the Spaniards were emissaries of the God Quetzalcoatl. However, Cortez soon revealed his true intentions to conquer the Aztec empire and claim its wealth for Spain. Over several years, Cortez and his forces engaged in a series of battles with the Aztecs, marked by intense violence and brutality. The Spanish were aided by their superior military technology, including guns and cannons, and by the support of indigenous allies who were the enemies of the Aztecs. Despite being vastly outnumbered, Cortez and his men made significant gains against the Aztecs, eventually laying siege to their capital city of Tenochtitlan, after months of fighting, the city fell to the Spanish in 1521, and the Aztec Empire was effectively destroyed.

Then following the strategy of Cortez, Francisco Pizarro led an expedition that conquered the Incan empire in present day Peru. Though the violence was authoritarian, the biohazards were even more demanding. The Europeans due to having survived illnesses such as the bubonic plague and smallpox developed immunity to many of these diseases that they've one way or another spread to the native people, essentially over time, killing them off.

Under Suleiman the Magnificent's leadership, the Ottoman Empire became one of the most powerful and influential empires in world history. Suleiman was a brilliant strategist and military leader, and his reign was marked by significant conquests and political achievements. Like many other leaders, he set out to conquer the world. By the end of his reign, Suleiman the Magnificent presided over a vast empire that stretched from southeastern Europe to the deserts of Arabia and from the shores of the Mediterranean to the plains of Persia. His conquests included the capture of Belgrade and Budapest in Europe, Jerusalem, and Mecca in the Middle East, and Tabriz and Baghdad in Persia. The Ottomans also became the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean with control over North African cities, such as Algiers and Tunisia, creating the dominant Ottoman civilization.

But yet all things fall when one is in love. And the murder happy King Henry had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn and was desperate to marry her. However, Catherine of Aragon was still alive and the Catholic church did not recognize divorce. Henry's solution was to break away from the Catholic church and established the Church of England with himself as the head. In 1534, Henry passed the Act of Supremacy, which declared that the king, not the Pope, was the supreme head of the Church of England, leaving the Catholic church to be angry and excommunicate Henry VII leaving a schism between the Church of England and the Catholic church, even today.

Ivan the Terrible is now the ruler of Russia. In the early years of his reign, Ivan enjoyed significant success, launching military campaigns against neighboring kingdoms and expanding Russia's borders. He also oversaw the construction of magnificent public works, including St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. However, as Ivan grew older, he became increasingly paranoid and erratic. He launched a series of brutal purges and executions targeting anyone he perceived as threatening his power. He also had a volatile temper, lashing out at advisors and nobles who dared to question his decisions. In 1560, Ivan suffered a devastating personal loss when his beloved wife Anastasia died. This event seems to have triggered a significant psychological breakdown, and Ivan became increasingly unstable and violent. He launched a series of bloody campaigns against his own people, including the notorious oprichnina, a campaign of terror and repression that killed thousands of Russians and destroyed countless homes and families, truly deserving of the name terrible.

While Russia was going through that, England was on the rise with the start of the English renaissance. Under the leadership of Queen Elizabeth I, Elizabethan playwrights dominated the scene, creating written words that were poetic in language and poignant in meaning. They've even written plays about people we've already talked about. William Shakespeare wrote many plays including histories. Julius Caesar, which was about the assassination of Julius Caesar, King John, which was about the A Hundred Years War, and Henry VII was a play about showing human needs to gain power. Other notable playwrights who filled the scene were Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and John Webster.

While on the other side of the world, the English colony of Jamestown was forming in Virginia, under the Virginia Trading Company, slightly up north, Samuel de Champlain was establishing the French colony of Quebec in Canada.

While back in the old world, they were having a new era of fighting, The 30 Years War. This time, it was between the Protestants and the Catholics. It began in 1618 when the Holy Roman Emperor attempted to impose Catholicism on the Protestant population of Bohemia. The Bohemians rebelled, and soon the conflict spread throughout the region. Over the next 30 years, armies marched and counter marched across Europe, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation. The war was characterized by brutal sieges, bloody battles, and atrocities committed by both sides. At its height, the war involved most of the major powers of Europe, including France, Spain, Sweden, and the Holy Roman Empire. It was fought along religious, political, and economic lines with each side vying for dominance and control. The war finally ended in 1648 with the signing of the Peace of Westphalia. The treaty recognized the Dutch Republic's independence, established the individual state sovereignty within the Holy Roman empire and ended the religious conflicts that fueled the war.

While in China, the Ming Court was plagued by corruption, factionalism, and economic decline. The emperor at the time, Chongzhen, faced mounting pressure from his advisors to strengthen the military and defend against the Manchu threat. However, his efforts were hindered by infighting among officials and a lack of resources. In 1644, the Manchu army led by Prince Dorgon launched a massive invasion of China. The Ming Army weakened by years of neglect and corruption, was no match for the highly disciplined and skilled Manchu forces. The Manchus quickly conquered Beijing and installed their puppet emperor, ending the Ming Dynasty, continuing the cycle of dynasties in China.

While in Spain, King Charles II died without having any heirs, creating a real political crisis of who should be the leader. King Louis XIV of France supported his grandson, Philip, as the rightful heir to the Spanish throne, hoping to secure French influence over Spain and its territories. On the other hand, Emperor Leopold I of Austria, supported the candidacy of Archduke Charles, a member of the Habsburg dynasty, who was seen as a potential ally against French expansionism. The conflict soon escalated into a major war with many European powers taking sides, and forming alliances. The principle belligerents were France and Spain against a coalition of Austria, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, Portugal, and several other minor powers. The war ended with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, which recognized Philip as King of Spain. Bud required him to renounce any claims to the French throne and cede some territories to Great Britain and Austria. The Treaty of Rastatt signed the following year officially ended the war.

In 1707, the Acts of the Union were passed by the parliaments of England and Scotland, which united the two kingdoms into a single political entity known as Great Britain, hence creating the legal foothold, that is Great Britain. However, Scotland took a disliking to this. There were protests and uprisings in the years following the union, including the Jacobite Risings of 1715 and 1745, which aimed to restore the Scottish monarchy and independence.

Then on July 4th, 1776, a group of American patriots stood in a room in Philadelphia signing a document that would say the words "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." War in the Americas was on.

But back in Europe, the tone was quite different. Adam Smith published the famous book, "The Wealth of Nations," the foundations of laissez-faire economics, which essentially says the market would balance itself out over time. In Austria, Mozart was performing his Magnum opus, the Haffner Serenade. Mozart's Haffner Serenade is a charming and elegant work featuring courtly dance music and light lyrical melodies. Its graceful melodies, subtle harmonies, and elegant instrumental writing characterize it.

As the war continued, King George III sent his armies of the masses over to America. Though the colonists had little military training, their knowledge of the terrain and guerrilla tactics made them nearly invisible. At the same time, the red army coats were easy to see for the Americans. In the summer of 1781, George Washington and French General Rochambeau marched their forces south to Virginia, where they laid siege to Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown. The British were trapped and could not escape by land or sea. The siege dragged on for weeks. The American and French forces bombarded the British with artillery. They dug trenches to inch their way closer to the British defensive. The French Navy defeated the British Navy in a crucial naval battle off the coast of Virginia, cutting off Cornwallis's only escape route by sea. On October 14th, 1781, the American and French forces launched a massive assault on the British defenses. The British fought valiantly but were vastly outnumbered and outgunned, and they soon began to falter. On October 19th, Cornwallis surrendered his army to Washington effectively ending the war. The victory at Yorktown was a decisive moment in the war, and it marked the end of British rule in America, and the beginning of a new experiment.

With America finally being free from the totally tyrannical grips of Britain, they had one issue, how were they going to lead? Were they going to make General George Washington their monarch? Therefore, democracy was chosen. However, Plato made a good point many years ago that the common man was incapable and not wise enough to pick a better leader, to lead them to success. So the American founded constitutional convention came up with this idea of the electoral college, where the common man would vote for a particular person who would then have a say in who could be president. So instead of the president being directly voted on by the people, they would vote on elites who would then vote for the president directly.

The French then noticed how well the American Revolution went. At the time the French were ruled by King Louis the 16th, and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. As Queen Marie Antoinette told the peasants, let them eat cake. The people of France got together. They decided they wanted more say in how the country was run, and they formed a group called the National Assembly and started making new laws to give them more rights. One of the most famous events of the French Revolution was the storming of the Bastille. This was a prison that represented the king's power, and the people wanted to show that they were not afraid of him. They broke into the prison and freed the prisoners, which started a revolution throughout France. Many influential people lost their heads during the revolution, including King Louis XVI and his wife Queen Marie Antoinette. The people were tired of being ruled by a king and queen who didn't care about them, and they wanted to create a new system where everyone would have a say, and the people of France voted in Maximilian Robespierre.

In 1789 Robespierre was elected as a delegate to the Estates General, which was convened to address France's financial crisis. He quickly emerged as a leading voice in the National Assembly, advocating for the ordinary people's rights and opposing the aristocracy's power. As the revolution continued though, Robespierre became increasingly radical in his views, advocating for the execution of King Louis XVI and the establishment of a republic. He was elected to the powerful Committee of Public Safety in 1793, tasked with protecting the revolution and rooting out enemies of the state. Under Robespierre's leadership, the committee launched a period of intense repression known as the reign of terror. Thousands of people were arrested, tried and executed for crimes against the revolution. Robespierre became known as a ruthless, and uncompromising figure. However, Robespierre's power began to wane as the people grew tired of the violence and the instability of the revolution. In 1794, he was arrested and imprisoned along with his closest allies. On July 28th, 1794, Robespierre was taken to the guillotine and executed. The execution marked the end of the reign of terror and democracy for now in France. Instead, they moved to a directory. A directory is a government led by a five member executive council, known as the directory, which was chosen by the Council of Elders. This legislative body was also part of the new government. The directory was meant to serve as a moderating force, balancing the interests of the various factions that had emerged during the revolution. However, the directory concept wasn't successful as well, so general Napoleon Bonaparte decided to overthrow the government and begin his conquests to take over the world.

So off Napoleon went to conquer much of Europe. In 1805, Napoleon defeated a combined Austro Russian army at the Battle of Austerlitz solidifying his position as one of Europe's most powerful leaders. He then conquered much of the continent, including Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia with a massive army. Still, the campaign proved disastrous and his forces were decimated by the harsh Russian winter. The defeat marked the beginning of Napoleon's downfall. In 1814, the European powers allied against Napoleon and invaded France, forcing him to abdicate his throne and go into exile on the Island of Elba. However, he returned to France in 1815 in what became known as the hundred days and briefly regained power before being defeated by the British and Prussian armies, at the Battle of Waterlo.

While back in the Americas, Simon Bolivar was on his military campaigns to free Latin American countries, from the grasp of the Spanish colonial rule. Bolivar began his military campaigns in Venezuela in 1810, where he led a successful uprising against the Spanish colonial authorities. He then moved on to Columbia where he won a series of important victories against the Spanish, including the Battle of Boyaca in 1819, which secured the independence of Columbia. Bolivar then turned his attention to Ecuador and Peru, where he won a series of decisive battles that helped secure both country's independence. He captured the city of Lima in 1824, effectively ending Spanish control of Peru. Bolivar's final military campaign was in Bolivia where he led the fight for independence against the Spanish in 1825, Bolivia was named in honor of Bolivar who played a critical role in its liberation.

In 1848, 2 men had an idea that would spark debate worldwide. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the book called "The Communist Manifesto," which is a book about the idea of communism, where instead of a capitalistic system where the nobles or bourgeois own everything, and the workers and proletariats work for slave wages, instead, what if the proletariats own the means of production and all work together? As Marx and Engles would write, let the ruling classes tremble at a communistic revolution, "the proletarians would have nothing to lose but their chains and they have, and they'd to win." They would also write "the need for a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the whole surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere."

Right after the writing of "The Communist Manifesto" began a period in Europe known as the Scramble for Africa. It all began in the 1870s when European countries began to explore the interior of Africa, looking for new territories to claim and resources to exploit. At first, the European powers were cautious, sending explorers and missionaries into Africa to establish trade networks and alliances with local leaders. However, as competition increased, the European powers became more aggressive in their tactics. They used military force to establish colonies and protectorates, and they engaged in diplomatic maneuvering and propaganda campaigns to gain the support of local populations. One of the most ruthless tactics the European powers used was dividing Africa into artificial borders and creating new ethnic and linguistic divisions. This created tensions and conflicts between different African groups, which the Europeans used to their advantage, creating a European stronghold over the continent of Africa to increase their profits. The scramble for Africa came to an end as a result of several factors, including changing international politics, economic realities, and rising African nationalism. One of the key factors that contributed to the end of the scramble for Africa was the changing balance of power in Europe. By the early 20th century, European powers were increasingly focused on competition with each other, particularly in Europe itself, and were less interested in acquiring new colonies in Africa. This was due in part to the growing tensions between European powers that would eventually lead to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

Because on June 28th, 1914, a shot was heard around the world with the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand. Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his assassination by a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip sparked a diplomatic crisis that quickly escalated into a global conflict. In the aftermath of the assassination, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, triggering a complex web of alliances and treaties that drew other countries into the conflict. Germany, an ally of Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia and France, while Great Britain, which had a treaty with Belgium declared war on Germany. Within weeks, most of Europe was embroiled in a brutal and devastating conflict. In November, 1918, after four years of brutal fighting, the allied powers and the central powers agreed to an armistice, effectively bringing an end to the war and the demise of the Ottoman Empire. On November 11th, the armistice went into effect and the guns fell silent across Europe.

World War II, the peace was short lived because a man named Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. Like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Trajan, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Suleiman the Great. Adolf Hitler wanted to establish an empire for his nation and his people. Adolf had dreams of building an empire larger than anything that was ever created. He wanted to make the Roman Empire look like nothing. However, for the sake of the world, and especially those Hitler viewed as undesirable vermin, in April, 1945, Soviet forces began a massive assault on Berlin. After weeks of intense fighting, the city fell on May 2nd, and German forces surrendered. Meanwhile, allied forces were closing in from the West, and on May 7th, Germany signed an unconditional surrender, officially ending the war in Europe. A few months later, after the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Japan surrendered as well. Leaving the war to be over.

From World War II on, the world has faced a technological revolution with Alan Turing's invention of the computer during the war, the world became global. For 50 years, America and the Soviet Union were at war despite the fact that they were on two totally different continents. In 1969, Neil Armstrong landed on the moon saying.

- [Neil] It's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

- [Narrator] As the years on the world has become increasingly smaller, computers have become more affordable. Cell phones change the way we communicated with one another. Let's go back to the story of a man named Gilgamesh on his quest for immortality. At the end of the poem, Gilgamesh realizes "life, which you look for, you will never find. For when gods created man, they let death be his share and life withheld in their own hands." The history of human civilizations is an incomplete book, constantly being updated. Some things will never change. However, humans will always die. Empires will always rise and fall. The masses will always clamor towards safety.

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