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0:00
- [Announcer] This channel is part of the History Hit Network. (triumphant music) (thunder rumbling) (foreboding music)
0:15
(thunder rumbling) (foreboding music)
0:34
- [Narrator] How do human beings find their way around their planet? How do they know what lies beyond the sea or where a road leads? Did Marco Polo have an atlas to show him the route to China? Did the Romans record the borders of their empire on maps? For thousands of years, unknown distant lands guarded their secrets, and yet they were described in travel books and imaginative maps. The face of the world has fascinated people in every age and culture. (foreboding music)
1:20
(foreboding music)
1:34
We hold the face of the world in our hands, in the form of a map of the earth. We know where the mountains are, where rivers flow to, and how far the oceans extend, even though we have never been there. The invention of maps and charts is a fascinating chapter in human history. In the beginning, there are fantastic descriptions, mystical depictions. (gentle music) Later on, maps and charts for seafarers and soldiers. From their limited resources, people of bygone ages attempt to create a picture
2:10
of the world, of their own region and of distant lands. With their eyes fixed on far-off goals, merchants discover new trade routes, soldiers conquer new territories, warlords take possession of the world and impose their rule on foreign peoples. The map is an instrument of their power. (foreboding music)
2:39
The atlas, showing us the world in a series of detailed maps, was only completed 100 years ago. (foreboding music)
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Early cultures scratch their concept of the world on clay tablets or chisel them into stone. (foreboding music) Others paint what they know. (foreboding music)
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The ancient Greeks write down what they have seen of the world. It is a long way from the first inaccurate descriptions of the world to the maps of today, which guide us unerringly to any spot on the face of the globe. (foreboding music) A way full of adventure and errors. (foreboding music)
3:32
The art of cartography goes back to the time of the Sumerians. The earth floats in an ocean. Above it, curves the sky, and beneath it lies hell. That's how the Sumerians see their cosmos. The rivers of the Euphrates and the Tigris are the sources of prosperity and a sophisticated culture. 5,000 years ago, the Sumerians know the geography of their empire. (gentle music)
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The map is scratched on clay. It was made 600 years before Christ. It shows the course of the two rivers to the sea and the major cities. The map is a basis for the functioning administration of the empire. (gentle music) In 2,300 BC in Babylon, a geography textbook is produced.
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Even so long ago, caravans travel from Southern Arabia to the Mediterranean. At that time, no one could know who would later profit from the geographical knowledge of these ancient cultures.
4:42
(Prof. Matz speaks in German) - [Interpreter] At that time, it wasn't evident that the Europeans were to discover the world. But if we are to pinpoint the beginning of European expansion, then we'd probably locate it in the 8th century BC.
5:00
In this century, the ancient Greeks began to extend their power, establishing subsidiary cities. Colonies on the Black Sea, the north coast of Africa, the Western Mediterranean region, on Sicily, and the other islands.
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And one response to the founding of these colonies is apparently that, in the 8th century BC, Homer wrote down the story of Odysseus.
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The story of his voyages over the sea.
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So Odysseus is probably the first European whose travels were narrated.
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(inspiring music)
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- [Narrator] Homer's Odyssey is not just the story of a great voyage. For the people of that epoch, it is at the same time also a fascinating description of the known world, the Mediterranean world. The Odyssey traces the routes to the great cities, temples, and holy places. It describes the sea route from Greece to Sicily. The reader learns how to get to the Colossus of Rhodes. (inspiring music) (waves whooshing)
6:24
(Prof. Fried speaks in German) - [Interpreter] Homer sends his hero, Odysseus, on a great voyage. And this is presumably based on the descriptions of seafarers who knew exactly where to go and how to get there thanks to their periplus, their route planners.
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These navigational aids are ancient and represent the first explorations of the world by people such as merchants and seafarers, but also scholars and poets.
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Odysseus is only one among many. Take, for example, Hecataeus of Miletus or Herodotus, who traveled the world leaving us descriptions of what they had seen, the earliest of their kind that we possess.
7:12
(waves whooshing) (tense music) - [Narrator] These seafarers were familiar with more than just the Mediterranean. They also knew the rough waters of the Atlantic and the North Sea. Contemporary sources suggest that there were trading links extending from the Mediterranean to Northern Europe. One thing is certain: the Phoenicians sail far to the east, towards India. They circumnavigate Africa, sailing from the west. It is possible that the Phoenicians reach the British Isles
7:44
and even further north. They tell of a land they call Thule, where the sun never sets.
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(foreboding music)
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All over the world, people are traveling. (foreboding music)
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For thousands of years, the ship is the most important and effective means of exploring the world. (foreboding music) But the knowledge of those ancient maritime explorers has been lost. (foreboding music)
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Homer's Odyssey is an exception. Other written accounts have been destroyed or never existed in the first place. (tense music) 3,000 years ago, in the South Sea islands, people are setting sail into the unknown. They call themselves They Who Sail Long Distances. Their settlements extend over an area as great as the surface of the moon. They sail without compasses or charts; a nautical wonder. They navigate from island to island guided by experience alone, (gentle music)
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by word of mouth, oral tradition. Their picture of the world is not something they hold in their hands. Instead, it is put into words. (inspiring music) (water whooshing)
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At the same time, thousands of kilometers to the west, there are ships plying regularly between Arabia and India. Again, their crews know nothing of sea charts. (inspiring music) (waves whooshing) The Arabian seafarers navigate only by the stars. Nevertheless, they are masters of the Indian Ocean, and find their way unerringly to the ports of India. From there, they bring rare spices to Arabia. Their familiarity with the sea routes makes them rich. And they write down their precious knowledge
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about the sea in nautical handbooks. Here, sailors find information about the winds and currents, about shallows and safe harbors. (inspiring music) (waves whooshing) (Prof. Fried speaks in German) - [Interpreter] Concepts of the earth begin to emerge in antiquity among the natural philosophers of the Iliad. Some of them conceive of the world as a disk, others as a rectangle. Still others as a ball. And these images are used to collate all the knowledge gathered from seafarers,
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merchants, and scholars. The assembled wisdom of antiquity is then finally brought together in the late period by the geographers Pomponius Mela and Ptolemy, and set out as a map. Ptolemy's maps became the undisputed standard into the Middle Ages and are still of significance today for our geographical image of the world.
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(gentle music)
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- [Narrator] Using the descriptions set down by Pomponius Mela, cartographers drew maps of the Roman world. They show Europe, Africa, and Asia. (gentle music) But more important to the Romans than a picture of the world is knowledge of the empire's road network. (gentle music) (birds chirping) In the year 80, at the time of Pomponius Mela, the Roman road network extends as far as Scotland. 75,000 kilometers of roads link Rome to its most distant province. (gentle music) (birds chirping)
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On their travels, the Romans were presumably guided by these maps. Initially, it was the soldiers. On the roads, the military had priority.
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The map shows the route through Gaul and then on to Germania.
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For most people at that time, the Roman Empire only existed in their minds.
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This is still the case centuries later for Charlemagne, who sees himself as the successor to the Roman emperors. (gentle music) (birds chirping) (Prof. Matz speaks in German)
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- [Interpreter] In the year 800 on Christmas Day, Charles, the King of the Franks and the Lombards, is crowned emperor in Rome.
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It is a mark of his triumph.
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A triumph that was signaled in 774 when Charles conquered the Lombardian Empire and so created the link between Franconia and Italy.
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But even before his coronation, Charles had also considerably extended the Franconian Empire to the east with the annexation of Bavaria and to the north by his conquest of the Saxons as far as the Ida Line.
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Essentially this was the creation of the core of Europe.
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- [Narrator] How Charlemagne gets to know the shape and size of his empire is a puzzle. Pictorial maps no longer exist. The Romans' maps have vanished along with their roads. (gentle music) (birds chirping)
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So for his journey over the Alps, Charles must rely on verbal descriptions of the route,
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which is how the flocks of pilgrims find their way to Rome. (gentle music) (birds chirping) (Prof. Fried speaking in German) - [Interpreter] Charlemagne was a great general, but how did he lead his army from, say, Aachen or Frankfurt? Or Worms to Rome? Spain or Saxony?
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The answer is simpler than you might think. On the one hand, there were still a few Roman roads you could use. And on the other hand, the land wasn't nearly as cultivated as later when the swamps were drained and the forests cut down. So there were relatively few roads to travel by. Rivers could only be crossed at a few fords, so travelers tended to bunch together at certain places.
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This made it relatively easy to find one's way to Rome. There were only two passes to the south suitable for an army to cross.
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One was the Brenner and the other was the Oster Valley. Similarly, there were only two roads to Saxony. One from Frankfurt and the other, the famous Hellweg, via Dortmund towards the Weser Valley. So it was relatively easy to find your way. To get to Rome from Middle Franconia, you simply headed south. And you knew how many stages the journey consisted of. For the king, with or without his army, the journey was measured in units of days from one castle to the next
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or from way station to way station.
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(awe-inspiring music)
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- [Narrator] There are no maps in the Middle Ages, yet merchants and soldiers travel confidently throughout Europe. They are guided by rivers and signs. Verbal descriptions serve in place of maps and guide the travelers safely to their destinations. (awe-inspiring music)
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The migration of whole peoples is also a step into the unknown.
15:55
How they knew the route to Rome or Carthage, no one knows. But the legendary Vikings too also managed without maps.
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(Prof. Matz speaking in German) - [Interpreter] Tradition has it that the age of the Vikings begins with the plundering of Lindisfarne in the year 793.
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During the next decades, the Vikings appear mainly as the plunderers of Western Europe and the Iberian Peninsula.
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Later, however, in the 10th and 11th centuries, they were also the founders of a number of completely new empires, the Duchy of Normandy, the Kingdom of Sicily, and even the state of Russia.
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What's more, they were the first Europeans to cross the North Atlantic to the American continent via Iceland, which they discovered and settled at the end of the 9th century, and Greenland, where they established permanent settlements at the end of the 10th century. As far as Newfoundland, Labrador, and maybe even as far as New England.
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(dramatic music) - [Narrator] With their fast ships, they conquered new worlds. Wherever they appear, the seafarers is spread fear and terror. The Vikings attack settlements and plunder towns, such as Paris. (dramatic music)
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But how they navigate on the open sea remains a mystery. Their ships sail as far as the Mediterranean and North America. A map is said to have shown them the route across the Atlantic. (waves whooshing) (inspiring music)
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According to the Viking sagas, beyond the sea lies Vinland, where grapes grow in profusion and pasture is plenty.
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Evidence of the Vikings' clear picture of the world is the Vinland Map. But today cartographers are sure that the Vinland Map is a forgery. The Vikings sailed without maps. The Vinland Map wasn't drawn until the 20th century. (foreboding music)
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By the Middle Ages, the extensive geographical knowledge of antiquity has been forgotten or lost without trace. Now it is the church which decides what the world looks like. The picture of the world is determined by the Christian faith and no longer by scientific knowledge. (foreboding music)
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But it is not right to call this the Dark Ages. Rulers have a clear picture of the extent and borders of their empires. Scholars know that the earth is round. All they dispute is the size of its circumference. (foreboding music)
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The First Crusade begins in 1096. The Christian powers want to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims. During the next three centuries, the Crusaders' goal is Jerusalem.
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But who shows these knights from the north and west of Europe the way to the Holy Land? How do they even know where Jerusalem is?
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(foreboding music)
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At the center of the world, according to this map of the late Middle Ages.
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Seafarers navigate by the coastline. They steer by the sun and the stars. While maps drawn according to religious beliefs are inaccurate. As nautical guides, they cannot be fully trusted.
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The Venetians know their way around the sea. They live surrounded by the sea. And from here begins a great phase of global exploration. (foreboding music)
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Venice is alive with fantastic tales about distant lands lying to the east.
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In the 13th century, European ideas are formed by assumptions and hearsay. Real experiences come richly decorated. Legends have it that the Emperor of China is the wealthiest man in the world. (foreboding music)
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From China come the rare spices in which the Venetians trade and grow prosperous. In China, it is said there is an abundance of gold and silk. Marco Polo is the first to bring the Venetians factual account of this land.
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Marco Polo is not the first European to voyage to China, but his account of his travels becomes better known than any other. (foreboding music)
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Marco Polo sets sail in 1271.
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He is 17 years old.
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He cannot suspect that it will be many years before he returns. (waves whooshing) (gentle music)
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He travels by ship from Venice to the Holy Land.
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Marco Polo is accompanied by his father and his uncle. Their purpose is to establish new trade links for Venice. The merchants Niccolo and Maffeo Polo had already ventured far to the East.
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In a journey lasting six years, they had traveled from Venice via the Crimea and through the deserts of Asia to the court of the Mongol emperor Kublai Kahn.
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They wished to return there.
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The journey to distant Peking will take four years.
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From Arabia, the three men travel overland further eastwards. They cross Afghanistan and the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. (gentle music)
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They will not have depended on maps, but on the local knowledge of the indigenous peoples, their stories and descriptions.
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How far it is to Peking is not written down somewhere. Where the right road leads is known only to the guide. The route to their destination only exists in the traveler's minds. Their knowledge feeds on stories and their own experience. In the meantime, Marco Polo is 21. He travels in strange worlds and cultures without a map.
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300 years later, his account of his travels is still being read. In more than 100 different manuscripts, it circulates throughout Europe.
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After 24 years, Marco Polo returns to Europe by sea. The account of his journey forms the basis for the first European maps, the Portulane. Every harbor is marked. A first map of the world has been drawn. But systematic cartography only comes into existence thanks to a completely different event. (tense music)
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(Prof. Matz speaking in German)
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- [Interpreter] The conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by the Osman Sultan is an important milestone in the expansion westwards.
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Now, Europeans find it harder to seek routes to Asia, to India, or even further afield.
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Later, it's Columbus, who must have been born around this time, probably in 1451. It's Columbus who later concludes that to reach the East, you have to sail west.
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You have to take a completely different route. Round Cipango, Japan and Cathay, to reach China and even India.
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During the 1450s, undeterred, the Portuguese continue to search out routes to the south.
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Since 1434, under Henry the Navigator, they have pushed forwards exploring the coast of Africa. And in the 1450s, they've already reached West Africa.
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(tense music) - [Narrator] This success is only possible because Henry the Navigator has founded a research center, the School of Navigation in Sagres. Here, the geographical knowledge of the age is systematically collected and evaluated. (dramatic music) The School of Navigation provides Portuguese sea captains with the first reliable maps. With the help of these charts, they survey the newly-discovered coastlines step by step, adding new information. With every voyage,
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the maps become increasingly accurate and extensive. (dramatic music) The subsequent Christian conquest of the world is a consequence of the art of cartography. The sign of the cross testifies to the success of this scientific cartography. (dramatic music) Henry the Navigator is an honorary title. He never goes to sea himself. But he finances the voyages of exploration. And each one lifts a little the veil concealing the undiscovered world.
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The first big step into the unknown has been taken. (foreboding music) (thunder rumbling) (foreboding music)
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(thunder rumbling) (foreboding music)
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How do human beings find their way around their planet? How do they know what lies beyond the sea or where a road leads? Did Marco Polo have an atlas to show him the route to China? Did the Romans record the borders of their empire on maps?
28:31
For thousands of years, unknown distant lands guarded their secrets. And yet they were described in travel books and imaginative maps. The face of the world has fascinated people in every age and culture. (foreboding music)
29:12
At the point where the sun goes down, the world of the Europeans comes to an end. There, out on the wild Atlantic, lurks the threat of the edge of the world. (foreboding music)
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Medieval seafarers distrust the open sea. They hug the coast, navigating by prominent cliffs, trees, or mountains. (foreboding music)
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They have neither measuring instruments nor accurate sea charts which could show them the way. The profitable trade with the distant Orient is carried on more safely overland.
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(foreboding music)
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Christian Europe has a firmly established picture of the world. Above the earth curves the sky. And from heaven, God rules the fate of mankind. At the geographical center of the Christian world lies Jerusalem. Jerusalem the Gold is the spiritual center and thus the center of the earthly world. But again and again, this divine world order is put into question by other peoples and religions. Islam is a new and expanding power. And, like Christianity,
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its adherents are inspired to convert the world. (foreboding music) Islam and its warriors conquer North Africa, the Near East, and holy Jerusalem. The Islamic conquerors destroy ancient empires like that of Byzantium. (foreboding music)
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The Byzantine capital, Constantinople, has long withstood the attacks of the Islamic invaders. But in 1453, (dramatic music) the once-powerful city can hold out no longer. More than 1,000 years after its founding, the walls of Constantinople are brought down.
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For Venice, this means the loss of a powerful trading partner. Suddenly the future looks uncertain. But other European powers will seek to find new routes to the wealth of Asia. (foreboding music) (Prof. Fried speaking in German) - [Interpreter] The invasion of the Mongols opened the Silk Road to Europeans. The collapse of the Mongol Empire closed it to them again. But by then, Europeans had acquired an appetite for goods and merchandise of the Orient.
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So they looked for new routes to the Far East. In the 15th century, the Portuguese king, Henry the Navigator, sent out his sailors, his surveyors, and his explorers to find a route around Africa to the East.
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A short time later, there were reports of someone else who was searching for a route by sailing west. Sailing west in order to land in the East. Columbus. And indeed, this was how the route to China was actually discovered. How the world was explored and even understood.
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The world as a globe. The world is a huge picture in which Europe was just a tiny fragment.
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(people shouting) (dramatic music) - [Narrator] Henry the Navigator, King of Portugal, feeds his hunger for gold in North Africa. His soldiers invade the North African city of Ceuta.
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This is to be the starting point for the search for the legendary gold treasures of the African interior. (dramatic music) But the Portuguese find their way barred by a sea of sand.
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Only the nomads can find their way through the desert. No European can survive here.
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So Henry orders new routes to be found to Africa and Asia by sea.
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Henry the Navigator never goes to sea himself. In his name, seafarers venture out into the unknown Atlantic Ocean and explore the coastlines of undiscovered worlds. (waves whooshing) But these maritime explorers are not just looking for the way to the East or discovering sources of gold and silk. They are also to take possession of new lands. So wherever they set foot on shore, they plant the cross, signaling the claim to rule of their prince and financial sponsor, Henry the Navigator.
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(waves whooshing)
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(Prof. Matz speaking in German)
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- [Interpreter] In 1434, the Portuguese mariner, Gil Eanes, is the first to sail around the dreaded Cape Bojador on the coast of the Western Sahara. A triumph for Henry the Navigator who, for two decades, had been systematically fitting out expedition after expedition to explore the west coast of Africa.
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To this end, he established a school of navigation and an arsenal on the rocky headland of Sagres by Cape St. Vincent, the southwestern extremity of Europe.
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It's difficult to find sources proving the existence of this school.
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But it's a fact that, with the means available to him as grand master of the Order of Christ, Henry was able to promote and finance systematic voyages of exploration by the Portuguese.
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(inspiring music)
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- [Narrator] The nautical school in Sagres on the Atlantic coast of Portugal is an international research center. At Henry's command, Arabian, Jewish, and Italian astronomers and cartographers prepare for the first European voyages of exploration. (inspiring music)
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The only sea charts currently in existence are more the products of human imagination and utterly useless for navigation.
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So sailing on the open sea is a high-risk adventure. Only with accurate charts would Henry's captains have a chance of finding the sea route to the East.
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In Sagres, the observations and experiences of mariners are recorded and collated. From their descriptions and information emerge the first sea charts. With every voyage, the charts become more accurate.
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With every voyage, the picture of the world changes. (bright music)
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(Prof. Fried speaking in German) - [Interpreter] When Henry the Navigator sent out his explorers, there were no maps they could use. They had to record every item of navigational information. They had to know how to measure wind direction, compass bearings, distances between points, distances sailed per day. And then how to transfer that data to a chart. In this way, a series of charts was produced. But sadly in the 18th century, they were all destroyed in the great fire of Lisbon. As a result,
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we don't know in detail every single stage in the exploration of the world. Those early steps taken by the Portuguese. Even so, they marked the beginning of global exploration by the Europeans.
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(melancholy music) - [Narrator] Now equipped with the charts provided by the Sagres school, the Portuguese advance further and further along the African coastline. They discover completely unknown worlds. On their return to Sagres, what they have seen and described is evaluated and recorded on new charts and maps. (dramatic music) On the African coasts, they find no gold at first. But they do encounter other human beings who appear strange to the European invaders.
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Instead of gold, human beings now become the booty and are transported back to Europe. This is the beginning of a new chapter in an old history, the history of slavery. It will cost the lives of millions and make others rich in a trade lasting for centuries. (dramatic music) More than 50 ships sail along the African coast under Henry's flag. In 1444, one of Henry's dearest ambitions is achieved. Thanks to their voyagings and their maps, the Portuguese now find direct access to Africa's gold.
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The dominance of the Arabian gold traders has been broken. (foreboding music)
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Until now, the Arabs have enjoyed a clear superiority over the Europeans who are so far away from their own environment. For centuries, the Arabs have been just as much at home on open sea as in the trackless desert.
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Their ships ply regularly between Arabia and India, bringing back rare spices and precious materials. The secret of their success lies in the Arabian Sea charts. These depictions of the known world with their exactly-plotted trade routes are an invaluable advantage. Arabian Sea captains are holding the world in their hands long before the Europeans. (tense music) (waves whooshing) In the Middle Ages, the Chinese are as technically advanced as the Arabs. At a time when a sea voyage
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in Europe is still a risky adventure, fleets of Chinese junks, equipped with accurate charts and compasses, are spreading out over the high seas. It sounds unbelievable, but China is well on the way to discovering the world while the Portuguese are taking their first uncertain steps. (gentle music) (Prof. Matz speaking in German)
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- [Interpreter] In the very year that Captain Gil Eanes doubles Cape Bojador and signals the beginning of Portuguese expansion. In just this year, the emperor's court in Peking forbids further exploration by Chinese mariners.
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Previously, the Chinese sea captain, Zheng He, had voyaged as far as the east coast of Africa and the Persian Gulf. But the imperial court was not interested and so prevented the world from being discovered by China.
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Now the way was open for the Portuguese.
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A way that, over many decades, would take them along the coast of Africa down to the southernmost tip, the Cape of Good Hope, discovered by Bartolomeu Dias, and onwards to India.
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In 1498, the Portuguese mariner, Vasco da Gama, dropped anchor at Calicut. Now the way was open for a thriving trade between Asia and Europe. The carera to India.
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(foreboding music)
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- [Narrator] Almost 80 years have passed since the founding of the School of Navigation in Sagres. Hundreds of sailors have lost their lives to the Atlantic. Ships are lost. But every crew that returns brings valuable information.
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The charts become increasingly accurate. Now the captains know the routes along the coast of Africa. The great breakthrough is imminent. Vasco da Gama is the first European to sail around the Cape of Good Hope.
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The sea route to India has been discovered. In May, 1498, after a voyage of many weeks, he reaches Calicut in India. The picture of the world is growing clearer. Europe has just moved a little closer to distant India. (Prof. Fried speaking in German) - [Interpreter] When Vasco da Gama rounded Africa and landed in India, a new epoch began for the Europeans. It wasn't just that they'd confirmed their world picture and confirmed it by experience that the world was round,
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that you could reach every point on it by ship. Now they began to establish colonies. Colonies in Asia, in East Asia. And these colonies then had an effect on the mother countries. They became colonial powers. They competed with each other to acquire the most, the biggest, the richest colonies. And in this way, a new epoch began that only came to an end in the 20th century.
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(tense music) - [Narrator] In Sagres, the cartographers systematically evaluate the unique knowledge brought back from the voyages of discovery. Without maps, Portugal's rise to the status of a colonial power is unthinkable.
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Only possession of the increasingly rare sea charts can open up the safe route to the Far East, to wealth and power. (tense music) So the charts are worth more than gold and are kept under lock and key. Outside the School of Navigation, they are known only to the ships' captains and only one copy may be carried on board.
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Portugal's political rivals pay thieves to steal the charts. Venetian merchants and Spanish nobles lay out vast sums of money for stolen examples of the unique charts. (tense music) The Portuguese charts of this period are lost, in fires in the archives or by sheer use onboard ship.
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(foreboding music)
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Portugal has one major rival: Spain. The Spaniards too are searching for the sea route to India. They too are dreaming of silk and spices, of gold and slaves. And they too are driven by the lust for power and wealth. An Italian mariner offers to find a route: Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa. (foreboding music) Since the earth is round, all you need to do is sail to the west. And, sooner or later, you'll reach India is his solution.
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It takes some time before he can put his plan into action. Geographers cast doubts on his calculations. In their opinion, Columbus stands no chance of ever reaching India. They prophesy that the long voyage will end with the crew dying of hunger and thirst. (foreboding music)
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But finally, investors are found to finance the voyage to the riches of India. In 1492, three small ships put to sea. (waves whooshing) While the Portuguese continue to sail along the coast of Africa in search of gold, Columbus heads due west.
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(adventurous music) (waves whooshing) The voyage takes 12 weeks. Then Columbus lands in India. Or so he believes for the rest of his life. For as he sees it, only the Atlantic lies between Europe and India.
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In the years to come, Columbus makes further voyages to his India. He refuses to acknowledge that he has discovered an unknown land.
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Numerous seafarers follow in his wake. It's a long time before the certainty hardens that a whole new continent has been discovered. (Prof. Matz speaking in German)
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- [Interpreter] On his return, Columbus met the Portuguese king, Dom Joao II, in Lisbon Harbor.
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In contrast to Columbus, who didn't realize the importance of his discovery and never would, Dom Joao had a very clear understanding of the importance of the discovery of America.
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The result was a treaty. A treaty between the throne of Portugal and the throne of Castile. The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in 1494. According to which a line was drawn from north to south across the Atlantic. About 2,100 kilometers west of the Azores and the the Cape Verde Islands.
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All newly-discovered lands west of this line were to belong to Spain. All those east to Portugal. So the world was divided.
47:43
The Portuguese were left with the discovery of Africa and the sea route to India, indeed to Asia.
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To the Spaniards, the way to America now stood open. Mainly Southern and Central America and the growth of a vast colonial empire in the New World.
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(inspiring music) - [Narrator] The New World brings undreamt of riches to impoverished Spain. The church adorns itself with stolen gold.
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The worldly rulers use stolen gold to purchase political power. There are now regular shipments of gold and silver from America to Europe in incredible quantities.
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What the Europeans take with them to America is, for the indigenous peoples there, fatal. The population is decimated by hitherto unknown diseases. Hundreds of thousands of Indios perish, slaving away in gold and silver mines. The gold of the Incas is brought across the Atlantic by ships sailing the charted roots with pinpoint accuracy. In Europe, gold and silver from America causes inflation. But in the final analysis, Europe profits from the New World
49:03
and the indigenous high cultures are destroyed. (Prof. Fried speaking in German) - [Interpreter] When Columbus set foot for the first time on the islands of Central America, he definitely believed he had landed in the Old World, in India or even in China. He didn't know that he had discovered a new continent. Nonetheless, people had to be able to find their way around. This meant giving names to these newly-discovered islands. And names were chosen from the home country.
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Names the sailors had brought with them. So one part was called New Spain.
49:39
New Amsterdam was the name given to a town founded by the Dutch. Later it was renamed Neu York, or as we know it, New York.
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Another name was Neu Virginia.
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So there was a series of names imported from the Old World which were now associated with the New World. In this way, out of all these new places and lands, the New World was created.
50:08
(tense music) (birds chirping) - [Narrator] To the poor Europeans, the New World looks like paradise. Gigantic trees, animals and fruits never seen before. All this fires the imagination of the conquerors.
50:26
But where did these animals come from that apparently did not sail on Noah's Ark?
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Is there another unknown creator, as well as the Christian God? (gentle music) (birds chirping) No. This must all have been created by God after he had finished the Old World.
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Thus, the church justifies the existence of the new continent.
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After the seventh day of creation, God went back to work and created another world, a new world.
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And it is now the right and duty of the faithful to rule this new world and to Christianize it. (gentle music)
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The fruits from God's new garden are tempting, nourishing, and tasty.
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Sweet sugar cane grows here like grass. From huge plantations, the first pure sugar reaches Europe.
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Labor is short in the New World. The European plantation owners buy cheap labor from Africa. The conquerors double and triple their sources of income from sugar, by exploiting nature, and from slave trading. (melancholy music)
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(foreboding music)
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The maps of the world show how Europe's geographical horizon has been extended and that the world is now seen as a sphere. Had he not been convinced of this, Columbus would never have ventured out into the Atlantic. (foreboding music) It is at this time that the map maker, Martin Behaim, constructs the first globe. It makes the routes to the spices of the world easier to see.
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For interested merchants, Behaim meticulously depicts which fruits grow where and what kind of trade can be carried on there.
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Still missing on this first globe, the American continent.
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(Prof. Matz speaking in German)
53:09
- [Interpreter] All his life, Columbus was deeply involved with East Asia.
53:14
He knew very well the literature on East Asia that had appeared in the Middle Ages. He had studied it closely, written extensive commentaries on it. That probably the reason why he wasn't really able to see the value of his discovery.
53:29
To the end of his days, he believed that he'd landed in Asia. Because that was what he'd dedicated his life to achieving.
53:37
Like all the other mariners who followed him, they all wanted to get to East Asia. As a new world, the double continent, which, by the way, was called las Indias by the Spaniards well into the 18th century as a new world, the double continent was probably discovered by Amerigo Vespucci.
54:01
This explains why the German cartographer, Martin Waldseemeller, gave the continent the name America, in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, on a map he published in 1507 in Saint-Die in the Vosges.
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(foreboding music)
54:24
- [Narrator] But Martin Waldseemeller only gives the name America for the far off New World to the southern half of the continent.
54:34
Thousands of copies of Waldseemeller's map of the world are printed.
54:42
The maps of the world revolutionized seafaring. Nautical measuring instruments, such as the sextant, simplify orientation on the high seas.
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The compass points the way to distant ports and holds the ship on the course plotted on the chart.
55:01
Portuguese ship sail into Chinese harbors for the first time. Soon, European expansion will encompass the whole world. New global empires come into existence and colonial claims on conquered territories are entered on the maps.
55:19
Yet patches of whites still remain. The vast expanses of the silent oceans are still unsailed. The interiors of the continents are still untrodden. Our view of the world is still incomplete.
55:38
(thunder rumbles) (foreboding music)
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How do human beings find their way around their planet? How do they know what lies beyond the sea or where a road leads? Did Marco Polo have an atlas to show him the route to China? Did the Romans record the borders of their empire on maps? For thousands of years, unknown distant lands guarded their secrets. And yet they were described in travel books and imaginative maps. The face of the world has fascinated people in every age and culture. (foreboding music)
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The true picture of the earth, the Blue Planet, has fascinated the peoples of every age and culture,
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But it is thousands of years before people can work out the shape, measure the size, and reveal the secrets of their world.
57:20
What lies beyond the mountains?
57:24
Where does this ravine lead to?
57:28
What sea does this river flow into?
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Each culture seeks answers to questions like these and forms its own picture of the world, influenced by myths and fantasies created by curiosity and scientific research. The ancient philosophers had their picture of the world, as did people living in the Middle Ages.
57:53
(Prof. Fried speaking in German) - [Interpreter] Medieval scholars had long since begun to put together an accurate picture of the earth. The earth was a sphere, not flat. But at the equator, the heat was so great because the earth was so close to the sun that everything there was in danger of evaporating, burning, up or melting.
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Could this barrier be overcome? And what did it look like on the other side? Didn't everything there turn to ice, freeze solid? Ideas like this still worried the crews of the great explorers. Uncertainty was rife. In the Middle Ages, these questions couldn't be answered. But they seemed burningly relevant, like the question of whether there were human beings living on the other side of the earth. If so, would their legs stick up into our faces? Or would they fall off the surface of the earth?
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Frequently asked questions. Even the ancient philosophers had said that such speculations were nonsensical. Nonetheless, they wouldn't go away and terrified people before explorers of the modern age could report on how things really were in the Southern Hemisphere.
59:07
- [Narrator] But there aren't any boiling seas, the explorers report back. Their ships do not come under attack by sea monsters and their sails do not melt in the heat of the sun. And where the sun sinks in the west, there is life too. People don't fall off the face of the earth. Instead, the intrepid travelers quickly put together a pretty accurate picture of the world. Indeed, they captured the earth on paper as a sphere. Cartographers draw the world and skillful craftsman construct the globe.
59:46
(Prof. Matz speaking in German)
59:52
- [Interpreter] The year America was discovered in 1492, Martin Behaim, working in Nuremberg, his native town, made his famous globe, mockingly called the potato.
1:00:04
Behaim was a craftsman and later traveled to Portugal. He's supposed to have sailed on a number of Portuguese expeditions. Even on the famous voyage commanded by Diego Cao. He later became a cosmographer in the service of King John II of Portugal.
1:00:21
In this job, he acquired a very detailed knowledge of the appearance of the world. The fact that he built a globe in 1492 goes to show that even in the late Middle Ages, the earth was certainly believed to be a sphere.
1:00:35
(curious music) - [Narrator] Possibly Columbus knows of this globe. In any case, he proceeds on the assumption that the earth is round. But scholars argue about how big the earth is because the size of the circumference will determine whether a ship can sail from Europe to India. The voyage must not last longer than 40 days. For by then, at the latest, all provisions will have been eaten and fresh water become undrinkable.
1:01:09
Yet alongside the sober view of the world held by merchants and seafarers, there is also still a picture of the world seen on strictly Christian terms. (curious music) At the center of this world lies the holy city of Jerusalem. According to Christian cosmology, everything revolves around the world that God has created. Faith alone determines how this world is to be perceived and faith lays down as well how the maps are to be drawn. In medieval maps of the world,
1:01:44
Jerusalem, of course, lies at the center.
1:01:51
(Prof. Matz speaking in German)
1:01:58
- [Interpreter] Even in the wider world, the teaching of the church proved to be very stubborn and unyielding in the face of all scientific knowledge.
1:02:07
In the 16th century, Copernicus achieved a breakthrough when he declared the sun to be at the center of the planetary system.
1:02:16
A move away from the geocentric viewpoint where the earth is at the center.
1:02:25
Nevertheless, almost 100 years later, the famous Tuscan scholar, Galileo Galilee, was forced by the church to stand trial to recant and scandalously to, more or less, declare the heliocentric system a heresy.
1:02:43
The church continued to hold to its view for a long time. And the defender of the heliocentric system, Galileo Galilee, was only rehabilitated in 1992. (tense music) - [Narrator] Galileo Galilee stands before the church's dreaded doctrinal court. The Inquisition. Heresy is a serious charge. In the eyes of the church, it can lead to damnation. Yet all he has said is that the earth revolves around the sun. For Galileo, the man of science, this statement could mean his death.
1:03:18
The church refuses to accept the truth of Galileo's observations. It sees its power being threatened. The church cannot accept that the earth, God's creation, is only a small planet revolving around the mighty sun. Against his better understanding, the celebrated scientist is to confess his error, as the church sees it, and repudiate his discoveries. The trial opens up a deep rift between the church and science. The threats of the inquisition are so intimidating that, despite himself,
1:03:53
Galileo acknowledges the church's worldview. The planets revolve around the earth. His supposed words, "But it does move," are an invention of the 17th century. (melancholy music) The discoveries made on the other side of the ocean's worry the church. Scientists and sailors encounter peoples, animals, and plants unmentioned in the Bible.
1:04:20
But even for America, hitherto completely unknown, the church comes up with an explanation. After God created the Old World, he made the New World, which must now be colonized in the name of Christ.
1:04:36
(foreboding music)
1:04:41
After the discovery of America, events proceed at a breathtaking pace. The European invaders find gold in quantities beyond their wildest dreams. With the gold of the Incas, impoverished Spain grows into a wealthy colonial power.
1:04:58
The amount of gold brought to Europe is so huge that it causes inflation. The gold makes a few people rich and many poor. (foreboding music) The Conquistadores exercise a destructive dominion over the indigenous peoples of America. Spanish law dictates that the Indios must work for 18 months in the gold and silver mines. Broken by hard labor and ravaged by infectious diseases imported by the Europeans, the natives die like flies. (foreboding music)
1:05:33
The Indios are not only robbed by the Christians, they are also forced to pray to the Christian God and enslaved. For without slavery, the wealth of America cannot be fully exploited. "Crossing the equator is the death of all moral presets," states an 18th century English politician. "The first American to discover Columbus made an unhappy discovery," asserts a European philosopher in the same century. (foreboding music)
1:06:14
The European voyages of discovery reach father and farther. Their goals are more clearly defined. The seafarers conquer the new worlds with ever bigger ships and equipped with ever more accurate charts. As well as the Spaniards and the Portuguese, now the ships of the French and the English are constantly plying the seas, in search of their share of the legendary riches of India, Africa, and the Americas.
1:06:43
And now the search expands into the Southern Hemisphere to the great continent of Terra Australis. After 300 years of exploration, geographical information is so extensive and the nautical charts so accurate that a new epoch begins: the Second Age of Discovery. (tense music)
1:07:07
(Prof. Matz speaking in German)
1:07:13
- [Interpreter] In the second half of the 18th century, Europeans embark on a new Age of Discovery.
1:07:20
In my opinion, there are two main motives. One is the European vision of Terra Australis, a vast and fantastically embellished southern continent supposed to be a kind of counterpart to the land masses of the Northern Hemisphere.
1:07:41
The second motive was the colonial and maritime rivalry between the British and the French in the second half of the 18th century.
1:07:52
This resulted in both nations fiercely competing for victory by being the first to discover Terra Australis.
1:08:07
In 1766 under a French commission, Antoine sailed to the south seas and took possession of Tahiti, which is still a French colony today.
1:08:19
In 1768, he was followed by James Cook, acting under the instructions of the British Royal Geographic Society.
1:08:28
On this first voyage, he was the first to chart New Zealand. But did not land.
1:08:35
In 1769 and 1770, Cook became the first to discover those areas of Australia that were later settled by European colonists.
1:08:50
Two further great voyages followed. On the second of which, Cook was killed on Hawaii.
1:08:59
The Second Age of Discovery differs fundamentally from the first in that the European nations were now competing with each other on a truly systematic scale. They were scientifically prepared and equipped. And both Cook and Bougainville and others were accompanied by a host of scientists and experts who surveyed, charted, collected zoological and botanical specimens, and studied the languages of the Indigenous peoples they encountered.
1:09:29
(dramatic music) - [Narrator] Above all, James Cook makes maps and charts of all the newly discovered islands. In this way, he records that these territories are now possessions of the British crown. For years, he voyages in the unknown Southern Hemisphere. For almost three years, he sails across the Pacific Ocean. His search for Terra Australis becomes desperate. He discovers and surveys 3,000 kilometers of an unknown coastline. And then sails so far north towards the Arctic Circle
1:10:05
that his progress is only halted when his ships encounter a solid wall of ice.
1:10:12
(waves whooshing) James Cook coaxes and bullies his men into eating sauerkraut. Rich in vitamin C, this vegetable prevents the terrible disease of scurvy. (waves whooshing) Cook's voyages of discovery are also voyages of scientific research. Among the basic equipment of Cook's ships are provisions for the crew, sextant and compass for navigation, and a team of naturalists who observe, sketch, and describe every new thing they come across. (tense music)
1:10:50
(Prof. Fried speaking in German) - [Interpreter] James Cook's voyages confirmed what was already known. They didn't add much that was truly new.
1:11:00
The earth was round. It could be circumnavigated by ship.
1:11:05
But Cook's travels reassured those who had previously believed that anyone crossing the equator would melt or go up in flames. Or thus anyone sailing the southern ocean would freeze solid. These voyages also established the existence of a southern continent, which turned out to be very different from what had been expected.
1:11:26
And there was a second consequence. Namely that the power of the British Empire now extended around the globe, reaching not just North America and parts of Africa, but truly covering the world.
1:11:43
(sailors shouting) - [Narrator] Twice more, James Cook set sail for the Pacific. Again, the voyages last for years. The European seafarers learn about the maritime world of the Polynesians. (sailors shouting in foreign language) They call themselves They Who Sail Long Distances. Over an ocean as vast as the surface of the moon, they sail confidently from island to island, navigating solely by the stars. (tense music) The charts of their sea routes,
1:12:20
extending over thousands of kilometers, are in their heads. (tense music)
1:12:29
They know nothing of drawn maps. In the constantly wet conditions of the small boats, such charts wouldn't last long anyway.
1:12:45
Only rarely do the Polynesians use braided navigational aids. Scientists can only guess what the sticks and shells might mean.
1:12:58
To the Polynesians, they indicate currents and hazards around the islands that Cook is laboriously surveying. (inspiring music)
1:13:11
James Cook has a much more accurate picture of the world than Columbus and his contemporaries, who had neither telescopes nor a realistic idea of the size of the earth.
1:13:25
(foreboding music) The ship's compass becomes an increasingly accurate instrument. Fixing one's position at sea, of vital importance where everything looks the same, becomes almost as easy as on land. (foreboding music)
1:13:48
The Industrial Revolution, with its steam engines and a never-ending stream of technical inventions gives Europe and its shipping a technological advantage from which it will profit well into the 20th century.
1:14:03
But just as in previous centuries, maps and charts of newly discovered seas and continents are closely guarded secrets. Maps mean economic power. And that means they are often stolen or deliberately forged in order to lure political rivals onto the rocks, as it were. In every high culture, maps are a valuable asset. Only kings and their ministers may hold the world in their hands. For whoever possesses the maps knows the routes to the riches of the earth. For, by now,
1:14:36
those routes have been almost completely surveyed. All the more important then is the need to explore the white patches remaining in the picture of the world. (foreboding music)
1:14:52
The white patches marking the interior of Asia and Africa attract scientists, traders, and adventurers. (foreboding music)
1:15:03
They have all heard of the caravan routes and oases. They all wish to discover sunken cities and fairytale treasures.
1:15:13
They are fascinated by fabulous stories reaching Europe from all corners of the globe. (foreboding music) They tell of the source of the Blue Nile, of exotic peoples and strange cultures. And they dream of fantastic wealth. And for this, they risk life and limb on tortuous journeys with no certain outcome. (foreboding music) And because they write everything down and make detailed sketches, they're often thought to be spies. (foreboding music)
1:15:51
So they travel in disguise, like the German explorer, Carsten Niebuhr.
1:16:00
Commissioned by the King of Denmark, he travels around on the Arabian Peninsula. His orders are to study the geography and biology of this unknown land. (gentle music) (birds chirping)
1:16:19
From Arabia, Niebuhr travels to India. He sketches along the Euphrates and discovers the sight of the biblical Babylon.
1:16:30
Dressed as a Muslim, he is the first European to reach the holy places of Islam.
1:16:37
For seven years, Niebuhr remains in Arabia. He is the first to describe and map the Arabian lands. From Niebuhr, Europeans first receive accurate information about the size of Arabia and its culture.
1:16:55
(Prof. Fried speaking in German) - [Interpreter] The great journeys of discovery had revealed the world as a whole. But there were still many white patches remaining. And it was not only scientists who now set out, but also adventurers like Cecil Rhodes or Livingstone in search of the source of the Nile, attempting to travel across Arabia, or to reach the North or South Pole.
1:17:17
Information and knowledge resulted in ever more detailed maps of the world. And in this way, the number and range of human cultures were also revealed, as were the seemingly infinite variety of languages spoken throughout the world. Humanity was seen as a whole, in all its diverse cultural expressions. An image was made of which today we are the inheritors.
1:17:46
- [Narrator] For a picture of the world that is this accurate, there are people prepared to pay good money. In 1850, an international expedition financed by the English sets out across the Sahara. The purpose? To open up new trade routes. The expedition's leader is the German geographer, Heinrich Barth. Wherever he travels, Barth gathers information about the land and its people. (foreboding music)
1:18:17
In order not to be treated as a foreigner, Barth dresses as a Muslim. Unrecognized as a spy, he makes detailed drawings of his journey.
1:18:28
Setting off from Tripoli, he crosses the desert and becomes the first European to reach the legendary trading city of Timbuktu on the River Niger. Heinrich Barth calculates the distance he has covered. This is the basis for the first accurate map of the desert. He has traveled 20,000 kilometers. Now, after a journey lasting five years and five months, for Europeans, the Sahara is no longer a white patch on the map. (mysterious music)
1:19:06
(foreboding music)
1:19:15
Maps represent a victory over conquered territories that can be held in the hands. What it is like in the colonies, Europeans learn from stories and descriptions. But where in the world the colonies are can only be learned from maps and atlases. On paper, people can trace the routes from London to India to Arabia and into the heart of Africa. From Paris, they can search out Egypt and the Nile Delta. From Madrid, they can follow the long seaway over the Atlantic to South America.
1:19:53
Fully equipped, millions of Europeans now pour over the conquered continents. And European cartographers are now drawing the face of the world. (foreboding music)
1:20:11
One of the most significant cartographers is Lawrence of Arabia. England wishes to extend her power in Egypt. For this, accurate maps of the country are needed. Lawrence comes to Egypt as an officer in the intelligence services. In the field, the spies employ an old ruse. They disguise themselves as scientific explorers and go to work. They make maps of the Middle East and divide it up. This is how Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Arabia come into existence.
1:20:48
The borders of these new states are completely arbitrary. Cartographer's lines drawn on the map. (foreboding music) (dramatic music) Armed revolts by the Arabs against the new regime are doomed to failure. Not only do the British possess superior weaponry, their extensive maps of the region allow them to plan military actions with great precision. (dramatic music) Egypt and the Near East are now administered by Great Britain and France. Today, national borders in North Africa and Arabia
1:21:26
still look as though they were drawn with a ruler. Which they were almost 100 years ago by politicians and cartographers. (dramatic music)
1:21:42
Human beings began looking at their world thousands of years ago by looking up at the stars. The constellations enabled people to find their way around their planet. Guided by the stars, they embarked on the first great voyages over the oceans and conquered new worlds.
1:22:03
They travel without navigational instruments, without sea charts, always following the winds and the currents. The true face of the world remains hidden from them. (awe-inspiring music) Sea charts and the compass are creations of the modern age. Centuries pass before they have developed into reliable instruments of navigation. The first accurate pictures of the world are drawn at sea. Mariners survey the coastlines and cartographers set down the information on paper.
1:22:37
Maps too gradually become more reliable and ships find their way more easily over the seas. (awe-inspiring music)
1:22:53
Today, ships navigate by computer.
1:22:58
To fix his position, a captain now needs neither compass nor chart.
1:23:06
The ship's course is plotted on the screen. (awe-inspiring music)
1:23:14
The computer has replaced the chart.
1:23:18
(captain speaking in German)
1:23:24
(awe-inspiring music)
1:23:32
(tense music)
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