0:00:30 > 0:00:33In 356 BC, a legend was born
0:00:33 > 0:00:37in a kingdom to the far north of Greece - Macedonia.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43He would be a new kind of empire-builder
0:00:43 > 0:00:47and he'd take Greek culture deep into Asia.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51According to legend, when he was a boy,
0:00:51 > 0:00:57a wild, unbroken horse was brought to his father's court in Macedonia.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02The boy begged his father to let him try to tame the beast.
0:01:04 > 0:01:09He had noticed that the horse was afraid of its own shadow.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24The horse was called Bucephalus, and the boy would, of course,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28grow up to be Alexander the Great.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33Alexander was brought up on stories
0:01:33 > 0:01:36of Homer's heroes from the Trojan Wars.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40He was a true child of the Greek golden age.
0:01:42 > 0:01:45His father hired the great philosopher, Aristotle,
0:01:45 > 0:01:49and asked him to create a little school here
0:01:49 > 0:01:53in a remote part of Macedonia, where he spent three years
0:01:53 > 0:01:56intensively teaching the young Alexander
0:01:56 > 0:01:59everything from history and geography
0:01:59 > 0:02:01to mathematics and philosophy,
0:02:01 > 0:02:05and one of the things that started to entrance Alexander -
0:02:05 > 0:02:07the stories of the Persians.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18His father said to him,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22"My son, seek out a kingdom worthy of yourself.
0:02:22 > 0:02:25"Macedonia's too small for you."
0:02:26 > 0:02:30Alexander became king of Macedonia at the age of 20
0:02:30 > 0:02:33after his father was assassinated.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37His imperial ambition was said to be limitless.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42After finishing off independent Greece,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46he crashed through today's Turkey, marched into the Middle East
0:02:46 > 0:02:50then into Egypt, before conquering the old enemy, Persia,
0:02:50 > 0:02:54and carrying on towards Afghanistan and the borders of India.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00Along with war and conquest,
0:03:00 > 0:03:05Alexander founded 70 Greek-style towns
0:03:05 > 0:03:08across North Africa and Asia.
0:03:10 > 0:03:13And Greek became the new common language across his empire.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Alexander's Macedonian veterans
0:03:22 > 0:03:25scattered his enemies wherever he led them.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31But Alexander was fascinated by the people he conquered,
0:03:31 > 0:03:36and he thought that knitting together their different traditions
0:03:36 > 0:03:40could create a new kind of almost multicultural empire.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45Alexander wanted to mingle
0:03:45 > 0:03:50Macedonian and Greek customs with Persian customs.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55So he started wearing Persian clothes and the Persian royal crown,
0:03:55 > 0:04:01and even making people prostrate themselves in front of him in the Asian manner.
0:04:01 > 0:04:06So it's not surprising that his plain-speaking Macedonian generals
0:04:06 > 0:04:10became outraged at his decadent clothing
0:04:10 > 0:04:12and his increasingly foreign habits.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17Even Alexander's trusted friend, Cleitus,
0:04:17 > 0:04:19thought he was going too far.
0:04:21 > 0:04:24Cleitus was the leader of the Macedonian cavalry.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27He'd once saved Alexander's life in battle.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Now he was taunting him for being more Persian than Greek.
0:04:38 > 0:04:44The Macedonians were famous across Greece for being great drinkers,
0:04:44 > 0:04:46and Alexander was no exception.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55But this fight was just a bit worse than your average drunken brawl.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22After the death of Cleitus,
0:05:22 > 0:05:26Alexander is said to have wept and fasted for three days.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32But he then briskly wiped the tears away and marched straight on,
0:05:32 > 0:05:36until his empire was the biggest the world had ever known.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46And to bond his peoples, he went far further
0:05:46 > 0:05:49in trying to fuse the cultures of Greece and Asia.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54He married, not one, but two Asian princesses himself
0:05:54 > 0:05:58and he then applied the same logic to his troops.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02Alexander organised a mass wedding of Macedonian soldiers
0:06:02 > 0:06:07and Persian women, and gave them all generous golden dowries,
0:06:07 > 0:06:12and the marriages were extended way down into the Macedonian army.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18Alexander wanted the children of these hundreds of Greek
0:06:18 > 0:06:22and Persian marriages to be the beginning of a new warrior people
0:06:22 > 0:06:27who'd preserve his empire long into the future.
0:06:27 > 0:06:32But within a year of the mass wedding, aged just 32,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35Alexander was dead, some say poisoned.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40It's more likely that he died - unheroically - of typhoid fever.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47Alexander's gigantic empire
0:06:47 > 0:06:50was divided up between feuding successors,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54but the spread of the Greek language and culture continued
0:06:54 > 0:06:59from Athens to Syria, North Africa, right the way to Afghanistan.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01And the culture of ancient Greece,
0:07:01 > 0:07:06its architecture and its legends, its poetry and its philosophy
0:07:06 > 0:07:11would shape the classical world and then, later, all the West.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15In the broad sweep of human history,
0:07:15 > 0:07:21Alexander's empire was a heartbeat, a mere puff of smoke.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26But he acted as a kind of giant, bloody cultural whisk...
0:07:28 > 0:07:31..churning together the Greek and the Persian worlds.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38And his story reminds us of the uncomfortable truth,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41that war - however horrible -
0:07:41 > 0:07:45is one of the great change-makers in human history.
0:08:02 > 0:08:07In the late 1700s, the King of France, Louis XVI,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10ruled with absolute power over his people.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15This was a country in which the rich, powerful aristocracy
0:08:15 > 0:08:19and the church enjoyed endless privileges,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22while the poor worked to keep them in luxury.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25Louis, like the monarchs before him,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28had spent vast fortunes on foreign wars,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32but he hadn't noticed the revolution brewing on his doorstep.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37France was almost bankrupt,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40but the people who mostly had the money -
0:08:40 > 0:08:43the nobility and the church -
0:08:43 > 0:08:48mostly didn't pay tax, and so, in desperation,
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Louis summoned representatives
0:08:51 > 0:08:54of the common people of France to help him.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Big mistake, because, for the first time,
0:08:58 > 0:09:03the seething and put-upon majority had a voice.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12In the summer of 1789, simmering anger and resentment
0:09:12 > 0:09:16exploded into full-blown class war on the streets of Paris.
0:09:20 > 0:09:25On the 14th July, hundreds marched on a hated symbol of royal power,
0:09:25 > 0:09:29a fortress and prison called the Bastille.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38The Bastille had just seven prisoners inside, none political.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47The crowd really wanted its store of gunpowder.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56The besiegers cut off the governor's head with a pocket knife,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59and paraded it through the streets.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04This was much more than simply a mob.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07The French Revolution would be led by shopkeepers,
0:10:07 > 0:10:09journalists and lawyers.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12For the first time, the citizens took control
0:10:12 > 0:10:14and formed their own government.
0:10:14 > 0:10:17The king's powers were stripped away
0:10:17 > 0:10:19and he was ordered not to leave Paris.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25The leaders of this popular revolt had genuinely revolutionary ideas.
0:10:25 > 0:10:30Very quickly they abolished all the privileges of the aristocracy.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32They insisted on fair taxes
0:10:32 > 0:10:37and they took on the incredibly wealthy and powerful Catholic church.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40Above all, they declared the rights of man,
0:10:40 > 0:10:46the equality of all citizens, their right to an elected government,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48free speech and fair courts.
0:10:50 > 0:10:55These were the ideals of the early French Revolution:
0:10:55 > 0:10:56liberte,
0:10:56 > 0:10:58egalite,
0:10:58 > 0:11:00fraternite.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Louis XVI faced a clear choice.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11Could he accept equality and liberty for all,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14or would he fight to keep absolute power?
0:11:16 > 0:11:18His position wasn't hopeless.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22France was surrounded by other absolute rulers with armies
0:11:22 > 0:11:24who might come to his rescue.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31Louis decided to escape with his spectacularly unpopular queen,
0:11:31 > 0:11:32Marie Antoinette.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40On the night of 21st June, 1791,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43the royal family sneaked away from Paris
0:11:43 > 0:11:46disguised - not very well - as servants,
0:11:46 > 0:11:48and they fled for the border.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55It should have been easy.
0:11:55 > 0:11:59This was a world where few faces were recognisable.
0:11:59 > 0:12:00Vos papiers, monsieur?
0:12:03 > 0:12:04Merci.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09But, just 40 miles from the border, a local postmaster
0:12:09 > 0:12:13who'd served in the royal cavalry recognised the queen.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16Attendez un instant.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Mais c'est la Reine! C'est la Reine!
0:12:18 > 0:12:22C'est la Reine! Et regardez, c'est le Roi!
0:12:22 > 0:12:27He checked his money and there was the king's face, on a banknote.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29C'est le Roi, c'est le Roi et la Reine!
0:12:34 > 0:12:38The king and his family were taken back to Paris in disgrace.
0:12:40 > 0:12:47The shift from absolute power to absolute irrelevance was complete.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50From now on, the king was a pathetic figure.
0:12:50 > 0:12:56In September, 1792, France declared herself a republic
0:12:56 > 0:13:00and that winter Louis was put on trial for treason.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04As to the result, there was never any doubt.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11On January 21st, 1793, at 9 o'clock in the morning,
0:13:11 > 0:13:16Louis XVI was driven through the streets of Paris
0:13:16 > 0:13:20to meet his sharpest critic so far.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26The guillotine had only been at work here for nine months.
0:13:26 > 0:13:31It was itself a product of the ideals of the revolution -
0:13:31 > 0:13:34humane, efficient, and fast.
0:13:34 > 0:13:39It was promoted, not invented, by Dr Joseph Guillotine.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42"Now with my machine," he said,
0:13:42 > 0:13:47"I can cut off your head in the twinkling of an eye and you never feel it."
0:13:47 > 0:13:49It was also supremely democratic,
0:13:49 > 0:13:54killing both commoners and nobility in just the same way.
0:13:54 > 0:13:59Now this democratic killing machine was about to slice away
0:13:59 > 0:14:03a thousand years of French monarchy.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16Louis may have been born to be a king
0:14:16 > 0:14:19but he was about to die as a criminal.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22He announced his innocence and he forgave his enemies.
0:14:23 > 0:14:27Je meurs innocent de tous les crimes qu'on m'impute
0:14:27 > 0:14:31et je pardonne les auteurs de ma mort
0:14:31 > 0:14:36et je prie Dieu que le sang que vous allez verser
0:14:36 > 0:14:41ne retombe pas sur la France!
0:14:41 > 0:14:42But he could have saved his breath.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04The execution of Louis XVI horrified the monarchies of Europe,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and soon France was encircled by hostile armies.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11At home, food prices soared, the mob rioted,
0:15:11 > 0:15:15and in the Assembly the factions fought each other.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18The moderates sat on the right hand side of the chamber,
0:15:18 > 0:15:20and the extremists on the left,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23which is where today we get our words
0:15:23 > 0:15:25for left and right from in politics.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28Finally, in the summer of 1793,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32the extreme Jacobin faction seized control.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37The Revolution descended into terror.
0:15:37 > 0:15:43It was driven by a naive idea that mankind could start again...
0:15:45 > 0:15:48..and slice its way to a better world.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54The extremists turned the high ideals of the Revolution
0:15:54 > 0:15:56into a weapon to destroy their enemies.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02One lot of revolutionaries denounced the next.
0:16:03 > 0:16:04Instead of the reign of reason,
0:16:04 > 0:16:08it felt like the reign of hysteria and paranoia.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13All around Paris, people were waiting for the knock on the door
0:16:13 > 0:16:16and the streets of the city ran with blood.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20It's thought that 40,000 people died
0:16:20 > 0:16:23in what became known simply as "the terror".
0:16:29 > 0:16:34Finally, in 1799, the army seized control of the country.
0:16:39 > 0:16:43The leader was an upstart general called Napoleon Bonaparte.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46His ambition, limitless.
0:16:48 > 0:16:53In 1804, he invited the Pope to anoint him Emperor of France
0:16:53 > 0:16:57in an extravagant ceremony in Notre Dame cathedral.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02Napoleon left the Pope waiting in the cold for several hours...
0:17:05 > 0:17:07..before crowning himself.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14He would bow to no one.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19After all the high ideals, the message was clear.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21Absolute power was back.
0:17:25 > 0:17:29With the crowning of Napoleon, the Revolution was over.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32The world has seen many revolutions since then,
0:17:32 > 0:17:35and they've often followed just the same pattern -
0:17:35 > 0:17:37idealism, then extremism,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41the revolution starts to eat its own children until, finally,
0:17:41 > 0:17:47in exhaustion, power lands in the hands of a military hard man.
0:17:47 > 0:17:53And yet, despite that ghastly cycle, the revolutions keep coming,
0:17:53 > 0:17:58often driven by just the same ideals as that first revolution,
0:17:58 > 0:18:02made, and then killed by the people of Paris.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18300 years ago,
0:18:18 > 0:18:22something new appeared above the surface of the planet.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27A thick oily spectre, hanging in the air,
0:18:27 > 0:18:31for longer than the cooking smoke from any town or city
0:18:31 > 0:18:37and larger than a forest fire or a volcano.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43The Industrial Revolution was the biggest story to happen to mankind
0:18:43 > 0:18:46since we invented farming,
0:18:46 > 0:18:50and that dirty smear of smoke
0:18:50 > 0:18:56spread across North America, much of Europe, China, Japan,
0:18:56 > 0:19:02but it first billowed into the air over a modestly-sized little island,
0:19:02 > 0:19:06which called itself, rather immodestly,
0:19:06 > 0:19:08Great Britain.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19The engine for all of this was the engine.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Steam engines burned up the buried energy of millennia
0:19:24 > 0:19:29captured in coal, and used it to create immediate power.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32What a moment!
0:19:32 > 0:19:35Through all of history, one thing had never changed.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41There was a fixed limit on the amount of power that humans could use.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46Their own muscles, a few animals, the odd windmill and waterwheel...
0:19:48 > 0:19:51..but soon steam engines would be doing as much work in Britain
0:19:51 > 0:19:54as 40 million people flat out.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00Why did this happen in Britain?
0:20:00 > 0:20:04Was it because the British were uniquely clever?
0:20:04 > 0:20:05No.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08Was it because the country seemed to be half built on coal?
0:20:08 > 0:20:09Not really.
0:20:09 > 0:20:14It was because the British had developed a new political system
0:20:14 > 0:20:18which limited monarchy, gave everybody legal rights,
0:20:18 > 0:20:24allowed the free flow of ideas, and ensured that British geniuses
0:20:24 > 0:20:29owned their ideas, so they could make a buck.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37This new system provided the environment
0:20:37 > 0:20:42for new men to create new wealth, and these new men emerged in places
0:20:42 > 0:20:47far from London and the traditional forums of the rich and powerful.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52Men like George Stephenson
0:20:52 > 0:20:56who, in 1825, was busy connecting two towns in the north of England -
0:20:57 > 0:21:01Stockton and Darlington.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04A man who'd been illiterate until he was 18,
0:21:04 > 0:21:09driving his own invention, an awkward looking mash-up
0:21:09 > 0:21:13of pipes and fire he called simply "Locomotion".
0:21:15 > 0:21:18STEAM HISSES
0:21:18 > 0:21:20FRIGHTENED SQUEALING
0:21:24 > 0:21:27Northern England had traditionally been
0:21:27 > 0:21:29rather on the sidelines of major historical events
0:21:29 > 0:21:31more likely to happen in London,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34but now it was home to the biggest news of the age.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Locomotion had been built to carry coal,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43but on its maiden voyage, people clambered into the coal carts.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49There was even an experimental passenger carriage,
0:21:49 > 0:21:51called "Experiment".
0:21:53 > 0:21:59Never before had so many people been carried so far, so fast.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07Now railways would start to knit together nations.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11First Britain...
0:22:11 > 0:22:14but soon the United States,
0:22:14 > 0:22:16Germany, and the rest of Europe.
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Restless change, restless revolution.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25Like most revolutions,
0:22:25 > 0:22:28the Industrial Revolution would have many casualties.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32Men and women and children as young as eight or nine
0:22:32 > 0:22:35worked 12-hour days in vast factories.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Many were maimed or even killed by the new machinery,
0:22:38 > 0:22:42and they were working by artificial light and the factory clock,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45not the rhythms of nature.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48Protests were widespread and angry.
0:22:49 > 0:22:55Every great new technology produces changes in society and politics,
0:22:55 > 0:23:01and these new engines didn't just push pistons and locomotives.
0:23:01 > 0:23:06They pushed ahead trade unionism, town planning,
0:23:06 > 0:23:09political reform, new schools, democracy.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Quite powerful things, steam engines.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17The Industrial Revolution triggered the fastest
0:23:17 > 0:23:20social transformation in British history.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24People flooded from the countryside to work in urban factories.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27Within a century,
0:23:27 > 0:23:28Britain went from a country
0:23:28 > 0:23:31with just two cities with more than 50,000 people,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35to a country with 29 cities of this size.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41It's very similar to what's happening in China right now.
0:23:41 > 0:23:45A world of peasant farmers becomes a world of factories,
0:23:45 > 0:23:50villages empty, and tall, angular buildings spring up.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00By 1860, Britain was tied together
0:24:00 > 0:24:03by more than 10,000 miles of railways.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06Production of coal and steel and iron skyrocketed.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11The cities sprawled and new inventions, from steamships
0:24:11 > 0:24:14and iron bridges to brilliantly-lit streets,
0:24:14 > 0:24:18tumbled out of these damp and smoky islands.
0:24:18 > 0:24:24And it was really this energy, this restless search for raw materials,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28new markets and bigger profits that drove the British
0:24:28 > 0:24:33as they threw together the biggest empire in the history of the world.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48In the 19th century, Russia was a European power
0:24:48 > 0:24:51but in many ways it was trapped in the past.
0:24:51 > 0:24:5422 million Russians were serfs,
0:24:54 > 0:25:00still owned by aristocratic landlords as they had been for centuries.
0:25:00 > 0:25:07Like slaves, serfs were property, and could be ordered to do any kind of work.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10Many suffered physical and sexual abuse.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15This system created an economy almost entirely based
0:25:15 > 0:25:19on agriculture - a medieval society.
0:25:21 > 0:25:27In 1854, this huge, proud nation came up against industrialised
0:25:27 > 0:25:31Britain and her ally, France, in the Crimean War.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36And, fighting right on her doorstep, lost.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40But change was in the air.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45After the humiliating defeat of the Crimean War, the new Tsar,
0:25:45 > 0:25:49the reforming Alexander II, realised that if Russia was going to compete
0:25:49 > 0:25:52against the industrial powers in the west,
0:25:52 > 0:25:55she'd have to sweep away the serf economy.
0:25:55 > 0:25:57Easier said than done.
0:25:57 > 0:26:00Russia's nobility and landowners were going to fight hard
0:26:00 > 0:26:03to hang onto their power and their property.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11In many ways, Russia's fate was now in the hands of its nobility...
0:26:12 > 0:26:17..and in the spring of 1853, one young aristocratic landowner
0:26:17 > 0:26:21was gambling with his fellow army officers.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23The stakes were high.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29The young count had already gambled away entire villages he owned
0:26:29 > 0:26:31and the serfs who lived in them.
0:26:34 > 0:26:35HE SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN
0:26:35 > 0:26:41Now he'd lost the house where he'd been born.
0:26:43 > 0:26:45His name was Leo Tolstoy.
0:26:45 > 0:26:48He'd go on to become a titan of Russian literature,
0:26:48 > 0:26:51the author of "War and Peace",
0:26:51 > 0:26:55but he'd also become a key player in the political drama
0:26:55 > 0:26:59gripping Russia - the fight to throw off serfdom.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Tolstoy was only 18 when he inherited the estate
0:27:06 > 0:27:09of Yasnaya Polyana, which means "bright meadow".
0:27:10 > 0:27:16It was vast and included 11 villages and 200 serfs.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21This was a world in which entire villages and the people who lived in them
0:27:21 > 0:27:25could be won or lost on the toss of a coin.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28But Tolstoy was different.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32The guilt so tore him apart that he came to believe
0:27:32 > 0:27:35that not only HE had to change, so did Russia.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42Was there a different path between brutal industrialisation
0:27:42 > 0:27:44and rural tyranny?
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Finding one became Tolstoy's mission.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52He returned to what was left of his estate
0:27:52 > 0:27:55and, dressed as a peasant, worked alongside his serfs.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59HE SPEAKS IN RUSSIAN
0:28:01 > 0:28:04In truth, he was a pretty rotten farmer
0:28:04 > 0:28:07and to start with there must have been a bit of rural sniggering
0:28:07 > 0:28:09behind his lordship's back.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19But Tolstoy was a dedicated, even reckless, reformer.
0:28:21 > 0:28:24Tolstoy decided to free his serfs,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26which meant giving them or selling them land, as well,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29because the land was worth nothing without the serfs
0:28:29 > 0:28:32and the serfs would starve without the land.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35So he offered them very generous terms -
0:28:35 > 0:28:3912 acres apiece, some of it free, some of it very cheap.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42Noble, generous Count Tolstoy.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45The serfs didn't see it like that.
0:28:45 > 0:28:48They'd already heard rumours that the Tsar
0:28:48 > 0:28:51was going to give them their land and liberty for nothing.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55The Count must be trying to swindle them.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00So they looked at his offer and, to his amazement and horror, said,
0:29:00 > 0:29:02"No, thanks."
0:29:05 > 0:29:09But Tolstoy wasn't easily discouraged.
0:29:09 > 0:29:12He believed that Russia was never going to move forward
0:29:12 > 0:29:15while most of its people couldn't read or write.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18So, in October, 1859,
0:29:18 > 0:29:22he set up a school on his estate to educate young serfs.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26Quite a few of whom, it has to be said,
0:29:26 > 0:29:29were his own illegitimate children.
0:29:30 > 0:29:32Within three years,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36Tolstoy had opened 14 schools in the local area.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46Tolstoy was shunned by infuriated local landowners.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50All round the world it was the land-owning class,
0:29:50 > 0:29:53with their privile½ges and traditions,
0:29:53 > 0:29:55who'd be the most threatened by change.
0:29:58 > 0:30:02And in Russia they fought a formidable rearguard action
0:30:02 > 0:30:04against the Tsar's reforms.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09It was one successful enough to sabotage them.
0:30:14 > 0:30:19When, on the 3rd of March, 1861, the detailed plan was finally announced,
0:30:19 > 0:30:23it turned out the serfs would be free in name,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26but burdened by debts and many rules.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30It was a tragic missed opportunity.
0:30:31 > 0:30:33Had the Tsar pulled this off,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Russian history would have been very different.
0:30:42 > 0:30:45And surely happier.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52There was a great wave of anger and disappointment.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55There were nearly 2,000 serf revolts,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58some of which had to be put down by troops.
0:30:58 > 0:31:04Tolstoy himself freed all his serfs and asked for no payment,
0:31:04 > 0:31:09but across Russia most peasants, though now technically free,
0:31:09 > 0:31:11still had to pay for their land,
0:31:11 > 0:31:16they had to ask permission to travel and they could still be beaten.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20Alexander's reforms had failed.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24Eventually, many of the serfs drifted to the cities,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28where they would eventually become the foot soldiers for a revolution
0:31:28 > 0:31:32which would sweep away old Russia.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48In the mid-19th century, in the United States of America,
0:31:48 > 0:31:52a conflict was brewing between the modern, industrial North
0:31:52 > 0:31:55and the more rural South.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58SHE SCREAMS
0:31:58 > 0:32:02The nation that had been the first to enshrine the ideals of liberty
0:32:02 > 0:32:08and equality into its constitution was polluted by a system of slavery.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11In the mid-1800s, there were around 4 million slaves
0:32:11 > 0:32:15in the United States, almost all of them in the South
0:32:15 > 0:32:17working on plantations like this,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20growing cotton, tobacco, and much else.
0:32:20 > 0:32:25Economically, slavery was a dynamic and efficient system,
0:32:25 > 0:32:28and as America started to spread towards the west,
0:32:28 > 0:32:33the southern states wanted to see slavery spreading too.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36But in the North, where many states had banned slavery,
0:32:36 > 0:32:38they thought very differently.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42They were determined that slavery would not grow.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45America was split down the middle.
0:32:46 > 0:32:50Things came to a head in 1860, when the northerner,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Abraham Lincoln, became President.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56But can we, while our votes will prevent it,
0:32:56 > 0:33:01allow slavery to spread into the northern territories?
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Lincoln believed that slavery was wrong,
0:33:04 > 0:33:08but he also said that he had no intention of abolishing it,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11hoping instead it would die out over time.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17But southern politicians realised that Lincoln's arrival in the White House
0:33:17 > 0:33:22meant slavery would not now spread further, as they'd hoped.
0:33:25 > 0:33:2911 southern states decided to break away from the Union
0:33:29 > 0:33:33and establish an independent and separate government -
0:33:33 > 0:33:35the Confederacy.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38Lincoln had no choice but to declare war on the South
0:33:38 > 0:33:40to defend the Union.
0:33:42 > 0:33:46This was a struggle between two different ways of life.
0:33:46 > 0:33:51In the South, it was an agricultural society,
0:33:51 > 0:33:55traditional, conservative, many people living on plantations
0:33:55 > 0:33:57which were virtually self-sufficient,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59cut off from the rest of the world.
0:33:59 > 0:34:03"Yes," said the North, "but all your wealth depends on slavery."
0:34:03 > 0:34:08In the North, urban, industrial America based on steel
0:34:08 > 0:34:12and railroads, and a rising middle class.
0:34:12 > 0:34:18"Ah, yes," said the South, "whose prosperity is based on wage slaves."
0:34:18 > 0:34:25So, two Americas, now no longer able to properly speak to each other.
0:34:28 > 0:34:33On April 12th, 1861, these two Americas duly went to war.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40Lincoln mobilised the North's industrial might,
0:34:40 > 0:34:42using railways to transport men and weapons.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47But to start with, it went badly for him.
0:34:49 > 0:34:52The South had better generals and a bolder fighting spirit.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05After 18 months, Lincoln was desperate.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11He decided to destroy the foundation on which the South was built.
0:35:13 > 0:35:15He'd free the slaves.
0:35:16 > 0:35:21"We must free the slaves," he said, "or be ourselves subdued."
0:35:21 > 0:35:24He hoped this would destroy the southern economy
0:35:24 > 0:35:26and demoralise the people.
0:35:26 > 0:35:30And so, on New Year's Day 1863,
0:35:30 > 0:35:34Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation,
0:35:34 > 0:35:40that all the slaves in the rebel states would immediately be free.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47Liberated slaves flocked to fight with the northern forces...
0:35:50 > 0:35:54..while the South struggled with shortages and inflation.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05The tide of war turned in the North's favour.
0:36:06 > 0:36:11On April 9th, 1865, after a devastating invasion,
0:36:11 > 0:36:13the South surrendered.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19620,000 soldiers had been killed...
0:36:20 > 0:36:23..nearly as many as in every other war
0:36:23 > 0:36:27the United States has fought put together.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37In the final days of the war, Lincoln did something extraordinary.
0:36:37 > 0:36:42He simply turned up at the Confederate rebel capital
0:36:42 > 0:36:45of Richmond, Virginia, not very far from Washington.
0:36:45 > 0:36:49His troops had just taken it. It was still burning.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53No one had any idea what to expect when he arrived
0:36:53 > 0:36:56here by boat at Rocketts Landing.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00There was a huge crowd, entirely black.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Lincoln had the most recognisable face in America,
0:37:04 > 0:37:06and he was spotted immediately
0:37:06 > 0:37:10and there were cries of "our messiah" and "Jesus Christ".
0:37:10 > 0:37:14One man knelt to him and Lincoln said,
0:37:14 > 0:37:17"No, no, you only kneel to your god."
0:37:18 > 0:37:20And then the group started to walk
0:37:20 > 0:37:23the two miles into the centre of Richmond
0:37:23 > 0:37:26and, gradually, there were more and more white faces in the crowd,
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Sullen, silent, staring back from windows
0:37:30 > 0:37:35and the tops of buildings, the people that he had just defeated.
0:37:35 > 0:37:39And Lincoln's group were expecting shouts of abuse,
0:37:39 > 0:37:41possibly even shots.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44Nothing.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47And at that moment it seemed as if Abraham Lincoln
0:37:47 > 0:37:50had won all of America back.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58Ten days after Richmond, Lincoln went to the theatre in Washington.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04He hadn't been keen, but his wife had begged him to come.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07A night off for the hero.
0:38:07 > 0:38:08Did you see him?
0:38:08 > 0:38:11No, but I see HIM!
0:38:11 > 0:38:16CROWD GASPS AND APPLAUDS
0:38:20 > 0:38:25But the defeated South would inflict one last act of bloodshed.
0:38:27 > 0:38:30A second rate actor and southern Confederate supporter
0:38:30 > 0:38:35called John Wilkes Booth saw Lincoln as a tyrant.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42The actor Booth was about to make his final appearance,
0:38:42 > 0:38:44and he knew the reviews would be mixed.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47ACTOR ON STAGE: Well I know enough to turn you inside out.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50You sockdologizing old man trap!
0:38:50 > 0:38:53LAUGHTER
0:38:57 > 0:38:59GASPS
0:39:07 > 0:39:10CRUNCHING
0:39:10 > 0:39:13Booth cried out the Latin motto of the State of Virginia...
0:39:13 > 0:39:16Sic semper tyrannis!
0:39:16 > 0:39:18.."Thus always to tyrants."
0:39:18 > 0:39:21SCREAMING: Help me!
0:39:21 > 0:39:23Help!
0:39:32 > 0:39:35The north mourned an immortal political hero.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39In the south, they celebrated.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44One Texan newspaper professed itself,
0:39:44 > 0:39:47"thrilled by the death of our oppressor."
0:39:48 > 0:39:51The American Civil War left a bitter legacy.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55In the South, burned and devastated,
0:39:55 > 0:39:59the whites remained very angry about what had happened
0:39:59 > 0:40:05and black Americans faced many, many decades of grinding rural poverty,
0:40:05 > 0:40:10segregation laws and lynchings for those who stepped out of line.
0:40:11 > 0:40:14But the Union was preserved,
0:40:14 > 0:40:19and in the North this extraordinarily industrious,
0:40:19 > 0:40:24vigorous economy, now linked together by railroads,
0:40:24 > 0:40:30stormed ahead - the American colossus striding towards the 20th century.
0:40:43 > 0:40:48November, 1918. The first global war had ended.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52The emperors and the top-hatted politicians had failed.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57They'd shattered the optimism of the modern world.
0:41:00 > 0:41:03For many, especially on the losing side,
0:41:03 > 0:41:07it seemed that a new order must rise from the ruins.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11A new kind of politics, which needed a ruthlessness
0:41:11 > 0:41:15the older generation had flinched from.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17Among the soldiers straggling home
0:41:17 > 0:41:22from the trenches of the Western Front was an angry and embittered
0:41:22 > 0:41:2529-year-old corporal - Adolf Hitler.
0:41:29 > 0:41:31Like many others,
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Hitler was looking for someone to blame for Germany's humiliation.
0:41:40 > 0:41:46HE SPEAKS IN GERMAN
0:41:46 > 0:41:49"This is the story of the revenge of the nobody."
0:41:49 > 0:41:53When Adolf Hitler arrived in Munich, he was a nothing.
0:41:53 > 0:41:58He'd won a medal in the war, but his fellow soldiers described him
0:41:58 > 0:42:02as a bit peculiar, a loner, and he'd never been promoted
0:42:02 > 0:42:07because the German officers realised that he lacked leadership qualities.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10Das wissen sie doch. Er kannte das!
0:42:10 > 0:42:14This is also the most extreme example in human history
0:42:14 > 0:42:18of how one individual can unlock hell.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24ECHOING RECORDING OF HITLER SPEECH
0:42:28 > 0:42:30RAPTUROUS CHEERING
0:42:32 > 0:42:37But how did this chaotic loser harness a big idea - fascism -
0:42:37 > 0:42:41and goose-step Germany into another world war?
0:42:45 > 0:42:49In a single word, fear.
0:42:49 > 0:42:53We're all of us vulnerable to being scared by events and then feeling anger,
0:42:53 > 0:42:56so when people's savings and jobs are destroyed,
0:42:56 > 0:42:59which happened in the early 1920s in Germany,
0:42:59 > 0:43:02they panic and then they want revenge.
0:43:04 > 0:43:06Hitler's great good luck was that he offered up
0:43:06 > 0:43:10his recipe about who was to blame at just the moment
0:43:10 > 0:43:14when sky-rocketing inflation had brought Germany to its knees.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18A loaf of bread for a billion marks.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21But there was also fear of a bloody communist revolution,
0:43:21 > 0:43:26which, for many, seemed even more frightening than capitalism's collapse.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30In southern Germany, Munich had been shaken by a communist uprising
0:43:30 > 0:43:32put down by troops.
0:43:34 > 0:43:37Into all of this stepped Adolf Hitler.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42He joined, and took control of, a tiny right-wing party.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47He even re-designed its curious emblem,
0:43:47 > 0:43:51based on an ancient symbol for good fortune - the swastika.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59In this grey, defeated city of small, angry parties
0:43:59 > 0:44:04and big, angry meetings, Hitler stood out as a star speaker
0:44:04 > 0:44:07because he simply went further.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10He said the unsayable.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14The Jewish problem would be solved with brute force.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19Germany would carve a new empire for herself in Eastern Europe.
0:44:19 > 0:44:23A greater Germany, rising to be a world power.
0:44:23 > 0:44:27And the people listening to him were soon comparing him
0:44:27 > 0:44:32to Martin Luther, Mussolini, even Napoleon.
0:44:32 > 0:44:37Right at the beginning, there was this leader cult.
0:44:39 > 0:44:42Yet Hitler came across as crazily optimistic.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46He thought that, by pushing Munich right-wingers into revolt,
0:44:46 > 0:44:49he could get them to march on Berlin
0:44:49 > 0:44:52and seize control of all democratic Germany.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58Die Roten gedeihen im Chaos.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01On the night of November 8th, 1923,
0:45:01 > 0:45:05a political meeting was being held in one of the city's beer halls.
0:45:13 > 0:45:16Hitler hijacked the meeting,
0:45:16 > 0:45:20declaring, "the national revolution has begun".
0:45:20 > 0:45:23Die Reichsregierung wurde gebildet.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27But few in the hall were impressed by the jumped-up extremist,
0:45:27 > 0:45:29and the meeting ended in confusion.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37The next morning, Hitler led armed supporters onto the streets.
0:45:37 > 0:45:39But, when police fired on them,
0:45:39 > 0:45:44this revolution by sheer bluff collapsed with embarrassing speed.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47Two days later, Hitler was arrested.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52The beer hall revolution was a political shambles,
0:45:52 > 0:45:55it ended in humiliating failure.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59But it made Adolf Hitler a hero far beyond Munich,
0:45:59 > 0:46:03because he realised that he could use his trial
0:46:03 > 0:46:08as a much bigger platform than any that he'd get in a beer hall.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13He was defiant, completely unapologetic,
0:46:13 > 0:46:16and he was heard all across Germany.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23Sympathetic judges gave Hitler a soft sentence for treason.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26He was imprisoned in the nearby town of Landsberg.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33Hitler's rooms were soon crammed with unrestricted visitors
0:46:33 > 0:46:35and parcels and messages.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39One particularly gushing letter came from a student in Heidelberg
0:46:39 > 0:46:42called Josef Goebbels.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45And, as for the parcels, it was like a delicatessen.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48One visitor said you could have opened up a flower, fruit,
0:46:48 > 0:46:52and wine shop with all the stuff stacked up in there,
0:46:52 > 0:46:58and Hitler began to become rather fat from all the chocolates and the cake.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01Eventually, he had to usher the visitors out
0:47:01 > 0:47:03so that he could settle down
0:47:03 > 0:47:08and dictate his memoirs to a man called Rudolf Hess.
0:47:11 > 0:47:14The Fuhrer was emerging.
0:47:14 > 0:47:17Der Jude ist und bleibt.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21But he had a truly terrible title for his book -
0:47:21 > 0:47:25Four-and-a-half Years Of Struggle
0:47:25 > 0:47:28Against Lies, Stupidity And Cowardice.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30..Immer weit ausbreitet.
0:47:30 > 0:47:37Shortened by his shrewder publisher into My Struggle, or Mein Kampf.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42And in it he said exactly what he thought.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45- TRANSLATION:- The Jews are a pestilence,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47worse than the Black Death.
0:47:47 > 0:47:52The day will come when a nation will arise which will be welded together
0:47:52 > 0:47:56but shall be invincible and indestructible for ever.
0:47:56 > 0:48:02Mein Kampf argued that capitalism and communism were equally dangerous
0:48:02 > 0:48:05and that Jews were behind both,
0:48:05 > 0:48:10pulling the strings from Wall Street in New York to Moscow's Red Square.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13In other times and places, few would have listened to such
0:48:13 > 0:48:18a crackpot theory, but by the early 1930s, the Great Depression
0:48:18 > 0:48:22starting in America had thrown people out of work across the world,
0:48:22 > 0:48:27while the looming menace of Stalin's communist state haunted millions.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35There are times when the politics of fear become irresistible
0:48:35 > 0:48:38and nonsense seems common sense.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44Eventually, the Nazi Party did very well in elections.
0:48:44 > 0:48:49Hitler came to power, not as a tyrant, but entirely legally.
0:48:52 > 0:48:54During the 1930s,
0:48:54 > 0:48:59no other major political leader had his level of popular support.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05It was support based on the violent creation
0:49:05 > 0:49:10of a new German empire in Europe, the destruction of Europe's Jews,
0:49:10 > 0:49:13which was all laid out in black and white.
0:49:19 > 0:49:23History is full of nasty surprises.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28Adolf Hitler did his very best not to be a surprise.
0:49:37 > 0:49:40In the first half of the 20th century in America,
0:49:40 > 0:49:44women fought to be recognised as equal to men
0:49:44 > 0:49:47and for the freedom to control their own lives.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52They'd won the vote in 1920,
0:49:52 > 0:49:56and now a new form of politics had arrived - sexual politics.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Margaret Sanger was a tiny,
0:50:03 > 0:50:06red-headed radical from the backstreets.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09Her name isn't very well known,
0:50:09 > 0:50:14but she did more to shape today's world than most politicians.
0:50:21 > 0:50:26In the early 20th century, Manhattan was a divided island.
0:50:27 > 0:50:31Uptown was swinging, brash and booming,
0:50:31 > 0:50:33the most fashionable place on the planet.
0:50:35 > 0:50:40Downtown was very different, a place of old-fashioned poverty.
0:50:40 > 0:50:45In the overcrowded tenement blocks teeming with new immigrants,
0:50:45 > 0:50:49women were desperate to avoid unwanted pregnancies.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55These women were caught in a dilemma -
0:50:55 > 0:50:58either dangerous, self-induced abortions
0:50:58 > 0:51:02or the backstreet abortionist, who could be just as dangerous.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18Margaret Sanger was a nurse.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22She saw the worst, and she thought all women had the right
0:51:22 > 0:51:25to safe contraception - birth control.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27You're going to get through this.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31"I shuddered with horror," said Margaret Sanger.'
0:51:31 > 0:51:36"I resolved to do something to change the destiny of these mothers
0:51:36 > 0:51:38"whose miseries were as vast as the sky."
0:51:41 > 0:51:43But contraceptives were taboo,
0:51:43 > 0:51:45unacceptable to most Americans.
0:51:45 > 0:51:50Those who sold them were condemned as purveyors of vice and sin,
0:51:50 > 0:51:53likely to corrupt society.
0:51:53 > 0:51:59In 1916, Margaret Sanger opened America's first birth control clinic
0:51:59 > 0:52:01here in a poor district of Brooklyn.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05On the opening day,
0:52:05 > 0:52:08more than 100 women queued up for help and advice.
0:52:08 > 0:52:10(17.)
0:52:11 > 0:52:14I haven't seen you before. What's your name?
0:52:14 > 0:52:19But the pamphlets she was giving out were classed as obscene literature.
0:52:23 > 0:52:26Get out of here! Now!
0:52:27 > 0:52:28You're under arrest.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31No, you listen to me, get these men out of here!
0:52:31 > 0:52:33Get off of me! Will you get them off of me?
0:52:33 > 0:52:38Sanger was charged under America's very strong anti-obscenity laws.
0:52:40 > 0:52:42The clinic was shut down.
0:52:45 > 0:52:47So much for women's rights.
0:52:47 > 0:52:52But private individuals, if they had enough guts
0:52:52 > 0:52:56and could lay hands on some money, could fight back.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59Contraceptives couldn't be imported into America,
0:52:59 > 0:53:04but Margaret Sanger had a friend, a friend who could help,
0:53:04 > 0:53:08a friend with a picture-book chateau by Lake Geneva.
0:53:10 > 0:53:12This was the summer home
0:53:12 > 0:53:16of a rich American heiress, Katharine McCormick.
0:53:16 > 0:53:22She was a glamorous society lady who liked the latest fashions,
0:53:22 > 0:53:24but she was also a rarity -
0:53:24 > 0:53:29she'd studied biology at university and campaigned for votes for women.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33Once American women had the vote, like their Scandinavian
0:53:33 > 0:53:36and British sisters, she was looking for a new cause
0:53:36 > 0:53:41and she alighted on birth control, which is why an unlikely friendship
0:53:41 > 0:53:45was formed between the heiress and the agitator.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50In Europe, contraceptives were easy to get hold of.
0:53:50 > 0:53:54Katharine McCormick went around buying up posh frocks
0:53:54 > 0:53:58and then had hundreds of diaphragms sewn into the hems,
0:53:58 > 0:54:03before boldly smuggling the clothing in trunks back to New York,
0:54:03 > 0:54:07where Sanger had opened a new clinic, which flourished.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13This was a great victory for private enterprise politics,
0:54:13 > 0:54:17and the campaigner and wealthy rebel kept in touch.
0:54:17 > 0:54:22Margaret Sanger always wanted an easier-to-use contraceptive,
0:54:22 > 0:54:24a fail-safe one,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27and when, decades on, scientists thought this might be possible,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30she turned again to Katharine McCormick,
0:54:30 > 0:54:32who bankrolled the research.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40It had been a long road from those New York tenement blocks,
0:54:40 > 0:54:44but in 1960, the pill went on the market.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49It revolutionised birth control for women.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55Half a century on, the pill has become the contraceptive of choice
0:54:55 > 0:55:00for way over 100 million women all around the world.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04Its social impact has been huge.
0:55:04 > 0:55:09It's allowed women to make choices about education and their careers,
0:55:09 > 0:55:14to delay having children, or to have no children at all.
0:55:14 > 0:55:16Along with votes for women,
0:55:16 > 0:55:21it has been one of the biggest social changes of the 20th century.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25Indeed, many women would say the biggest change of all.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35It's been said that in 1930
0:55:35 > 0:55:39three people had achieved instant global recognition -
0:55:39 > 0:55:40Charlie Chaplin...
0:55:42 > 0:55:43..Adolf Hitler...
0:55:45 > 0:55:51..and a skinny fellow who dressed to impress -
0:55:51 > 0:55:53Mohandas Gandhi.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Gandhi was a child of the British Empire.
0:55:56 > 0:56:00Born in India in 1869, he trained as a barrister in London
0:56:00 > 0:56:03before moving to South Africa, where he successfully
0:56:03 > 0:56:07fought against the appalling treatment of Indian immigrants.
0:56:07 > 0:56:0920 years later, he returned to India,
0:56:09 > 0:56:13which was then the jewel in the crown of the British Empire.
0:56:13 > 0:56:19And here, he began to challenge the injustices that many Indians suffered under British rule.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22The British liked to think that in India
0:56:22 > 0:56:25they were the good imperialists - parents, really.
0:56:27 > 0:56:33But, after famines and repression, many Indians didn't see it that way.
0:56:35 > 0:56:41In March, 1930, Gandhi, leader of the Indian Independence Movement,
0:56:41 > 0:56:45sent a letter to the headquarters of the British Raj in New Delhi.
0:56:45 > 0:56:49It was a direct challenge posted through the front door.
0:56:50 > 0:56:52- KNOCKING - Come in!
0:56:54 > 0:56:58The letter was addressed to Edward Frederick Lindley Wood,
0:56:58 > 0:57:02the Lord Irwin, Viceroy and Governor General of India.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Gandhi explained, politely but firmly,
0:57:08 > 0:57:12that he was intending to start a campaign of civil disobedience
0:57:12 > 0:57:16through which he would win India's independence.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21'I do not seek to harm your people.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26'My ambition is no less than to convert the British through non-violence,
0:57:26 > 0:57:29'and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India.'
0:57:31 > 0:57:36Gandhi finished his letter by promising to call off his planned campaign
0:57:36 > 0:57:40if the British would agree to talks about freedom for India.
0:57:41 > 0:57:43In the 1920s, on the surface,
0:57:43 > 0:57:47the British Empire seemed as self-confident as ever.
0:57:47 > 0:57:53Some sense of its swagger is given by the Viceroy's new house in Delhi.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57A British architect working on a Moghul scale,
0:57:57 > 0:58:00it makes Buckingham Palace seem pokey.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03But this was confronted by the determination
0:58:03 > 0:58:05of the wiry little man from Gujarat,
0:58:05 > 0:58:08who understood that the British weakness
0:58:08 > 0:58:12was a determination to be thought decent rulers,
0:58:12 > 0:58:17so his campaign of non-violent disobedience
0:58:17 > 0:58:20was a kind of political torture.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24Gandhi said, "There are many causes I'm prepared to die for,
0:58:24 > 0:58:29"but none that I am prepared to kill for."
0:58:30 > 0:58:31Answer that.
0:58:33 > 0:58:35Hmm!
0:58:35 > 0:58:40The Viceroy chose not to answer Gandhi's letter, so the troublemaker
0:58:40 > 0:58:44embarked on his campaign of polite, smiling civil disobedience.
0:58:48 > 0:58:52Gandhi set out to walk the 240 miles from his home to the coast
0:58:52 > 0:58:55in a protest about salt.
0:58:58 > 0:59:04Along the way, the crowds welcoming him grew day by day.
0:59:08 > 0:59:12When he arrived at the seashore, 50,000 supporters -
0:59:12 > 0:59:15newsmen among them - were waiting to greet him.
0:59:16 > 0:59:20Gandhi walked down to the water's edge,
0:59:20 > 0:59:23and he scooped up some salty mud.
0:59:23 > 0:59:26With this handful of salt,
0:59:26 > 0:59:31I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.
0:59:34 > 0:59:39Focusing on salt was a stroke of genius any spin doctor would envy.
0:59:41 > 0:59:46Indian salt production was a British monopoly and it was taxed,
0:59:46 > 0:59:50a huge source of income, controlled solely by Britain.
0:59:51 > 0:59:54Gandhi encouraged all Indians to break the law
0:59:54 > 0:59:58by panning their own salt and refusing to pay the salt tax.
0:59:59 > 1:00:02It was an echo of the Boston Tea Party,
1:00:02 > 1:00:06the trigger for the Americans to gain their independence from Britain.
1:00:07 > 1:00:11Gandhi was engaged in a propaganda campaign,
1:00:11 > 1:00:17and refusing to pay tax on salt would remind the Americans of their
1:00:17 > 1:00:22refusal to pay tax on tea when they broke away from the British Empire.
1:00:22 > 1:00:28So, by collecting the salt and refusing to pay tax on it,
1:00:28 > 1:00:30Gandhi was challenging the British
1:00:30 > 1:00:34to make themselves look both brutal and ridiculous.
1:00:36 > 1:00:40As mass protests rippled across India, the British authorities
1:00:40 > 1:00:44decided to arrest Gandhi and throw him into jail.
1:00:45 > 1:00:48Perfect! Just what he wanted.
1:00:50 > 1:00:54His arrest spurred even more people to come on to the streets.
1:00:56 > 1:00:59Demonstrations were ruthlessly put down.
1:01:01 > 1:01:06Britain was humiliated and condemned around the world.
1:01:09 > 1:01:14By the end of 1930, 60,000 peaceful protesters had been imprisoned.
1:01:15 > 1:01:18The agonised Viceroy gave in.
1:01:18 > 1:01:22He had Gandhi released from prison and invited him in for talks.
1:01:22 > 1:01:24- Mr Gandhi.- Lord Irwin.
1:01:26 > 1:01:29- Would you care for some tea? - Tea would be perfect.
1:01:30 > 1:01:32This meeting was the turning point.
1:01:34 > 1:01:40They agreed a pact which would lead, in stages, to India's independence.
1:01:40 > 1:01:43Sugar, Mr Gandhi?
1:01:43 > 1:01:44No, thank you.
1:01:45 > 1:01:49As the two men celebrated with a cup of tea,
1:01:49 > 1:01:51Gandhi had one final surprise.
1:01:54 > 1:01:57I am putting some salt into my tea...
1:01:59 > 1:02:03..to remind us of the historic Boston Tea Party.
1:02:05 > 1:02:06Very good, Mr Gandhi.
1:02:08 > 1:02:12But in Britain, not everybody was impressed.
1:02:12 > 1:02:17Back in London, Winston Churchill was appalled
1:02:17 > 1:02:19to see Gandhi posing as a fakir,
1:02:19 > 1:02:25striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace
1:02:25 > 1:02:30to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King Emperor.
1:02:31 > 1:02:33This is just the beginning.
1:02:33 > 1:02:37It took 16 years and a world war, but already the greatest empire
1:02:37 > 1:02:43the world had ever seen was lying, rather grandly, on its death bed.
1:02:46 > 1:02:51Gandhi's legacy has reached much further than independence for India.
1:02:51 > 1:02:56His philosophy of non-violent resistance has been an inspiration
1:02:56 > 1:03:01all around the world, from the American civil rights movement
1:03:01 > 1:03:06to the unarmed students facing down tanks in China's Tiananmen Square.
1:03:09 > 1:03:14GHANDI: 'Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind.
1:03:14 > 1:03:17'It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction
1:03:17 > 1:03:20'devised by the ingenuity of man.'
1:03:21 > 1:03:25'Non-violence is a weapon for the brave.'
1:03:32 > 1:03:35FANFARE AND CHEERING
1:03:37 > 1:03:42The 8th of May, 1945 - Germany surrenders.
1:03:44 > 1:03:49VE - Victory in Europe - was complete.
1:03:54 > 1:03:59But the Second World War was still raging in the Pacific.
1:03:59 > 1:04:04To end it, the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen
1:04:04 > 1:04:06was about to be unleashed.
1:04:06 > 1:04:08A watershed in world history...
1:04:10 > 1:04:12..the atomic bomb.
1:04:14 > 1:04:17The bomb's colossal destructive power comes from the vast
1:04:17 > 1:04:21amounts of energy released when atoms are split.
1:04:21 > 1:04:27The top secret project to create it was codenamed the Manhattan Project.
1:04:27 > 1:04:31It was led by one of the most intriguing minds of the 20th century.
1:04:31 > 1:04:37J Robert Oppenheimer was a curious mix of a man.
1:04:37 > 1:04:41He was fascinated by other cultures and the religions of the East,
1:04:41 > 1:04:44and in politics a man of the left.
1:04:44 > 1:04:47In fact, he even flirted with communism before the War,
1:04:47 > 1:04:52and so, you might think, a strange choice to head a project like this.
1:04:52 > 1:04:57But he was a brilliant theoretical physicist and a charismatic leader.
1:04:59 > 1:05:03By the summer of 1945, Oppenheimer's bomb,
1:05:03 > 1:05:05codenamed Little Boy, was ready.
1:05:07 > 1:05:08The target - Hiroshima.
1:05:10 > 1:05:13After Germany's defeat, Japan had fought on.
1:05:13 > 1:05:18Now Japanese civilians would pay for their leaders' refusal to surrender.
1:05:22 > 1:05:25CHILDREN'S VOICES, OMINOUS TICKING
1:05:28 > 1:05:30The strike was set for Monday, 6th of August.
1:05:38 > 1:05:40There were American scientists
1:05:40 > 1:05:42who didn't believe in deploying the bomb,
1:05:42 > 1:05:47but Oppenheimer argued strongly that it had to be used.
1:05:47 > 1:05:51There was a chance that the bomb would end all war,
1:05:51 > 1:05:53but for that to happen,
1:05:53 > 1:05:58the whole world had to see its full, horrific potential.
1:05:59 > 1:06:03And so this man, with his cultured, sophisticated mind
1:06:03 > 1:06:07and his humanitarian values, spent a great deal of time
1:06:07 > 1:06:11calculating the exact height at which to detonate the bomb
1:06:11 > 1:06:14so that it would kill the maximum number of people.
1:06:30 > 1:06:32ENGINE DRONES
1:07:13 > 1:07:15PHONE RINGS
1:07:16 > 1:07:18Oppenheimer.
1:07:20 > 1:07:22Thank you.
1:07:25 > 1:07:30This morning, at 8.16 Japanese time,
1:07:30 > 1:07:36a V-29 bomber was successfully deployed above Hiroshima.
1:07:36 > 1:07:39CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
1:08:19 > 1:08:22Hiroshima is a big word.
1:08:22 > 1:08:24This is a big story.
1:08:24 > 1:08:29Let's try and bring it down in scale a bit.
1:08:30 > 1:08:34This is a woman's watch,
1:08:34 > 1:08:38hands fused to the time of the blast.
1:08:40 > 1:08:46Around 400 young children were here with their ten teachers
1:08:46 > 1:08:52when the bomb went off, and all but one was burned to death immediately.
1:08:53 > 1:09:00In a three-mile blast radius, almost everybody suffered fatal burns,
1:09:00 > 1:09:05and beyond that, there were mass blindings from the flash,
1:09:05 > 1:09:09and then of course came the radiation sickness,
1:09:09 > 1:09:14killing many thousands in the days and weeks and years that followed.
1:09:17 > 1:09:21Stubbornly, incomprehensibly,
1:09:21 > 1:09:24Japan still refused to surrender.
1:09:24 > 1:09:28So, three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped,
1:09:28 > 1:09:30this time on Nagasaki.
1:09:35 > 1:09:38In the two attacks, up to a third of a million people died.
1:09:40 > 1:09:43Now Japan finally admitted defeat.
1:09:47 > 1:09:53On the evening of 14th August 1945, the Second World War came to an end.
1:09:58 > 1:10:00There are plenty of places around the world
1:10:00 > 1:10:02where terrible things happened.
1:10:02 > 1:10:06What makes this one different is the thought that
1:10:06 > 1:10:11what happened to Hiroshima could happen almost anywhere else.
1:10:12 > 1:10:15I certainly grew up in the 1960s and '70s
1:10:15 > 1:10:20thinking that my home town in Scotland and the people I loved
1:10:20 > 1:10:22could be nuclear victims,
1:10:22 > 1:10:26and people were thinking just the same all across America
1:10:26 > 1:10:30and in Russia, and France, and Germany, and many other places.
1:10:30 > 1:10:36"We shall not repeat this evil," says the monument behind me.
1:10:38 > 1:10:42But was this the end of something,
1:10:42 > 1:10:44or was it the beginning?
1:10:44 > 1:10:47We still cannot be sure.
1:10:59 > 1:11:03Dropping the atomic bomb changed the world for ever,
1:11:03 > 1:11:07and nobody thought about the consequences more than its creator.
1:11:07 > 1:11:09A few weeks afterwards,
1:11:09 > 1:11:13Oppenheimer resigned his post on the nuclear programme.
1:11:13 > 1:11:17Later, he reflected openly on his...achievement.
1:11:19 > 1:11:23OPPENHEIMER: We have made a thing, a most terrible weapon,
1:11:23 > 1:11:27that has altered abruptly and profoundly the nature of the world.
1:11:29 > 1:11:33A thing that, by all standards of the world that we grew up in,
1:11:33 > 1:11:35is an evil thing.
1:11:37 > 1:11:41And so by doing, we have raised the question
1:11:41 > 1:11:44of whether science is good for man.
1:11:56 > 1:12:01In later life, Oppenheimer described on television how he was haunted
1:12:01 > 1:12:05by a line he had once read in an ancient Hindu scripture.
1:12:07 > 1:12:11"Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds."
1:12:13 > 1:12:16I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
1:12:31 > 1:12:36The nuclear arms race of the 1950s and '60s
1:12:36 > 1:12:40between the communist and capitalist camps terrified the world.
1:12:40 > 1:12:44It brought the threat of mutually assured destruction.
1:12:44 > 1:12:47Using nuclear weapons would guarantee
1:12:47 > 1:12:51the annihilation of both sides, and with them, human life on Earth.
1:12:51 > 1:12:55But, this deadly threat did preserve a fragile peace
1:12:55 > 1:12:57between the superpowers.
1:12:57 > 1:12:59# Life could be a dream... #
1:12:59 > 1:13:04It allowed the rival systems to test their own economic power,
1:13:04 > 1:13:06and in the West,
1:13:06 > 1:13:10the sheer energy of capitalism was unleashed as never before,
1:13:10 > 1:13:14producing a gushing abundance of goods,
1:13:14 > 1:13:18a colourful gloss of material plenty.
1:13:18 > 1:13:21This is Apollo launch control. Five, four, three...
1:13:21 > 1:13:25It was a time when everything seemed possible.
1:13:27 > 1:13:30It's different, but it's very pretty out here.
1:13:32 > 1:13:36But as the West went moony, on the other side of the world
1:13:36 > 1:13:39daily life was descending into a political nightmare.
1:13:41 > 1:13:45PRISONER PROTESTS IN CHINESE
1:13:47 > 1:13:52The People's Republic of China. July 1967.
1:13:53 > 1:13:56Fanatical gangs, known as the Red Guards,
1:13:56 > 1:13:59were hunting down anyone suspected of betraying the ideas
1:13:59 > 1:14:03of the Chinese communist leader, Chairman Mao Zedong.
1:14:03 > 1:14:06GUARD SHOUTS IN CHINESE
1:14:06 > 1:14:10The name of this victim - Deng Xiaoping.
1:14:11 > 1:14:15GUARD EXCLAIMS VIA LOUD-HAILER
1:14:15 > 1:14:19One day he'd become the most powerful man in China,
1:14:19 > 1:14:21the leader who would turn the country
1:14:21 > 1:14:24into the economic powerhouse that it is today.
1:14:28 > 1:14:32Deng was one of the original Chinese communists.
1:14:32 > 1:14:34He'd been a guerrilla fighter,
1:14:34 > 1:14:36he'd led armies for Mao from the early days
1:14:36 > 1:14:39right through to the final victory, and Mao liked him a lot.
1:14:39 > 1:14:41He called him "the little man",
1:14:41 > 1:14:46and he'd drawn Deng into the tight group of people who ran China.
1:14:46 > 1:14:52But now, Deng was on his knees being screamed at by the Red Guards -
1:14:52 > 1:14:56the fanatical foot soldiers of the wildest social experiment
1:14:56 > 1:15:02ever to hit modern China - the Cultural Revolution.
1:15:02 > 1:15:05CROWD CHANTS
1:15:05 > 1:15:11The Cultural Revolution meant a vast purge of anyone thought to stand
1:15:11 > 1:15:17in the way of Chairman Mao's long march towards a communist utopia.
1:15:17 > 1:15:22Mao called for a war against the "four olds" -
1:15:22 > 1:15:28old thinking, old culture, old customs, old habits.
1:15:33 > 1:15:36It's estimated that millions of people died
1:15:36 > 1:15:38in the Cultural Revolution.
1:15:38 > 1:15:44The Chinese Government itself says that 100 million people suffered.
1:15:44 > 1:15:49Mao had quite deliberately unleashed social anarchy -
1:15:49 > 1:15:52a war against the past,
1:15:52 > 1:15:55a war against moderation,
1:15:55 > 1:15:58a war against common sense.
1:16:05 > 1:16:09Mao's warped economic reforms had led to famines
1:16:09 > 1:16:13in which up to 45 million people died.
1:16:14 > 1:16:19Deng Xiaoping fell foul of Mao's Red Guards for daring to suggest
1:16:19 > 1:16:22there might be a better way of running the economy.
1:16:23 > 1:16:26At the 1961 party conference,
1:16:26 > 1:16:31Deng argued that economic growth mattered more than communist theory,
1:16:31 > 1:16:33and he quoted an old peasant saying -
1:16:33 > 1:16:37"It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white.
1:16:37 > 1:16:40"If it catches mice, it's a good cat."
1:16:40 > 1:16:42Now, this was dangerous stuff.
1:16:42 > 1:16:45It suggested that he thought there was an alternative way
1:16:45 > 1:16:50for China to modernise, not necessarily Chairman Mao's way.
1:16:56 > 1:16:58After his public denunciation,
1:16:58 > 1:17:03Deng Xiaoping was exiled to work in a tractor factory.
1:17:05 > 1:17:07In time, Mao relented,
1:17:07 > 1:17:11and Deng was welcomed back to Beijing as if nothing had happened.
1:17:14 > 1:17:17When Mao died in 1976,
1:17:17 > 1:17:22the great survivor seized the chance of a political comeback.
1:17:26 > 1:17:31Within two years, Deng was the most powerful man in China.
1:17:31 > 1:17:36Deng's moment had come, and what a moment!
1:17:36 > 1:17:39He took China right round
1:17:39 > 1:17:43towards roaring, full-throttle capitalism.
1:17:45 > 1:17:49Under Deng, China's repressive state continued,
1:17:49 > 1:17:53but he began welding together the two big ideas
1:17:53 > 1:17:57that had divided the world in the 20th century.
1:17:57 > 1:18:01For him, capitalism in a communist country wasn't a contradiction.
1:18:01 > 1:18:04It was a pragmatic solution.
1:18:06 > 1:18:10Since Deng's reforms were introduced, China's economy
1:18:10 > 1:18:16has been growing at an average of nearly 10% a year, every year.
1:18:16 > 1:18:20It's on track to become the world's biggest economy by 2016.
1:18:47 > 1:18:50Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd