0:00:06 > 0:00:09In the 18th century, most people in the world,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12from France to India, from Russia to China,
0:00:12 > 0:00:16lived in the long shadow of an absolute ruler.
0:00:18 > 0:00:23Few would ever see their ruler's face or hear their ruler's voice.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27There were no rights to heckle, no talking back.
0:00:28 > 0:00:32Then, on January the 21st, 1793,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35there was a decisive break in human history.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41HE SCREAMS
0:00:41 > 0:00:42CROWD CHEER
0:00:42 > 0:00:47The guillotine had ended the life of King Louis XVI of France
0:00:47 > 0:00:49and the age of absolute power.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56A new way of thinking had bubbled up from northern Europe.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00We call it the Enlightenment, an age of reason,
0:01:00 > 0:01:05in which the bright, clear light of science and learning flushed away
0:01:05 > 0:01:07the shadows of superstition.
0:01:08 > 0:01:15An age where people stood up straight and called for freedom and equality.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19But for some, the Enlightenment also suggested
0:01:19 > 0:01:24mankind could simply throw away everything that had gone before and start again.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28And that would prove to be a tragic mistake.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32During this time,
0:01:32 > 0:01:36there were two great nations leading the Enlightenment.
0:01:36 > 0:01:43Both expected to dominate humanity, and they were bitter enemies -
0:01:43 > 0:01:45Britain and France.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49Their influence around the world would be huge.
0:01:49 > 0:01:54Not always for the good, and certainly not quite what they expected.
0:01:57 > 0:02:02And so the Age of Reason, so calm, so cool,
0:02:02 > 0:02:07would become the hot and bloody Age of Revolution.
0:02:29 > 0:02:34In the early 17th century, Italy was a land teeming with new money,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37thinkers, experimenters and inventors.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41The land where the Renaissance had begun.
0:02:43 > 0:02:48You might have thought that the Enlightenment would shine here first.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53And indeed, in 1609, a loud-mouthed mathematician from Pisa
0:02:53 > 0:02:56launched a scientific revolution.
0:02:56 > 0:03:01Galileo Galilei dragged the ruler of Venice, the Doge,
0:03:01 > 0:03:04to the highest point in the city.
0:03:05 > 0:03:10Guardi da questa parte, Sua Eccellenza. Guardi, guardi.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15He was showing off his new invention.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Assolutamente straordinario!
0:03:18 > 0:03:22Galileo had invented the telescope.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Except that the idea wasn't Galileo's at all.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31He'd nicked it from a Dutch inventor who'd just arrived in town.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36But within a couple of days, Galileo was making his own lenses and experimenting
0:03:36 > 0:03:39and hugely improving on the original.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44And so, with his magic tube, Galileo was able to
0:03:44 > 0:03:49double his income and turn himself into a kind of scientific star.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56But Galileo's telescope would also bring about his downfall.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00What he saw overturned one of man's central beliefs about the Earth
0:04:00 > 0:04:02and its place in the universe.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle had taught
0:04:08 > 0:04:11that the Earth was the centre of the universe,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14around which the sun, the moon and the planets rotated.
0:04:17 > 0:04:23But 60 years earlier, the Polish astronomer Copernicus had put forward
0:04:23 > 0:04:27a wild-seeming theory - that the sun was the centre of the universe.
0:04:30 > 0:04:35Galileo's telescope allowed him to test this theory with his own eyes.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41First, he observed four moons
0:04:41 > 0:04:44revolving around Jupiter and not the Earth.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Then he calculated that Venus was moving around the sun.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56Galileo could now confirm that Copernicus was right.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59The sun, not the Earth, was the centre of the universe.
0:05:02 > 0:05:07Now, this overturned nearly 2,000 years of belief.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10The Church had accepted Aristotle's argument.
0:05:10 > 0:05:16The Bible said that the Earth was fixed and cannot be moved,
0:05:16 > 0:05:20and taught that man was God's greatest creation,
0:05:20 > 0:05:27so it followed, obviously, that the Earth was at the centre of everything.
0:05:27 > 0:05:32Now Galileo was claiming that the obvious wasn't true.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35In fact, things were worse than that.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37He had proof.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Galileo began writing about his discovery.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46His fame spread throughout Europe.
0:05:46 > 0:05:51He was compared to Christopher Columbus, as a discoverer of new worlds.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57But he knew he was playing a dangerous game.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04The problem was that this was the height of the Counter-Reformation,
0:06:04 > 0:06:09the decades of the fighting popes, determined to crush Protestant dissent
0:06:09 > 0:06:11and impose absolute orthodoxy.
0:06:11 > 0:06:16Pursue a thought too far, and you could be in dead trouble.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19In 1600, the friar Giordano Bruno
0:06:19 > 0:06:23had proposed that the sun was a star
0:06:23 > 0:06:25and the universe was infinite.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28The Church's ultimate loose cannon,
0:06:28 > 0:06:31Bruno was burned at the stake for various heresies.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34Any last words?
0:06:34 > 0:06:38No. They rammed a steel spike through his tongue.
0:06:45 > 0:06:51In 1633, the Church finally lost patience with Galileo, too.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55He was arrested by the Catholic Inquisition.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01The case against Galileo was really more about
0:07:01 > 0:07:04the Church's authority than astronomy.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09If the Church could be wrong about the stars,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12what else might it be wrong about?
0:07:15 > 0:07:21Dressed in the white robes of a penitent, Galileo knelt to hear his sentence.
0:07:23 > 0:07:29Diciamo, prononciamo, sententiamo e dischiaramo...
0:07:29 > 0:07:33He was judged "vehemently suspect of heresy".
0:07:34 > 0:07:39His books were to be destroyed, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42Dedotte in processo...
0:07:42 > 0:07:48But worst of all, he was told to publicly abjure, curse and detest his own opinions,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51and deny that the Earth moved.
0:07:58 > 0:08:04Io Galileo Galilei, con cuor sincere e fede non tinta...
0:08:04 > 0:08:10His life's work was stuffed back down his throat.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14Di me...simil sospittione.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22And yet at the end, he spat just a little bit of it back.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27Eppur si muove.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32"Eppur si muove."
0:08:32 > 0:08:35"And yet it moves."
0:08:40 > 0:08:44Galileo had been silenced in Europe's Catholic south.
0:08:44 > 0:08:50His work remained on the Church's list of banned books for 200 years.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53But Galileo's ideas spread north
0:08:53 > 0:08:56to Protestant countries, like Holland and Britain,
0:08:56 > 0:08:59where freedom of thought allowed scientists
0:08:59 > 0:09:01such as Isaac Newton to flourish.
0:09:03 > 0:09:07An enlightened Age of Reason was never going to blossom
0:09:07 > 0:09:10under the censorship of the Church.
0:09:10 > 0:09:14But even beyond the reach of the Catholic Church,
0:09:14 > 0:09:20thinkers did have to be concerned about a different kind of authority,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23because this was the age of royal absolutism,
0:09:23 > 0:09:30when monarchs claiming complete power ruled from Paris to Prussia,
0:09:30 > 0:09:32from St Petersburg to Vienna.
0:09:32 > 0:09:38The best of them thought of themselves as modern, built magnificent palaces,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42and drew in Enlightenment thinkers, like Voltaire.
0:09:42 > 0:09:46But as even Europeans understood,
0:09:46 > 0:09:51the greatest of the absolute monarchs weren't in Europe at all.
0:09:56 > 0:10:01India was dominated by the all-powerful Muslim Moghul emperors.
0:10:05 > 0:10:11Under Shah Jahan, the Moghul empire grew to more than 100 million people.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16They called him "king of the world".
0:10:19 > 0:10:22When his wife, Mumtaz Mahal, died in childbirth,
0:10:22 > 0:10:25he built her a giant marble tomb.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38The Taj Mahal is the world's most extravagant
0:10:38 > 0:10:40and beautiful monument to love.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45But it's also a symbol of absolute power.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51Like the absolute monarchs who ruled in Europe,
0:10:51 > 0:10:55the Moghul emperors used stone to display their power.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02But Shah Jahan also ruled a more open-minded court
0:11:02 > 0:11:04than any in Europe at the time.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11Shah Jahan's grandfather, Akbar the Great,
0:11:11 > 0:11:16began the extraordinary tradition of Moghul liberalism.
0:11:16 > 0:11:19He brought together, for instance, people of all faiths -
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Sunni and Shia Muslim, Hindus and Christians -
0:11:22 > 0:11:24and got them to argue in front of him
0:11:24 > 0:11:27so he could see whether there were fundamental truths
0:11:27 > 0:11:30around which mankind might unite.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33He was also a great patron of the arts,
0:11:33 > 0:11:38and what he reminds us is that absolutism, when it's successful,
0:11:38 > 0:11:43can create great breakthroughs and not only in stone.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47But the weakness of the system is that it depends absolutely
0:11:47 > 0:11:52on the character of whoever happens to have made it to the top.
0:11:54 > 0:11:57And a struggle at the top was about to begin.
0:11:59 > 0:12:03It would annihilate any thought of an Indian Age of Reason.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12In September, 1657, Shah Jahan fell seriously ill.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17His eldest son Dara was his favoured heir.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22Dara was another in the line
0:12:22 > 0:12:26of essentially tolerant and open-minded Moghuls.
0:12:26 > 0:12:31But his brother, Aurangzeb, was very different.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34He was a harsh military man
0:12:34 > 0:12:38who wanted to impose his strict version of Islam on all of India.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49To do that, he'd have to get rid of his brother.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53But this was much more than a struggle between two brothers.
0:12:53 > 0:12:59This was a struggle for the future of the empire and everybody living in it.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07In May 1658, Aurangzeb marched on Agra,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09proclaimed himself Emperor...
0:13:11 > 0:13:15..and imprisoned his father, Shah Jahan.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18DOOR SLAMS
0:13:21 > 0:13:27Aurangzeb captured Dara and paraded him and his son through the streets of Delhi.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34He accused him of heresy and condemned him to death.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43So far, so grisly.
0:13:43 > 0:13:46But it's not untypical of the problems
0:13:46 > 0:13:49faced by absolute dynasties around the world.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58Assassination and wars of succession
0:13:58 > 0:14:01were also routine amongst the ruling families of Europe.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08The only thing that really singles out Aurangzeb's case
0:14:08 > 0:14:12was his taste for takeaways.
0:14:18 > 0:14:23Aurangzeb would rule for 50 years, a half-century when he imprinted
0:14:23 > 0:14:29his harsh and fanatical personality on the country.
0:14:29 > 0:14:35Aurangzeb's version of Islam involved the destruction of Hindu temples,
0:14:35 > 0:14:40setting up a system of censorship and a great deal of banning.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42He banned alcohol, of course.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46He ended the great tradition of beautiful paintings,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49but he also banned dancing,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52he banned writing historical documents.
0:14:52 > 0:14:59He even, inside his own court, banned the playing of music.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03A MAN SINGS
0:15:03 > 0:15:07When Aurangzeb saw his musicians carrying their silent instruments
0:15:07 > 0:15:10and was told that since he'd killed music,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13they were off to bury it, he replied contemptuously
0:15:13 > 0:15:16he hoped they buried it deep.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21In the end, absolute rulers tend to turn tyrant.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28The temptation to shut people up, to ban things, is irresistible.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36Aurangzeb plunged India into a 26-year battle
0:15:36 > 0:15:39to destroy any rivals in the Hindu south.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45He built the most extensive empire so far in Indian history.
0:15:47 > 0:15:49But it came at a terrible cost.
0:15:52 > 0:15:57Aurangzeb brought the Moghul empire to the very edge of bankruptcy,
0:15:57 > 0:16:00so weakening it, that soon afterwards,
0:16:00 > 0:16:05the British were able to kick down the door and take over India.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09Absolute regimes tend to collapse for the same reason -
0:16:09 > 0:16:12that eventually somebody is in charge
0:16:12 > 0:16:16who leads the empire on a disastrous path.
0:16:16 > 0:16:22And to give him his credit, perhaps Aurangzeb in the end understood this.
0:16:22 > 0:16:28On his deathbed, he said to his son, "I came alone and I go as a stranger.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33"I do not know who I am or what I have been doing."
0:16:37 > 0:16:42The British seizure of India would be remarkably fast.
0:16:44 > 0:16:48But at just the same time, they'd get a terrible shock of their own.
0:16:52 > 0:16:58By now, the idea of a British absolute monarch had long gone.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01A civil war, and then a peaceful revolution,
0:17:01 > 0:17:03had brought in something new -
0:17:03 > 0:17:05party politics.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09Votes and liberties protected by Parliament,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12which in those days sat on this spot.
0:17:12 > 0:17:19The British began to pride themselves on liberty and freedom of speech.
0:17:19 > 0:17:25One tiny flaw in the system was that as they colonised the rest of the world,
0:17:25 > 0:17:30it seemed that this great British invention wasn't for export.
0:17:32 > 0:17:38In 1773, what would become the United States of America
0:17:38 > 0:17:41consisted of 13 British colonies.
0:17:45 > 0:17:48People here thought of themselves as British,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51and they were ruled by courts using British laws,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54suffused by British Enlightenment ideas of liberty.
0:17:56 > 0:18:01But the Americans were governed by a parliament in London
0:18:01 > 0:18:04in which they had no political representation.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06And many were angry about it.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Things came to a head in Boston, Massachusetts,
0:18:11 > 0:18:15in a row about taxes and tea.
0:18:16 > 0:18:21Tea was by far the most popular drink of the day.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25And the British imposed a tax on all the tea coming into the 13 colonies.
0:18:25 > 0:18:27Now, it wasn't a very big tax,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30and actually the price of tea was going down.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35But for Americans being raised on the new Enlightenment ideas
0:18:35 > 0:18:42about the freedom of the individual, this was a matter of principle.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44Why should the London Parliament,
0:18:44 > 0:18:47which was six to eight weeks' dangerous sailing time away,
0:18:47 > 0:18:49where they had no voice and no vote,
0:18:49 > 0:18:54be able to impose any taxes on the people here?
0:18:54 > 0:18:58In Boston, this was about something even more important than tea.
0:18:58 > 0:18:59Liberty.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09Protesting against British taxes had become a major American hobby.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16And nobody was more dedicated to it than the local politician, Samuel Adams.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20No taxation without representation.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23No to British tea taxes!
0:19:23 > 0:19:29When he heard that 94,000 pounds of tea were en route to Boston,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Adams resolved that not an ounce should land.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34No taxation without representation!
0:19:34 > 0:19:37No to British tea taxes!
0:19:37 > 0:19:39Neither side was prepared to back down.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41No to British tea taxes.
0:19:48 > 0:19:52No to British tea taxes!
0:19:55 > 0:19:57On November the 28th, 1773,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01the first of three British ships, the Dartmouth,
0:20:01 > 0:20:04sailed into Boston harbour.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09She was filled to the brim with tea from China, brought via Britain.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13Boston braced itself.
0:20:14 > 0:20:17For 20 days, the ship was tied up at the dock,
0:20:17 > 0:20:19while Adams tried to persuade its captain
0:20:19 > 0:20:23to turn round and take the tea back to Britain.
0:20:23 > 0:20:25But the pro-British governor of Boston
0:20:25 > 0:20:28refused to allow the ship permission to leave.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31Stalemate.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39The governor has refused permission for the ships to leave.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45- Rebellion was in the air. - BOOING AND SHOUTING
0:20:45 > 0:20:49Adams didn't have to say much to incite the crowd.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54This meeting can do nothing more to save the country.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57CHANTING
0:20:57 > 0:20:58A mob!
0:20:58 > 0:21:03A mob. The crowd were crying out for mob action.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05CHANTING: Mob! Mob! Mob!
0:21:07 > 0:21:14Across Boston, the rebels poured onto the streets and headed for the harbour.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17Many were dressed as Mohawk Indians.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22So why were they dressed up as Mohawks?
0:21:22 > 0:21:24It may simply have been a disguise,
0:21:24 > 0:21:29but it's also been suggested that this was supposed to symbolise
0:21:29 > 0:21:32freeborn Americans standing up against tyranny.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36If so, this was a bitter irony,
0:21:36 > 0:21:40because the real Mohawks were the original hunters,
0:21:40 > 0:21:47whose culture and whose land was being seized and destroyed by colonial America.
0:21:47 > 0:21:54So this was a great struggle for liberty - for European immigrants.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57For Native Americans, it was disaster.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11That night, 342 chests were tipped into the water.
0:22:12 > 0:22:1546 tonnes of tea were destroyed,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18worth more than a million pounds today.
0:22:20 > 0:22:27The Boston Tea Party set the stage for the American Revolutionary War.
0:22:36 > 0:22:39That war would go on for eight years.
0:22:40 > 0:22:45But finally, in 1783, the 13 colonies won their independence from Britain.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51The United States of America was now free
0:22:51 > 0:22:55to create a new kind of society and politics.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01The Declaration of Independence said,
0:23:01 > 0:23:05"We hold these truths to be self-evident -
0:23:05 > 0:23:07"that all men are created equal,
0:23:07 > 0:23:10"that they are endowed by their Creator
0:23:10 > 0:23:13"with certain inalienable rights.
0:23:13 > 0:23:18"Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
0:23:18 > 0:23:21Here, in one document,
0:23:21 > 0:23:25was everything essential the Enlightenment stood for.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27For the first time in history,
0:23:27 > 0:23:33liberty and equality were claimed as the basis of a political system.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37Of course, not everyone would be equal or free.
0:23:37 > 0:23:43Not native people, not blacks and not women of any colour.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47But still, these are remarkable words
0:23:47 > 0:23:51and certainly one of the foundation stones of the modern world.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57When the United States came to create its own system of government,
0:23:57 > 0:24:02it chose an essentially parliamentary system of elected representatives.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07Powers were beginning to be transferred to the people.
0:24:07 > 0:24:11And although there was some chatter about an American monarch,
0:24:11 > 0:24:15they went for elected presidents.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Some of whom have done perfectly well!
0:24:26 > 0:24:29Back in Europe, France's Louis XVI,
0:24:29 > 0:24:33not perhaps the brightest candle in the candelabra,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37had paid a fortune to help the Americans win their revolution
0:24:37 > 0:24:40against his old enemy, the British.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47The result? The financial collapse of Louis's already tottering regime.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51And it seems not to have occurred to him
0:24:51 > 0:24:56that ideas of liberty might boomerang back from America to Paris.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05France was almost bankrupt.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10But the people who mostly had the money - the nobility and the Church -
0:25:10 > 0:25:13mostly didn't pay tax.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17And so, in desperation, Louis summoned
0:25:17 > 0:25:21representatives of the common people of France to help him.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24Big mistake.
0:25:24 > 0:25:30Because for the first time, the seething and put-upon majority had a voice.
0:25:34 > 0:25:39In the summer of 1789, simmering anger and resentment
0:25:39 > 0:25:43exploded into full-blown class war on the streets of Paris.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45Ou allez-vous?
0:25:45 > 0:25:48A la Bastille! A la Bastille!
0:25:48 > 0:25:52On the 14th of July, hundreds marched on a hated symbol of royal power -
0:25:52 > 0:25:56a fortress and prison called the Bastille.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05The Bastille had just seven prisoners inside, none political.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15The crowd really wanted its store of gunpowder.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23The besiegers cut off the governor's head with a pocket knife
0:26:23 > 0:26:26and paraded it through the streets.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32This was much more than simply a mob.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37The French Revolution would be led by shopkeepers, journalists and lawyers.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40And they were armed with something
0:26:40 > 0:26:44much more dangerous than gunpowder or pikes -
0:26:44 > 0:26:47the ideas of the Enlightenment.
0:26:48 > 0:26:53The leaders of this popular revolt had genuinely revolutionary ideas.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58Very quickly, they abolished all the privileges of the aristocracy.
0:26:58 > 0:26:59They insisted on fair taxes,
0:26:59 > 0:27:04and they took on the incredibly wealthy and powerful Catholic Church.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08Above all, they declared the rights of man -
0:27:08 > 0:27:11the equality of all citizens,
0:27:11 > 0:27:16their right to an elected government, free speech and fair courts.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22These were the ideals of the early French Revolution.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27Liberte, egalite, fraternite.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41Louis XVI was now in full retreat.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45But his position wasn't hopeless.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49France was surrounded by other absolute rulers with armies
0:27:49 > 0:27:51who might come to his rescue.
0:27:53 > 0:27:55Louis decided to escape
0:27:55 > 0:28:00with his spectacularly unpopular queen, Marie Antoinette.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07On the night of 21st of June 1791,
0:28:07 > 0:28:11the royal family sneaked away from Paris,
0:28:11 > 0:28:16disguised, not very well, as servants, and they fled for the border.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22It should have been easy.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26This was a world where few faces were recognisable.
0:28:26 > 0:28:27Bonsoir. Vos papiers, monsieur.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32Merci.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35But just 40 miles from the border,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39a local postmaster who'd served in the Royal Cavalry
0:28:39 > 0:28:41recognised the Queen.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43Attendez un instant.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45Mais...c'est la Reine.
0:28:45 > 0:28:47C'est la Reine! C'est la Reine!
0:28:47 > 0:28:49Et regardez, c'est le Roi!
0:28:49 > 0:28:54He checked his money, and there was the King's face on a banknote.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57C'est la Reine. Et le Roi, et la Reine.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05The King and his family were taken back to Paris in disgrace.
0:29:08 > 0:29:14The shift from absolute power to absolute irrelevance was complete.
0:29:14 > 0:29:18From now on, the King was a pathetic figure.
0:29:18 > 0:29:24In September 1792, France declared herself a republic,
0:29:24 > 0:29:28and that winter, Louis was put on trial for treason.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32As to the result, there was never any doubt.
0:29:33 > 0:29:38On January 21st, 1793, at nine o'clock in the morning,
0:29:38 > 0:29:42Louis XVI was driven through the streets of Paris...
0:29:43 > 0:29:47..to meet his sharpest critic so far.
0:29:50 > 0:29:54The guillotine had only been at work here for nine months.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58It was itself a product of the ideals of the revolution -
0:29:58 > 0:30:01humane, efficient and fast.
0:30:01 > 0:30:07It was promoted, not invented, by Dr Joseph Guillotin.
0:30:07 > 0:30:09"Now, with my machine," he said,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12"I can cut off your head in the twinkling of an eye,
0:30:12 > 0:30:15"and you'll never feel it."
0:30:15 > 0:30:17It was also supremely democratic,
0:30:17 > 0:30:22killing both commoners and nobility in just the same way.
0:30:22 > 0:30:27Now this democratic killing machine was about to slice away
0:30:27 > 0:30:301,000 years of French monarchy.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Louis announced his innocence and forgave his enemies.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00- But he could have saved his breath. - Et je prie Dieu
0:31:00 > 0:31:04que le sang que vous allez verser
0:31:04 > 0:31:08ne retombe pas sur la France!
0:31:16 > 0:31:18HE SHOUTS
0:31:23 > 0:31:25CHEERING
0:31:26 > 0:31:30The execution of Louis XVI horrified the monarchies of Europe,
0:31:30 > 0:31:34and soon France was encircled by hostile armies.
0:31:34 > 0:31:38At home, food prices soared, the mob rioted,
0:31:38 > 0:31:42and in the Assembly, the factions fought each other.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46The moderates sat on the right-hand side of the chamber
0:31:46 > 0:31:48and the extremists on the left,
0:31:48 > 0:31:53which is where today we get our words for left and right from in politics.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55Finally, in the summer of 1793,
0:31:55 > 0:31:59the extreme Jacobin faction seized control.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04The revolution descended into terror.
0:32:04 > 0:32:11It was driven by a naive idea that mankind could start again...
0:32:12 > 0:32:16..and slice its way to a better world.
0:32:17 > 0:32:22The extremists turned the high ideals of the revolution into a weapon
0:32:22 > 0:32:24to destroy their enemies.
0:32:24 > 0:32:29One lot of revolutionaries denounced the next.
0:32:30 > 0:32:32Instead of the reign of reason,
0:32:32 > 0:32:36it felt like the reign of hysteria and paranoia.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40All around Paris, people were waiting for the knock on the door,
0:32:40 > 0:32:44and the streets of the city ran with blood.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49It's thought that 40,000 people died in what became known simply
0:32:49 > 0:32:51as The Terror.
0:32:55 > 0:33:01Finally, in 1799, the army seized control of the country.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11The leader was an upstart general called Napoleon Bonaparte.
0:33:11 > 0:33:14His ambition, limitless.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20In 1804, he invited the Pope to anoint him Emperor of France
0:33:20 > 0:33:25in an extravagant ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral.
0:33:25 > 0:33:30Napoleon left the Pope waiting in the cold for several hours...
0:33:32 > 0:33:34..before crowning himself.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41CHEERING
0:33:41 > 0:33:47In history, the arrival of a small man in a big hat is rarely good news.
0:33:49 > 0:33:51Absolute power was back.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57With the crowning of Napoleon, the revolution was over.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59The world's seen many revolutions since then,
0:33:59 > 0:34:03and they have often followed just the same pattern -
0:34:03 > 0:34:05idealism, then extremism,
0:34:05 > 0:34:08the revolution starts to eat its own children,
0:34:08 > 0:34:10until finally, in exhaustion,
0:34:10 > 0:34:14power lands in the hands of a military hardman.
0:34:14 > 0:34:20And yet, despite that ghastly cycle, the revolutions keep coming,
0:34:20 > 0:34:26often driven by just the same ideals as that first revolution,
0:34:26 > 0:34:30made and then killed by the people of Paris.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36Across the Channel, Britain's political rulers
0:34:36 > 0:34:39were horrified by the French Revolution.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44The British had very different ideas about liberty,
0:34:44 > 0:34:49and would fight long wars at sea and on land against Napoleon
0:34:49 > 0:34:51to defend them.
0:34:51 > 0:34:54But the highest ideals of the British Enlightenment
0:34:54 > 0:34:57would also fail to measure up
0:34:57 > 0:35:01as they explored the world and encountered new peoples.
0:35:06 > 0:35:10The Australian Aborigines were nomadic hunter-gatherers.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16In the 18th century, there were up to a million of them,
0:35:16 > 0:35:20with around 250 different languages.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24They'd lived here for perhaps 50,000 years.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27The rest of human history wasn't even a rumour.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33Then strange white creatures turned up.
0:35:33 > 0:35:40In 1770, Captain James Cook had discovered New South Wales
0:35:40 > 0:35:42and claimed it for Britain.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47A brilliant navigator, Cook came from a humble background
0:35:47 > 0:35:52and he greatly admired the natives for their lack of material greed.
0:35:52 > 0:35:58"They have no need of magnificent houses and household stuff," he wrote,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01and with a wonderful climate, they had no need of clothing.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04Noble savages.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08But Cook was a servant of the British Crown,
0:36:08 > 0:36:11and after the loss of her American colonies,
0:36:11 > 0:36:17Britain desperately needed somewhere else to dump her convicts.
0:36:21 > 0:36:25The first European settlement in Australia was a prison camp.
0:36:27 > 0:36:33It was named after the British Home Secretary, Viscount Sydney.
0:36:33 > 0:36:36But this was also an Enlightenment project.
0:36:36 > 0:36:41Britain had some 200 crimes punishable by death.
0:36:41 > 0:36:45The hanging of hundreds of people, including women and children,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49was making an enlightened society queasy.
0:36:50 > 0:36:55Sending convicts overseas seemed more humane.
0:36:56 > 0:37:00And so there came to Australia people like Elizabeth Powley,
0:37:00 > 0:37:04who'd stolen a few shillings' worth of bacon and raisins.
0:37:06 > 0:37:07And James Grace,
0:37:07 > 0:37:12who'd taken ten yards of ribbon and a pair of silk stockings.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15He was 11-years-old.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24Captain Arthur Phillip was the first governor of Australia.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27He ran a tough regime for the convicts.
0:37:27 > 0:37:30- How are they doing this morning? - Hard at work.
0:37:30 > 0:37:35But his attitude towards the Aborigines was more benevolent.
0:37:37 > 0:37:38You see that up there?
0:37:38 > 0:37:44Native peoples were to be respected, studied and understood.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57Governor Phillip was an Enlightenment man,
0:37:57 > 0:38:02who was determined there should be no slavery in this new land
0:38:02 > 0:38:05and that the natives would be treated with respect.
0:38:05 > 0:38:11In fact, he had personal instructions from King George III himself,
0:38:11 > 0:38:14who wanted "all our subjects
0:38:14 > 0:38:20"to live in amity and kindness" with the natives.
0:38:21 > 0:38:25Unable to persuade the Aborigines to make contact with him,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Phillip tried something which wasn't perhaps so kind.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54The kidnapped man was a 26-year-old called Bennelong.
0:38:54 > 0:38:57Phillip wanted to teach him English
0:38:57 > 0:39:01so he could communicate directly with the Aborigines.
0:39:06 > 0:39:11Bennelong became a go-between, linking two different worlds.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16He entertained the British with his sense of humour and his singing and his dancing,
0:39:16 > 0:39:18and he introduced Governor Phillip
0:39:18 > 0:39:21to the language and the customs of his people.
0:39:21 > 0:39:27And in return, Phillip taught him English and polite manners.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30And something perhaps rather unexpected happened
0:39:30 > 0:39:33between these two very different men.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37They became genuine friends.
0:39:39 > 0:39:40To the King!
0:39:40 > 0:39:43To...the...King!
0:39:43 > 0:39:46Good! Excellent. Cheers!
0:39:46 > 0:39:48On Christmas Day, 1789,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52Bennelong dressed up in the official uniform of the British Navy
0:39:52 > 0:39:57and enjoyed a Christmas dinner of turtle with Captain Phillip.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00Merry Christmas, Bennelong!
0:40:00 > 0:40:01Chin-chin.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04Tuck in before it swims away, what?
0:40:05 > 0:40:08But after six months, Bennelong went missing.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15It took Phillip four months to track him down.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20Bennelong?
0:40:23 > 0:40:28We have come to ask you to come back.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34Bennelong agreed to return,
0:40:34 > 0:40:41but first, Aboriginal custom demanded an act of revenge against his kidnapper.
0:41:02 > 0:41:07Quite remarkably, Governor Phillip did not retaliate.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09Oh, my goodness.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12He understood why he'd been attacked,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15and his friendship with Bennelong resumed.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20Bennelong rejoined him in Sydney.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28The British even built Bennelong his own house.
0:41:28 > 0:41:34It stood in the same site that Sydney Opera House now occupies.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39Bennelong was the first Aboriginal man
0:41:39 > 0:41:42to voluntarily enter the British settlement.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45But he'd be followed by many more.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48It's remembered as the Coming In,
0:41:48 > 0:41:52and to start with, it seemed like a great Enlightenment triumph.
0:41:59 > 0:42:03The British colony kept on growing.
0:42:03 > 0:42:09Some 165,000 convicts were sent before the system ended in 1850.
0:42:10 > 0:42:13But this was disastrous for the Aborigines.
0:42:14 > 0:42:17Many became hooked on alcohol and tobacco.
0:42:19 > 0:42:24An estimated 20,000 Aborigines were killed in battles over land.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31Tens of thousands more were killed by European diseases.
0:42:33 > 0:42:37Wherever Enlightenment Europeans came across hunter-gatherers,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40they moved remarkably quickly
0:42:40 > 0:42:43from regarding them with curiosity and awe
0:42:43 > 0:42:47to seeing them as human clutter.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50As soon as greed and patriotism kicked in,
0:42:50 > 0:42:56they were simply to be marginalised, pushed aside, even exterminated.
0:42:56 > 0:43:01It's very hard to understand somebody else's culture
0:43:01 > 0:43:04when you're busy taking away their land.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09The British had at least been determined
0:43:09 > 0:43:12there would be no slavery in Australia.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17But what of the great enemies, the French?
0:43:17 > 0:43:22Their revolutionary version of the Enlightenment, the equality of man,
0:43:22 > 0:43:25was also spreading beyond Europe.
0:43:27 > 0:43:33But these ideas now collided with the dirtiest stain on Europe's conscience.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39By the end of the 18th century,
0:43:39 > 0:43:46the African slave trade was an entrenched part of the world's economic system.
0:43:46 > 0:43:4912.5 million Africans were ripped from their families
0:43:49 > 0:43:54and transported in appalling conditions across the Atlantic.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57The slaves were put to work
0:43:57 > 0:44:01on the plantations of the Americas and the Caribbean.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05SHOUTS
0:44:07 > 0:44:09Vite!
0:44:09 > 0:44:10Vite! Allez!
0:44:10 > 0:44:12Vite!
0:44:12 > 0:44:14There, the death rate was terrible.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18Branding, whipping and unspeakable tortures were routine.
0:44:23 > 0:44:29Slavery is almost as old and widespread as civilisation itself.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34What made the Atlantic slave trade different was simply its size.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39Here in the Americas, you had limitless quantities of cheap land,
0:44:39 > 0:44:46and in Europe, you had an insatiable desire for sugar, coffee and tobacco.
0:44:46 > 0:44:50But to put the two together, you needed very cheap labour.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52You needed African slaves.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56And the rotting remains of the great slave plantations
0:44:56 > 0:44:59are still dotted along the Atlantic coast.
0:45:01 > 0:45:06Slavery produced an increasing moral problem for European countries
0:45:06 > 0:45:09which liked to think of themselves as enlightened.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13But the system was fabulously profitable,
0:45:13 > 0:45:18reshaping cities in Europe and building awesome fortunes.
0:45:18 > 0:45:23It seemed too powerful to overthrow, too big to fail.
0:45:25 > 0:45:30But the news of the French Revolution had an incendiary effect
0:45:30 > 0:45:34on the slaves of the French colony of Saint-Domingue,
0:45:34 > 0:45:36now known as Haiti.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42Hundreds of thousands of slaves had died here.
0:45:44 > 0:45:48Slave leaders used voodoo ceremonies as a cover
0:45:48 > 0:45:50for plotting a revolution of their own.
0:45:50 > 0:45:54DRUMMING AND SHOUTING
0:45:57 > 0:46:01On the night of 14th August, 1791,
0:46:01 > 0:46:05a group of slaves met with the voodoo high priest, Boukman Dutty.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11He was called "Boukman" because he knew how to read.
0:46:14 > 0:46:19Now he was mixing French revolutionary thinking with African religion
0:46:19 > 0:46:25and he urged the slaves, "Listen to the voice of liberty in your hearts."
0:46:27 > 0:46:29HE SHOUTS
0:46:31 > 0:46:34To seal what was a desperate and dangerous plan,
0:46:34 > 0:46:38Boukman drank the blood of a slaughtered pig.
0:46:47 > 0:46:51Haiti's slave rebellion had begun.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01Within weeks, 100,000 slaves had risen up in revolt.
0:47:03 > 0:47:064,000 white planters were killed.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12Hundreds of plantations were burned to the ground.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23The French plantation owners fought back.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27In November, Boukman Dutty was captured and killed.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31But the revolt only spread.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42In France, a ferocious row broke out between those who argued
0:47:42 > 0:47:47that slavery was a stain on the ideals of the Revolution
0:47:47 > 0:47:50and those who said, "Hold on, France needs the money."
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Guess whose argument won.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10The slave revolution -
0:48:10 > 0:48:14ever more bitter, ever more complicated - dragged on.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19The man who finally won the slaves their freedom
0:48:19 > 0:48:24was himself a former slave and a military genius.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27His name was Toussaint L'Ouverture.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31Haiti was still formally a French colony,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34but Toussaint ran it with his own constitution,
0:48:34 > 0:48:38which was liberal and optimistic.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42"I am too much a believer in the rights of man," he said,
0:48:42 > 0:48:48"to think that in nature there is one colour superior to another.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51"For me, a man is only a man!"
0:48:53 > 0:48:58Toussaint's Haiti was the glimpse of a better way of living together.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00It was only a brief glimpse,
0:49:00 > 0:49:06because Napoleon then sent the largest army that has ever left France by ship
0:49:06 > 0:49:08to crush the slave rebellion.
0:49:09 > 0:49:13Toussaint was tricked into giving himself up,
0:49:13 > 0:49:18abducted and died shivering of cold in a French prison.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25But in Haiti, the fighting went on until 1804,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28when the colony finally won independence from France
0:49:28 > 0:49:32and established the world's first black republic.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40The revolt had rubbed European noses in the horrors of slavery.
0:49:42 > 0:49:45Three years after Haiti's independence,
0:49:45 > 0:49:47the British abolished the slave trade.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54Most of the world followed soon after.
0:49:58 > 0:50:03The end of the Atlantic slave trade was a great victory for enlightened values,
0:50:03 > 0:50:06but Haiti's fate was rather grimmer.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Great white nations, such as the United States,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13with its noble new constitution,
0:50:13 > 0:50:18and republican France, shunned the young black republic.
0:50:18 > 0:50:23Her economy collapsed, and appalling tyrannies followed.
0:50:23 > 0:50:27Today, Toussaint's noble dream republic
0:50:27 > 0:50:32is one of the poorest and most miserable places on the planet.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36The Enlightenment had taught that all men and women
0:50:36 > 0:50:39were brothers and sisters - noble ideals.
0:50:39 > 0:50:44But they were outpaced by the more immediate demands
0:50:44 > 0:50:48of money, power and luxury.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57Wherever we look, the purest political ideals
0:50:57 > 0:51:00of the Enlightenment seem to be corrupted,
0:51:00 > 0:51:05by greed for land and profits or a drive to bloody extremism.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14You could conclude that the Age of Reason was so much hypocrisy.
0:51:14 > 0:51:19Luckily, there was much more to the Enlightenment than power politics.
0:51:23 > 0:51:28In the summer of 1757, in Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31an eight-year-old boy called Edward Jenner
0:51:31 > 0:51:34was taken to a place known as a pest house.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39He faced a horrific medical ordeal.
0:51:41 > 0:51:44For four weeks, he was starved and bled with leeches.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48Then the doctor got to work.
0:51:52 > 0:51:57He pressed dried smallpox scabs into the wound.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03This was a dangerous procedure.
0:52:05 > 0:52:09Smallpox caused as many as one in seven deaths worldwide.
0:52:13 > 0:52:15Blisters erupted all over the body,
0:52:15 > 0:52:19including the mouth and throat, making it impossible to swallow.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24Huge numbers of people were marked for life.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33But the doctor was trying to help Jenner.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37Since ancient times, all round the world, doctors had known
0:52:37 > 0:52:43that by infecting patients with a very small amount of smallpox,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46they could protect them against the full-blown disease,
0:52:46 > 0:52:48and it mostly worked.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51But there was a problem.
0:52:51 > 0:52:53It MOSTLY worked!
0:52:53 > 0:52:58In some cases, apart from the fact that this was a very unpleasant process,
0:52:58 > 0:53:03the patient would get full-blown smallpox and all the scars,
0:53:03 > 0:53:06and go blind or even die.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10So, with the best possible intentions,
0:53:10 > 0:53:15the doctors were gambling with young Jenner's life.
0:53:19 > 0:53:23And Edward Jenner was one of the lucky ones.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27He grew up to be an Enlightenment man,
0:53:27 > 0:53:31a country doctor with an inquiring mind.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34He was fascinated by all the sciences.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40In his own way, as ready as Galileo to challenge received ideas
0:53:40 > 0:53:42and travel into the unknown.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48And it became his obsession to find a cure for smallpox
0:53:48 > 0:53:50that was reliable and safe.
0:53:51 > 0:53:56One day, a local milkmaid told him that because she'd suffered
0:53:56 > 0:54:01from the harmless disease cowpox, she could now never catch smallpox.
0:54:03 > 0:54:08Jenner began to wonder whether this local country legend might hold the key.
0:54:11 > 0:54:13And so Jenner started to travel around,
0:54:13 > 0:54:18trying to find anyone who'd been infected with cowpox,
0:54:18 > 0:54:23and sure enough, they all confirmed that none of them then got smallpox.
0:54:23 > 0:54:27And so he was pretty convinced that there was something in cowpox
0:54:27 > 0:54:32that would defend you against smallpox. But how to test this out?
0:54:32 > 0:54:35He had to find somebody, infect them with cowpox,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39then infect them with smallpox.
0:54:39 > 0:54:41Interesting stuff!
0:54:42 > 0:54:44Dangerous stuff.
0:54:47 > 0:54:51The opportunity to test his theory came in the summer of 1796,
0:54:51 > 0:54:55when a local milkmaid came down with cowpox.
0:54:56 > 0:55:00Jenner took some pus from the blisters on her hand.
0:55:02 > 0:55:05He then took his gardener's son, James Phipps...
0:55:05 > 0:55:07Are you ready?
0:55:07 > 0:55:10Just like that.
0:55:10 > 0:55:12..and infected him with cowpox.
0:55:12 > 0:55:15I just need to put some of this in here.
0:55:16 > 0:55:18Phipps went down with the mild disease.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21There we are.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Jenner allowed him to recover...
0:55:23 > 0:55:25And then we can bandage you up.
0:55:25 > 0:55:28..and then he deliberately infected the boy with smallpox.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36Now, these days, there are ferocious arguments
0:55:36 > 0:55:41about the ethics of using animals for medical experiments.
0:55:41 > 0:55:45In Jenner's time, simply snaffling a working-class boy and using him
0:55:45 > 0:55:48seems to have caused no comment at all.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51Luckily, young James recovered.
0:55:51 > 0:55:53He had achieved immunity.
0:55:53 > 0:56:00And so, in this house, there had taken place the world's first vaccination.
0:56:00 > 0:56:06Vaccination comes from the Latin for cow, "vacca".
0:56:06 > 0:56:09MOOING
0:56:09 > 0:56:13Unlike Galileo, Edward Jenner lived in a society
0:56:13 > 0:56:17where ideas were free to whirl around.
0:56:17 > 0:56:22His book explaining vaccination was a huge bestseller.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25The good news spread everywhere.
0:56:25 > 0:56:30Napoleon vaccinated his whole army and gave Jenner a medal.
0:56:32 > 0:56:37In America, President Jefferson vaccinated his household.
0:56:37 > 0:56:42And Jenner's discovery was soon saving lives all around the world.
0:56:45 > 0:56:48Almost 200 years later, in 1980,
0:56:48 > 0:56:55the World Health Organization announced the complete eradication of smallpox.
0:56:55 > 0:57:01It's still the only human disease to have been wiped off the face of the Earth.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07During Jenner's lifetime, politicians were declaring the rights of man.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11It was a period of extreme political violence,
0:57:11 > 0:57:16where on the continent, tens of thousands died in the name of liberty.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20And yet Edward Jenner, a true child of the Enlightenment,
0:57:20 > 0:57:25using nothing more than his own powers of observation
0:57:25 > 0:57:29and the freedom to publish and discuss and test ideas,
0:57:29 > 0:57:34did more for human happiness than all the politicians put together.
0:57:35 > 0:57:38No human being who has ever lived
0:57:38 > 0:57:42has saved more lives in history
0:57:42 > 0:57:45than the simple country doctor from Gloucestershire.
0:57:49 > 0:57:50In the next programme:
0:57:50 > 0:57:54The triumph of industry,
0:57:54 > 0:57:56the scramble for Africa...
0:57:57 > 0:58:01..and the world stumbles into war.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06If you'd like to know a little bit more about how the past is revealed,
0:58:06 > 0:58:11you can order a free booklet called How Do They Know That?
0:58:11 > 0:58:13Just call...
0:58:18 > 0:58:24..or go to the website and follow the links to the Open University.
0:58:39 > 0:58:43Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd