0:00:05 > 0:00:08The 23rd of September, 1877.
0:00:09 > 0:00:15A band of rebel samurai warriors was dug in on a hillside in southern Japan.
0:00:16 > 0:00:21The samurai had been the elite warrior class for more than 700 years.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27Now they faced oblivion at the hands of the Japanese army.
0:00:29 > 0:00:32Japan's government was modernising fast,
0:00:32 > 0:00:35rushing to embrace the Industrial Revolution.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38The revolution that has shaped today's world.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45The samurai would rather die than accept this new way of life.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53This was a battle between the rural, traditional past
0:00:53 > 0:00:56and the urban, industrial future.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01And in the 19th century, it was raging all round the world.
0:01:03 > 0:01:04From America...
0:01:07 > 0:01:10..to Russia.
0:01:10 > 0:01:12From China...
0:01:12 > 0:01:13to Japan.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20The old world of kings and landowners was crumbling
0:01:20 > 0:01:24under the force of the Industrial Revolution.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29The world was accelerating,
0:01:29 > 0:01:35and the modern age of superpowers was being born.
0:01:35 > 0:01:42But this is not the simple-minded story of progress.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46It's also the story of all of those who said no.
0:02:10 > 0:02:16300 years ago, something new appeared above the surface of the planet.
0:02:16 > 0:02:21A thick, oily spectre, hanging in the air.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25For longer than the cooking smoke from any town or city,
0:02:25 > 0:02:30and larger than a forest fire or a volcano.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36The Industrial Revolution was the biggest story to happen to mankind
0:02:36 > 0:02:39since we invented farming.
0:02:39 > 0:02:46And that dirty smear of smoke spread across North America,
0:02:46 > 0:02:48much of Europe, China, Japan.
0:02:49 > 0:02:55But it first billowed into the air over a modestly sized little island
0:02:55 > 0:03:02which called itself, rather immodestly, Great Britain.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12The engine for all of this was...the engine.
0:03:13 > 0:03:19Steam engines burned up the buried energy of millennia, captured in coal,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23and used it to create immediate power.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26What a moment!
0:03:26 > 0:03:31Through all of history, one thing had never changed -
0:03:31 > 0:03:36there was a fixed limit on the amount of power that humans could use.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40The own muscles, a few animals, the odd windmill and water wheel.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45But soon, steam engines would be doing as much work in Britain
0:03:45 > 0:03:47as 40 million people flat-out.
0:03:52 > 0:03:54Why did this happen in Britain?
0:03:54 > 0:03:57Was it because the British were uniquely clever?
0:03:57 > 0:03:59No.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03Was it because the country seemed to be half built on coal? Not really.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07It was because the British had developed a new political system
0:04:07 > 0:04:12which limited monarchy, gave everybody legal rights,
0:04:12 > 0:04:15allowed the free flow of ideas,
0:04:15 > 0:04:20and ensured that British geniuses owned their ideas,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22so they could make a buck.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Enough liberty for free ideas, enough law for profit.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36Allowing the emergence of new men,
0:04:36 > 0:04:39far from the haunts of the rich and powerful.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Men like George Stephenson,
0:04:44 > 0:04:48who in 1825 was busy connecting two towns in the north of England...
0:04:50 > 0:04:52..Stockton and Darlington.
0:04:54 > 0:04:58A man who'd been illiterate until he was 18,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00driving his own invention,
0:05:00 > 0:05:04an awkward-looking mash-up of pipes and fire
0:05:04 > 0:05:07he called simply "Locomotion".
0:05:10 > 0:05:11ENGINE GROWLS
0:05:11 > 0:05:12PEOPLE GASP
0:05:15 > 0:05:19Stephenson's machine was the biggest news of the age.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24"Locomotion" had been built to carry coal,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27but on its maiden voyage, people clambered into the coal carts.
0:05:29 > 0:05:35There was even an experimental passenger carriage called..."Experiment".
0:05:37 > 0:05:42Never before had so many people been carried so far...
0:05:42 > 0:05:43so fast.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Now railways would start to knit together nations.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55First Britain...
0:05:55 > 0:05:58but soon the United States, Germany
0:05:58 > 0:06:00and the rest of Europe.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06Restless change, restless revolution.
0:06:06 > 0:06:12Like most revolutions, the Industrial Revolution would have many casualties.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Men and women and children as young as eight or nine
0:06:15 > 0:06:19worked 12-hour days in vast factories.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22Many were maimed or even killed by the new machinery,
0:06:22 > 0:06:27and they were working by artificial light and the factory clock,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29not the rhythms of nature.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33Protests were widespread and angry.
0:06:33 > 0:06:39Every great new technology produces changes in society and politics,
0:06:39 > 0:06:46and these new engines didn't just push pistons and locomotives,
0:06:46 > 0:06:50they pushed ahead trade unionism, town planning,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54political reform, new schools, democracy.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Quite powerful things, steam engines.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Britain went through the fastest social transformation in history.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08People flooded from the countryside to work in urban factories.
0:07:10 > 0:07:12Within a century, Britain went from a country
0:07:12 > 0:07:15with just two cities with more than 50,000 people
0:07:15 > 0:07:19to a country with 29 cities of this size.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25It's very similar to what's happening in China right now -
0:07:25 > 0:07:29a world of peasant farmers becomes a world of factories,
0:07:29 > 0:07:34villages empty, and tall, angular buildings spring up.
0:07:34 > 0:07:36HORN BLOWS
0:07:41 > 0:07:47By 1860, Britain was tied together by more than 10,000 miles of railways.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Production of coal and steel and iron skyrocketed.
0:07:51 > 0:07:57The cities sprawled, and new inventions - from steamships and iron bridges
0:07:57 > 0:08:02to brilliantly lit streets - tumbled out of these damp and smoky islands.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05And it was really this energy,
0:08:05 > 0:08:11this restless search for raw materials, new markets and bigger profits,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15that drove the British as they threw together
0:08:15 > 0:08:18the biggest empire in the history of the world.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24There have always been powerful empires and weaker peoples,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27rich countries and poor ones.
0:08:27 > 0:08:29What was new about the Industrial Revolution
0:08:29 > 0:08:32was that it brought a great steel barrier crashing down
0:08:32 > 0:08:38between the nations with the new power and the rest without it.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41Which, in 1839, included China.
0:08:47 > 0:08:52Britain wanted to do business with this Eastern giant.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57Her 400 million people were a vast and lucrative market for British goods.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05And Britain's new industrial middle class were eager to buy luxuries from China.
0:09:05 > 0:09:07But there was a problem.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10For 300 years, China had been closed off.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13It was self-sufficient. It didn't need British goods.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16There was only one place that merchants from outside
0:09:16 > 0:09:19could come to get what they wanted, which was here,
0:09:19 > 0:09:21what they called Canton in those days.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25And what British merchants wanted most of all was tea.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31Tea had become the national drink.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33But it was a lot more than that.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37A tenth of all the British government's revenues came from taxes on tea.
0:09:37 > 0:09:42That was enough to pay for half of the Royal Navy.
0:09:42 > 0:09:48So we had an nation of tea addicts
0:09:48 > 0:09:52and a government that had become addicted to tea taxes.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02And the Chinese didn't want to buy any British goods in return.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06All they'd accept as payment for tea was silver.
0:10:08 > 0:10:13Silver reserves were pouring out of Britain into China's coffers.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18There must surely be something else that the British could trade in return for tea?
0:10:22 > 0:10:24There was.
0:10:25 > 0:10:26Opium.
0:10:27 > 0:10:33The Chinese had a taste for this highly addictive and illegal drug.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38And the British grew it in their imperial possession, India.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42So there was a deal.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48We could smuggle in the dangerous drug, opium,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52and use it to pay for our benign drug, tea.
0:10:52 > 0:10:57By the 1830s, the most successful drug pushers in the world
0:10:57 > 0:11:03weren't Mexican bandits or Afghan warlords, but the British.
0:11:04 > 0:11:11By March 1839, there were an estimated 12 million opium addicts in China.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15The emperor sent one of his most trusted officials,
0:11:15 > 0:11:20the famously incorruptible High Commissioner Lin, to Canton.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25He began a thorough search of the trading district,
0:11:25 > 0:11:29where the British merchants were smuggling opium into China.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32HE SPEAKS CANTONESE
0:11:34 > 0:11:37All pushers were to be sentenced to death.
0:11:37 > 0:11:41Foreigners by beheading, Chinese by strangling.
0:11:44 > 0:11:45HE SPEAKS CANTONESE
0:11:49 > 0:11:51HE GIVES ORDERS IN CANTONESE
0:12:02 > 0:12:03HE SHOUTS
0:12:13 > 0:12:18Lin demanded that the British hand over all their opium supplies.
0:12:19 > 0:12:23When they refused, he locked down the trading district.
0:12:27 > 0:12:28Lin was ruthless.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30No food was allowed in.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34500 troops were drilled up and down outside the windows,
0:12:34 > 0:12:38and huge gongs were sounded all night.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51After 24 hours of sleep deprivation, the British surrendered.
0:12:56 > 0:13:00The merchants handed over 20,000 chests of opium,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03worth more than £160 million in today's money.
0:13:05 > 0:13:07Lin destroyed it all.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14Lin was triumphant, but he'd fatally misunderstood his enemy.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20He had no idea how important this trade was.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23Selling Indian opium for Chinese tea
0:13:23 > 0:13:27was one of the most lucrative deals Britain's Empire traders had.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30They weren't going to let it slip through their fingers.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34Two great empires were now on collision course.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39The Chinese fleet of wooden-built junks
0:13:39 > 0:13:43was confronted by Britain's new weapon of the industrial age,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46the world's first ironclad battleship.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49The Nemesis.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55The British blockaded the Pearl River and then sailed up the coast
0:13:55 > 0:13:59bombarding and seizing the major towns.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08On land, a Chinese army with bows and arrows
0:14:08 > 0:14:11and spears and muskets were mown down.
0:14:11 > 0:14:16Over two years, China was bludgeoned into submission.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30The Chinese had no choice but to open up to British trade.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36The terms were humiliating.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39China was forced to pay the equivalent
0:14:39 > 0:14:43of £2 billion in today's money for the lost opium,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45and to pay for the war against them.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50Five Chinese ports were forced to open to British traders.
0:14:50 > 0:14:54Oh, and Hong Kong was thrown in as part of the deal -
0:14:54 > 0:14:57a British colony on China's doorstep.
0:14:59 > 0:15:04China had been forced at gunpoint to open herself up to the modern global economy.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09The message was clear - industrialisation could transform
0:15:09 > 0:15:13a tiny country like Britain into a world superpower.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20To ignore this was to be doomed to the status of second-class nation.
0:15:23 > 0:15:28All around the world, traditional rural societies took note.
0:15:30 > 0:15:3519th-century Russia thought of herself as a European power,
0:15:35 > 0:15:39but she was, in her way, just as trapped in the past as China.
0:15:42 > 0:15:4822 million Russians were serfs, owned by aristocratic landlords.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52Like slaves, serfs were property
0:15:52 > 0:15:55and could be ordered to do any kind of work.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Many suffered physical and sexual abuse.
0:16:00 > 0:16:05The system created a stagnant economy based on old-fashioned agriculture.
0:16:10 > 0:16:15But now, this huge, proud nation came up against
0:16:15 > 0:16:20industrialised Britain and her ally, France, in the Crimean War.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25And, fighting right on her doorstep, lost.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29But change was in the air.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32After the humiliating defeat of the Crimean War,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36the new tsar, the reforming Alexander II, realised
0:16:36 > 0:16:40that if Russia was going to compete against the industrial powers in the West,
0:16:40 > 0:16:43she'd have to sweep away the serf economy.
0:16:43 > 0:16:45Easier said than done.
0:16:45 > 0:16:48Russia's nobility and landowners were going to fight hard
0:16:48 > 0:16:51to hang on to their power and their property.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59In many ways, Russia's fate was now in the hands of its nobility.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03And in the spring of 1853,
0:17:03 > 0:17:09one young aristocratic landowner was gambling with his fellow army officers.
0:17:10 > 0:17:11The stakes were high.
0:17:12 > 0:17:17The young count had already gambled away entire villages he owned
0:17:17 > 0:17:19and the serfs who lived in them.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
0:17:25 > 0:17:29Now he'd lost the house where he'd been born.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33His name was Leo Tolstoy.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36He'd go on to become a titan of Russian literature,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40the author of War And Peace.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44But he'd also become a key player in the political drama gripping Russia -
0:17:44 > 0:17:47the fight to throw off serfdom.
0:17:51 > 0:17:56Tolstoy was only 18 when he inherited the estate of Yasnaya Polyana,
0:17:56 > 0:17:58which means "bright meadow".
0:17:59 > 0:18:04It was vast and included 11 villages and 200 serfs.
0:18:06 > 0:18:10This was a world in which entire villages and the people who lived in them
0:18:10 > 0:18:14could be won or lost on the toss of a coin.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16But Tolstoy was different.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22The guilt so tore him apart that he came to believe that not only he had to change,
0:18:22 > 0:18:24so did Russia.
0:18:26 > 0:18:32Was there a different path between brutal industrialisation and rural tyranny?
0:18:35 > 0:18:37Finding one became Tolstoy's mission.
0:18:37 > 0:18:39He returned to what was left of his estate
0:18:39 > 0:18:44and, dressed as a peasant, worked alongside his serfs.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52In truth, he was a pretty rotten farmer,
0:18:52 > 0:18:55and to start with, there must have been a bit of rural sniggering
0:18:55 > 0:18:58behind his Lordship's back.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08But Tolstoy was a dedicated, even reckless reformer.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Tolstoy decided to free his serfs,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15which meant giving them or selling them land as well,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18because the land was worth nothing without the serfs,
0:19:18 > 0:19:20and the serfs would starve without the land.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25So he offered them very generous terms - 12 acres apiece,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28some of it free, some of it very cheap.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Noble, generous Count Tolstoy.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33The serfs didn't see it like that.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35They'd already heard rumours
0:19:35 > 0:19:40that the Tsar was going to give them their land and liberty for nothing.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43The count must be trying to swindle them.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46So they looked at his offer
0:19:46 > 0:19:50and, to his amazement and horror, said, "No, thanks."
0:19:54 > 0:19:56But Tolstoy wasn't easily discouraged.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00He believed that Russia was never going to move forward
0:20:00 > 0:20:04while most of its people couldn't read or write.
0:20:04 > 0:20:11So, in October 1859, he set up a school on his estate to educate young serfs.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17Quite a few of whom, it has to be said, were his own illegitimate children.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23Within three years, Tolstoy had opened 21 schools in the local area.
0:20:23 > 0:20:24HE SPEAKS RUSSIAN
0:20:31 > 0:20:35Tolstoy was shunned by infuriated local landowners.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38All round the world, it was the landowning class
0:20:38 > 0:20:41with their privileges and traditions
0:20:41 > 0:20:44who'd be the most threatened by change.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50And in Russia, they fought a formidable rearguard action
0:20:50 > 0:20:52against the Tsar's reforms.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58It was one successful enough to sabotage them.
0:21:02 > 0:21:08When, on the 3rd of March, 1861, the detailed plan was finally announced,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11it turned out the serfs would be free in name,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14but burdened by debts and many rules.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18It was a tragic missed opportunity.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24Had the Tsar had pulled this off, Russian history would have been very different.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33And surely happier.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40There was a great wave of anger and disappointment.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43There were nearly 2,000 serf revolts,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46some of which had to be put down by troops.
0:21:46 > 0:21:53Tolstoy himself freed all his serfs and asked for no payment,
0:21:53 > 0:21:57but across Russia, most peasants, though now technically free,
0:21:57 > 0:22:02still had to pay for their land, they had to ask permission to travel
0:22:02 > 0:22:05and they could still be beaten.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Alexander's reforms had failed.
0:22:08 > 0:22:13Eventually many of the serfs drifted to the cities,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16where they would eventually become the foot soldiers
0:22:16 > 0:22:20for a revolution which would sweep away old Russia.
0:22:26 > 0:22:32At exactly the same time, a remarkably similar problem was tearing America apart.
0:22:36 > 0:22:42Here, too, a rural underclass lived alongside the modern industrial world.
0:22:45 > 0:22:49The nation that had been built on the ideals of liberty and equality
0:22:49 > 0:22:54was polluted by a system even worse than serfdom...
0:22:54 > 0:22:56slavery.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02In the mid-1800s, there were around 4 million slaves in the United States,
0:23:02 > 0:23:06almost all of them in the South, working on plantations like this,
0:23:06 > 0:23:10growing cotton and tobacco and much else.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Economically, slavery was a dynamic and efficient system,
0:23:13 > 0:23:18and as America started to spread towards the West,
0:23:18 > 0:23:22the Southern states wanted to see slavery spreading too.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26But in the North, where many states had banned slavery,
0:23:26 > 0:23:28they thought very differently.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31They were determined that slavery would not grow.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34America was split down the middle.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38Things came to a head in 1860,
0:23:38 > 0:23:43when the Northerner Abraham Lincoln became president.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46But can we, while our votes will prevent it,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50allow slavery to spread into the Northern Territories?
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Lincoln believed that slavery was wrong,
0:23:53 > 0:23:58but he also said that he had no intention of abolishing it,
0:23:58 > 0:24:01hoping instead it would die out over time.
0:24:03 > 0:24:07But Southern politicians realised that Lincoln's arrival in the White House
0:24:07 > 0:24:12meant slavery would not now spread further, as they had hoped.
0:24:14 > 0:24:1811 Southern states decided to break away from the union
0:24:18 > 0:24:21and establish an independent government -
0:24:21 > 0:24:22the Confederacy.
0:24:24 > 0:24:29Lincoln had no choice but to declare war on the South to defend the union.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36This was a struggle between two different ways of life.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40In the South, it was an agricultural society -
0:24:40 > 0:24:42traditional, conservative,
0:24:42 > 0:24:46many people living on plantations which were virtually self-sufficient,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49cut off from the rest of the world.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54"Yes," said the North, "but all your wealth depends on slavery."
0:24:54 > 0:24:57In the North - urban, industrial America,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01based on steel and railroads and a rising middle class.
0:25:01 > 0:25:08"Ah, yes," said the South, "whose prosperity is based on wage slaves."
0:25:08 > 0:25:15So, two Americas, now no longer able to properly speak to each other.
0:25:17 > 0:25:23On April the 12th, 1861, these two Americas duly went to war.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Lincoln mobilised the North's industrial might,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32using railways to transport men and munitions.
0:25:34 > 0:25:36But to start with, it went badly for him.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43The South had better generals and a bolder fighting spirit.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49SCREAMING
0:25:52 > 0:25:55After 18 months, Lincoln was desperate.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01He decided to destroy the foundation on which the South was built.
0:26:02 > 0:26:04He'd free the slaves.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11"We must free the slaves," he said, "or be ourselves subdued."
0:26:11 > 0:26:15He hoped this would destroy the Southern economy and demoralise the people.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19And so, on New Year's Day, 1863,
0:26:19 > 0:26:25just two years after the Russians had announced the emancipation of the serfs,
0:26:25 > 0:26:30Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation -
0:26:30 > 0:26:35that all the slaves in the rebel states would immediately be free.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42Liberated slaves flocked to fight with the Northern forces...
0:26:45 > 0:26:49..while the South struggled with shortages and inflation.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00The tide of war turned in the North's favour.
0:27:01 > 0:27:03On April the 9th, 1865,
0:27:03 > 0:27:08after a devastating invasion, the South surrendered.
0:27:10 > 0:27:14620,000 soldiers had been killed.
0:27:16 > 0:27:22Nearly as many as in every other war the United States has fought put together.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32In the final days of the war, Lincoln did something extraordinary.
0:27:32 > 0:27:38He simply turned up at the Confederate rebel capital of Richmond, Virginia,
0:27:38 > 0:27:40not very far from Washington.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44His troops had just taken it, it was still burning.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46No-one had any idea what to expect
0:27:46 > 0:27:51when he arrived here by boat at Rocketts Landing.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55There was a huge crowd, entirely black.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59Lincoln had the most recognisable face in America
0:27:59 > 0:28:01and he was spotted immediately.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06There were cries of "Our Messiah!" and "Jesus Christ!"
0:28:06 > 0:28:12One man knelt to him, and Lincoln said, "No, no, you only kneel to your God."
0:28:13 > 0:28:18And then the group started to walk the two miles into the centre of Richmond,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21and gradually there were more and more white faces in the crowd.
0:28:21 > 0:28:26Sullen, silent, staring back from windows and the tops of buildings.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29The people that he had just defeated.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35And Lincoln's group were expecting shouts of abuse, possibly even shots.
0:28:37 > 0:28:39Nothing.
0:28:39 > 0:28:40And at that moment,
0:28:40 > 0:28:45it seemed as if Abraham Lincoln had won all of America back.
0:28:49 > 0:28:55I can see one means at least of keeping the Ravensdale estate in the family.
0:28:55 > 0:28:56What is it?
0:28:56 > 0:28:59By marrying your daughter to the mortgagee.
0:28:59 > 0:29:01To you?!
0:29:01 > 0:29:03LAUGHTER
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Ten days after Richmond, Lincoln went to the theatre in Washington.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14He hadn't been keen, but his wife had begged him to come.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18A night off for the hero.
0:29:18 > 0:29:19Did you see him?
0:29:19 > 0:29:22No, but I see him!
0:29:23 > 0:29:26AUDIENCE GASPS
0:29:26 > 0:29:29CHEERING
0:29:30 > 0:29:36But the defeated South would inflict one last act of bloodshed.
0:29:37 > 0:29:41A second-rate actor and Southern Confederate supporter
0:29:41 > 0:29:45called John Wilkes Booth saw Lincoln as a tyrant.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50The actor Booth was about to make his final appearance.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55And he knew the reviews would be mixed.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58Well, I know enough to turn you inside out,
0:29:58 > 0:30:01you sockdologizing old man-trap!
0:30:01 > 0:30:03LAUGHTER
0:30:06 > 0:30:08GUNSHOT
0:30:08 > 0:30:10GASPS
0:30:14 > 0:30:15SCREAMING
0:30:20 > 0:30:24Booth cried out the Latin motto of the state of Virginia.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26Sic semper tyrannis!
0:30:26 > 0:30:29"Thus always to tyrants."
0:30:29 > 0:30:32Help me!
0:30:32 > 0:30:34Help!
0:30:43 > 0:30:46The North mourned an immortal political hero.
0:30:48 > 0:30:50In the South, they celebrated.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57One Texan newspaper professed itself "thrilled by the death of our oppressor".
0:30:59 > 0:31:02The American Civil War left a bitter legacy.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05In the South, burned and devastated,
0:31:05 > 0:31:10the whites remained very angry about what had happened,
0:31:10 > 0:31:16and black Americans faced many, many decades of grinding rural poverty,
0:31:16 > 0:31:20segregation laws and lynchings for those who stepped out of line.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26But the union was preserved.
0:31:26 > 0:31:32And in the North, this extraordinarily industrious, vigorous economy,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36now linked together by railroads, stormed ahead -
0:31:36 > 0:31:41the American colossus striding towards the 20th century.
0:31:44 > 0:31:49Freed of its slave economy, the United States rushed to modernise.
0:31:51 > 0:31:56For the first time, Americans began to impose themselves around the world.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00Already, they were looking west, across the Pacific.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09Japan had deliberately cut herself off from the rest of the world
0:32:09 > 0:32:11for more than 200 years,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14uninterested in the industrial West.
0:32:15 > 0:32:20When Japan closed her doors, the United States didn't even exist.
0:32:22 > 0:32:28So when, in 1853, the American Navy turned up under Commodore Matthew Perry,
0:32:28 > 0:32:31it all came as a bit of a surprise.
0:32:35 > 0:32:39The Japanese had never seen anything like the American steamships.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45Some thought they were "giant dragons, puffing smoke".
0:32:48 > 0:32:53Commodore Matthew Perry handed over a letter from the US President
0:32:53 > 0:32:56insisting that Japan open her doors.
0:32:56 > 0:32:59In effect, free trade or we shoot.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09Remembering what had happened to the Chinese at the hands of the British,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Japan's rulers gave way to the Americans.
0:33:14 > 0:33:20Realising they needed to strengthen Japan against any further Western threats,
0:33:20 > 0:33:24the Japanese government rushed to modernise and industrialise.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26I'd like to show you our plans.
0:33:26 > 0:33:31Their slogan was, "Catch up, overtake."
0:33:33 > 0:33:37They invited thousands of Westerners to teach and give advice.
0:33:38 > 0:33:42They built railroads, telegraph lines and factories.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50Out went kimonos, in came business suits and top hats.
0:33:55 > 0:34:00But one class of society was devastated by the arrival of the Industrial Revolution.
0:34:02 > 0:34:03The samurai.
0:34:05 > 0:34:07For hundreds of years,
0:34:07 > 0:34:12this hereditary warrior class had dominated Japanese society.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15They had special privileges - the only people allowed to fight,
0:34:15 > 0:34:18the only men allowed to carry their two swords in public,
0:34:18 > 0:34:21they were exempt from taxation.
0:34:21 > 0:34:25But Japan had been at peace for more than 200 years.
0:34:25 > 0:34:28It was 1870.
0:34:28 > 0:34:31Who needed mediaeval warriors any more?
0:34:31 > 0:34:35And so, piece by piece, their privileges were stripped away -
0:34:35 > 0:34:38their right to carry swords went,
0:34:38 > 0:34:44their income was taxed, and the army was opened up to conscripts - peasants!
0:34:49 > 0:34:53By 1876, the samurai class faced abolition.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58Some decided to fight back...
0:35:00 > 0:35:04..and turned to one of the country's leading samurai, Saigo Takamori.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08Saigo was an unlikely rebel.
0:35:08 > 0:35:13To start with, he backed the reforms, including the modernisation of the army.
0:35:14 > 0:35:20This was a man torn between his deep samurai ideals
0:35:20 > 0:35:23and his country's need to modernise.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26And it was only when his back was against the wall
0:35:26 > 0:35:33that Saigo decided to fight for the past against the future.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37HE SPEAKS JAPANESE
0:35:41 > 0:35:44A poet and a dreamer, as well as a politician,
0:35:44 > 0:35:51Saigo led a rebel army of 30,000 samurai to overthrow the modernisers in Tokyo.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59And so, old Japan took on new Japan.
0:35:59 > 0:36:04Saigo's rebel army was composed of traditional samurai warriors.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07The government's was a modern conscript army
0:36:07 > 0:36:10with the latest rifles and artillery
0:36:10 > 0:36:12supplied by steamships and railways.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16This was only ever going to end one way.
0:36:16 > 0:36:22After seven months, Saigo's thousands were reduced to just a few hundred warriors.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24And now they were surrounded.
0:36:25 > 0:36:2760 to 1.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30HE SPEAKS JAPANESE
0:36:33 > 0:36:38Saigo told his warriors to face death with honour.
0:36:38 > 0:36:44This was a tragic moment in Japanese history, tearing the nation apart.
0:36:44 > 0:36:50The soldiers waiting to attack Saigo's samurai hated what they were about to do.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00SCREAMING
0:37:03 > 0:37:09Within two hours, the Japanese army had reduced Saigo's force to just 40 samurai.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23At dawn, armed only with their swords,
0:37:23 > 0:37:26the last samurai walked out to face certain death.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29GUNSHOTS
0:37:29 > 0:37:33Halfway down the hill, Saigo was shot in the right hip.
0:37:41 > 0:37:48Badly injured, Saigo died after a botched act of ritual Samurai suicide.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15Japan forged ahead with its programme of modernisation...
0:38:17 > 0:38:19..becoming known as "the workshop of Asia".
0:38:22 > 0:38:29No country modernised as fast and successfully as Japan.
0:38:29 > 0:38:34In 1905, their new navy would astonish the world
0:38:34 > 0:38:39by sending the Russian high fleet to the bottom of the sea -
0:38:39 > 0:38:45the first time that an Eastern country had defeated a Western nation
0:38:45 > 0:38:47since the Middle Ages.
0:38:47 > 0:38:54And yet Japan could never quite shake Saigo off.
0:38:54 > 0:38:59After his death, he was pardoned and became a national hero.
0:38:59 > 0:39:06A tragic symbol of the old Japan, of honour and self-sacrifice.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10The samurai soul that was still there
0:39:10 > 0:39:14below the Western uniforms and the business suits.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25Japan had saved herself from becoming a victim
0:39:25 > 0:39:27of the new age of industry and empire.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32Other parts of the world wouldn't be so lucky.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37Africa was one of the least developed areas of the planet.
0:39:37 > 0:39:41But it was rich with natural resources.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45And it had remained almost untouched by the West.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49But in the late 19th century,
0:39:49 > 0:39:52the industrialised empires of Europe were on the hunt
0:39:52 > 0:39:55for new territories to explore and exploit.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03In 1877, the explorer Henry Morton Stanley,
0:40:03 > 0:40:08a bit of a rogue who'd fought on both sides during the American Civil War,
0:40:08 > 0:40:09became the first Westerner
0:40:09 > 0:40:15to chart the entire 3,000-mile course of the Congo River.
0:40:18 > 0:40:25The journey took him 999 days and cost the lives of 242 men.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31But it would change the way the West saw the continent.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34"This river," said Stanley,
0:40:34 > 0:40:39"is and will be the great highway of commerce to the heart of Africa."
0:40:55 > 0:40:59News of Stanley's great discovery soon reached Europe.
0:41:03 > 0:41:09And nobody was more fascinated than Leopold II, King of the Belgians.
0:41:11 > 0:41:13The problem with Belgium, he grumbled,
0:41:13 > 0:41:17was that it was a small country with small people.
0:41:18 > 0:41:23Leopold II was in the market. He wanted to rise in the world.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27He wanted to be an emperor, so he needed a colony.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31And he'd gone almost everywhere trying to buy one -
0:41:31 > 0:41:35the Pacific, South America, the Far East, China...
0:41:35 > 0:41:37the Faroe Islands!
0:41:37 > 0:41:39Nothing doing.
0:41:39 > 0:41:42So, when he heard of the great wealth of Central Africa,
0:41:42 > 0:41:45he could barely contain his excitement.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47"We mustn't lose an opportunity," he said,
0:41:47 > 0:41:54"to gain for ourselves a slice of this magnificent African cake."
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Leopold persuaded Stanley to work for him in the Congo.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05His job was to negotiate with the Africans
0:42:05 > 0:42:08and establish a network of trading stations
0:42:08 > 0:42:10along the length of the river.
0:42:12 > 0:42:13Leopold called his project
0:42:13 > 0:42:18the International Association of the Congo,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20and he sold it as a kind of benign crusade,
0:42:20 > 0:42:22bringing religion to the Africans
0:42:22 > 0:42:26and freeing them from the evil Arab slave-traders.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29He built this monstrous great museum in Brussels
0:42:29 > 0:42:33to sell his idea to the Belgian people.
0:42:33 > 0:42:38But Leopold was - how shall we put this? - lying.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41He was a cynical and slippery operator.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45All he wanted was money and power for himself.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48And he wrote to Stanley that these treaties with the Africans
0:42:48 > 0:42:50"must give us everything".
0:42:52 > 0:42:53And they did.
0:42:53 > 0:42:55I bring you gifts from my kingdom.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57From King Leopold.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02African chiefs had no idea they were signing away their land
0:43:02 > 0:43:08in return for European clothing, jewellery and gin.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11To prosperity. And to King Leopold.
0:43:13 > 0:43:18By May 1885, Leopold was in control of an area
0:43:18 > 0:43:2276 times larger than Belgium itself.
0:43:24 > 0:43:29His new land had vast natural resources, including ivory, rubber,
0:43:29 > 0:43:32timber and copper.
0:43:32 > 0:43:33We have a deal.
0:43:34 > 0:43:39He began to strip them out and export them back to Europe.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44Leopold now ditched the pretence of a charity
0:43:44 > 0:43:49and declared himself King Sovereign of the Congo Free State.
0:43:51 > 0:43:52"Free"?
0:43:52 > 0:43:55This was in fact the most extreme example
0:43:55 > 0:43:59of how industrial technology could allow small numbers of Europeans
0:43:59 > 0:44:02to seize other parts of the world.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07A truth which led to a general rush for African land.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11The main players were France,
0:44:11 > 0:44:13Germany
0:44:13 > 0:44:15and Britain.
0:44:17 > 0:44:22But Italy and Portugal were there, too.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27This became known as "the scramble for Africa".
0:44:31 > 0:44:35Leopold sat back and watched the money pour in,
0:44:35 > 0:44:39but his dirty little secret was about to be rumbled.
0:44:40 > 0:44:46In 1901, a young shipping clerk at Antwerp noticed something odd.
0:44:46 > 0:44:51The ivory and the rubber and the profits were pouring in,
0:44:51 > 0:44:53but nothing was going back out again.
0:44:54 > 0:44:59Nothing except guns and ammunition.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01CHATTERING
0:45:03 > 0:45:05The horrible truth began to emerge.
0:45:09 > 0:45:14Leopold's Congo was a military regime of terror.
0:45:17 > 0:45:22Africans were forced, at pain of death, to work on Leopold's plantations.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27If a village refused, the military were sent in.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31GUNSHOTS
0:45:46 > 0:45:52Africans who resisted - and many did - were systematically murdered.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55Women and children were taken as hostages,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58the men were used for rifle practice,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01hanged and sometimes beaten to death.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06The population of the Congo halved.
0:46:06 > 0:46:10It seems almost impossible to believe,
0:46:10 > 0:46:16but it's now thought that 10 million people died.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18The word is genocide.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26Leopold denied everything.
0:46:29 > 0:46:34But in March 1908, the Belgian government finally intervened
0:46:34 > 0:46:37and forced him to hand over the Congo to them.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44By then, it had made him a billionaire in today's money.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49The worst excesses of the Belgian Congo
0:46:49 > 0:46:52ended after a campaign by Christian groups,
0:46:52 > 0:46:56by newspapers and outraged individuals, which was really
0:46:56 > 0:47:00the first ever international human rights campaign.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05But the land grab went on.
0:47:05 > 0:47:09And the later Africa of failed states can be traced back, literally,
0:47:09 > 0:47:11to the lines drawn on the map
0:47:11 > 0:47:17by the Italians, Germans, French, British and other Europeans.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21Some of the worst things that happened in modern Africa,
0:47:21 > 0:47:25from the use of amputation as a punishment, or child soldiers,
0:47:25 > 0:47:30also go back to this European scramble,
0:47:30 > 0:47:33this European frenzy.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42National competition is part of life,
0:47:42 > 0:47:47but frantic competition, driven by intoxicating industrial power,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50now turned violent.
0:47:50 > 0:47:55In 1914, the European tribes trained their guns not on unarmed natives
0:47:55 > 0:47:57but on each other.
0:47:59 > 0:48:03Britain, France and Russia against Germany and Austria.
0:48:03 > 0:48:08The leaders may have expected a traditional war of cavalry and glitter.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12What they got was unprecedented horror.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14An industrial war.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19But at least it wasn't yet a world war.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24America's President Woodrow Wilson was determined
0:48:24 > 0:48:26to keep his country out of the fighting.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34But in 1917, Germany's new Foreign Secretary
0:48:34 > 0:48:37was about to change America's mind.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41Arthur Zimmermann had risen fast through the Foreign Service
0:48:41 > 0:48:46to become the only non-aristocrat in the German cabinet.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50He was good-natured, honest and loyal.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53HG SPEAKS GERMAN
0:48:53 > 0:48:57He was also a firm believer in world war.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00He'd helped fund Irish rebellion against Britain
0:49:00 > 0:49:04and he'd tried his hand at fomenting Islamic jihad in the Middle East.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08Her, Junger. Prost!
0:49:08 > 0:49:11But his biggest tricks were still to come.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15Zimmermann's pen never stopped scratching.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18His secretary's typewriter never stopped clacking.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21He had a finger in every pie.
0:49:21 > 0:49:24This was the golden age of the bureaucrat.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29And Arthur Zimmermann was a near-perfect example of the type.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32The American ambassador in Berlin described him as
0:49:32 > 0:49:35"a very jolly, large sort of German".
0:49:35 > 0:49:39Zimmermann dreamed of changing the world.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41And he would.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43Only not quite in the way he intended.
0:49:43 > 0:49:47Indeed, there is a case to be made that Arthur Zimmermann
0:49:47 > 0:49:52was one of the most destructive individuals of the 20th century.
0:49:53 > 0:49:59Zimmermann's opportunity to change the world came in January 1917,
0:49:59 > 0:50:03when the German military elite announced a new plan for victory.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11Unrestricted submarine warfare, to destroy all merchant shipping coming to Britain.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16They hoped this would starve the British into submission.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21This was incredibly dangerous.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25Why? Because it meant sinking American ships
0:50:25 > 0:50:28and almost certainly bringing the United States into the war.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32And once the Americans reached Europe, Germany couldn't win.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37And yet the German high command decided it was a risk worth taking.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40And on February the 1st, 1917,
0:50:40 > 0:50:44they announced the start of unrestricted submarine warfare.
0:50:52 > 0:50:58Arthur Zimmermann set about finding a way to distract America.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03He came up with quite a distraction.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:51:07 > 0:51:14Zimmermann's plan was to persuade Mexico to invade America with German help,
0:51:14 > 0:51:18seizing back Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
0:51:18 > 0:51:20HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:51:20 > 0:51:23That would distract Washington, all right.
0:51:23 > 0:51:29If Arthur pulled this off, he'd become a German national hero.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31Eine gute Idee.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33Danke sehr, mein Herr. Danke schoen.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Zimmermann drafted a telegram outlining his plan
0:51:37 > 0:51:40to the German ambassador in Mexico.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45He sent it on a secure line from Berlin.
0:51:45 > 0:51:47BELL RINGS
0:51:51 > 0:51:55Except that the line wasn't quite as secure as Zimmermann thought.
0:51:57 > 0:52:00In Room 40 at the Admiralty in London,
0:52:00 > 0:52:05British Naval Intelligence intercepted and decoded Zimmermann's telegram.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11By 1pm on the 24th of February, 1917,
0:52:11 > 0:52:14the contents of the telegram were being presented
0:52:14 > 0:52:16to the President of the United States.
0:52:19 > 0:52:25President Woodrow Wilson, who'd fought so hard to keep America out of the war,
0:52:25 > 0:52:27rubbed his eyes in disbelief.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31Then he released the news, first to the American congressmen
0:52:31 > 0:52:35and then to the press, and all hell broke loose.
0:52:35 > 0:52:41Yet even then, many Americans simply didn't believe it.
0:52:41 > 0:52:46It was incredible that the Germans were up to something like this.
0:52:46 > 0:52:52It must be a sneaky British plot to lure America into the war.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56And they weren't that gullible, they weren't going to fall for that.
0:52:58 > 0:53:00Re-enter Arthur Zimmermann.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06Zimmermann was invited to deny the story about his telegram.
0:53:09 > 0:53:10HE ASKS QUESTION IN GERMAN
0:53:12 > 0:53:14But Arthur couldn't tell a lie.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16HE REPLIES IN GERMAN
0:53:19 > 0:53:22Oh, yes, he said, it was all true.
0:53:27 > 0:53:28Well done, Zimmermann(!)
0:53:30 > 0:53:36His surprise confession finally drove America to declare war on Germany.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40This was now undoubtedly a world war.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44But Zimmermann didn't stop plotting.
0:53:49 > 0:53:54He now turned his attention to Germany's enemy in the East, Russia.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57How could he undermine them?
0:53:59 > 0:54:02Zimmermann's opportunity came in February 1917,
0:54:02 > 0:54:08when the desperate, downtrodden people of Russia finally revolted against the Tsar.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12Zimmermann wanted to pour oil on the fire.
0:54:12 > 0:54:16He needed an anti-war Russian extremist
0:54:16 > 0:54:20to seize power and withdraw Russia from the war.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24Zimmermann's agents knew of just such a man.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28He was living quietly and modestly in exile,
0:54:28 > 0:54:33amid writers and artists, in Zurich in Switzerland.
0:54:33 > 0:54:38Zimmermann's plan, what he called his revolutionising plan,
0:54:38 > 0:54:42meant using this man to undermine Russia's will to fight.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46His name was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49We know him better as Lenin.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56In 1917, Lenin was leader of the Bolsheviks,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00a revolutionary communist faction who wanted Russia out of the war.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07Lenin was described variously as being like a plague bacillus
0:55:07 > 0:55:09or poison gas.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14He was so desperate to get back to Russia and try to seize power
0:55:14 > 0:55:17that he took the German money and the German offer.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20If he succeeded, he'd sue for peace.
0:55:20 > 0:55:24And so Zimmermann organised a sealed train
0:55:24 > 0:55:27to take Lenin and the rest of the Bolsheviks
0:55:27 > 0:55:31right the way across Germany to Petrograd in Russia.
0:55:31 > 0:55:37It was like a syringe full of poison being squirted halfway across a continent.
0:55:46 > 0:55:52In October 1917, Lenin led a successful Bolshevik revolution.
0:55:54 > 0:55:59In just eight months, he had been transformed from a nobody in exile
0:55:59 > 0:56:03to a man on his way to leading 160 million people
0:56:03 > 0:56:06in the world's first communist state.
0:56:08 > 0:56:13This time, Zimmermann got exactly what he wanted.
0:56:13 > 0:56:18Soviet Russia withdrew from the First World War in March 1918.
0:56:19 > 0:56:24But by then, the Americans were helping the Allies to defeat Germany.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29When the war came to an end in November 1918,
0:56:29 > 0:56:34two new powers had been firmly established on the world stage.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36One capitalist...
0:56:38 > 0:56:40..one communist.
0:56:41 > 0:56:44The modern world would be dominated not by empires,
0:56:44 > 0:56:48but by these two mass ideologies
0:56:48 > 0:56:51and the new superpowers wielding them.
0:56:55 > 0:57:00So, one fairly ordinary German civil servant had acted as midwife
0:57:00 > 0:57:04to the birth of the 20th century's two great superpowers.
0:57:07 > 0:57:13America, innocent no longer, plunged into the quarrels of the rest of the world.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18And for the Russians, the Bolshevik revolution ushered in
0:57:18 > 0:57:22a terrible age of mass famine,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26civil war, slave labour camps and terror.
0:57:27 > 0:57:29Arthur Zimmermann.
0:57:29 > 0:57:34He was sacked in 1917 and never held office again.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37And he died in 1940,
0:57:37 > 0:57:40just as it was starting all over again.
0:57:52 > 0:57:57In the next programme, Power Age - the world at war.
0:57:59 > 0:58:01Cultural revolution...
0:58:01 > 0:58:04and the triumph of clever machines.
0:58:05 > 0:58:10If you'd like to know a little bit more about how the past is revealed,
0:58:10 > 0:58:14you can order a free booklet called How Do They Know That?
0:58:14 > 0:58:19Just call:
0:58:19 > 0:58:24Or go to:
0:58:24 > 0:58:27and follow the links to the Open University.
0:58:33 > 0:58:37Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd