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The 16th Century saw Europeans elevate themselves from plundering robbers to wealthy, capitalist businessmen. The age of Plunder had begun.
The unwitting rejection of Christianity in the form of the Bible by an illiterate South American leader would lead to carnage and bloodshed.
Andrew Marr tells that Russia got it’s name from the Rus’ as the Vikings were known when they invaded Kiev.
What started with trade - furs and silver - had flowered into culture, architecture and religion. By the 10th century, Europe had an eastern Christian border, drawn by the Vikings and lasting to the present day.
Leonardo da Vinci combined Art and Science in his painting of The Last Supper in the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Leonardo da Vinci remains a standard-bearer for the new confidence of Christian Europe, but its journey to Renaissance was far more than simply a European story.
Muslim Turks, the Ottomans led by Mehmet II, pushed into Christian territory and laid siege to the city of Constantinople.
The capture of Constantinople was the Ottomans’ greatest victory. But it also marked the end of an era. This was the last great mediaeval siege.
Marco Polo travelled for three years from Venice to Xanadu where he met Kublai Khan and discovered the treasures of the Orient.
Very soon, the Black Death, carried on ships, probably by rats, spread into the Mediterranean region and then beyond.
When King Mansa Musa’s golden procession arrive in Cairo, his vast benevolence upset Cairo’s economy for years to come.
It was gold and glittering Mali that had caught the European imagination. And in 1375, when map-makers in Spain produced a series of charts, known as the Catalan Atlas, Mansa Musa was shown sitting at the centre of Mali.
Andrew Marr tells of a vibrant and intellectual world of Islam and the early scholars. Al-Khwarizmi the scholar from whom we get the word algorithm.
And of course algorithms are essential in modern computer programming, so every time you pick up your mobile phone, remember, there is an old Uzbek Muslim hidden inside it.
Temujin took the title ‘Genghis Khan’ or universal ruler after combining the rival clans of the Mongolian steppe.
In the spring of 1220, the Mongols reached the magnificent eastern outpost of the Islamic Empire, Bukhara.
Andrew Marr tells that European culture would emerge only when Chinese and Muslim civilisations were quelled.
Europe’s emergence would involve explosive brutality far away. Other cultures Europeans barely knew. Oriental inventions. Titanic sieges.
Arthur Zimmermann, a German civil servant, organised and instigated some of the most destructive events of World War I.
He’d helped fund Irish rebellion against Britain and he’d tried his hand at fomenting Islamic jihad in the Middle East. But his biggest tricks were still to come.
