Andrew Marr’s History of the World

Episode
Episode 5 - Age of Plunder
Broadcast Info
2012 (57 mins)
Description
Andrew Marr reveals the explosion of global capitalism that began with Christopher Columbus stumbling across America while searching for China. The search for Gold and spread of Christianity caused Europeans to colonise the New World, discovering many new lands, such as that of the Incas in Peru. Marr visits Cajamarca where the King Atahualpa was held captive by Pizarro and forced to convert to Christianity. Europe tore itself apart in religious wars starting with Martin Luther’s protest against the Catholic Church at Wittenberg, creating a new religion, Protestantism. Great change was taking place in Europe, with empires growing and subsequently becoming richer, inspiring Ivan the Terrible of Russia to do the same. He built his rich empire from trading fur from Siberia with the help of the Cossack Yermak, but it was Dutch and English buccaneers who invented the real money-maker: limited companies and the world’s first stock exchange. Marr visits Amsterdam’s Tulip fields, reflecting on the first global stock-market crash - Tulipmania. The Dutch competed against the English in the battle for the Banda Islands, for which Nathaniel Courthope gave his life trying to gain the British access to Nutmeg. The world was trading, and countries around the world had no option but to join in. Japan was pulled into trade by the Portuguese and Dutch Jesuits, but it was Englishman William Adams who proved valuable to Japan’s most powerful warlord, Tokugawa Ieyasu. However, Christianity was soon banned and all foreigners expelled, during the period of Sakoku, Japan became a closed country, in turn preserving its culture and customs for the future. In the 145 years from 1492 to 1637, European Capitalism was born and spread around the globe.
Genre
Economics; History; Philosophy and Ethics; Architecture; Science; Technology; Religion; Art and Design

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Andrew Marr’s History of the World". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/83198 (Accessed 10 Jan 2025)