00:00:05 There have been five times on our blue earth... ...when there was only snow and severe winter. Such periods are called ice ages. These ice ages spanned hundreds and thousands of years. The last ice age on our earth also lasted for several thousand years. Man of this last ice age lived in caves and went out in groups to hunt. During the same last Ice Age, about 20 to 25 thousand years ago... ...a hunting party from Siberia went out in search of prey. Roaming about and searching the shrubs, caves and rocks... ...this group lost way and went into a path... that unconsciously led to a new world.
00:01:09 This hunting party did not know at all... ...that the ice track they were moving slipping and steadying... ...was actually a temporary short passage between the two great continents. This route came up simply because... ...that in the Ice Age due to freezing of the seas... ...the water level therein had gone much down. Dunes, small islands and channels between islands emerged in the seas. This was also one such way. This hunter-group carrying the genes of the Old World crossed the narrow path... and settled in the New World, and then stayed here for good.
00:02:01 Eleven thousand years ago, the last ice age on our earth ended... ...the sea level rose again... ...and that narrow dry passage sank again into deep waters... ..the passage this hunter-group crossed to come to the New World. Thus, the land route between the old and the new world was cut off. We call this place Bering Strait. On this strait is also a point... ...from where the distance between the New and the Old World is only 85 km. But the man of the old world took 10,500 years to cover this distance of 85 km.
00:02:52 How were these thousands of years in the New World? Who and how this world was discovered? What happened to the original inhabitants here? And how did a country here become a world superpower of the day? I'm Faisal Warraich and in Dekho, Suno, Jano... ...showing you the tale of that lost land that is 'History of America.' The hunting group which went into the new world... ...went on spreading in this large dry land for thousands of years. They founded great civilizations and made numerous settlements and islands.
00:03:43 Look at this map. This is a very old map of the New World, the American continent. In what is now Mexico, there used to be a great empire, the Aztec Empire. Spread over an area of more than 200,000 square kilometres, this empire... ...included about 500 states where six million people lived. The area south of the Aztec Empire was the seat of the Maya civilization. This civilization was about 4000 years old. He had earned huge fame in art and culture. After the Maya another great civilization, the Inca Empire was also there.
00:04:38 This empire spread from the American country of Ecuador to Chile and Argentina. The population of his kingdom was about 12 million. Besides 3 major civilizations, many settlements were also on this continent. In the islands of the West Indies, the Arawak people were settled. Native American tribes lived in America, from Canada to Brazil and Argentina. Most of them lived in small settlements or you can call them villages. Maize was their favorite food which they grew on a large scale. These corn-loving New Worlders numbered in the millions.
00:05:32 At the same time, there were around five million people living in the old world. But these people on both sides were totally ignorant of each other by millions of people. Rather, for them, no other world existed, neither in stories, nor on any map, nor in anyone's memory. Because the contact of the days was cut eleven thousand years ago. Yes, it is true, that there are stories... ...telling some strays from the old world landed on the islands of the new world. And some of them even wrote about it.
00:06:16 Chinese poetry written 1700 years ago mentions a distant foreign land. In Chinese poetry, this land was written as Fusang. Which means 'Out of Ten World', a place out of this world. The poet wrote that to the east of the East Sea are the shores of Fusang. After landing there, if one travels another 5000 kilometres towards the east... ...another sea comes which is blue in colour, vast and limitless. It may be the fusang America itself... ...because the continental United States is just to the east of China
00:07:05 ...and crossing it another sea, the Atlantic Ocean, really begins. Similarly, in 458, an Afghan Buddhist monk 'Hwui Shen' with 4 companions... ...started a journey from China to the east. He returned after living in a foreign land for 40 years, which he as per Chinese... traditions, named as 'Fusang.' He also wrote his travelogue in which he wrote conditions there. 500 years after Hwui Shen, the Viking tribes of N. Europe also arrived in America. They got settled in the area of Newfoundland, where Canada is today.
00:07:54 Models of these settlements are still there today. Like the Chinese and the Vikings, some Muslims also claim... ...having reached America in the era of the Umayyad ruler of Spain, Abdul-Rahman III. They claim to have settled there, built mosques and preached Islam. Hindus also claim that their gods were also worshiped by Native Americans. In their opinion, a Hindu from India reached there and went to America... ...that is why the ancient American tribes worshipped the same gods. There are many more such claims... ...and it does not make any difference whether or not these claims are true.
00:08:48 The difference was that who discovered this island and this world. And rightly understood this was a new world and linked it with the old world... ...where people started to travel in and out... This link was not made by the Chinese discovery, journey of Buddhist Pathans... ...or adventures of Muslim or Hindu sailors nor did they understand two worlds. The thousands-year-old alienation in both worlds stayed for thousands of years. People of the old world believed the world ended on European and African shores.
00:09:35 And the American tribes also believed that beyond their shores it was only water... ...and nothing else. Out of sight is out of mind, this distance might continue for thousands of years... but then it happened that the 15th century came. The Fifteenth Century. This shifted international power dynamics which changed everything on the globe. The man of the old world and especially of Europe was forced to... ...come out of his comfort zone and find new ways and new lands. This shift was caused by the Muslim conquerors.
00:10:25 What was this shift? This Old World the Native Americans had left 25,000 years ago... ...here Europe was a major power before the 15th Century. It was a dominant force. The Roman Empire of Europe was the world's superpower for hundreds of years. And he ruled in many parts of Asia. Gradually the Roman Empire weakened and reduced to the Byzantine Empire. This empire' what it was now? It was just a city of Constantinople. This Empire stood merely on the memory of the old times and the strong walls.
00:11:23 Then in 1453, the Turks destroyed the last sign of the Roman Empire. Turk Sultan Muhammad Fateh conquered Constantinople to end the Roman Empire. The name of the city was also changed from Constantinople to Istanbul. The power of Europe ended in the 15th century, and now there was lamentation. Constantinople was an important military base and a holy city in Europe. It was the centre of Orthodox Christianity. It was settled by Constantine, the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire. Here Constantine also built a magnificent church, Hagia Sophia ... so Christians from all over Europe had a special devotion to this city.
00:12:20 But apart from devotion, the city had another significance... as it was a lifeline of trade from Asia and especially China to Europe. From the markets of Central Asia Chinese silk, spices, precious stones, gold, silver... ...and many other items would pass through this route to reach Europe. This route was closed with Constantinople falling to the Turks. This defeat caused Europeans agony both economically and spiritually. Economically, joblessness was enhanced in Europe by the closure of trade routes.
00:13:06 People began to become poorer to the point of having no food to eat. Forced by hunger, people used to dispose of their children in the garbage heap. Farmers began to commit suicide or lived like slaves burdened by loan interests. The hungry and resourceless people took to plundering to save their lives. Soon crimes increased to an extent that the pedestrians in the European streets... ...would walk looking skyward rather than the earth. The criminals in houses would throw stones to crush the heads of pedestrians.
00:13:53 Then would take away what they could from the clothes of the dead bodies. Therefore, safety lay in walking head upward. Wealthy people had hired guards, but ordinary people were killed openly. The government guards were also helpless in this situation. This economic disaster of Europe came after Constantinople was snatched... ...and by the closure of trade routes. The spiritual disaster was another as the stern religious Christians believed... ...that Europe, the hub of Christianity, was going to Muslims one-by-one.
00:14:38 So these people thought it a difficult time for Christianity. Christian areas are shrinking day by day, geographically decreasing. They felt if the situation went on Christianity or its power might end. So the Europeans, their religious and commercial class, looked for a new world. But where could they find such a world? They did not know that just 4/5 thousand kilometres to the west, there is a world... ...almost equal to the whole world and rich in natural resources, gold, silver, oil, etc. They only knew of the world to travel through eastwards to China and Japan.
00:15:40 Then China and Japan were discussed in a house in Europe. But for what purpose? Because Marco Polo's travelogue was now everywhere in Europe. Marco Polo wrote China as Cathay and Japan as Sepango. About Japan, he wrote that the roofs of the royal palace are made of gold... ...doors and windows are decorated with gold and most floors are gold-plated. Thus he exaggerated the wealth of China and its Mongol ruler, Kublai Khan... ...even to hyperbole. Though Marco Polo's travelogue was written at least 150 years earlier.
00:16:30 But in the poor condition of Europeans, Polo's travelogue was the only ray of hope. This travelogue of Marco Polo inspired the European youth that they... ...must find a way to reach China and Japan and get the riches... ...the stories Marco Polo had peppered with. But the problem was that the land route was now blocked by the Turks. Another route was across the Mediterranean Sea through Egypt. This route too was occupied by the Muslim empire of the Mamluks. Throughout the Mediterranean Sea from Morocco to Egypt, Islamic states existed... ...that attacked European merchant ships.
00:17:25 Europe could find no safe passage from there either. Thus, Europe was in a way under the siege of Muslims. Adventurers like Bartolomeo Diaz found a route to reach Asia from around Africa. But this route was very long, A one-way route would take months to complete. Now the Europeans were at a loss as to take which route to Asia... ...which would be both in their interest and the shortest. So that they trade by reaching Asia through this route and end their poverty. In this desperation, a little-known Italian sailor came forward.
00:18:15 He claimed to know the shortest route to China and Japan in Asia. In his opinion, this was a route that was straight across the Atlantic Ocean... ...and no major country could pose a threat to them in this way. It was a huge claim that could change the fate of Europeans. The claimant was a young Christopher Columbus. Columbus from Geneva, Italy had spent most of his life at sea. Like others, he too was greatly impressed by the travelogues of Marco Polo. He claimed expertise in finding the way with the help of the sun, moon and stars.
00:19:19 At that time, educated people knew that the earth is round... ...and Columbus also believed the same. He thought the world is round and if one travels directly from Europe to the west... ...one will reach Sepango, i.e. Japan, at a distance of 4500 kilometres. The short route to Japan meant also finding China and then the whole of Asia. Columbus thought that finding Asia was like discovering a gold mine. Take as much gold as you want from anywhere and bring it to Europe. But Columbus' dream was not only gold and wealth.
00:20:05 He also called himself 'Christbearer.' In fact, in Christian history, the legend of a man named Christopher was famous... ...who carried Jesus Christ on his back across the river. This Christopher was remembered in the Christian world as the Christbearer. So the sailor Christopher Columbus also dreamt that like the legendary character... ... of history, Christopher made Jesus Christ cross the river... ...he will also cross the sinking ship of Christianity. In his view, it was possible by find a new world for the spread of Christianity... ...where a great Christian empire like the Roman Empire is established.
00:20:52 So dreaming of enriching Europe with gold and a Christian empire Columbus... ...began to move from court to court in Europe. He went from Italy to Portugal, from Portugal to England. Everywhere he pitched his idea of westward travel in a bid to get investment. Then Europe was in a bad situation. Poverty had already broken its back. There were other reasons but factually no king or queen agreed to help him. Columbus stayed resolute and did not give up on his idea. In 1485 he arrived in Spain.
00:21:38 At that time Spain was ruled by Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella. In Spain, Columbus spent seven years trying to meet the queen. But the Queen did not have an appointment. Because the king and queen were busy expelling the Muslims from Spain. When in 1491, Granada, the last bastion of Muslims in Spain, was near defeat... ...the Queen invited Columbus to her court. Columbus shared his idea with the queen assuring her that it was a super plan... ...that would succeed in any case. He said that the lands he was going to explore, that is, China and Japan... ...would bring so much gold that Spain would become the richest.
00:22:36 And also that, the new lands Columbus will go to in Asia, he said, there it will be... ...easy to convert the people and expand a Christian Spanish rule up to there. Queen Isabella, partly driven by greed and perhaps by religious sentiments... ...permitted Columbus for this voyage and announced financial aid for it. Columbus had his first success at the court of Spain. But Queen Isabella did not know... ...that Columbus, whom she believed, was deceiving her. Why only with the Queen? Columbus even duped the sailors and the accompanying crew on the voyage.
00:23:26 This deception was such that it endangered the lives of all these people. What was that deception? Why did his companions on the voyage of Columbus plan to kill him? What promises did the Italian sailor make to his crew in a craze to reach Asia? This will be shown in the 2nd episode of History of America you can see here. Here is the 1st episode of the biography of the unforgettable president of America... ...and here is the second episode.
