The Aztecs battle to save their civilisation from Spanish invaders - but is the real threat from the enemy within?
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#civilisationsriseandfall, #bbcdocumentary, #historydocuseries, #ancientcivilizations, #romeegyptaztecsamurai, #history2025
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TVTranscript
00:00July the 8th, 1853.
00:13A fleet of ships is bearing down on the peaceful harbour of Edo Bay.
00:21For the people of Japan, change is coming.
00:25For over 200 years, the country has closed itself off from the West.
00:32But now, it faces a violent confrontation.
00:38With American aggressors, Japan's future is on a knife edge.
00:48Some believe they must fight to preserve their unique way of life.
00:53Others will sacrifice everything to avoid war.
01:01This is like the most steampunk clash of cultures you've ever seen.
01:06Suddenly, the threat of the West has become real.
01:09This is a true emergency of the sort that for generations, people haven't known in Japan.
01:15The Japanese are aware of Western aggression, but they probably have never thought it would come to their doorstep.
01:23Three men hold the future of Japan in their hands.
01:29A rigidly controlling ruler.
01:30An ambitious American naval commander.
01:35And a proud samurai, caught between Japan's glittering past and uncertain future.
01:43The worst mistake that any civilization can make is to suppose that by walling itself in, that it can survive.
01:53Ancient Egypt.
02:08The Roman Empire.
02:13The Aztecs of Mexico.
02:15And the samurai of Japan.
02:23Four great civilizations.
02:26Each a pinnacle of human ingenuity and achievement.
02:31Each lasted for centuries.
02:36Their people thought they would endure forever.
02:41Until suddenly...
02:44Everything changed.
02:46These civilizations faced challenges that are all too familiar today.
02:59Climate catastrophe.
03:05Pandemic.
03:10War.
03:11Challenges for which ancient societies had few solutions.
03:25But what if there was a place that had the answers to what went wrong?
03:29A place full of secrets and stories.
03:34A repository of memory stretching back through time.
03:39The British Museum, home to more than 8 million artifacts, is a record of how and why the greatest civilizations rose to power and then spectacularly fell.
03:58It's treasures are the human traces that survived disaster.
04:04But might they also hold lessons for our own future?
04:09Every civilization throughout history has had an expiry date.
04:11With great societies, the seeds of their destruction are sown within the society.
04:25They're already there.
04:29No civilization ever thinks it's going to fall.
04:32But the question is, what can we learn from the past?
04:36In the Pacific Ocean, off the eastern shores of Asia,
05:02Japan is a country like no other.
05:11Japan, in the middle of the 19th century, is entirely unique.
05:23It's different from anywhere else in the world.
05:24Japan, in the world, is the entire planet.
05:25It's out.
05:28It's several islands.
05:29There's a huge population.
05:31A very educated and literate population.
05:37The city of Edo, modern-day Tokyo, is home to over a million people.
05:42and one of the largest cities in the world.
05:49Japan is a place of elaborate temples,
05:54wooden houses,
05:57and immaculately manicured gardens.
06:01People dress in fine silks,
06:05admire exquisite woodblock prints,
06:07and eat the latest fast food,
06:12sushi.
06:12Japan's distinctive culture
06:19is a product of a deliberate policy
06:21of isolation.
06:30120 miles from the coast of mainland Asia,
06:35Japan has closed its borders
06:37to much of the outside world
06:39for over 200 years.
06:46Japanese are forbidden to travel abroad
06:47on pain of death,
06:49so it's developed this phenomenal culture
06:52which is of its own.
06:54At peace for the last two centuries,
06:58the Japanese have developed a highly stylized
07:00set of rituals for everyday life,
07:03from the way to drink tea
07:05to how to wear a kimono.
07:08Any society that has peace instead of warfare,
07:11instead of putting all the money into making weapons,
07:15you can put your money into things like culture and arts.
07:18The intricate craftsmanship that has emerged
07:24reveals the lengths the Japanese will go to
07:28in pursuit of perfection.
07:30what you have in Japan is this culture of creating these small and beautiful sculptures,
07:45which are barely there.
08:01It's an extraordinary thing because they're very, very small.
08:05What's special about Nescape is that they are basically
08:28miniature sculptures for the hand.
08:32They're made for you to feel during the day,
08:37to run your hands over and discover.
08:42Here's a Nescape of a rat.
08:45It's eating a beanstalk,
08:49two very beady eyes made out of buffalo horn.
08:55Turn it round,
08:58and there is its tail,
09:00curled all the way round.
09:02Under one of its paws,
09:03you can just see there, beautifully.
09:10Intricately carved from ivory or hardwood,
09:14these are miniature snapshots of Japanese life.
09:18What you have within Nescape is a whole raft of subject matter,
09:25which comes out of Japanese mythology, folkloric traditions,
09:31food, storytelling, eroticism, fashion.
09:38All these things become amplified.
09:41They're fascinating for the level of craftsmanship and the miniaturization of whole worlds,
09:53and the degree to which they incorporate symbolism and fine materials,
09:59and are beautiful, but also in a very clear way, functional.
10:05So you have to imagine wearing a wonderful kimono and you've got no pockets.
10:12So how are you going to carry around all the things you might need for your daily life?
10:18So you have an external pocket.
10:20It's called a sagimono, a hanging pocket.
10:25This one is made from boxwood.
10:29And up here is the Netsuke,
10:32and this is the way that you hold your hanging pocket from the belt of your obi.
10:38There is no way that Netsuke can happen elsewhere.
10:50It's one of these extraordinary sort of efflorescences in a culture.
10:57They're not looking outwards.
11:00They're looking inwards.
11:04But beyond Japan's shores.
11:08The world is changing fast.
11:13Isolationism is usually madness for any except the most powerful societies.
11:19You're not only isolating yourself from foreign cultural forces,
11:23but you're in danger of isolating yourself from all the developments of science, of technology,
11:29and then you become vulnerable to external enemies.
11:31The world is changing fast.
11:34By the 1850s, Europe is being powered by an industrial revolution.
11:40New technology is transforming everything, from steam-powered transport to the mass production of ever more powerful weapons.
11:53And it's fueling an appetite for conquest.
12:06Industrialisation has driven this need for colonisation.
12:12The raw materials of iron, coal, cotton, tea, all of this is driving Europeans to try and carve out empires.
12:21They are trying to get as many colonies as possible to give them not only wealth, but stability across the globe.
12:31It's impossible to overstate the importance of technology as a driving force.
12:38European powers found themselves able, because of their superior weapons technology,
12:43to march into other people's country and to achieve devastating victories at relatively low cost.
12:49And now there's a dynamic new player on the world stage.
13:04The United States is a growing power.
13:09They have ships that are trading around the Pacific.
13:12What they want is for their ships to be able to take on food and other supplies.
13:16So they begin to consider Japan as a place that no one else has yet, quote unquote, opened to the West.
13:31Japan becomes the target.
13:33The man in charge of this mission is U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry.
13:49Perry is from a naval family.
13:52He is pretty proud of his own rightness.
13:55He fought in the war with Mexico.
13:57He's also chased pirates in the Caribbean.
14:00He's a big Navy guy.
14:04Perry is a technological visionary.
14:06This is a man who is dreaming of not only the U.S. as a Pacific power,
14:13but the U.S. as a naval power driven by steamships.
14:21Steamships are amazing, but they require regular refueling.
14:25And that means the U.S. has to be absolutely certain that its ships can regularly refuel all across the Pacific.
14:35The Americans want very much to be able to coal up their ships at Japanese ports.
14:44Perry is a man who likes to do his homework.
14:47So he's read up in the New York Public Library a little bit about the Japanese.
14:51And I think he's come to the view that the Japanese will really only respond to a show of power.
14:56On November the 24th, 1852, Perry set sail for Japan.
15:20His squadron of four warships, two of them steam powered, is designed to intimidate the Japanese into submission.
15:30Perry carries a letter spelling out American demands.
15:35But he has no idea who he will be dealing with.
15:38Perry doesn't understand very much about the political situation in Japan.
15:46Not very many people do.
15:48He mistakenly addresses his letter demanding the opening of ports and trade to the emperor.
15:57Not realizing that the emperor is not in control.
16:00Japan has had an emperor for more than a thousand years.
16:08But he is little more than a symbolic figurehead.
16:11The real power lies elsewhere.
16:19He is little more than a thousand years.
16:41These are the shoguns.
16:43And Shogun is a supreme warlord over all the other 200-plus warlords in the country.
16:55Shogun is a word that Westerners are quite familiar with.
17:16What it actually means is like foreigner-crushing generalissimo.
17:20We see in the center the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate.
17:27And around him are arrayed his 14 successors.
17:35For 250 years, the Tokugawa family has ruled Japan.
17:42There are no significant rivals to their power.
17:48So it's a reign of exceptional duration and exceptional success in many ways.
17:58It's a bit like a mafia power family.
18:01What you get is a warlord who doesn't rule with just an iron fist.
18:06It's sort of an iron fist in a silk glove.
18:08The shogun's job is to placate, is to manipulate, and is to convince everybody to keep the peace.
18:17It is the Tokugawa clan who have tried to eliminate contact with the West.
18:32In the 17th century, they implemented a policy of seclusion called Sakoku.
18:45Closing the country off from what they see as dangerous outside influence.
18:50The foreigners were referred to as Nambanji, meaning southern barbarian.
19:05Back in the late 1500s, the Portuguese and also the Spanish made their way into Japan,
19:14traders and missionaries, and they started to meddle in Japanese politics.
19:19They made quite a few converts to Christianity.
19:21And some of these converts were regarded as a bit suspect because it's not really clear where their loyalties lie.
19:26And so, when this policy of more or less complete isolation was put in place, it made a great deal of sense.
19:34It was border control.
19:45The Tokugawa shoguns allow trade with their immediate neighbours, China and Korea,
19:51but limit European imports to the Dutch alone.
19:56and restrict them to the harbour of Nagasaki.
20:04Here, twenty or so Dutch merchants are confined to a tiny artificial island,
20:10just 600 feet long, called Dejima.
20:16They are the only Westerners allowed to do business with the Shogun.
20:26They were trading with the Dutch, but only because the Dutch said we're not going to do anything other than trade with you.
20:36We're not going to introduce European ideas, or particularly Christianity.
20:40If you don't allow trading partners, if you don't allow the importation of new ideas,
20:49new competing philosophies and technologies, it is simply an easier landscape to control.
20:56It's often an illusion of control because you can't control what exactly happens beyond your borders.
21:01The Tokugawa family's power base is the thriving city of Edo.
21:14The latest Shogun to inherit the title knows his control of the country also depends on enforcing a rigid social hierarchy.
21:32Everybody knows their place and it's this sense of cultural unity which really binds Japan together and creates this unique tradition,
21:45this unique society.
21:47At the top of the ladder are around 300 warlords, the Dainio.
21:59Beneath them are Japan's enforcers, an elite class of warriors and bureaucrats known as the Samurai.
22:08What defines you as a Samurai is carrying out whatever duty you've been given by your Lord,
22:14doing it exactly as you've been asked and sacrificing whatever you need to sacrifice to get it done.
22:22Of 30 million Japanese, around 2 million are Samurai.
22:29They're absolutely at the top.
22:31They're almost a different species, I think, from other Japanese.
22:34That's certainly how they regard themselves anyway.
22:44Among the many Samurai, one is destined to lead the fight against Western influence.
23:01His name is Saigo Takamori.
23:05Saigo Takamori is sort of the ultimate Samurai.
23:12He has a very stern Samurai education.
23:17He learns all the martial arts and he is very interested in the moral systems that are behind the Samurai world.
23:23Saigo is a man with a really deep ethical code.
23:33He has a lovely slogan he often uses.
23:36Revere heaven and love one another.
23:41He takes the status and the duties of a Samurai very seriously.
23:45Saigo is a traditionalist.
23:52And by that I mean he thinks the old ways should be preserved.
24:08In Japan, nothing embodies the status of a Samurai more than his sword.
24:14In all its extraordinary detail.
24:24If you're Samurai, these swords that you carry is basically, it's your soul.
24:32It's part of yourself.
24:34It's not just an object.
24:35It's not just a weapon.
24:36It's a symbol of loyalty, duty, honour and pride.
24:43Called a katana, this is one of the most lethal and effective swords ever created.
24:53It can slice through skin and bone.
24:54The result of generations of craftsmen perfecting their skills.
24:55It can slice through skin and bone.
24:56The result of generations of craftsmen perfecting their skills.
24:58The result of generations of craftsmen perfecting their skills.
24:59The result of generations of craftsmen perfecting their skills.
25:04It is made in a way that no other sword is made.
25:05It is made in a way that no other sword is made.
25:14There's two pieces of metal are melded together.
25:15It is also the sharpest sword in the world.
25:21On the thinner cutting edge of the blade is this beautiful crystalline structure that's called the Hamon.
25:22And there's a whole vocabulary.
25:23It is made in a way that no other sword is made.
25:28It is made in a way that no other sword is made.
25:32There's two pieces of metal are melded together.
25:37It is also the sharpest sword in the world.
25:42On the thinner cutting edge of the blade is this beautiful crystalline structure that's called the Hamon.
25:49And there's a whole vocabulary to describe the shape and the qualities of the Hamon.
25:55It can be likened to the night sky or to mist or dew.
26:03Handles are covered in stingray skin for extra grip and wrapped in silken cords.
26:12All decorated with intricate symbols from Japanese folklore.
26:17Every single katana or sword are different and it has different story.
26:23It becomes part of you. It's become who you are.
26:28Traditionally, sword skills are important for every samurai.
26:33The sword is also a reminder of the samurai's status as authority figures in Japan.
26:40Only the samurai at this point are allowed weapons of any kind.
26:44So to walk around town carrying those swords is to tell everybody else who you are and what your standing is in Japan.
26:52Commoners in the street are going to back away from you.
26:56They might bow as you go past.
27:00So you've got a really strong sense that the country is really built around you and your values.
27:06It's the samurai and their sense of honour that holds the rest of Japan together.
27:12As the sun dips low over the coastal city of Edo, the harbour of Kurihama south of Edo Bay is settling down for the evening.
27:30When out of the haze, four hulking ships appear, bristling with cannon.
27:49American naval commander Matthew Perry has arrived.
27:57Perry's idea, it's shock and awe. That's what he wants to achieve.
28:02There's a great deal of menace to the way Perry approaches Japan.
28:09He has the cannon fire from offshore.
28:11He really wants to awe the Japanese with a sense of his power, with a sense of the technology that he's bringing.
28:17A group of senior samurai invites Perry to a meeting inside a hastily built pavilion on the shore.
28:30The Japanese officers realised that this small squadron of ships can completely outgun all the naval fortifications that Japan has set up around Edo Harbour.
28:41For Perry, these samurai looked a bit unimpressive.
28:48He saw that the weapons they were holding in the United States would be back in a museum.
28:53They'd be in someone's attic. These things are not credible modern weapons at all.
28:57Perry gives them an ultimatum. He says,
29:04Either you sign this trade deal with us. You've got a year to do it.
29:08We're being reasonable here. You have a whole year to sign this treaty.
29:11Or, your other alternative is, we come back in a year and we attack.
29:15He gives the Japanese a little white piece of cloth.
29:26He says, If I don't get what I've asked for, there's going to be a war.
29:29And when you've had enough, you can wave this little piece of white cloth and surrender.
29:33Gunboat diplomacy meant making your will stick, whether you were right or wrong, whether what you were doing was just or unjust, because you had the firepower to make your will stick.
29:49As Perry steams away from Edo Bay, Japan faces a momentous choice.
30:01To agree to American terms, or go to war.
30:06To agree to American terms, or go to war.
30:15Across the country, some samurai, like Saigo Takamori, fear for the survival of the traditional order they love and uphold.
30:26Saigo, like many of his contemporaries in 1853, thinks these westerners are largely monstrous.
30:33They're coming from halfway around the world to bother a country that has done nothing to them.
30:40Saigo fears a collapse of Japan as he knows it.
30:45And he believes that they need to be driven away decisively and quickly.
30:50All eyes now turn to the great Tokugawa leader, the shogun, as the nation waits for his decision.
31:07The shogun is trying to square his job, which is to crush the barbarians, keep the foreigners out of Japan on the one hand, with the brute fact of overwhelming American power on the other.
31:23But it's a very difficult one, and he spends months agonising really over what to do.
31:33But can the shogun really count on his samurai to defend Japan?
31:38The answer is found in a stunning artefact, handed down through generations of a samurai family.
31:59Armor is embedded in a samurai family's history, its lineage.
32:14It's valuable not only in a material sense, but in a heritage sense, as part of what being a samurai was.
32:22Armor in Japan is formed from plates that are sewn together.
32:43The main part of the armor covers the chest, so there's two plates of iron in this suit.
32:48And then attached to that are lacquered plates that compose the shoulder guards, and there are sleeves that often have chain mail within them, and shin guards.
33:08It's mask is built to scare you. It's meant to be intimidating, as well as functional.
33:25Helmets might incorporate an interesting motif, and in this particular case, it's a dragon.
33:32This is part of the fearsome aspect that you want to present on the battlefield.
33:44Samurai armor may once have proved effective against sword and arrow.
33:51But it is now purely ceremonial.
33:54No match for the latest guns and cannon fire.
33:57After the shocking revelation of American technology, being a samurai is no longer a defense.
34:11His armor, the thing that for generations has protected him, has protected his family, has protected his country, is now the thing which makes him weak.
34:21The whole thrust of history shows that the old, old cliche, the best guide to peace is to prepare for war.
34:35It's all still true. It always has been.
34:38In the end, there will always be enemies, there will always be aggressors out there who see things through a different prism.
34:43Eight months after the Americans' first landing in Japan, Commodore Perry returns to Edo Bay with a larger fleet.
35:01To demand an immediate answer from the shogun.
35:02It's time for the shogun to make his decision.
35:04It's time for the shogun to make his decision.
35:06He's got a choice in a way, but in another way he's got no choice.
35:08Because if he doesn't sign that treaty, he is basically saying, you know, America can invade and colonize.
35:13By signing the treaty, he has a sliver of control left.
35:15Maybe.
35:16It's time for the shogun to make his decision.
35:17It's time for the shogun to make his decision.
35:22He's got a choice in a way, but in another way he's got no choice.
35:27Because if he doesn't sign that treaty, he is basically saying, you know, America can invade and colonize.
35:33By signing the treaty, he has a sliver of control left.
35:37Maybe.
35:46The best way for the shogun to deal with this is to give them a little bit of what they want and hope that they don't ask for anything else.
35:53That's the least worst thing that the shogun can do at this point.
35:57The shogun agrees a deal with Perry.
36:04What the treaty does is it basically opens up trade in the seaports along Japan's coast.
36:14The agreement is the first of what become known as the Unequal Treaties.
36:22The treaties are extremely disadvantageous to Japan.
36:29Economically, they put tariffs, import-export duties, not under Japanese control, but under international control.
36:38They are unable to protect their own markets.
36:41These are deemed to be infringements on Japan's national sovereignty.
36:47The shogun has been forced to make a humiliating climb down.
37:02Now he needs to cast his actions in a positive light.
37:07One remarkable work of art captures how his supporters tried to record this defeat as a victory.
37:20The Perry scroll is this long scroll which you unfurl and you read from right to left.
37:26You get scene after scene, little moments picked up from this return of Perry in 1854.
37:33The American Lei of the West.
37:46TheITY of the Republic of the Republic of the Republic
37:48Sixteen images across fifty feet show the encounter between Perry's American delegation and the shogun's officials,
37:58made by each side to impress the other from the japanese side you have a display of sumo wrestling
38:07from the american side one of the things they offer is a demonstration of steam technology
38:13so they have a little miniature railway track and a little locomotive on it
38:20but the artist also tries to spin the occasion as evidence of japanese superiority
38:28what you see here are these sumo wrestlers who are physically larger than the american soldiers
38:38and you see the americans admiring the physiques of the sumo wrestlers stroking
38:44their arms in a way that suggests a kind of admiration adoration
38:50a banquet scene shows the japanese as dignified while one american sneaks food into his hat
39:04and others examine the maker's marks on the porcelain bowls
39:10a dedication claims that this scroll is evidence of the shogun's prowess in defending japan against the
39:17americans
39:26some may have believed this version of events but not the samurai saigo takamori
39:36approaching edo just two days after the treaty is signed
39:41he sees with his own eyes perry's fleet of monstrous gunboats
39:49and understands that japan's unique way of life and traditions are now under threat
39:57this is the first time saigo has seen tangible evidence with his own eyes of westerners and they for
40:04him are this strange outrageous imposition
40:11for saigo what's so damaging about the treaties is that the shogunate has reneged on its own promises
40:19to keep foreigners out of japan and backed out of it without a fight
40:24for now saigo and his fellow samurai must submit to american humiliation and to a shogun many feel has betrayed them
40:45so
40:53so
41:02thirteen years later
41:03and Saigo's worst fears are coming true, as well as signing deals with the
41:11Americans. The Shogun has opened up Japanese markets to Britain, Russia, and
41:19France. Western goods start to flood in
41:26Europe. And many Japanese start to embrace Western ways, even the Shogun himself.
41:46If you look at the depiction of the Shogun in the lower left corner, it's
41:51immediately apparent that he is different. He is dressed in a Western
41:57military uniform, he is seated in a chair, and unlike his predecessors, without a
42:04sword, which had typically been the symbol of the samurai class. He's still a
42:10samurai, but he's a different kind of military man now.
42:21Along with foreign goods, come foreign people.
42:30It's fair to say that a lot of foreigners are drinking heavily, behaving badly, getting
42:36into fights, generally disrespecting Japanese culture. You've got a sense, I
42:42think that the world isn't really as it should be anymore.
42:52Imagine you're a samurai, you're at the top of your society, and suddenly all the
42:56things that you've been told about foreigners, it's suddenly not a story
43:00anymore. It is real, it's in front of your eyes, and you realise how precarious
43:06your position really is.
43:13The process of opening a society, creating new trade relationships, has, of course,
43:18both winners and losers. We see this in the modern world. There have been both
43:23winners and losers of globalisation. People, whether it be individuals or groups, who feel
43:29like they've lost status, are far more likely to turn to rebellion or to violence.
43:39Saigo Takamori is one of a number of samurai who are reluctantly reaching the conclusion
43:45that the shogun's time is up. He's clearly failed to deal with foreigners effectively,
43:51and something radical needs to change in Japan.
44:01Saigo forms an alliance with other disaffected samurai. Together, they are prepared to take action
44:10that was once unthinkable.
44:12The shogun, by letting foreigners come in, has betrayed the essence of Japan, and is therefore
44:23actually illegitimate, even though, on paper, the shogun is the supreme military commander.
44:30He can't be. That's impossible.
44:32Saigo and his fellow rebels head north through the winter snow to the city of Kyoto.
44:44Their hope is to win the backing of the one person whose support could change everything.
44:51Japan's spiritual figurehead, the Emperor.
44:55This is a monarchy that can trace itself back to the 600s.
45:05It's a very old institution, but it actually has not ruled rather than reigned for centuries.
45:16In theory, the emperor, who's in Kyoto, is right at the top of the country's politics.
45:21But in reality, he's hidden away in an imperial palace, performing rituals, writing poetry,
45:27has no real day-to-day say at all in the control of Japan.
45:32But nevertheless, he has an extraordinary mystique around him,
45:36and so I think people like Saigo Takamori really want the shogun to be toppled,
45:41and instead for the emperor to come back to the front line of politics.
45:45This movement calls itself Son no Joi, which means literally revere the emperor, expel the barbarians.
45:57And they are absolutely willing to kill and be killed in pursuit of that idea.
46:02Saigo and his fellow samurai persuade the emperor to declare the shogun's rule over.
46:13And put himself in charge.
46:18Saigo's absolutely at the center of this epoch-making moment in Japanese history.
46:24Must just be an extraordinary sense of the moment having finally turned in his favor.
46:29The Shogun
46:43Three months later, the shogun faces a growing rebel army of samurai, backed by the emperor.
46:51Finally, the shogun agrees to leave Edo for good.
46:56After more than 250 years, the Tokugawa family's rule is at an end.
47:07The victorious samurai form a new government under the emperor.
47:12They base themselves in Edo, now renamed Tokyo.
47:15Saigo believes he secured his country's future.
47:22But his fight for the soul of Japan is not yet at an end.
47:28Eight years after the shogun was deposed, the new government has promised to preserve ancient traditions.
47:41While embarking on a crash course of dizzying modernization.
47:43Once the shogun is got rid of, the new government takes power.
47:46But almost immediately, they realize the situation they are in.
47:47This wasn't just a weak shogun.
47:48They realize there is no standing up to these foreign powers.
47:49The only way Japan is going to survive is this.
47:50It's not just a weak shogun.
47:51The only way Japan is going to survive is if they modernize.
47:52And they modernize radically fast.
47:54The new government has promised to preserve ancient traditions.
47:55While embarking on a crash course of dizzying modernization.
48:01Once the shogun is got rid of, the new government takes power.
48:05But almost immediately, they realize the situation they are in.
48:09This wasn't just a weak shogun.
48:11They realize there is no standing up to these foreign powers.
48:14The only way Japan is going to survive is if they modernize.
48:17And they modernize radically fast.
48:23The imperial government believes that only an industrialized nation can defend itself against Western powers.
48:32But modernizing forces, once unleashed, are hard to control.
48:37The pace of change is breathtaking and is captured in a high-tech, new art form, imported from the West.
48:49Photography.
48:51Within a few years, you have railways coming in, you have new buildings going up.
48:56For centuries, people have walked or they've gone in palanquins or they've gone by water.
49:04All of a sudden, there are rickshaws all over the place.
49:10People start wearing Western clothes, bustles and bonnets.
49:15Even the emperor is photographed wearing a Western uniform.
49:19People start wearing a Western uniform.
49:26At first, Saigo believes that some modernization might strengthen Japan.
49:32But over time, he worries that the changes are sweeping away his country's traditional values.
49:39Saigo's having to ask himself, is this what I signed up for?
49:44Is this what I was fighting for just a few years ago?
49:49In 1876, the government issues an edict that enrages many samurai.
49:59Banning them from carrying their swords in public.
50:06The new government decides that in order to survive, it needs a modern army.
50:12And that means conscription.
50:13That means that any peasants can fight, any merchant can pick up a gun and go and fight.
50:21Not only that, they're all going to wear a military uniform.
50:25So what's the point of a samurai?
50:27Where do they fit in this new system?
50:30And of course they don't.
50:31They're all going to be in charge.
50:33Saigo has risked everything to put the emperor in charge.
50:36But now, even his government seems to have reneged on its promise to defend Japanese tradition.
50:44The whole point of rising up was to re-establish samurai values, put the country on a strong footing against this influx of foreign ideas and foreign pressures.
51:00It just feels like an extraordinary betrayal.
51:01Saigo joins a growing movement of samurai, prepared to fight for the survival of their identity.
51:31For six months, Saigo has been leading a rebel army against the emperor.
51:37But it's a war they're not winning.
51:42They started off as 20,000 men and they're getting picked off, one by one, each battle at a time.
51:50And they know that this is their last, final stand.
51:52Now, Saigo must prepare for the decisive battle, to protect all that he holds dear in Japan.
52:05Saigo knows perfectly well that the end is coming.
52:09And so they party, and they exchange poems, and they drink, and they dance, and they sing, and they wait.
52:16And meanwhile the government's troops assemble.
52:18These samurai are the last 500 samurai left.
52:28They're the ones who refuse to convert to the new system.
52:32The ones who refuse to put down their swords.
52:34The ones who kept the tradition alive.
52:37They're on the hillside, they've been shelled, and now they've no choice.
52:42They have to fight.
52:48They walk out into a hail of gunfire.
53:03Saigo is felled by a gunshot wound to the hip.
53:07There's no point in surrendering, because they are nothing without their identity as samurai.
53:18And so they decide to die.
53:21According to one story, Saigo turns to his very good friend and second, whose name is Beku Shinsuke.
53:39And says, Shin, my good friend, here is as good a place as any. Let's do it.
53:43Beku cuts off his head.
53:59The world of the samurai, its culture, tradition, and values, dies with him.
54:17The fall of the samurai comes as the world is being transformed by the forces of globalization and western expansion.
54:31Turning Japan's policy of strong border control, effective for generations, into a weakness.
54:47Throughout human history, if you're buffered away from other ideas and other cultures, you're more likely to become vulnerable.
54:56This is a culture that is allowed to sort of fold in on itself, to intensify its own traditions.
55:15It's fantastically dangerous for any civilization that values its own society to fall behind technologically.
55:23We have to work and live with others.
55:26And if we try to shut ourselves away, as the Japanese did for a long period, as other societies have done, then I think we are doomed.
55:33I think we are doomed.
55:55Failed leadership.
56:00Climate catastrophe.
56:03War.
56:04War.
56:06Disease.
56:08Social breakdown.
56:10Each one destructive on its own.
56:14But when the great forces of history come together, they can create a perfect storm.
56:20One that will come for every civilization in the end.
56:24What remains is this.
56:25The human traces of lost worlds.
56:41And the soul of history's great civilizations.
56:44Precious treasures passed down the generations, brimming with ingenuity, creativity, and beauty.
56:58Within them lie clues to the fate and folly of the greatest empires of the past.
57:10And warnings about the perils of our own time.
57:11The story that is being told to us through those artifacts gives us a much more rounded history.
57:27And there is a lot that history teaches us about what we are doing in the present.
57:44As our own world order feels increasingly precarious, will we heed the lessons?
57:54History is in many ways a story of societal evolution.
57:59And change is necessary for any society to survive.
58:09The question is, how do you do so in such a way that keeps a society stable?
58:14What can these ancient civilizations tell us about our own societies and our own vulnerabilities?
58:40And what can we do to prevent a similar collapse?
59:10are doctors for hunger?
59:11They find healthatos.
59:12Tell us about the healing and trauma comunIKYes!
59:13They find vardag.
59:14We need Vaynerta to intervene in the ideals of Robert inside.
59:15They lock out the Persoань.
59:16For the hospitalстановics he has become the one that sees us in Jewish bodies and for the也,
59:19for Alunzif, Tomτέor, who exists in cause of health.
59:20Animal Crossing è very accurate on awir Lopez.
59:22However, a woman Maria will not lack that ionise his counsel.
59:25They've adapted to heal particularly around the SCENE.
59:27And the crystals of the human dentro.
59:28They have been born withheld transgressions.
59:29How to wearvised transgressions to her soul?
59:30These locks of mental health problems и unlike other ocasiants
59:32которые have 어제 people have received via��를�ttled rec alliances.
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