All language subtitles for Butterfly.Effect.S02E06_English

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] 1392.

Republic of Genoa, Italy.

The Grand Fleet completes
its long crossing

of the Atlantic Ocean.

Laden with gold, the
galleons are returning

from their distant colony,

the Latin New World.

At the beginning of
the 14th century,

the Republic of Genoa,
supported by a thriving
economy,

embarked on major explorations.

Having discovered
a vast continent

on the far side of the Atlantic,

the Italian city
immediately founded

an overseas trading empire.

Today, Genoese naval fleets
crisscross the Atlantic
Ocean.

The Republic is a
beacon over Europe.

The New World speaks Italian.

But none of this ever happened.

In 1347, a tiny grain
of sand will trigger

one of the greatest
disasters of all time,

the Black Death.

(dramatic music)

Our history is no more than a
series of incredible events.

Every one of us can
influence its course.

(dramatic music)

The most infinitesimal
of our decisions

can influence the
future of humanity.

To know the past is
to foresee the future.

1347, Siege of Caffa on the
shores of the Black Sea.

A Mongol army catapults
diseased corpses

onto the defenders.

December 1347, the plague
reaches Marseilles in France.

Within a few months, it
infects the entire West.

1352, the plague has ravaged
Europe for four years.

There are at least
25 million dead.

These three intimately
connected events

are key moments
in the appearance

and in the spread of the
terrible Black Death.

Sixth century Constantinople.

Justinian I, head of the
powerful Byzantine Empire,

is stricken with
an unknown fever.

Nothing from the gigantic
walls of his capital

to his immense fortune

could stave off the
terrible disease

that is ravaging his empire.

An invisible plague
that kills a man

within just a few days
appeared in Egypt,

then spread like a tide of blood

through towns and villages.

In Constantinople alone,

they talk of 10,000
dead in one day.

The deserted streets
of the magnificent city

are heaped with rotting corpses.

The scourge has a name.

They call it pestus.

The plague makes it
entrance in history.

(birds chirping)

Beginning of the 14th
century, Middle Ages.

For 300 years, the West has
enjoyed an unprecedented boom.

Exceptionally clement
climatic conditions

bathe Europe in
warm temperatures

favorable to good harvests.

It's the optimum
medieval climate,

also known as the
medieval warm period.

The troubles of the preceding
centuries have settled.

The newfound peace
allows the development

of ancient techniques.

Europe becomes
covered in windmills.

New weaving crafts invigorate
the textile industry.

Plows increase tenfold
the power of peasants

in the freshly cleared fields.

Blast furnaces produce
iron and steel.

New cities are founded,

magnificent cathedrals
erected in stone lacework.

The demographic boom
speaks for itself.

With a population of 30 million

at the end of the ninth century,

Europe numbers around
75 million in 1300.

Flamboyant and energetic,
medieval society

at the beginning of the 14th
century is also vulnerable.

The 1310s mark the end
of the climate optimum.

Europe goes into what is
called the little ice age.

- [Woman] Welcome to
the memory of humanity.

Here we can control time,

analyze and compare
billions of events,

and alter them to rewrite
history endlessly.

All thents in our history,

however minute they might be,

are memorized and
interconnected.

It only requires
one to be changed

for all the others to
be shaken to the core.

In our day, the Middle
Ages are often considered

to be a dark period of
permanent
wars and enormous filth.

However, this
period, which covers

around 1,000 years of
history, had several phases.

The concept of the
Middle Ages was invented

by the intellectual
elites of the Renaissance

to illustrate an idea.

Their century was
rekindling the light

of Greco-Roman civilization
after dark ages.

By contrast, they referred
to the preceding period

as the Middle Ages,

considering it to be mediocre,

a mere interlude between
antiquity and Renaissance.

The term Middle Ages therefore

is less of a scientific verdict

than a value judgment that
has survived to our day.

(somber music)

- [Narrator] In the Middle Ages,

the city is a place of
liberty,
knowledge and pleasures.

It is also a place
of rare filthiness.

While Roman cities were designed

and built to a general plan,

medieval cities mainly went
through an anarchic growth,

gathered around a defensive core

and contained within
a curtain of walls.

The authorities
considered cleanliness

to be the business
of the individual.

No system of underground sewers,

no centralized
garbage management,

no regulations.

In the narrow
streets, trash mingles

with the blood from
the butchers' shops.

Forges and dye works

spew a pestilential
stench into the air.

The poor neighborhoodsinher

from the richer neighborhoods
situated on higher ground.

In the 13th century, they
start to pave the roads,

dig sewers and ban dumping
trash in front of the house.

Questions of hygiene
and public health

become serious ones.

In 1220, the Pope's legate
founds a faculty of medicine

in Montpellier, France,

which is recognized
in the 14th century

as the finest of the age.

Like the faculties
of Paris and Bologna,

its knowledge is developed

from the medicine
of the Arab world,

itself heir to the
ancient writings

of Hippocrates and Galen.

The theories of these two
Greek scholars or antiquity

are so ancient and so
universally recognized

that nobody dares
to question them.

At the heart of their
thinking
is the theory of humerus,

a proper balance of these
humors guarantees good health.

Otherwise, drawing a
certain quantity of blood

can restore the balance.

This is the practice
of bleeding.

Added to this is the
theory of miasmas,

the belief that diseases
are spread by bad air.

Dominant until the 19th century,

this theory knew nothing of
contamination through contact,

bacteria's favorite
method of infection.

Current diseases are
relatively well-documented

and well known.

Doctors have a wide variety
of plant-based remedies

at their disposal.

But there are few doctors.

And faced with more
virulent diseases,

even the best of
them are powerless.

Often the only remedy
is rest, a balanced diet

and well-aired houses.

- [Woman] The invisible enemy.

Bacteria are the
first form of life

to appear on Earth.

Invisible to the naked eye,
they are present everywhere

and multiply by dividing cells.

Some live in perfect
harmony with their host,

like the countless bacteria

present in our digestive tract.

Others, harmful,
are called pathogens

and transfer infections.

This is the case of
the plague bacillus.

In all cases, bacteria
must have a host

in order to reproduce.

The plague appeared in Central
Asia around 20,000 years ago.

Its host is the black rat.

It transfers to humans
by way of fleas.

The more rats, the faster
the plague spreads.

Now, in the Middle
Ages, the black rat

spread everywhere
men were to be found,

proliferating in the squalid
streets of overcrowded
cities.

The aggravating factor,
the existence of bacteria

is totally unknown
in the 14th century,

not to mention their
vectors of infection.

Ironically, cats that
could control rats

are regularly driven away

because they are
reputed to be satanic.

Nobody really cares
about the rodents.

All these elements are in
place
for the tragedy to unfold.

- [Narrator] 1347.

Caffa, at the gates of Europe.

The Mongols are laying siege

to the Genoese trading
post on the Black Sea.

But the Horde is being gnawed

by an invisible sickness
both insidious and deadly.

Arriving from the
borders of China,

a terrible and extremely
contagious disease

is decimating the
ranks of the fighters.

The Mongol army is infested
with the Bubonic plague.

The horde is rapidly
in no state to fight,

even less to take the city.

So the Mongol chief orders
plague-infected corpses

to be catapulted over the walls.

The rats, swarming
in the nomad camp,

invade the Genoese stronghold,

carrying in their
coats an army of fleas

swollen with disease.

The sickness penetrates
the lower city,

makes its way along the gutters,

infiltrates the houses.

In the city, the epidemic
rages like a forest fire.

To flee the infected air,
many ships leave the harbor.

In the fresh air offshore,

the crews believe
that they are safe.

This is when the
first symptoms appear.

Death is among the passengers.

Sailing along the coast,

the first ships
reach Constantinople

laden with their deadly cargo.

Very quickly the first
cases of plague appear

in the 1,000-year-old city.

According to witnesses,
it can kill a person

within an hour.

Unaware of the danger, merchant
ships leave the Bosporus

to sail the trade routes
and carry the infection

to all the major ports
of the Mediterranean.

Anatolia, the Balkans,
the Aegean Sea,

and then the whole of
Greece are infected.

At the end of September 1347,

the plague-ridden Genoese
ships arrive in Messina

and contaminate Sicily.

The plague passes
from cargo to cargo,

ship to ship, city to city.

Genoa is ravaged, then Pisa,

Venice and Marseilles.

The epidemic becomes a pandemic.

No wall can stop it,

no army fight it.

The pestilence
devastates villages,

travels up rivers,

swarms at the roadsides.

From Mallorca, the
plague spreads to Spain.

It stinks up Tunis, strikes
Crete, Cyprus, Egypt.

Alexandria and Cairo
are in turn affected,

as are Syria, Accra,
and Jerusalem.

For their populations, the
only chance of salvation

is to flee, to flee
as far as possible

and never come back.

Irresistibly, the contagion
crosses French Provence,

ravages Montpellier, Toulouse,

travels up to Rome
and infects Lyon.

On August 20th,
1348, Paris is hit.

All over, those
infected are shut up.

Whole neighborhoods are
put under quarantine.

The city gates are closed.

Nothing can stem the
lightning-fast hemorrhaging.

Switzerland, the
Holy Roman Empire,

and the English kingdom
are all eaten away

by this incurable sickness.

Soon, the whole of
Europe is infected.

Humanity is engaged
in a merciless battle

against the bacteria.

And it is losing it.

(ominous, dramatic music)

- [Woman] We have just
reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event,

a crossroads in our history

where the world swings
one way or the other.

One way or another, the plague
would have reached the West.

But by infecting the
defenders of Caffa,

the Mongols bypassed the
classic methods of
progression.

The plague uses maritime trade

to reach directly into
the heart of Europe.

Nobody has time
to prepare for it.

Without the Siege of Caffa,

it might have taken
years to reach Genoa,

then in full expansion.

The city would have
had time to prepare,

take measures for confinement.

It would not have seen its
people and its countryside

ravaged by the disease.

With its resources preserved,

its shipyards could have
continued production

of its excellent ships.

The native city of
Christopher Columbus

would almost certainly have
engaged in major explorations.

The New World,
discovered by the Genoese

well before the Spanish,

would have been covered
in Genoese trading posts,

a formidable oceanic
Latin trading empire.

America would be
speaking Italian.

- [Narrator] 25 million dead.

The Black Death carries off
1/3 of Europe's population

in four years.

In some cities, the dead
number over 1,000 per day.

It manifests itself
in two forms.

Bubonic plague, whose
first sign is ganglions,

the bubos, then come nervous
and psychological disorders.

A temperature as high
as 42 degrees Celsius

and generalized blood
poisoning lead to the death

of two out of three infected
persons after a few days.

Pneumonic plague, infected
by drops of saliva,

is much faster and can kill
a person within a few hours.

Chances of survival are zero.

The sick person is condemned.

In accordance with
the theory of miasmas,

it is believed that the disease

is transmitted through the air.

So they protect their faces

when handling corpses
or attending the sick.

But nobody protects themselves
from the real danger,

direct physical contact
with the bacterium

and bites from the fleas
carried by the rats.

(gentle music)

The pestilence wipes
out whole families.

Graveyards are saturated.

Common graved overflow.

Infected corpses pile
up on the streets.

Out of fear of contamination,

authorities ban movement,
introduce quarantines,

wall up the contaminated,
burn infected cargoes.

People shut themselves
up in their houses,

abandon the dead,

throw the agonized bodies
into the desolate streets.

Death rules.

The hour is for survival.

Priests and monks
are directly hit.

Pursuing their ideal of
helping their neighbor,

they are in the front line.

Soon there is nobody left

to administer the last
rites to the dying.

A real communal fear arises.

They begin to talk
of divine punishment,

of apocalypse.

Those who practice
self-flagellation
hold processions

while whipping themselves
to atone for the sins of man

and obtain God's forgiveness.

All across Europe, they
look for scapegoats.

Communities withdraw
upon themselves.

Everywhere they
mistake the enemy.

Nobody suspects the rodents.

Death appears to strike blindly,

with no distinction
of age or sex.

The natural order of things

is turned completely
upside down.

Children die before
their parents.

The dying no longer
receive the last rites.

The whole social
model is shaken.

Traditional reference
points disappear.

Psychosis spreads at the
same pace as the infection.

Europe, subject of famine and
stricken by the Black Death,

is in its death throes.

Then, just as suddenly
as it appeared,

the Black Death seems
to disappear in 1352.

People stop dying.

The symptoms disappear.

The plague bacillus fail to
infect the entire population,

often through lack of
living hosts to contaminate.

The nightmare is
over, for the moment.

- [Woman] What if a
scourge like the plague

returned in our day?

How would our contemporary
interconnected world,

highly globalized
with 1,000s of planes

flying overhead each day,

withstand the sudden unleashing
of a worldwide pandemic?

Let's imagine a totally unknown

and highly virulent disease
far beyond our knowledge

that would kill a
person in three days

and against which not one
of our most eminent doctors

would have a cure.

Our nearest ones
would start dying

in a horrible suffering
for no apparent reason.

Very soon, there would
be no fire fighters,

no police, no doctors,

no longer anybody to
supply our supermarkets

or keep our nuclear plants safe.

Given an equal percentage,

there would not be just
10s of millions of dead,

but two billion.

Can we imagine the avenues of
Manhattan, of Beijing, of Rio?

What would our leaders do?

How would the people react?

Would our society
prove more resistant

than that of the Middle Ages?

Or collapse upon itself?

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] The
Great Plague of 1348

was only the first wave.

10 years later, the
disease strikes again.

The newborn and children
are particularly affected.

They then realize that the
disease will always be there,

and that it will return,

again and again.

During the next four centuries,

Europe will experience
some 20 other waves,

some more, some less powerful.

The plague comes and goes,
like the movement of a tide.

In France, 1,000s of
villages disappear

for lack of inhabitants.

The building of
cathedrals is slowed

for nearly a century.

Scant knowledge of the
disease, incomprehension,

fear and panic create a new
conception of the world,

of existence, and of death.

Many paintings of the
period show gaunt corpses

dragging the living
in an infernal dance

against an apocalyptic
background.

They invent the
image of the Reaper,

implacable death carrying
off people by the 1,000s,

scything the living
down like straw.

The clergy, helpless and
impotent, was decimated.

Replacements are quickly
trained to fill the gap.

But you cannot replace a
life of study and prayer

with a few years' training.

The 14th century economy,
deprived of its workforce,

is totally disorganized.

Workers, now rare,
are expensive.

Wages soar.

Fields are empty of farmers.

Harvests are disaster.

The lords, deprived of
the revenues, lose power.

The plague triggers
a chain reaction

that speeds up the end
of the feudal system.

After having been
grievously wounded,

the Western world changes face.

Right up to the 19th century,

they continue to believe that
the plague is transmitted

by contamination of the air.

They must wait til 1894

and endure dozens of deadly
epidemics across the world

before they identify the
Yersinia Pestis bacterium

as being responsible.

At the current time,
it is still impossible

to estimate the total
number of its victims,

even to the nearest few million.

Far from being eradicated,

the plague bacillus is
still present on the planet

and mutates at
each new outbreak.

Nobody can tell in advance
what it will be like
tomorrow.

But that is another story.

- [Woman] The
Mongols' catapulting

of the plague-ridden corpses

is one of the oldest examples
of bacteriological warfare.

From the simple
poisoning of wells

to anthrax-filled letters

by way of missiles
loaded with virus,

man has always outdone himself

in ingenious ways to
infect his enemies.

Now, a bacteriological weapon
is extremely dangerous.

Living organism, pathogen
capable of mutating,

there's nothing to prevent it

from turning against its user,

or devastating the whole world.

In 1993, a unilateral
treaty aimed at banning

the production, the
stocking and above all,

the use of
bacteriological weapon

was signed by 87 countries.

In the 14th century, Western
society, then at its peak,

was devastated by the plague.

In four years, a third
of its population died.

And yet, on the edge of
the abyss and despair,

society did not go under.

Enduring the worst suffering,

it overcame this trial
by adapting, by evolving,

because, although the
plague changed the face

of the Western world,
although it ravaged Europe

and waged one of iardest
battles with humanity,

it ended up losing that battle.

The human species
held on and survived.

(dramatic music)