Original subtitles

[ Man Narrating] U.S. Marines hunker down in their foxholes.

A Japanese soldier takes aim.

Both sides stare down the barrel...

and prepare to kill...

or be killed.

- [ Gunshot] - [ Gunshots ]

A ritual as old as humankind.

- With a secret' link- - [ Gunshot ]

To the science of the planet...

and one of the most sophisticated machines on Earth.

Connections that are only revealed...

through big history.

We think of history as a timeline...

a series of events stretching a few thousand years into the past.

It's time to think bigger.

Instead of a line, imagine a web of infinite connections...

interacting over billions of years...

linked together to create everything we've ever known-

our universe, our planet...

and us.

When we consider our most epic moments though the lens of science...

we unleash a revolutionary new idea-

the movement of atoms steered the movements of men...

civilizations, galaxies.

History as we know it is about to get big.

[ Gunshot]

- [Narrator] The Second World War. - [ Gunshot]

Americans and Japanese fight and die...

- for control of a vital island. - [ Gunshot ]

Their bodies are no match for bullets...

traveling at speeds of 2,800 feet per second.

Traditional history counts the casualties...

and tells us which strategy wins the day.

[ Gunshots ]

But big history connects every battle ever waged by mankind...

into a single story.

Big history reveals the link between our biology...

and how we fight.

We are now in the Stone Age.

For fragile humans...

It's easy to die...

but much harder to kill.

[ Grunts I

Look at the natural world. How do you kill something?

Almost always you kill something by getting up close and personal.

You do it with your claws. You do it with your teeth.

Now look at your claws.

Look at your teeth.

Do you really want to get up close and personal and try to kill something...

with these pathetic teeth, these pathetic claws?

I don't think so.

[ Narrator] To survive, humans must figure out how to inflict damage from a distance.

We create tools to extend our reach.

Tools that we can use to slice...

smash...

and attack.

Some early weapons just as simple as a spear...

a long spear puts you at a distance...

from your enemy or something that you're hunting.

It's the ability to reach out and touch someone or something...

without putting yourself at harm's way.

[ Narrator] Humans everywhere use materials from nature-

wood, stone and metals-

to create weapons that are powered by muscle...

until one ancient civilization stumbles on a new energy source.

Big history connects the birth of weapons...

to the chemistry that revolutionizes them.

[Whinnies ]

[ Narrator] In Imperial China...

an alchemist mixes elements...

looking for the secret to eternal life.

He combines sulfur and carbon...

with a mysterious compound called saltpeter...

and accidentally creates a killer formula-

gunpowder.

We all know it's power.

But big history zooms in to reveal its source.

Saltpeter is made up of potassium, oxygen and nitrogen.

Elements that can break apart with the right amount of energy.

Exposed to a flame...

the sulfur and carbon ignite...

adding the energy boost...

that tears the atoms in saltpeter apart...

releasing nitrogen and oxygen gas that expand so rapidly...

it launches a deadly 200-mile-an-hour shock wave-

[ Explosion ]

That will change the world.

Traditional history would end the story there.

But big history digs deeper...

and brings in science...

to explain why of all the places on Earth...

gunpowder is born in China.

Saltpeter, the ingredient that gives gunpowder its kick...

is relatively rare.

But China is sitting on a mother lode.

Other places around the world simply didn't have access...

to large deposits of this mineral.

[ Narrator] Most saltpeter, also known as potassium nitrate...

can be traced back to a very special source.

[ Kean ] Potassium nitrate is formed naturally through a couple processes.

Most of them, actually, involve animal poop.

There is bat poop in caves that reacts with limestone on the walls...

and mixes with water.

When the water evaporates, you're left with nitrate compounds...

that you can then pick up and use in gunpowder.

[ Narrator] The same process can happen out in the open...

with birds instead of bats.

But either way, it takes the right kind of climate to finish the job.

A climate that can be found in the caves and deserts...

of southern and western China.

In China, you can find natural deposits of saltpeter just on the ground.

It's basically due to the weather, the climate in the area.

You need the rainy seasons to break things down to promote decay.

You need the dry season to get the water out...

and leave the nice solid crystals of nitrate that you can use in gunpowder.

[ Narrator] Gunpowder is the spark that ignites the world.

It spreads along the Silk Road...

across Asia to Europe...

and crosses the Atlantic to the New World.

[ Kean ] All of this history through warfare...

would not really have been possible without animal poop.

[Narrator] To traditional history, it's a perpetual arms race.

But to big history, it's a simple chemical reaction...

that connects back...

to our need to strike prey from a distance.

Whether stone-age spears...

or modern bullets...

to war is human.

Because our greatest secret weapon...

is hidden in our bones.

[ Narrator] Big history has shown...

that' our need to project power from a distance...

connects to some explosive chemistry...

and kick starts a global arms race.

But big history uncovers...

that this perpetual arms race started...

in us.

Using an explosion to launch a projectile...

is just a more powerful way to do something...

that the human body was built to do itself.

To find out how our bodies became projectile throwing machines...

Big history links back seven million years...

to mankind's giant leap.

Grasslands have appeared throughout the world.

Our primate ancestors come down from the trees.

But on all fours, they're vulnerable.

They can't see above the grass.

By standing up, their hands are free to use tools.

And since they no longer need to swing from trees...

their anatomy begins to change.

An ape's shoulders angle upward to help propel them from branch to branch.

But in humans, the shoulders shift down and out...

increasing our range of motion.

And we develop something else- an uniquely flexible wrist.

Think of how a major-league pitcher throws.

Watch the extension.

The leg is way out, the whole twist, the snap of the wrist at the end.

He's delivering a payload directly on target...

with that millions of years of evolution to that one moment.

The big history of the throw, as it were.

[ Narrator] The human arm is a biomechanical marvel.

Engineered for storing up and releasing elastic energy.

Giving us the power to aim and throw projectiles...

with an accuracy that sets us apart.

A chimp could not throw a hand grenade...

anywhere as far, anywhere as accurately as a human...

because we are built for it.

[ Explosion ]

One of the interesting things about projectile weapons is...

first off, they're uniquely human.

But they also make possible scales of conflict...

that we don't see among other organisms.

We can cause death at a distance...

in ways that no other species can.

[Yelling 1

[ Narrator] And as we design better projectile weapons...

first to improve our throwing ability...

then to replace it...

we begin to conquer each other...

and the world.

Big history connects forward...

to an epic battle...

and what seems to be the perfect weapon.

The Hundred Years War.

A century of struggle for control of France.

At the Battle of Crécy...

the French outnumbered England 2-to-1.

But the English have a secret weapon-

the longbow.

Capable of firing 15 arrows a minute...

at targets up to 400 yards away.

The longbow is the machine gun of its day.

England is outnumbered but not out armed.

The French lose 10 times more men.

Their army is decimated...

by superior firepower.

Traditional history tells us that the longbow revoiutionizes warfare.

Big history reveals how...

by connecting the secret of the longbow to the anatomy of a tree.

Big history is very good at making connections between the natural world...

evolution and the natural world...

and the ways humans use these entities provided by nature...

in new and very creative ways.

One excellent example of that is the yew tree.

[ Narrator] The yew is an ancient species...

known to live as long as 5,000 years.

Yew has been used as a weapon for a long, long time.

They have found a yew spear in England...

that's been dated to 400,000 years ago.

[ Narrator] Because the tree grows slowly, its wood is unique.

The outer layer is elastic. It bends without breaking.

The inner layer is dense and strong. It can withstand intense pressure.

Yew wood a perfect combination of strength and flexibility...

Makes the longbow so deadly...

that it's almost unstoppable.

But there's a superior weapon on the way.

And it's so lethal, that warfare will never be the same.

[ Narrator] Big history reveals that the mechanics of the human arm...

launch an arms race...

and that the planet provides the tools to perfect our weapons.

In the Middle Ages, the longbow is a weapon of mass destruction.

But longbows are made from ancient trees that grow so slowly...

they're impossible to replace.

And so are the archers.

It takes up to 10 years of training to become an expert.

The longbow may be lethal, but these drawbacks make it vulnerable.

Big history reveals how the deadliest weapon of its day...

falls to a microscopic invader.

[ Bird Cawing ]

[ Narrator] We call it the Black Death.

The plague wipes out up to 50% of Europe's population.

With fewer men to train as archers...

the kings of Europe will need a new way to fight their wars.

It's the right place and the right time for an ancient Chinese invention...

to finally sweep the western world.

- Guns are powerful- - [ Gunshot ]

Easy to build...

and easy to master.

[ Screams ]

[ Markley ] You can train a peasant to use it really quickly.

[ Gunshot]

You don't need a lifetime to use a musket.

You get the peasants out of the fields, you give them a bit of training...

you put them in the fields with a few pikemen, ready to go.

[ Narrator] The gun replaces the longbow...

and introduces a new kind of warfare-

- Fire! - Where the masses can fight...

and even turn against the elites...

opening a new era of human history.

The big history perspective uncovers how mankind's epic history of war...

connects back to a small change in our biology...

that turned human beings into throwing machines.

[ Yells ]

We've gone from throwing rocks, throwing spears...

using bows and arrows, using catapults...

and then applying gunpowder technology...

to hurl our projectiles so much further.

[ Narrator] Our mastery of chemistry...

perfected the art of projecting power from a distance.

It certainly changed everything. It removed humans another few steps back...

from the original face-to-face conflict.

[ Narrator] From stone...

to spear...

to arrow...

to musket...

to the cannon...

the drone...

and beyond.

But the story of weapons is just the beginning.

There's a much bigger puzzle hidden in big history.

Each episode unlocks a clue.

Everyday things, like silver...

mountains...

and cell phones hold the key.

Watch them all and you'll see this grand mystery revealed.

The big history of time, of space.

The big history of us.