All language subtitles for Butterfly.Effect.S02E07_English

- [Narrator] 2008,
as a subprime scandal

erupts in the United States,

the Constantinople
stock exchange,

Europe's major
financial marketplace

is preparing to face a
global economic crisis.

Europe's leading
economic power, Greece,

is now the standard for
financial stability.

Benefiting from its
geostrategic location

at the crossroads
of Europe and Asia

with the rich
thousand-year history,

the Greek capital has become
a cosmopolitan megalopolis

with a population of 19 million.

In 1998, it was naturally chosen

as a headquarters of the
European Central Bank.

Half of Mediterranean trade
passes through its vast port.

But none of this ever happened.

In the 15th century,

the city will be conquered
by the Ottoman Empire.

Today, it is known
under the name Istanbul.

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.

April 12th, 1204,

the soldiers of
the Fourth Crusade

on their way to the holy land

besieged and then sacked
the city of Constantinople.

May 29th, 1453,

the Genoese commander,
Giustiniani Longo,

is grievously wounded by
a shot from a firearm.

The following day,
Sultan Mehmet II

rides into his new
capital, Constantinople.

These three intimately
connected events

are the key moments
in the battle

and then the fall
of Constantinople,

capital of the Byzantine Empire.

410 AD,

Rome, the eternal city, heart
and soul of the Roman Empire,

has just fallen into the
hands of the barbarians.

The impossible
has just happened.

Inexorably, the other western
provinces fall in turn,

and yet the Roman
Empire is not dead,

far from it.

A century earlier, Emperor
Constantine the Great

had ordered the building of a
second capital, a second Rome.

Built at the frontier
between Asia and Europe,

on the site of the
ancient Byzantium,

the new city was
named Constantinople,

the city of Constantine.

When the western Roman Empire
disappears permanently in 476,

the Eastern Roman
Empire continues alone.

Later, it will be called
the Byzantine Empire.

(dramatic music)

The Byzantine Empire
is the Roman Empire.

However, Constantinople
is not Rome.

Situated on Greek and
not Latin territory,

Constantinople is
at the meeting point

of western and
eastern influences.

Citizens of the empire
speak Greek, not Latin.

A veritable economic crossroads,

its strategic position
on the Bosporus

gives it control of
commercial exchanges

between east and west.

Protected by the sea,

it can only be reached
on foot from the west.

The city rapidly expands,

a vast hippodrome,

a mirror of the Circus
Maximus in Rome,

is soon host to a
plethora of chariot races.

In 532, Emperor Justinian
builds
the Hagia Sophia Basilica.

Although Christian
and extremely pious,

the city gradually becomes
ideologically opposed

to the Holy See of Rome.

Theological divergences

lead to the
definitive separation

between Catholic and
orthodox Christians.

From his palace, the
emperor governs an empire

exposed to permanent danger.

Like Rome before it,

the imperial armies have to
defend its borders
permanently.

Throughout its
thousand-year exise,

the empire experiences
peaks and crisis.

Its territory expands,
then contracts.

In the 12th century, the
empire is still influential,

but it has to share control
of the Mediterranean

with the Italian cities
Venice and Genoa.

At the head of veritable
maritime empires,

these city states nibble
at Byzantine power

in exchange for their
military and financial aid.

For the empire,

this is a winning policy
in the short term,

but dangerous in the long term.

- [Narrator] 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 the events 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.

For example, let's look at
what is happening in Europe

at the heart of the Middle Ages.

In Italy, a particular
phenomenon is appearing.

Dozens of cities shake off
the feudal political system

and become independent.

These cities govern themselves,

elected their leaders

and answer to no king,

orientated towards trade,

several become
maritime republics.

Their strength is founded

upon the domination
of trade routes

and the relationships
they forged

with the Mediterranean powers.

Venice, the greatest of them,

will remain independent
for centuries.

It will rapidly acquire
the power of a country.

In our day,

it's as if Monaco were
as rich as Germany

and could rival the
armies of France.

In fierce competition
with each other,

these cities were
also able to maneuver

to guarantee their domination,

often at the expense
of their rivals.

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] April 12th, 1204.

The unforgivable has
just been committed.

Manipulated by the Venetians,

the Fourth Crusade's mighty army

on its way to
reconquer Jerusalem

turns away from its objective.

Constantinople, symbol
of Christianity,

falls into the hands
of the Crusaders.

Christians kill other
other Christians.

Thanks to the formidable
Venetian fleet,

the Crusaders went
around the land defenses

and attacked from the sea.

The empire is dismembered

and shared out
between the victors.

Each of them carves out
its own little kingdom,

at least for a time.

Less than 60 years later,

after many fratricidal
battles between Christians,

the Byzantine
Empire is restored.

The capital is once more in
the
hands of the Greek orthodox,

but the empire will never
regain its former power.

Ruined by conflict,

dispossessed of the
majority of its territory,

it is no more than
a shadow of itself.

And yet, the other threats
have not diminished.

Founded by an
Anatolian Turkish clan,

the Ottoman Empire
is in full expansion,

vigorous, conquering,

and born along by
the Muslim faith,

it is expanding its territory

at the expense of its neighbors.

And in the 15th century,
nobody
is capable of stopping it.

Byzantine cities fall
one after another.

In 1450, the Ottoman
Empire occupies

the major part of
the Byzantine Empire.

Soon, Constantinople is no more

than a mere fortified enclave.

At the head of the
Ottoman Empire Mehmet II.

The young sultan is learned,

speaks five languages,

and possesses real strategic
and political talents.

However, he is in a
difficult position.

Unpopular, unloved by
a part of his army,

in particular, the elite
corps of Janissaries.

In the past, he
already had to deal

with the rebellion
by his generals.

In order to impose himself

Mehmet II knows he has to
do something spectacular.

The best way, take
Constantinople.

He knows that the city will
put up a fierce resistance.

The holy city is the
bastion of Christianity,

a bastion endowed with
ancient and colossal walls.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] The city
of Constantinople

is situated at a strategic
location that is easy to
defend.

To the north, the Golden Horn.

To the south, the
Sea of Marmara.

To the east, the Bosphorus.

but that is not enough.

Very soon, the Roman
emperors erected walls

to protect the city.

Constantinople's
system of fortification

is a formidable one.

A 22-kilometer wall
completely encloses the city.

To the west, the land wall
are said to be impenetrable.

The enemy must first
cross a 20-meter ditch,

braving a hail of projectile,

he then runs to the
foot of the first wall.

If he manages to scale
the nine-meter stone wall,

he finds himself in an open area

dominated by massive
towers, manned by arches.

In front of him
moves a second wall,

a huge 12-meter wall
bristling with 96 towers.

This interior wall is the
city's ultimate rampant.

This protected zone
extends to 1,450 hectares.

By comparison, medieval Paris,

then the biggest western city,

extended to barely 440 hectares.

By the 15th century,
these ancient walls

have already been subject
to the ravages of time

for 1,000 years.

However, a line of
fortifications is only
effective

if it is in good repair and
defended by lots of soldiers.

- [Narrator] 100,000 men,

including 12,000 elite
corps Janissaries.

The Ottoman army is huge.

However, Mehmet II knows that
without an effective strategy,

his army will be shattered
on the walls of the city.

He orders the casting
a gigantic cannons,

capable of smashing
down any wall.

The biggest is
eight meters long,

need 700 men to move it,

and can shoot
600-kilo stone balls,

a city taker.

Opposite him, Constantine XI,

the Byzantine emperor

places the city
under state of siege.

He stocks up provisions,

reinforces the walls,

has silverware from the
churches melted down

to pay for more troops.

The whole population
has to participate.

He knows that a tidal
wave of warriors

is heading towards him.

He has no more than a few
thousand men to oppose it.

It will be fifteen to one.

Determined to defend his city,

he calls upon the
west for assistance.

Venice, Genoa, and the pope

are approached to
defend the holy city.

But the Italian cities are
caught in the crossfire.

Trading with both empires,

they want to support one,
without provoking the other.

Venice sends some military
equipment, but no troops.

Only its colony inside
the city decides to fight,

not that it has a choice.

The neighboring
Genoese city of Pera

remains neutral and looks on.

Constantinople appears
alone and abandoned by all.

And then on the 26th
of January 1453,

along comes Giovanni
Giustiniani Longo,

a young Genoese nobleman,

a leader of men and
in excellent general.

He's at the head
of 700 mercenaries.

A soldier of fortune,

he is immediately appointed
commander of the land walls.

Charismatic, he inspires
fresh hope in the combatants,

and becomes the
keystone of the defense.

7,000 men, 26 ships,

and a thousand-year-old wall

against one 100,000 soldiers
with gigantic cannons.

The emperor in his armor is
determined to fight to the
end.

April 2nd, 1453,

Mehmet II's army arrives
within sight of
Constantinople.

The great battle begins.

- [Narrator] In the Middle Ages,

the higher and more
massive the defense,

the more effective it is.

To take it by assault,

you could attack frontally

with large ladders
or mobile towers.

You can also elect to
concentrate on the weak
points,

such as games, using
battering rams.

More discreet but
equally formidable,

the work of a sapper
consists of digging a tunnel

under the fortifications

in order to collapse them.

Bombardment from a distance
with a huge trebuchet.

Catapults could take a long
time, but avoided losses.

Finally, you can j
wait till the stronghold,

dying from starvation
surrenders by itself.

But the advent of cannons
changes everything.

The bigger the cannon,

the more powerfully it
can find a giant ball.

Whereas the trebuchet

shoots out 100-kilo
projectile 200 meters,

Mehmet II's cannon
fire a ball weighing

up to 600 kilos with
a direct strike.

On classic walls, the
effect is devastating.

The advances in artillery
causes defenses to adapt.

Walls become angled
to deflect shots,

instead of taking them directly.

In the 17th century, with
French engineers Vauban,

systems of fortification
become extremely complex,

and perfectly
adapted to firearms.

The walls of Constantinople

have resisted many siege.

How will they stand up
to this latest threat?

- [Narrator] Day after day,

deadly fire hammers
the Byzantine defenses.

Each night, the defenders
repair what they can

and fill in the breaches.

Constantine XI and
his finest troops

are at the heart of the valley

where the defenses are weakest.

Against all expectations,

the Ottoman army fails
to peers those defenses.

The Ottomans use every means
in their attempt to enter.

The Christians use every
means to prevent them.

In the Golden Horn, an
enormous chain blocks access,

defended by ships that
prevents an attack

from the Byzantine rear.

However, at the end of April,

defenders are stunned to
discover Ottoman warships

upstream of the barrage.

In defiance of the terrain,

Mehmet II has
transported his ships

six kilometers over dry land.

This sudden threat
opens a new front

and divides the
defending forces.

In May, Venice finally
sends a relief fleet

of 2,000 men.

This army may swing the
course of the battle,

on condition that
it arrives in time.

For weeks, the cannons
pound the walls.

Then assaults follow
the bombardments.

On each occasion, the defenders
managed to plug the gaps

and repelled the assailants.

All sapper attempts attempts
are discovered and destroyed.

Galvanized by Giustiniani,
the defense holds firm.

Hope is born again.

Victory no longer
seems impossible.

In the Ottoman camp,

Mehmet II is in
increasing difficulty.

He needs to obtain a rapid
victory at all costs.

If the relief fleet arise,
it will be too late.

He must break through.

The sultan decides to
throw all of his forces

into one general assault.

It will be victory or death.

Tuesday, May 29th, 1453

three o'clock in the morning,
the day of the verdict.

All along the frontline, war
cries rise from the darkness.

The defenders ring the bells.

Everybody prepares
for the final battle.

In waves, the Ottoman sweep upon

the half-destroyed walls.

The assailants are
repelled one after another.

Greeks and Italians
fight side by side

with the energy of despair.

When a giant cannonball
shatters the stockade.

300 Ottoman swarm
into the gaping hole.

The emperor and his
d pushed them back.

All along the land wall
as along the sea front,

the defenders are harassed.

Everybody is fighting.

Nobody can help anybody else.

But these attacks
have just one aim,

to weaken the defenses

before the assaults
by the elite troops.

At dawn the twelve
thousand Janissaries

hurled themselves into the fray.

It is at this crucial moment

when the danger is at its height

that a bullet pierces
Giustiniani's armor.

Grievously wounded,

the Genoese commander
is losing lots of blood.

The emperor begs him
to remain in place

to continue the fight,

but Giustiniani is
evacuated from the front.

In the confusion, a
gate is left open.

Turkish soldiers
swarmed through it.

Deprived of their rock,

the defenders lose
ground one by one.

The Janissaries
intensified their attack.

They crossed the first wall.

They reached the second.

Constantine, the last Roman
Emperor, tries to bar their
way.

The defenders are overwhelmed.

The Ottoman flag flies
over one of the towers.

The cry goes up,
"The city is taken."

The situation can no
longer be reversed.

Constantinople falls.

(gentle music)

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

A turning point is a key event,

crossroads in our history,

where the world swings
one way or the other.

Giustiniani at the head
of his 700 mercenaries

coordinated the city's defense
and galvanized resistance.

In the heart of the battle,

his evacuation is felt to
signal the beginning of the
end,

and defenders of seized
with panic and lose ground.

If Giustiniani had
remained at the front

it's quite possible
that tanissaries

would have been repelled.

The arrival of
Venetian reinforcements

several days later would
have saved the city.

Faced with the
failure of the siege,

Mehmet II would've found himself

in an extremely
difficult position

with his political opponents.

The sultan would not
have survived the
set back politically.

He might even have
been assassinated.

The Ottoman Empire
would then have engaged

in a war of succession.

Rebellions might have broken out

on the predominantly
Christian Weston territories.

Constantinople,
freed of its enemy,

could have seen a renaissance.

(gentle music)

- [Narrator] Woe
to the vanquished.

Pillage is the order of the day.

Men and women are
turned into merchandise.

500,000 are reduced to slavery.

In Saint Sophia, the old and
the wounded are slaughtered.

The Greek and Italian
commanders are executed.

Nobody knows what became
of Constantine XI.

A few vague witnesses say

they saw him die
fighting, sword in hand.

The last Roman Emperor
disappears with his empire.

The next day, Mehmet II
orders an end to the
pillaging

and enters his new capital.

Three days later, the
ships that escaped

meets the now
useless relief fleet.

News of the fall of
the city spreads.

There's total stupor.

The Christian world is in shock.

Weakened by the Fourth Crusade,

alone against an
implacable enemy,

abandoned by the west,

the Byzantine Empire
gave up the ghost.

But the city itself is not dead.

Because though Rome may have
been sacked by barbarians,

Constantinople has just
fallen into the hands

of a brilliant civilization.

After a long thousand
year existence,

the old empire was in its
death throe, exhausted.

The young Ottoman Empire will
bring a fresh breath of air.

The city will slowly
be repopulated,

sumptuous new buildings

will come to stand beside
ancient structures.

Saint Sophia, a Christian
basilica, becomes a mosque.

The Ottoman Empire will
also know its peak.

The heart of the Muslim world,

its territory will extend
from Hungary to Iraq.

Like the Byzantine Empire,
it will finally disappear.

After the First World War,

defeated, it will
give way to Turkey.

Constantinople will
become Istanbul,

but that is another story.

- [Narrator] The taking
of Constantinople

by the Ottoman Turks
is a seismic shock.

Likee, a thousand years
before, the city seemed
eternal.

Like Rome, it finally fell.

But although the Byzantine
Empire can no longer be saved,

Orthodox Christianity
is still alive,

and it needs a new capital.

Situated hundreds of
kilometers to the north,

Moscow takes up the baton

and becomes the new
orthodox refuge.

Human constructions are mortal.

They have the beginning, a peak,

(suspenseful music)

then an end.

(suspenseful music)

Whatever happens, they
always disappear finally.

The question is not
if this will happen,

but when?

What will the United
States of America look like

in the century's time?

Will we all be speaking
Chinese in 200 years

or will that language
be dead like Latin?

These questions may
appear fatalistic,

but the opposite.

Humanity is alive
and on the move.

For every civilization
that dies,

there is always another
to take its place,

and continue to advance.

(dramatic music)