At exactly the same time, a remarkably similar problem was tearing America apart.

Here,
too, a rural underclass lived alongside the modern industrial world. The nation that had been
built on the ideals of liberty and equality was polluted by a system even worse than
serfdom... slavery. In the mid-1800s, there were around 4 million slaves in the United States,
almost all of them in the South, working on plantations like this, growing cotton and tobacco
and much else. Economically, slavery was a dynamic and efficient system, and as America
started to spread towards the West, the Southern states wanted to see slavery spreading
too. But in the North, where many states had banned slavery, they thought very differently.
They were determined that slavery would not grow. America was split down the middle.
Things came to a head in 1860, when the Northerner Abraham Lincoln became president.
But can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow slavery to spread into the Northern
Territories? Lincoln believed that slavery was wrong, but he also said that he had no
intention of abolishing it, hoping instead it would die out over time. But Southern politicians
realised that Lincoln's arrival in the White House meant slavery would not now spread
further, as they had hoped. 11 Southern states decided to break away from the union and
establish an independent government - the Confederacy. Lincoln had no choice but to
declare war on the South to defend the union. This was a struggle between two different
ways of life. In the South, it was an agricultural society - traditional, conservative, many
people living on plantations which were virtually self-sufficient, cut off from the rest of the
world. "Yes," said the North, "but all your wealth depends on slavery." In the North - urban,
industrial America, based on steel and railroads and a rising middle class. "Ah, yes," said the
South, "whose prosperity is based on wage slaves." So, two Americas, now no longer able to
properly speak to each other. On April the 12th, 1861, these two Americas duly went to war.
Lincoln mobilised the North's industrial might, using railways to transport men and
munitions. But to start with, it went badly for him. The South had better generals and a
bolder fighting spirit. SCREAMING. After 18 months, Lincoln was desperate. He decided to
destroy the foundation on which the South was built. He'd free the slaves. "We must free the
slaves," he said, "or be ourselves subdued." He hoped this would destroy the Southern
economy and demoralise the people. And so, on New Year's Day, 1863, just two years after
the Russians had announced the emancipation of the serfs, Lincoln announced his
Emancipation Proclamation - that all the slaves in the rebel states would immediately be
free. Liberated slaves flocked to fight with the Northern forces... ..while the South struggled
with shortages and inflation. The tide of war turned in the North's favour. On April the 9th,
1865, after a devastating invasion, the South surrendered. 620,000 soldiers had been killed.
Nearly as many as in every other war the United States has fought put together. In the final
days of the war, Lincoln did something extraordinary. He simply turned up at the
Confederate rebel capital of Richmond, Virginia, not very far from Washington. His troops
had just taken it, it was still burning. No-one had any idea what to expect when he arrived
here by boat at Rocketts Landing. There was a huge crowd, entirely black. Lincoln had the
most recognisable face in America and he was spotted immediately. There were cries of "Our
Messiah!" and "Jesus Christ!" One man knelt to him, and Lincoln said, "No, no, you only
kneel to your God." And then the group started to walk the two miles into the centre of
Richmond, and gradually there were more and more white faces in the crowd. Sullen, silent,
staring back from windows and the tops of buildings. The people that he had just defeated.
And Lincoln's group were expecting shouts of abuse, possibly even shots. Nothing. And at
that moment, it seemed as if Abraham Lincoln had won all of America back. I can see one
means at least of keeping the Ravensdale estate in the family. What is it? By marrying your
daughter to the mortgagee. To you?! LAUGHTER Ten days after Richmond, Lincoln went to
the theatre in Washington. He hadn't been keen, but his wife had begged him to come. A
night off for the hero. Did you see him? No, but I see him! AUDIENCE GASPS CHEERING But
the defeated South would inflict one last act of bloodshed. A second-rate actor and Southern
Confederate supporter called John Wilkes Booth saw Lincoln as a tyrant. The actor Booth was
about to make his final appearance. And he knew the reviews would be mixed. Well, I know
enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologizing old man-trap! LAUGHTER GUNSHOT
GASPS SCREAMING Booth cried out the Latin motto of the state of Virginia. Sic semper

tyrannis! "Thus always to tyrants." Help me! Help! The North mourned an immortal political
hero. In the South, they celebrated. One Texan newspaper professed itself "thrilled by the
death of our oppressor". The American Civil War left a bitter legacy. In the South, burned and
devastated, the whites remained very angry about what had happened, and black
Americans faced many, many decades of grinding rural poverty, segregation laws and
lynchings for those who stepped out of line. But the union was preserved. And in the North,
this extraordinarily industrious, vigorous economy, now linked together by railroads, stormed
ahead - the American colossus striding towards the 20th century. Freed of its slave economy,
the United States rushed to modernise. For the first time, Americans began to impose
themselves around the world. Already, they were looking west, across the Pacific. Japan had
deliberately cut herself off from the rest of the world for more than 200 years, uninterested
in the industrial West. When Japan closed her doors, the United States didn't even exist. So
when, in 1853, the American Navy turned up under Commodore Matthew Perry, it all came
as a bit of a surprise. The Japanese had never seen anything like the American steamships.
Some thought they were "giant dragons, puffing smoke". Commodore Matthew Perry handed
over a letter from the US President insisting that Japan open her doors. In effect, free trade
or we shoot. Remembering what had happened to the Chinese at the hands of the British,
Japan's rulers gave way to the Americans. Realising they needed to strengthen Japan against
any further Western threats, the Japanese government rushed to modernise and
industrialise. I'd like to show you our plans. Their slogan was, "Catch up, overtake." They
invited thousands of Westerners to teach and give advice. They built railroads, telegraph
lines and factories. Out went kimonos, in came business suits and top hats. But one class of
society was devastated by the arrival of the Industrial Revolution. The samurai. For hundreds
of years, this hereditary warrior class had dominated Japanese society. They had special
privileges - the only people allowed to fight, the only men allowed to carry their two swords
in public, they were exempt from taxation. But Japan had been at peace for more than 200
years. It was 1870. Who needed mediaeval warriors any more? And so, piece by piece, their
privileges were stripped away - their right to carry swords went, their income was taxed, and
the army was opened up to conscripts - peasants! By 1876, the samurai class faced
abolition. Some decided to fight back... ..and turned to one of the country's leading samurai,
Saigo Takamori. Saigo was an unlikely rebel. To start with, he backed the reforms, including
the modernisation of the army. This was a man torn between his deep samurai ideals and his
country's need to modernise. And it was only when his back was against the wall that Saigo
decided to fight for the past against the future. HE SPEAKS JAPANESE A poet and a dreamer,
as well as a politician, Saigo led a rebel army of 30,000 samurai to overthrow the
modernisers in Tokyo. And so, old Japan took on new Japan. Saigo's rebel army was
composed of traditional samurai warriors. The government's was a modern conscript army
with the latest rifles and artillery supplied by steamships and railways. This was only ever
going to end one way. After seven months, Saigo's thousands were reduced to just a few
hundred warriors. And now they were surrounded. 60 to 1. HE SPEAKS JAPANESE Saigo told
his warriors to face death with honour. This was a tragic moment in Japanese history, tearing
the nation apart. The soldiers waiting to attack Saigo's samurai hated what they were about
to do. SCREAMING Within two hours, the Japanese army had reduced Saigo's force to just 40
samurai. At dawn, armed only with their swords, the last samurai walked out to face certain
death. GUNSHOTS Halfway down the hill, Saigo was shot in the right hip. Badly injured, Saigo
died after a botched act of ritual Samurai suicide. Japan forged ahead with its programme of
modernisation... ..becoming known as "the workshop of Asia". No country modernised as fast
and successfully as Japan. In 1905, their new navy would astonish the world by sending the
Russian high fleet to the bottom of the sea - the first time that an Eastern country had
defeated a Western nation since the Middle Ages. And yet Japan could never quite shake
Saigo off. After his death, he was pardoned and became a national hero. A tragic symbol of
the old Japan, of honour and self-sacrifice. The samurai soul that was still there below the
Western uniforms and the business suits. Japan had saved herself from becoming a victim of
the new age of industry and empire. Other parts of the world wouldn't be so lucky. Africa was
one of the least developed areas of the planet. But it was rich with natural resources. And it

had remained almost untouched by the West. But in the late 19th century, the industrialised
empires of Europe were on the hunt for new territories to explore and exploit. In 1877, the
explorer Henry Morton Stanley, a bit of a rogue who'd fought on both sides during the
American Civil War, became the first Westerner to chart the entire 3,000-mile course of the
Congo River. The journey took him 999 days and cost the lives of 242 men. But it would
change the way the West saw the continent. "This river," said Stanley, "is and will be the
great highway of commerce to the heart of Africa." News of Stanley's great discovery soon
reached Europe. And nobody was more fascinated than Leopold II, King of the Belgians. The
problem with Belgium, he grumbled, was that it was a small country with small people.
Leopold II was in the market. He wanted to rise in the world. He wanted to be an emperor, so
he needed a colony. And he'd gone almost everywhere trying to buy one - the Pacific, South
America, the Far East, China... the Faroe Islands! Nothing doing. So, when he heard of the
great wealth of Central Africa, he could barely contain his excitement. "We mustn't lose an
opportunity," he said, "to gain for ourselves a slice of this magnificent African cake." Leopold
persuaded Stanley to work for him in the Congo. His job was to negotiate with the Africans
and establish a network of trading stations along the length of the river. Leopold called his
project the International Association of the Congo, and he sold it as a kind of benign crusade,
bringing religion to the Africans and freeing them from the evil Arab slave-traders. He built
this monstrous great museum in Brussels to sell his idea to the Belgian people. But Leopold
was - how shall we put this? - lying. He was a cynical and slippery operator. All he wanted
was money and power for himself. And he wrote to Stanley that these treaties with the
Africans "must give us everything". And they did. I bring you gifts from my kingdom. From
King Leopold. African chiefs had no idea they were signing away their land in return for
European clothing, jewellery and gin. To prosperity. And to King Leopold. By May 1885,
Leopold was in control of an area 76 times larger than Belgium itself. His new land had vast
natural resources, including ivory, rubber, timber and copper. We have a deal. He began to
strip them out and export them back to Europe. Leopold now ditched the pretence of a
charity and declared himself King Sovereign of the Congo Free State. "Free"? This was in fact
the most extreme example of how industrial technology could allow small numbers of
Europeans to seize other parts of the world. A truth which led to a general rush for African
land. The main players were France, Germany and Britain. But Italy and Portugal were there,
too. This became known as "the scramble for Africa". Leopold sat back and watched the
money pour in, but his dirty little secret was about to be rumbled. In 1901, a young shipping
clerk at Antwerp noticed something odd. The ivory and the rubber and the profits were
pouring in, but nothing was going back out again.
Nothing except guns and ammunition. CHATTERING The horrible truth began to emerge.
Leopold's Congo was a military regime of terror. Africans were forced, at pain of death, to
work on Leopold's plantations. If a village refused, the military were sent in. GUNSHOTS
Africans who resisted - and many did - were systematically murdered. Women and children
were taken as hostages, the men were used for rifle practice, hanged and sometimes beaten
to death. The population of the Congo halved. It seems almost impossible to believe, but it's
now thought that 10 million people died. The word is genocide. Leopold denied everything.
But in March 1908, the Belgian government finally intervened and forced him to hand over
the Congo to them. By then, it had made him a billionaire in today's money. The worst
excesses of the Belgian Congo ended after a campaign by Christian groups, by newspapers
and outraged individuals, which was really the first ever international human rights
campaign. But the land grab went on. And the later Africa of failed states can be traced
back, literally, to the lines drawn on the map by the Italians, Germans, French, British and
other Europeans. Some of the worst things that happened in modern Africa, from the use of
amputation as a punishment, or child soldiers, also go back to this European scramble, this
European frenzy. National competition is part of life,but frantic competition, driven by
intoxicating industrial power, now turned violent. In 1914, the European tribes trained their
guns not on unarmed natives but on each other. Britain, France and Russia against Germany
and Austria. The leaders may have expected a traditional war of cavalry and glitter. What
they got was unprecedented horror. An industrial war. But at least it wasn't yet a world war.

America's President Woodrow Wilson was determined to keep his country out of the fighting.
But in 1917, Germany's new Foreign Secretary was about to change America's mind. Arthur
Zimmermann had risen fast through the Foreign Service to become the only non-aristocrat in
the German cabinet. He was good-natured, honest and loyal. HG SPEAKS GERMAN He was
also a firm believer in world war. He'd helped fund Irish rebellion against Britain and he'd
tried his hand at fomenting Islamic jihad in the Middle East. Her, Junger. Prost! But his
biggest tricks were still to come. Zimmermann's pen never stopped scratching. His
secretary's typewriter never stopped clacking. He had a finger in every pie. This was the
golden age of the bureaucrat. And Arthur Zimmermann was a near-perfect example of the
type. The American ambassador in Berlin described him as "a very jolly, large sort of
German". Zimmermann dreamed of changing the world. And he would. Only not quite in the
way he intended. Indeed, there is a case to be made that Arthur Zimmermann was one of
the most destructive individuals of the 20th century. Zimmermann's opportunity to change
the world came in January 1917, when the German military elite announced a new plan for
victory. Unrestricted submarine warfare, to destroy all merchant shipping coming to Britain.
They hoped this would starve the British into submission. This was incredibly dangerous.
Why? Because it meant sinking American ships and almost certainly bringing the United
States into the war. And once the Americans reached Europe, Germany couldn't win. And yet
the German high command decided it was a risk worth taking. And on February the 1st,
1917, they announced the start of unrestricted submarine warfare. Arthur Zimmermann set
about finding a way to distract America. He came up with quite a distraction. HE SPEAKS
GERMAN Zimmermann's plan was to persuade Mexico to invade America with German help,
seizing back Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. HE SPEAKS GERMAN That would distract
Washington, all right. If Arthur pulled this off, he'd become a German national hero. Eine
gute Idee. Danke sehr, mein Herr. Danke schoen. Zimmermann drafted a telegram outlining
his plan to the German ambassador in Mexico. He sent it on a secure line from Berlin. BELL
RINGS Except that the line wasn't quite as secure as Zimmermann thought. In Room 40 at
the Admiralty in London, British Naval Intelligence intercepted and decoded Zimmermann's
telegram. By 1pm on the 24th of February, 1917, the contents of the telegram were being
presented to the President of the United States. President Woodrow Wilson, who'd fought so
hard to keep America out of the war, rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Then he released the
news, first to the American congressmen and then to the press, and all hell broke loose. Yet
even then, many Americans simply didn't believe it. It was incredible that the Germans were
up to something like this. It must be a sneaky British plot to lure America into the war. And
they weren't that gullible, they weren't going to fall for that.Re-enter Arthur Zimmermann.
Zimmermann was invited to deny the story about his telegram. HE ASKS QUESTION IN
GERMAN But Arthur couldn't tell a lie. HE REPLIES IN GERMAN Oh, yes, he said, it was all
true. Well done, Zimmermann(!) His surprise confession finally drove America to declare war
on Germany. This was now undoubtedly a world war. But Zimmermann didn't stop plotting.
He now turned his attention to Germany's enemy in the East, Russia. How could he
undermine them? Zimmermann's opportunity came in February 1917, when the desperate,
downtrodden people of Russia finally revolted against the Tsar. Zimmermann wanted to pour
oil on the fire. He needed an anti-war Russian extremist to seize power and withdraw Russia
from the war. Zimmermann's agents knew of just such a man. He was living quietly and
modestly in exile, amid writers and artists, in Zurich in Switzerland. Zimmermann's plan,
what he called his revolutionising plan, meant using this man to undermine Russia's will to
fight. His name was Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. We know him better as Lenin. In 1917, Lenin
was leader of the Bolsheviks, a revolutionary communist faction who wanted Russia out of
the war. Lenin was described variously as being like a plague bacillus or poison gas. He was
so desperate to get back to Russia and try to seize power that he took the German money
and the German offer. If he succeeded, he'd sue for peace. And so Zimmermann organised a
sealed train to take Lenin and the rest of the Bolsheviks right the way across Germany to
Petrograd in Russia. It was like a syringe full of poison being squirted halfway across a
continent. In October 1917, Lenin led a successful Bolshevik revolution. In just eight months,
he had been transformed from a nobody in exile to a man on his way to leading 160 million

people in the world's first communist state. This time, Zimmermann got exactly what he
wanted. Soviet Russia withdrew from the First World War in March 1918. But by then, the
Americans were helping the Allies to defeat Germany. When the war came to an end in
November 1918, two new powers had been firmly established on the world stage. One
capitalist... ..one communist. The modern world would be dominated not by empires, but by
these two mass ideologies and the new superpowers wielding them. So, one fairly ordinary
German civil servant had acted as midwife to the birth of the 20th century's two great
superpowers. America, innocent no longer, plunged into the quarrels of the rest of the world.
And for the Russians, the Bolshevik revolution ushered in a terrible age of mass famine, civil
war, slave labour camps and terror. Arthur Zimmermann. He was sacked in 1917 and never
held office again. And he died in 1940, just as it was starting all over again. In the next
programme, Power Age - the world at war. Cultural revolution... and the triumph of clever
machines. If you'd like to know a little bit more about how the past is revealed, you can
order a free booklet called How Do They Know That?