Mankind: The Story of all of Us (Part 9: Pioneers)

Beginning in 2012 (nearly 10 years ago), the History Channel has released this 12-episode docu-series about some of the most famous events of the 2 million years of the existence of our species.

This is Part 9 of this 12 part wiki page series. In this part, we will talk about the episode "Pioneers" and the episode doesn't just talk about the "Pioneers" in America but also other Pioneers of trade, and some of them becoming rebels.

## Pioneers

### Witch Trials

The episode starts in Salem, a town in what would be known as the State of Massachusetts.

Several decades after the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, and there are around 200,000 European settlers in America, but they're under constant threat against local Native American tribes who wish for them to get off their land, these people are "Puritans" who want to Purify the church from within.=, they live by the Bible, and in fear of the devil, and they believe that the devil is responsible for any and all disasters that befalls the Puritans.

A decade later, there was a witch trial were a religious woman named Martha Corey was accused of Witchcraft by teenage girls who claim that she harms them, without even touching them which was considered evidence of Witchcraft for the time. Despite Martha Corey having no knowledge of Witchcraft, she was sentenced to be hanged. In Salem, around 65,000 people were accused of Witchcraft, 80% of which were women. But this was happening right around the time of the beginning of the "Age of Enlightenment" where religion would effectively be taken over by science.

### Fur Trade

The Episode now goes to Siberia where another profitable trade is going on.

Russian hunters were in this cold, and in hospitable place for a trade in what was profitable for the time as it pretty much is today; fur. Because in some places (like Russia) it gets cold a lot especially in the winter, and people needed clothing that would keep them warm especially in the winter, and most of the time these hunters had to improvise when they run out of provisions or if it's frozen, they had to resort to eating tree bark and even fecal matter. They were also under attack by the native tribes in Siberia as well.

Though, guns would often jam in cold weather, but these hunters in this episode were able to make them work against these tribes only armed with bows and spears, nevertheless, the hunters were able to defeat the tribes and continue the fur trade. Even America got onto the fur trade and with it came trade towns like New York.

### Celestial Navigation/New Lands

The episode now goes to Britain as they talk about an upgrade of star charts by using celestial navigation.

Sailing at sea was a very daunting, dangerous, and sometimes deadly task and that is because sailors used compasses and crudely hand drawn maps as well as trial and error, which may or may not get to where they're originally planning to go, or in a worse case scenario, crash into something and the crew dies.

But, one man has an answer to this huge navigational problem; Sir John Flamsteed. a brilliant astronomer, he uses his modified telescope and even time the position the stars and categorizes them, and by using his own funds as well as the King's income, he uses this new technique to make navigational maps far more accurate, and make maritime trade more profitable and (more importantly) less dangerous. But, it didn't only make navigational safer and more reliable, it also allowed other explorers to find new lands.

For this, the episode now goes to Australia, which was never been discovered by Europeans before. But one man will be credited by finding the Land Down Under.

This man was James Cook. In 1770, he and his crew arrived in Australia where they met 2 men which he calls Aborigines, at first (according to the episode) Cook wanted to welcome these Aborigines peacefully and even attempted to give them a bag of jewels, but the Aborigines got aggressive and started to throw rocks at Cook and his crew injuring some of them, this is where Cook had no choice but to fire a musket shot right in between the 2 attacking Aborigines, the ball went right between them and they flee.

Cook and his crew stayed in Australia for some time, and during their time they would discover an ecosystem the likes no European has ever seen before, they take lots of samples and load them onto their ship as they embark on their ship, it runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef (supposedly, the docu-series doesn't specify), in order to keep the ship afloat, the crew begin dumping their supplies, until there was nothing left, the only thing they kept on the ship is the samples they took from Australia. Then, the the tide came in and dislodged the ship from the reef. On his 3 famous journeys through the Pacific, Cook would map out more of the world than any other explorer, he would map out Micronesia, Polynesia, the Hawaiian Islands, and even Western North America.

### Humans and Electricity

The Episode now goes back to America and to somewhere in New England where a famous American scientist would conduct his famous experiment.

It is none other than Benjamin Franklin as he takes a kite with a key on the bottom during a thunderstorm to demonstrate that lightning is a form of electricity, a scientific answer to a mysterious question about what was the unknown.

### Rebels Rise

The Episode now goes to Boston.

The age of enlightenment was also taken place during a pivotal time for America, it was at a time where the British still controlled the Americas and its 13 Colonies. In Boston, it was under occupation as there was one British soldier for every 3 citizens. This would soon boil over and lead to the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party.

Another profitable commodity was making its mark; wood, and it fueled the British Navy as it would be used to make more ships, so owners of lumber companies (like Ebenezer Mudget) are told to set aside America's best quality wood for British shipping, by law. By Mudget refuses and runs his business as he sees fit and uses the best quality wood to sell to his customers, this gets him in trouble as local sheriff Benjamin Whiting tells him that he is now charged with stealing from the king.

This is where Mudget would round up several people and head to the Pine Tree Tavern where Whiting and his assistant were sleeping. Mudget beats whiting with the same amount of hits for the mount of wood Mudget was charged with stealing, one of the great acts of rebellion.

The Pine Tree Riot along with the Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, and the Stamp Act are a few of the many things is what will fuel the rebel spirit inside the American people, and by 1775 the American Revolution would begin. Now there is already a wiki page series about this, click here if you would like to read the series.

That'll do it for this part. In our next part (click here) we will talk about the Industrial revolution and how it brought us to do faster things and how it made us city dwellers and even new diseases and new challenges. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.