Mankind: The Story of all of Us (Part 8: Treasure)

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 8 of the 12-part of this wiki page series. In this part we will cover the Episode "Treasure" where it talks about Mankind's lust for American Treasure, either it was pirated or mined, and how it made some rich, and others reckless.

## Treasure

### Another Ruthless Pirate

The Episode takes us to the coast of Peru where they talk about yet another European Pirate who's just as ruthless and evil as Hernan Cortez; Sir Francis Drake. During the 16th century, Drake's ship (The "Golden Hind") was chasing Spanish ships off the coast of Central and South America, this particular ship that Drake and his crew are chasing is called the "Cacafuego" which is full of South American Gold, for about a week Drake continues to chase the Cacafuego just inching toward the vessel slowly as to not arouse suspicion, but once the Golden Hind was within range, they fire their canons, not to blow the ship out of the water (there was gold on the ship) but to immobilize the ship so it can't escape, so what Drake's crew use cannonballs that were chained together, their aim with this weapon is to slice apart the Cacafuego's mast.

With the Cacafuego down for the count, this allowed Drake and his crew to plunder the ship and take its riches, the South American Silver and Gold on board would help pay off Britain's national debt. But Drake wasn't just a ruthless and evil pirate looking for riches, he also was a navigator who mapped more of the world during his expeditions, but this was trying to escape from Spanish authorities because the Spanish Empire put a bounty on his head.

### A mountain of Silver

The episode then lands in South America and to the Andes Mountains where one mountain called "Potosi (pronounced "pit-tosi", in Modern Day Bolivia).

raising over 14,000 feet, the mountains of Potosi was said to have the riches of silver, and when Europeans heard about this, they wanted to visit this mountain range in the Andes to see if they can find silver, and thousands would flock to the mountain seeking a fortune. But what happened at first was almost a total disaster, the method to extract the silver from its impurities fails as the silver was different that what was encountered in Europe, heat alone wasn't enough. Then they tried another method to use liquid lead to extract the silver, but that would fail too as the rocks had less traces of copper. For months they experiment on how to extract the silver.

Then, they made a breakthrough, they started using "Copper Sulfate" which allows the silver to be extracted from its impurities, and with it a boom would begin, a town called Potosi was formed and a universal currency was created; "Pesos de Ocho" (8 Pieces) which would be used to spend on goods all over the world, and soon it would inspire other nations to make up their own currency based on this universal currency (like the US Dollar).

But it wasn't just gold and silver are what were treasures, there were other commodities.

### Tulip Mania

The Episode now goes to Amsterdam (in the Netherlands) where it talks about a flower known as a "Tulip" (pronounced as "too-lip") and a craze to buy the harvest to go all over Amsterdam.

A flower which is quite cheap today, but was worth a fortune back in the 17th century as it was a very rare flower. In the Netherlands in the 17th century, people weren't buying plants, but the rights to the harvest for the following year, this paved a way to the creation of something called "Futures Markets".

This inspired a famous painter named "Jan van Goyen" to get in on the action as he tries to make a fortune by trying to get into Tulip Mania and buy the rights to the harvest of the following year, he even saw orphans turn into elite rich people and wanted to seize the opportunity, but the market for Tulips would eventually collapse in February of 1637, an opportunity missed. Van Goyen now will never make his fortune he seeks, and even after his death in 1656, he was seriously in debt (around 18,000 Guilders, around $135,000 today).

### Pilgrims

The episode takes a detour from Treasure to go to Plymouth Rock to talk about The Pilgrims who aren't looking for treasure, but a new place to live.

This is where the episode would take some footage from America: The Story of Us as they'll talk about the Pilgrims who arrived in America in 1620 and they arrived at one of the worse times, it was during the mini ice age and the Pilgrims would endure one of the worst New England winters as starvation and disease would quickly settle in, they would also bury their dead in the morning as a way to cover up how weak they've become.

One day (as the weather got warm) Native Americans came to greet the Pilgrims, and in their own language, the Native American named Samoset makes the first meeting and a few days later he introduces the Pilgrims to another English speaking native; Squanto, and they have a feast together, a feast that would be known as Thanksgiving and celebrated in America every year. Within centuries of the first encounter, cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia would be built to continue trade in America.

### The fight for freedom

This episode takes another detour from treasure and talk about one fight for independence in an African Kingdom which would be known as Angola.

This is where the Ndongoan Queen Nzinga is fighting a war against the occupying Portuguese who were using her own people as slaves in the sugar trade which included 2 Ndongoan Princesses, Nzinga's sisters, her conflict against the Portuguese was hit and miss as her people would win and lose some of the battles, she would also allied herself and her people with the Dutch, take the Kingdom of Matamba, and before her death she would also sign a treaty with the Portuguese. What the episode also pointed out is that Queen Nzinga wasn't entirely innocent as she also traded slaves and sometimes with the Dutch, but what the episode also said that this is an event where African Slaves would be used for some kind of labor, and it wouldn't be until sometime where using Africans as slaves would be abolished, the European nations would be the first to end slavery.

### Back to The Treasure

The episode than gets back on track with treasure as they take a trip to India.

The Mughal Emperor "Shah Jahan" is known to be a very very wealthy ruler in India as he had profited with the help of universal trade despite a famine, going to war with the Portuguese and a Sikh rebellion, as much as he thought he was "Ruler of the World" he had one problem, his consort "Mumtaz Mahal" died in her 14th childbirth which broke Shah Jahan.

In memory of Mumtaz Mahal, Shah Jahan used his wealth to construct one of the worlds biggest burial grounds; the Taj Mahal.

That'll do it for this part. In our next part (click here) we will talk about the Episode "Pioneers" where Mankind continue to seek new land, but not in the name of discovery, but also in the name of science and business. Until Next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.