Mankind: The Story of all of Us (Part 11: Speed)

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 11 of this 12 part wiki page series. In this part we will talk about the episode "Speed" as it talks about how industrialization shapes the entire world, some tragedies of industrialization and a bit about World War 1.

## Speed

### The American Civil War Ends

The episode stays in the US as it talks about how the American Civil War Ended.

But in this part of the war, it was basically a hopeless war for the Confederacy as people from Richmond were told to evacuate, but several soldiers were given orders to stay and burn anything that may be of use to Union troops, but once the fire was set, it burns out of control and spreads throughout the city. Once the Union got to Richmond, they had to put out the residual fires, 2 months later the Confederacy surrenders, putting an end to nearly 5 years of violence and bloodshed in which over 600,000 Americans would lose their lives.

### Japan Modernizes

The episode then goes to Japan (finally) as industrialization will shape a once isolated community.

Since 1641, Japan was isolated (as I have made a lot of wiki pages about Japan saying that), but as Japan reopened its doors to the world in 1853 it also allowed for industrialization with it which also brought new conflicts for Japan like the Satsuma Rebellion. But the episode talks about a man named Yataro Iwasaki who was born into a Samurai Family, but looks for a more modernized life, he goes to a barber shop in Tokyo and the barber cuts off his top knot.

He uses any money he had to open his business; Mitsubishi which is to make Japanese machinery such as engines, and even ships.

### The Titanic

The episode then goes to Belfast, Ireland where a revolutionary ship would be built; The Titanic.

There's already a wiki page about the tragedy of the Titanic, you can click here if you want to read about the disaster in more detail.

Having a tonnage of around 46,000, the RMS Titanic was the most sophisticated cruise ship of its day, and the passengers were multi cultural from famed celebrities to immigrants who are looking to start anew in the US. In the month of April in the year of 1912 it picked up passengers from Britain and France before it took off on its maiden voyage to New York.

At around 9 PM, it received a message via telegraph of a warning of icebergs in the general area, though this message never reaches the captain (Edward Smith) and when one crew of the Titanic spotted an iceberg, it as too late to completely steer away and the Titanic scrapped along the wall of the iceberg which left as many as 6 gaping holes in the ship, and that meant the ship will do what it wasn't designed to do; sink.

The 3rd class cabins would flood first, trapping many people who were on the 3rd class cabins, and many would push their way onto the deck. It would take 2 hours and 45 minutes for the Titanic to sink, after the disaster as many as 1,500 people would lose their lives, most of those deaths would be from hypothermia when people were in the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean waiting to picked up by the lifeboats.

### A Rubbery Situation

The Episode than goes to New York and at a time decades before the Titanic.

At this time, a maned named Charles Goodyear begins a 5-year experiment in a tenement kitchen to work with a natural substance called rubber to make it more resilient and thus more useful for steam engines. Goodyear would on several occasions go broke over his experiments and was in debt to the point where he could've ended up in jail. After so many dead ends, he would come up with a way to make the rubber tougher and more flexible, he would invent vulcanized rubber which can withstand the heat of the steam engines. Now, rubber is the way of the future for mankind. But, it wouldn't always be done fruitfully or with humanity.

### Enlightening the Dark Continent

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The episode now goes to what would be known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo as horrible atrocities would be committed there, and a woman missionary would bring these atrocities to the forefront and change world opinion.

This woman missionary would go by the name Alice Seeley Harris as she would be met with an African Slave named Nsala, and he has a secret (and horrifying) dilemma for her. He brings his daughter's severed hand and foot which was inflicted by the Belgian guards who torture, whip, and sometimes murder the slaves who are being used to tap rubber from the jungle trees. What Harris does to try to help Nsala is something that we take advantage of today; The Camera, she takes pictures of Nsala with his daughter's hand and foot as well as other tortured slaves in the Congo. The region which would be known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was once a colony of Belgium (run by the King Leopold the 2nd) and was a leading producer of rubber which (as said before) was used for vulcanization for steam engines.

These pictures would give both Harris and Nsala the power to expose the atrocities in the Congo and change world opinion on colonization. With the atrocities exposed, King Leopold was forced to not only make Congo a free state, but also the rubber trade.

### New weapon against Bacteria

The episode now goes to war torn France and to an Allied field hospital as a battle between republics and empires wages (World War 1), but another war will also take place, not against humans but also bacteria.

This hospital will treat those who were wounded on the field of battle, and if whatever wound doesn't kill them, bacteria will as the tried and true method was to cut away infected tissue and douse it in an antiseptic, some of these antiseptics were either Phenol or Carbolic Acid which kills bacteria and germs, but also destroys white blood cells, leaving the soldiers dangerously vulnerable to a secondary infection.

But, one man is determined to change that; Dr. Alexander Fleming, by World War 1, science has linked bacteria and disease, but can't stop it from spreading. Fleming is determined to stop it as he is a bacteriologist.

It would take Fleming 10 years (well after the war is over) to discover a medicine that will not just treat symptoms of a disease, but the main cause. One sample was left open for 2 weeks and now it's contaminated, mold is forming. But what Fleming would discover is something that kills off bacteria before it spreads disease, he discovers the medicine; Penicillin. A revolutionary medicine that would save a lot of lives. Industrialization and ingenuity is the way of the future as it created not just ways to expose atrocities, but also connect the world like never before, but also industrialized war but also medicine that can help stop the spread of disease.

That'll do it for this part. In our last part (click here) we will talk about the last episode "New Frontiers" where it talks about how will Mankind look to wards the future with atomic weapons and even new medical practices. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.