History of the World

Travel back 14.2 billion years to the moment everything began. This episode traces the birth of the universe from the Big Bang through the formation of matter, galaxies, and the Milky Way, culminating in the creation of our Sun and Solar System. Wow.

Witness Earth's violent infancy during the Hadean Eon — from its molten formation and the cataclysmic birth of the Moon to the Late Heavy Bombardment, the cooling of the first oceans, and the emergence of continental shields.

Explore the Archean Eon, when Earth's oldest rocks formed and the first prokaryotic life emerged in ancient seas. Discover how plate tectonics began reshaping the planet and how the earliest fossils reveal life's tenacious beginnings.

The Proterozoic Eon brought one of Earth's most dramatic transformations: the Great Oxidation Event. Learn how oxygen-producing organisms reshaped the atmosphere, paving the way for eukaryotes, Snowball Earth, and the planet's first animals.

In one of biology's greatest mysteries, complex life erupted across the oceans during the Cambrian Explosion. This episode covers the rise of trilobites, the first vertebrates and fish, and the dramatic changes of the Ordovician and Silurian periods.

The Devonian Period — the Age of Fishes — saw life make its boldest move yet: onto land. Follow the emergence of the first terrestrial animals, insects, forests, and amphibians, and the formation of the supercontinent Pangea during the Carboniferous.

The Permian Period witnessed the dawn of reptiles — and then nearly ended all life on Earth. Explore the Permian-Triassic extinction event, known as 'The Great Dying,' and how the survivors, including the first mammals, rebuilt life in the Triassic.

From the towering sauropods of the Jurassic to the terrifying tyrannosaurs of the Cretaceous, dinosaurs ruled the Earth for over 160 million years. This episode covers their reign, the first birds and primates, and the asteroid impact that ended it all.

After the dinosaurs vanished, mammals seized their moment. Follow the Cenozoic Era as continents drifted, climates shifted, and evolution produced the hominids — our earliest ancestors — setting the stage for the human story.

Meet Homo habilis and Homo erectus, the first members of our genus. This episode explores the Pleistocene Ice Ages, the emergence of Homo sapiens, and the revolutionary technologies — stone tools and controlled fire — that set humanity apart.

Something remarkable happened around 50,000 years ago: humans began creating art, developing complex language, and thinking symbolically. Explore the cave paintings of Lascaux and Altamira, the extinction of the Neanderthals, and humanity's spread across the globe.

During the last Ice Age, a land bridge connected Asia to the Americas. Follow the first humans as they crossed Beringia, established the Clovis culture, witnessed the megafauna extinction, and settled two vast continents.

The transition from hunting and gathering to farming was perhaps the most consequential shift in human history. Discover how the end of the Pleistocene, the rise of the Holocene, the enigmatic Göbekli Tepe, and the domestication of plants and animals transformed everything.

From the ancient walls of Jericho to the bustling settlement of Çatalhöyük, humans began living together in permanent communities. This episode covers the development of pottery, metallurgy, the Copper Age, and early settlements in Mesopotamia.

In the fertile plains of Sumer, the first city-states arose — and with them, one of humanity's greatest inventions: writing. Explore the birth of cuneiform, the dawn of the Bronze Age, and the development of hieroglyphics in Egypt.

Witness the unification of Egypt under Narmer and the glory of the Old Kingdom, when the great pyramids were built. This episode traces the rise of papyrus, the flourishing of Egyptian culture, and the achievements of the Middle Kingdom.

The Bronze Age saw remarkable civilizations flourish independently around the world. Explore the Indus Valley Civilization, the Minoan palaces of Crete, the seafaring Phoenicians, and the early dynasties of ancient China.

Great empires rose and clashed across the ancient Near East. From the Akkadian Empire and Hammurabi's groundbreaking legal code to the Hittite Empire and Egypt's powerful New Kingdom, this episode chronicles the politics and power of the Bronze Age.

Vast waves of Indo-European migration reshaped the ancient world. Explore Mycenaean Greece, the Olmec civilization in Mesoamerica, and the development of Sanskrit as cultures collided, merged, and transformed.

Pharaoh Akhenaten's radical experiment with monotheism, the story of Moses and the Exodus, the legendary Trojan War, and the mysterious Bronze Age Collapse — this episode covers one of history's most turbulent and transformative periods.

Iron replaced bronze, and alphabets replaced complex scripts, democratizing both warfare and knowledge. This episode covers the dawn of the Iron Age, the Greek Dark Ages following the Dorian invasion, and the Phoenicians' far-reaching maritime expansion.

From the united kingdom of David and Solomon to its division into Israel and Judah, follow the dramatic history of the ancient Israelites, the writing of the Hebrew Bible, and the devastating Assyrian conquest.

The Assyrian Empire was the ancient world's most fearsome military machine. Discover its revolutionary military innovations, the magnificent Library of Ashurbanipal, and its dramatic fall to the Babylonians and Medes.

The Greek city-state, or polis, gave the world democracy, philosophy, and the Olympic Games. Explore the rise of these independent communities, Homer's immortal epics, and the first stirrings of Greek philosophical thought.

In one of history's most extraordinary periods, great thinkers emerged independently across the world. This episode explores Zoroaster's dualism, Confucius's social ethics, Lao Tzu's Taoism, and the Buddha's path to enlightenment.

Cyrus the Great built the largest empire the world had ever seen — and governed it with remarkable tolerance. Explore the Achaemenid Empire's innovative administration, monumental architecture, and the reign of Darius I.

Athens in the 5th century BCE was a crucible of human achievement. From Pericles' democratic reforms to the philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and the construction of the Parthenon, this was civilization's golden age.

When the mighty Persian Empire invaded Greece, a handful of city-states mounted a defense that changed the course of history. Relive the Battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis in one of antiquity's greatest conflicts.

The bitter rivalry between Athens and Sparta tore the Greek world apart. Follow the Peloponnesian War through the eyes of Thucydides, witness the decline of Athens, and see how Macedon rose from the ashes.

Alexander of Macedon conquered the known world before his 33rd birthday, launching the Hellenistic Age. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the Qin Dynasty was unifying China. Two empires, one transformative era.

After Alexander's death, his generals carved up his empire into rival kingdoms. From Ptolemaic Egypt to Seleucid Persia, the Hellenistic world blended Greek culture with Eastern traditions, reshaping the ancient Mediterranean.

From a small city on the Tiber, Rome grew into a republic that dominated the Mediterranean. Trace the wars, political intrigue, and civic ideals that transformed Rome from a regional power into the master of the ancient world.

The Qin Dynasty unified China through force, and the Han Dynasty sustained it through culture and trade. Together they forged a civilization connected to the wider world by the legendary Silk Road.

Julius Caesar's assassination plunged Rome into chaos, but from the wreckage his adopted heir Octavian emerged as Augustus, the first emperor. His reign inaugurated two centuries of unprecedented peace and prosperity across the Roman world.

In the turbulent province of Roman Judea, a carpenter's son from Nazareth launched a movement that would reshape the world. Explore the historical context of Jesus's life against the backdrop of Roman occupation and Jewish tradition.

A former persecutor of Christians became the faith's greatest missionary. Paul of Tarsus carried the message of Christianity across the Roman Empire, founding churches and writing letters that would become the backbone of the New Testament.

From Nerva to Marcus Aurelius, five capable rulers presided over Rome's greatest era of stability and expansion. The empire reached its territorial peak, and Roman culture flourished from Britain to Mesopotamia.

While Rome dominated the West, India experienced its own golden ages under the Maurya and Gupta dynasties. Art, science, mathematics, and philosophy thrived, leaving a legacy that shaped South and Southeast Asia for centuries.

Far from the empires of Eurasia, the peoples of the Americas built sophisticated civilizations of their own. From the Moche of Peru to the Maya of Mesoamerica, explore the independent rise of culture, agriculture, and urban life in the Western Hemisphere.

Plague, civil war, and barbarian invasions nearly destroyed the Roman Empire in the third century. Fifty years of chaos saw dozens of emperors rise and fall as the once-mighty state fractured and fought for survival.

Constantine's conversion transformed Christianity from a persecuted faith into the religion of an empire. His founding of Constantinople shifted Rome's center of gravity eastward and set the stage for a new Christian world order.

Waves of Germanic migrations, economic decay, and political dysfunction brought the Western Roman Empire to its knees. In 476 CE, the last emperor was deposed, closing one of history's most consequential chapters.

With Rome's fall, Western Europe fragmented into a patchwork of Germanic kingdoms. Yet Roman law, language, and the Christian Church endured, carrying the seeds of a new civilization through centuries of upheaval.

Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora presided over Byzantium's greatest era, reconquering lost Roman territories and codifying Roman law. The Hagia Sophia, built during their reign, stands as a testament to their ambition.

In seventh-century Arabia, the Prophet Muhammad received revelations that would unite the Arabian Peninsula and launch a new world religion. Within a generation, Islam spread from Mecca to create one of history's most expansive civilizations.

The early caliphates carried Islam from the deserts of Arabia to the shores of Spain with astonishing speed. Across North Africa, Persia, and Iberia, a new cultural and political order took shape in barely a century.

Charlemagne united much of Western Europe under Frankish rule and revived learning and culture in a continent emerging from the Dark Ages. His coronation as emperor in 800 CE symbolized the rebirth of the idea of a unified Christian Europe.

The Tang Dynasty presided over a golden age of Chinese civilization, marked by flourishing poetry, art, and trade along the Silk Road. Chang'an became the world's largest and most cosmopolitan city, a beacon of culture and innovation.

From Scandinavian fjords, the Vikings burst onto the world stage as raiders, traders, and explorers. Their longships carried them from the coasts of England to the rivers of Russia and even the shores of North America.

As the first millennium approached, the great empires of the early medieval world began to fracture. New kingdoms and cultures emerged from the ruins, setting the stage for the transformations of the High Middle Ages.