The End of Civilization (In the Bronze Age): Crash Course World History 211
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- Опубликовано: 12 янв 2025
- In which John Green teaches you about the Bronze Age civilization in what we today call the middle east, and how the vast, interconnected civilization that encompassed Egypt, The Levant, and Mesopotamia came to an end. What's that you say? There was no such civilization? Your word against ours. John will argue that through a complex network of trade and alliances, there was a loosely confederated and relatively continuous civilization in the region. Why it all fell apart was a mystery. Was it the invasion of the Sea People? An earthquake storm? Or just a general collapse, to which complex systems are prone? We'll look into a few of these possibilities. As usual with Crash Course, we may not come up with a definitive answer, but it sure is a lot of fun to think about.
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Moral of the Story: Intereconected and interdependant globalized societies based on trade and diplomatic treaties should be wary of the sea people.We should start fearmongering and maybe, just maybe, invade the sea and call it a "preventive invasion". Even if it's the wrong sea
No we need to build a wall around the sea people and make them pay for it and then have a travel ban, banning all sea people. Then we will be great again.
Don't forget to collect the all-important seashells!
I think it was Caligula who declared war on Neptune. Mayby he was actually trying to attack the sea people.
@@terryosborne2964 Well that might actually help via the side effect of walling off all nations to unsupervised immigration, thereby protecting against unintentional cultural decay
Sea people in this case are aliens
Plot twist: the sea people were actually underwater archaeologists.
Totally Not A Cylon I'm pretty sure they were the Mongols !
Στέργιος Κατσογιαννης
The Mongols apperead years later,more accurate answer will be the Phillistines.They were great sailors.
Milen Nikolov I know man ! I was just kidding :)
Milen Nikolov it was philistine mongol underwater archaeologists dun dun dun!!!
I miss crash course world history. I have learned so much from them. Season 3 please.
There's lots of South American history in a series about Bolivar on Extra Credit youtube channel. Check it out!
^^^ and it's fantastic. Also Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast goes more in depth than extra credits
The future is dark
"Might I recommend an American film Transformers: Dark of the Moon?"
No, John. You cannot.
But he was right it was the end of the modern civilization
God, that movie really hurts a refined mind.
Fucc Micheal bay
@@Figgy_Jub It was really hard on my unrefined mind as well tbh.
Came from the sea, burned the land and changed everything?
Fire Nation =_=
I taught that was Colonial Europe ...
@@mab7727 I taught I taw a putty cat!
the massive conflagration from Greece to India valley. the like genocide
@@mab7727 I thought that was Arabs. Mmmm...🤔😂
"Singlehordedly" gotta be best word since the bronze age, certainly.
I would take singlehordedly over earthquake storm.
1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed was a great book.
Was looking for that comment ! Great book indeed !
In which John Green teaches you about the Bronze Age civilization in what we today call the middle east, and how the vast, interconnected civilization that encompassed Egypt, The Levant, and Mesopotamia came to an end. What's that you say? There was no such civilization? Your word against ours. John will argue that through a complex network of trade and alliances, there was a loosely confederated and relatively continuous civilization in the region. Why it all fell apart was a mystery. Was it the invasion of the Sea People? An earthquake storm? Or just a general collapse, to which complex systems are prone? We'll look into a few of these possibilities. As usual with Crash Course, we may not come up with a definitive answer, but it sure is a lot of fun to think about.
It was definitely sea people.
It is interesting to think about, but how can/will stuff that could bring down such civilizations affect us? A single economic or political problem could ravage our would due to our interdependence. Perhaps it's our interdependence that helps us stay out of problems like that. What I am certain of however, is that the only way we'll be able to stop Earth from looking like Venus (or at least major suffering) will be our globalization and unification of goals.
I think the sea people are the Atlantians, and i liked how one of the names in the sand was that :D What i think went down is basically what the story that became atlantis might have been before Plato told it, without the 10 kings and Athens defeating Atlantis; in that there was a series of invasions from a sea faring people and that they where finally stopped when the island they sided on was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, with the volcanic eruption being the cause of the earthquake storm, which would have further destabilized a war-torn bronze age civilization, pushing said civilization from the edge collapse from the the invasion and environmental damage due to their dependence on interconnected trade
Forest Clevenger Hi, Wouldn't there be some archaeological evidence in what ever home country or island that the sea people had come from. Stories of conquest and ships full of bootie and slaves with stories of their former kingdoms. I would think something like that would be chronicled by the winning side for generations. Thanks.
David Sedkethran I was under the impression that this was literally true, to an extent. As far as I know the consensus is that the Minoans inspired Atlantis, and that their civilisation was disrupted by a giant explosion from underneath one of their cities (volcanic island) that blasted the island it was on into 4 small chunks and created volcanic winter as far away as China. Maybe they where the sea people too.
The "civilization" you speak of which wasn't a civilization simply a economy dependent on bronze more over tin, exactly in the same way our civilization is dependent on gasoline or more over oil, anyways these civilizations were already in economical decline when the sea people arrived that's why they were not able to field the army to fight. Them back as they once might have been able to do. As for the sea people who knows who they originally were, but as they sacked more and more cities refugees would join them in a quest for loot and a place to live, they probables began as refugees fleeing economical decline them selves.
I have only just discovered you wonderful series of online films. I wish as a 50 year old man that Mr Green had been my History teacher. I would have become a kickass archeologist, historian or teacher instead of wasting 30 years working in mainstream media. You are insightful, humorous and above all human. Love you all and more power to you.
Mike Sampey, Tasmania.
Like WWI, it could have been the result of a chain reaction.
Droughts and/or earthquake storms weaken civilizations -> Sea People respond by going nomadic and begin supporting themselves via successful raids -> One success against a kingdom weakened by mentioned droughts and/or earthquake storms weakens said kingdom's trading partners -> they fall more easily to Sea People -> With enough kingdoms taken out, whole system of kingdoms collapses.
Basically Vikings but we don’t know where they come and we have little information on them expect all we now they raided cities and caused the collapse of major Bronze Age civilizations.
As sea-people one can also argue that they might have run a decent gig as pirates. A rather crippling thing, since most trade in bulk goods like grain, oil and other living commodities tended to be carried by ship whenever possible.
Plus they might not have needed to take out entire kingdoms. They just had to burn enough that peasants might question their divine rulers capacity to protect them.
Cities could form local militias or armies in order to defend themselves but this further strains the fabric that holds these kingdoms together as it breaks the rulers monopoly on violence.
In many ways I think that a lot similarities can be seen in the decline and fall of the western half of the Roman Empire.
Just take the Vandals. A big sour as they plundered through Gall and Spain, but a crippling problem when they took to raiding the Mediterranean. Especially as metropolitan Italy couldn't supply itself and was dependent on grain shipments from North Africa, a region the Vandals conquered next before continuing on to the sacking of Rome.
1177 BCE by Eric Cline, he thinks that
@@MickeyMouse-lx3nw its not a big stretch to imagine scandinavians were among the seapeoples. I can't prove it though.
@@arddermout6946 The Goths came from Scandinavia.
Nothing raises my level of anxiety quite like Crash Course World History.. Thank you, John Green. Thank you for reminding me that a life altering catastrophe occurring within my lifetime is not only plausible, but likely. Best wishes.
I love Spongebob, Aquaman, and Admiral Ackbar in the Sea People animation at 5:15 . Finally Aquaman does something bold, and Spongebob is ready to kick some ass!
Stephan Vaudiau We thought it was about time they got to show their true colours! -James
Thought Café When you were talking about destruction of cities and the animation at 6:45 is that a reference to Avatar the Last Airbender and the Air Nomad Genocide?
Precisely. -James
Thought Café Avatar the Last Airbender is an absolutely amazing series.
"it is a good idea to be suspicious of a single cause imagining why historical events happened" Great point John!!! History is far too complicated to ever accept a single cause, as the study of history (as I tell my students) is far too plural to accept single causes and single results.
“Nation-states like war, city-states like commerce, families like stability, and individuals like entertainment.”
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Timberhawk Cells like glucose
Well I guess that explains the Venetian-Genoese wars... wait.
Paloponnesian war. No.
Euhm ...
Well if he got 3 our of 4 that's not bad. :p
I like the idea of city-states.
It makes your government more accessible.
...meanwhile everybody wants to make the most impactful laws at the federal level....the part of government which was designed to be outward looking, not inward. (National defense, diplomacy, etc.), despite it being the states and cities which are meant to look inward (at you).
...Hence why even in a state the size of *Texas,* you could, even in 2007, stroll right into the capital, up to AG office, and if you didn't mind waiting, get a 5 minute meeting with the Attorney General himself, (Greg Abbott at the time).
(My dad knew a guy whose business was getting jerked around by some regulatory courts in Austin. So, two years in, after exhausting all options, he just went to the AG's office (and to his surprise), got to talk to the man, who then gave him a number for someone who was able to sort things out).
A Fortune 500 company couldn't even do that with the Federal government.
"Single-horde-dly brought down a civilization." Oh John, always making me smile.
Ugh. That pun is an ugh.
My professor suggests that famine, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions caused an unstable region that made agricultural production incredibly difficult. To feed oneself, people often formed groups and raided others that were doing more well off (hence the sea people). these raids would displace more people who often would have to resort to raiding themselves for subsistence when governments were weak. It was a vicious cycle.
Thanks, that cleared up a few things for me.
I was thinking the same. Big events don't happen for a single reason. Assume you have a famine due to a dry period. This drives people to become pirates (or sea people). Then earth quakes hit the cities leading to less trade and weakened defenses so the increasing number of Pirates could now raid the cities.......
Sea people... boat people... pirates/refugees... I could totally see that.
ManBearPiglet pretty much, just like the vikings
The Bronze Age also saw the first known mass irrigation and farming systems, but they likely didn't know about soil depletion and crop rotation, which probably led to decreased crop yields and famines.
Combine that with even a couple of Earthquakes in the region, and the loss of a Soldier/Warrior class due to warring with each other and with desperate pirates and invading raiders for extended periods of time.
That doesn't even cover the loss of the Scribes and most of the writing, so that the recordings of technologies and other methods was lost too.
So many factors, and so much of it pinned on having an interconnected web of diplomacy, trade, and central control.
Sponge Bob invaded Egypt. I'm done.
oof
*SpongeBob laugh *
"I'm ready! I'm ready!" While marching to destroy a civilization
I've found the Bronze Age collapse very interesting for years but our current crisis (speaking from June 2020 in the United States) has really reignited my interest in the topic anew. I'm a buyer, and so I have an on-the-ground perception of the global supply chain and I'll be honest, I am mildly horrified at how fragile it is. It's unnerving to see how delicate the strings that hold our society up really are.
What History Channel scientists would say for the sea people: ALIENS!!!
Theory: The 'Sea People' were actually refugees and migrants fleeing unfavorable climatic conditions and the resulting famines and unrest the conditions caused, this irritated by seismic disturbances and 'peasant uprisings' led to various states being unable to fend for themselves, let alone the tide of the refugees and the lack of any consolidated response to this meant that as each civilization fell, they too would join the droves of migrants and refugees seeking respite. It wasn't military decimation, it was economic decimation exacerbated by unfavorable climatic conditions.
What if the Sea People were actually,... ALIENS.
-a History Channel writer
The Iron Curtain hahahahahahahahahahah...................
.....this is sad
I was looking for a video on Bronze Age history and came across this one, thinking, "John Green will tell me the truth."
I really liked this episode. It was a perfect combination of humor, interesting questions and facts I didn't know about. Great work
Sorry to be a pain, John. There always appears to be a lack of volume in your recordings, whether this is due to compression of your sound files or your recording equipment I do not know.
Great show as always, keep up the good work.
I found Spongebob running out to attack ancient civilizations hilarious.
I always enjoy this series, but I especially love how much calmer he is in these more recent videos. It makes it easier to keep up.
John, as an underwater archaeology student at ECU, thanks for that awesome shout out!
Before I watch this vid I have to say I'M SO EXCITED. this is exactly the thing I'm covering for my History assignment!
Maybe sea people was a mistranslation of sea armies which was a way of describing tsunamis.
That's a good point but why would that explain the fires that the letter talks about?
00volcom00diesel00 Another mistranslation. Maybe they said the cities were razed and razing is usually linked to fires.
Arkantos117 Maybe it was the fantastic four on shrooms.
00volcom00diesel00 volcanoes during that time there was a really bloody big explosion
So earthquakes lead to tsunamis which lead to loss of food which lead to starvation which lead to peasant riots which lead to city's being burned down? actually that can be true. thank you professor sloth
While there is no record left by the Sea Peoples themselves, there are records left by the Egyptians. Ramesses III (considered to be the last great New Kingdom pharaoh) fought many foreign invaders, among whom the Libyans and the Sea People. Three succesful campaigns (considered to be bona fide) against the Sea Peoples are recorded, and a personal favorite bad-ass quote:
"As for those who reached my frontier, their seed is not, their heart and their soul are finished forever and ever. As for those who came forward together on the seas, the full flame was in front of them at the Nile mouths, while a stockade of lances surrounded them on the shore, prostrated on the beach, slain, and made into heaps from head to tail."
So there is definitely truth to the Sea Peoples, although their exact origing and nature is not clear. I would say that it is indeed a bit too easy to consider these a single, unified people, rather I would think it's more likely that it's a catch-all term used to refer to any foreign people that invaded through sea.
But I agree that it sounds unlikely that the Sea Peoples are the sole reason for the collapse, although they definitely seem to have played a part in it, (perhaps they took advantage of the already weakened civilization to invade and deal the finishing blow? there's many possible scenarios here) Either way, the Mitanni, Mycenaean and Hittite cultures were destroyed, the Egyptians survived and fought off many foreign invasions (did they survive because they fought off the Sea People, or did they manage to fight off the Sea People because they survived?), although it was much diminished (and for this I would indeed argue that it is a result of the collapse of other Empires). The Sea People definitely had a part to play and were not wholly a myth, although the extent of their actions is uncertain.
Also, the Minoan civilization had already declined and been mostly absorbed into Mycenean civilization at this point. The reason for that seems to indeed have been a natural disaster of some sort, indeed possibly an earthquake. But this was around 1450BC, at least 200 years before the Bronze Age collapse.
Someone on comments on this particular video summed up the Sea Peoples relation to the event very nicley, it went something like this:
"The Sea Peoples were a symptom of the end on the Bronze Age, not its cause."
I think historians take a grain of salt before citing that source.
Rulers have a tendency of not being completely factual when writing their own press releases.
It is a great source for saying that there were "sea people", as the idea must have come from somewhere and must have been believable enough for the intended audience. That audience where the other rulers in the region, whom should therefore have had to deal with a similar thing, as well as the subject of the ruler.
But I wouldn't put to much stock in how successful those victories were. After all sea raiders tend to return to the sea after a raid anyway. So where they routed by the army? Did they bale as they caught wind of the army? Or did the army arrive late, but that wasn''t a good story?
fristi61 I disagree with sea poeple being false
Love that you use Canada as the bubble for "Confederation". :)
Slightly confusing though. Canada is most certainly not a confederation as it's generally understood.
6:48 Fire Nation ship?
Humza Bokhari Yup.
Was looking to see if anyone else caught that. XD I'm huge Atla fan.
Humza Bokhari And on an even darker note, there was the Air Nation symbol on fire.
Elite Strategist true
Flying Bald Lady Yep
I never trusted Spongebob anyway. He always looked fishy to me.
Sea sponges aren't fish....
ciao wutang Blasphemy!
Üzerime Un Dök Bebeğim You're so...HANDSOME
The Sea People weren't a unified group, so they should be called The Sea Peoples, as the archaeologists call them. Off all the major theories regarding the Sea Peoples, none of them involves them not being real. The Boghaz Keui Hittite inscriptions mention The Sea Peoples raiding their southern cities, and this inscription was dated as being contemporary with the Egyptian records of the raids. These people were active long before the Bronze Age collapse, being mercenaries to whatever nation would have them. They are described raiding during the reign of Akenhaten, and were defeated by Ramesses II as well. They were a real people, most likely a confederation of displaced Mycenaeans (resulted from the Dorian Invasion) and western Mediterranean tribes. Did they cause the Bronze Age collapse? No. They were a product of the collapse.
I usually don't nitpick and whine, but please don't discount a century of historical and archaeological research and the existence of an entire people because it doesn't fit into your historiographical philosophy.
Hadrian Augustus I've been told by my ancient art teacher that mycenaeans seemed to be very peaceful people. This opinion is based on their world-loving roundish wavy art. There were dolphins and stuff... oh, and they were matriarchal. Of course, the destruction of their culture could've brought some changes, but I do have a stereotype (and I am aware of the cons of having stereotypes) that mycenaeans were a peaceful people. I could also be confusing them with someone else
gelasson I think you are thinking of the Minoans. The Mycenoans took over Crete after a catstrophic vulcanic eruption had weakened the Minoans and it was most likely not a very peaceful takeover.
gelasson
No, the Mycenaeans were emphatically NOT matriarchal. You're thinking of the Cretan Minoan civilization.
It was Rameses III that defeated the Sea Peoples, the victory stele is in his temple at Medinet Habu.
How about the 'Sea Peoples' being the last nail in the already broken coffin?
When structures are broken joining a militant group looks more inviting. One could have caused the other.
SoulRippster maybe they were the very people that lived in this civilization, desperately looking for resources and food amidst the collapse.
Not sure. The Mongols destroyed very strong empires. The kind of collapse of bronze age civilizations looks more political than economic: droughts don't cause illiteracy, killing priests and nobles will. The destruction of culture was so bad that the original Greek syllabaries were forgotten.
Expectation: Giant transforming cars that turn into robots
Reality: *Coronavirus*
Ok, seriously! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Stan and/or Brandon reduce the volume on the intro as the volume is super high. I literally have to mute it because it is so loud compared to everything else.
or you can just turn down your volume on you computer or on the video
when the intro comes on i turn mine down even when im not wearing headphones, there's a simple solution on our end to the loud audio and i gave it to me it the intro audio sounded the same to me
i just gave a simple solution to a problem thats all, so if its not a huge deal then drop it
onlychild37 Ok how is this then. It is just bad editing. I don't want to hold a remote in my hand and constantly adjust the volume while watching a movie or tv show and I don't want to have to constantly adjust the volume while watching RUclips. I don't mind setting these volumes. I don't mind setting them across applications. I often don't mind setting them PER video. But when you have to adjust within a video, it gets more than a little annoying and is tacky, something I know Stan to be better than.
All this is to say, much like those who review books and tell you something is wrong, there is a problem that needs to be address. Increase John's voice, lower the intro volume, click the button that says "audio normalization" I DON'T CARE but there is a problem with the intro being relatively FAR too loud and it is not only annoying but unprofessional.
i again for the 3rd time gave a simple solution to a problem on one video. the other person said it wasnt a huge deal so i just said drop it. this is why they make volume buttons so you can adjust according. what is so wrong about giving a simple solution to a freaking problem because thats all i did
Gotta say, the Bronze age (and more specifically the transition from the Bronze to Iron Age) is one of the most fascinating times to study in world history
12:20
That and the Migration of the Huns and Germanic tribes into the Western Roman Empire ;P
huns are not a germanic tribe
swunt10
And thats why I differentiated the two
***** "Huns and other Germanic tribes" is like saying 'texas and other US states', 'labradors and other dog breeds' or 'yogurt and other milk products'
swunt10
Fuck, fine I'll edit it. sorry I caused you so much distress... Jeez...
I prefer recent and modern history, although it's filled with a ton of assholes with their own dumbass biases.
Rewatching this video in 2023 is a real mind trip
*The FIRE NATION Attacked*
These animators are so funny.
+Austin Behel...the spongebob sea person made me literally lol.
+heatmopwho And aquaman
Wow, watching this in March 2020, with the covid19 situation going on, collapse of economy in a globalized world seems relevant.
John Green I would really like to see you do videos on mythological history. History that isn't actually real per se. It can be argued that fiction has just as real consequences as fact anyways. After all who are our planets named after?
deliciousd2 You got your wish...
Crash Course Mythology
So here's my theory - all of these factors contributed. There were earthquakes and climate change, and famine and all that fun stuff, which lead to an upheaval in the Western Meditarranean. That uprooted a bunch of tribes that had some advanced knowledge of ship-building and lack of food forced them to migrate east in search of it. Thus, they became the Sea People, raiding the stronger civilizations, which were still weakened by the same factors that uprooted the Sea People.
Sooooo... Terror From The Deep?
call xcom
We will be watching
Call the kerbals
Go forth, lead the sea army, Spongebob!
Pooping on Spongebob.?!!!!
Did someone say Crab People?!
Oh, you said Sea People?
...
Sea People, Sea People, Sea People...
+Darth Mortus Dude that would be awesome. Only if Historians were good at naming things (The Great Bath can go and fuck itself)
+Darth Mortus Sea People plus semen equals sea-ciety.
deep lol
Darth Mortus body like sea... brain like people ( I dont remebe if that's how the chant went i haven't seen that episode in the longest time)
Darth Mortus OMG that's exactly what I was thinking
"come from the sea, burn the land." everything changed when the fire nation attacked
I like the way John challenges viewers to realize the presumptuous categorization of peoples and nations, so that we may think of the world and it's happenings more flexibly. :D Sometimes it helps to categorize, but let's not get stuck in those lines we draw.
Mr. Green, I have SEVERELY underestimated you!! Never would I have guess you to be the same man that wrote "The Fault in Our Stars"! It seems judging books by their covers takes new shapes once more, because I am both surprised and impressed. Well done!
LOL I love how Spongebob just appears in the middle of a informational video about civilization! XD I don't even really like Spongebob but I love that!
I wonder what our age will be called? I'm inclined to agree with Karl Pilkington - "it's the age of pissing about". :)
Age of confusion
don´t we already have a name? "the information age"?
Silicon Age?
DeHerg It has to be a periodic table element.
Plastic age
6:05 PUPPYCAAAAT
Hooray
That entire picture is just adorable.
their is also Steven from Steven universe
Oh shit it Puppycat!
Nillie totally!!so adorbz on so many levels!
well done and entertaining, thanks alot for the modern historical perspective
How an awesome way to learn History and English at the same time! Thank you very much!
John Green is the coolest person ever.
This video hits different after covid and supply chain issues become prevalent
Is it just me or have there been issues with the sound the last couple of episodes? Like the whole video is too quiet, but at the end the outro music is too loud and so it drowns John out.
Not just you I can't hear a thing on this episode. At 100% volume I can maybe make out half the words
Yeah, also having this issue.
Me too. I can't understand how a show with such high production values can miss something like proper sound levels.
Perhaps it is a problem on RUclipss side I know they are always messing up the volume on anything that's had leveling done. Are there any other sites that stream this show?
No probs when I played it... *shrug*
Odd to leave out the volcanic eruption of Santorini especially when many historians think the Sea Peoples could have been displaced Minoans (who were attacked by the Mycenaeans after the devastating eruption).
Except it the eruption of Santorini occurred several hundred years before the bronze age collapse.
MrCordycep actually it happened close to the Bronze Age
1503nemanja actually it is not odd to leave it out because those sea did not come from the eruption and that islands event happened around the fall Minoans so to me your theory which is a cool one is probably wrong I think they are early Phoenicians
Really helped my project and my professor shows these all the time in class. Thank you for being helpful and entertaining!
The analogy of Bronze Age with the present was really great. Please continue to do awesome stuffs :)
Audio is super low, fine on other videos, fine on other media. Anyone else?
Yes
You added that last bit just so you could say 'single horde-idly', didn't you?
I approve.
Hey John/ Stan
If you guys ever do another episode on British colonization/ trade please could you cover South Africa? Or do an episode on SA even? It has a fascinating history, and I feel like Africa could b represented a bit more in these lessons. Thank you so much for the great episodes so far!
Wait a second, I just realized you are the dude That wrote the Fault In Our Stars
Yes indeed. :)
Have you seen his videos with his brother Hank on the Vlogbrothers channel?
Don't forget to be awesome!
Great video, thank you very much , note to self(nts) watched all of it twice 11:50
I thought that the Sea people explanation was a going to be a gag.
THEY EXIST, BURN THE SEAS!
Someone get BP on the line!
Too soon? yeah, probably too soon.
Where can I get a "Mongols: We're the exception." shirt? :P
dftba.com/product/10g/crashcourse-mongols-shirt
Thanks! :D
Whenever one asks, "What was the cause of World War Two or the current mess in the Middle East, I always say, "Track back to the first war ever fought and there you go!"
That is very true
+robert glenn We didn't start the fire. It was always burning since the world's been turning.
+Kes22497 Dude... that was pretty poetic. Nice one!
+robert glenn The World Wars were caused by Sea People.
+Joshua Chun Look up Billy Joel - We didn't start the fire.
Crash Course, in your last 2 videos who started WW1 and this one the audio levels have been super low compared to all your other videos. Just wanted to let you guys know it was noticeably quieter. I love the videos and often run them while i am doing other work that is how i noticed I couldn't hear them over the running water when the others were perfectly fine. any way keep up the good work love the videos.
I really love the discussions and theories around the "bronze age collapse", I agree with so much you said here, but I had not considered the potential severity of something like an "earthquake storm" occurring and the obvious effect that would have on power structures of the time, and you introduced me to a profession I never new about in archaeoseismology, interesting stuff, and yes agreed again on the point of the relevancy of interconnected and interdependent economic systems today. History rhymes and repeats too often to ignore it.
you lost me when you recommended watching transforners
I was going to watch Transformers 3 just for the apocalyptic genre, then I read wikipedia's synopsis, Dark of the Moon is not even about the end of civilization, with so many other films that are: The World's End, Mad Max, Oblivion, The Road, The Matrix, I Am Legend, 28 days, Waterworld, Terminator; any of these would have been a more fitting choice for a mock-recommendation.
Its the most funny of the three.
Hi everyone, I've decided to do you all a favour and recommend Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. For me, as a history lover, his podcasts are just pure bliss. I would also like to recommend Extra History, the new series from Extra Credits guys, also very good and here on RUclips. You're welcome =D
I'm on both of them. They're both covering WW1 at the moment. I'd add Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast too.
Max White Cool, I'll check that out!
Padhra If you like Mike Duncan's Revolutions, give his history of rome a look in as well, just be prepared for a long jounrey.
Hmm.. I'll take you up on it my English brother.
11:01 Plot twist, drunken man ate a bat in China, and the whole world has a pandemic on its hands.
Glad you credited Eric Cline, I just watched a lecture of his on 1177bc and he's who I was thinking of when you had other explanations than sea people and drought.
06:10 I am awed by the fact that puppycat is sitting in john greens study listening to his stories :D
Can you guys please please please do one or more episodes focusing on precolumbian history?
Yeah, for a series that proposes to challenge the marginalizing practices of mainstream textbooks, they did exactly what other world history book do, which was sum up pre-columbian America with a couple paragraphs that reduce thousands of years of civilization to nothing more than a prologue for the Spanish Empire
Richie Lomas
Right, it's almost as if this series is trying to tie itself to the subjects taught at schools so it could be used as a learning aid...oh wait.
Mind you, I would love me some mesoamerican history in this, but let's be realistic - they can not cover everything and everyone on crash course, at least not in one go. Hell, if it was up to me there would be an entire *season* dedicated solely to the bronze age civilizations, with this video being the final one.
Everyone has their preferences on what they want to see, and claiming that Crash Course are somehow being malign by not talking about the ones that interest you is just silly.
right, but the second season was supposed to be where they plugged the holes from the first season. the history of two whole continents seems like it should at least get a mention...
Richie Lomas And are you 100% sure it will not? Because I don't recall a full episode list being released somewhere, but that just might be me being out of the loop.
I'm hoping they will. My talk about all the sticking to the textbook stuff was rather saying they should hopefully do mesoamerica, not that they won't
At the time of the Bronze Age collapse, there wasn't really a distinct Minoan state, as implied around 5:00. From around 1420 BC Crete was dominated by the Mycenaeans.
+Lytrigian guess some1 told them "there is more than enough gold in Egypt please leave us alone!" ?
Here's my Theory: Earthquake Storm destroyed island nations forcing a mass exodus to primarily the Levant while damaging the defenses and security of the regional civilization leaving them open to more territorial losses to the invaders.
This cut off and destabilized those surrounding empires causing a collapse in communication in the process; killing off the Mycenaean and Hittite cultures who didn't have fertile riverbed civilizations and heavily weakening the Egyptian one into divided city-states, leaving only the Aramaeans and Assyrians who weren't a centralized empire or as dependent on trade. Which broke the balance of power and later resulted in the rise of the Eastern Semito-Iranian age of civilization which in my opinion lasted from the Assyrian Empire through Alexander's conquest and Seleucid Empire, ending with the Sassanian Empire and rise of the fourth "Middle-East" civilization; the Islamic Civilization which lasts to this day.
Joshua Elie Blachier actually some of your points are are wrong
This is great +John Green and +Crash Course. I'll probably be using this video in a paper I'm writing on the same topic.
Most historians and theories I've seen concerning the collapse at the late bronze age put the blame on a mix of these things, stating that that the Sea peoples were more of a finishing blow to a group of nations devastated by natural disasters and a collapse of their inter connectivity
From where did the "John Green From The Past", arise? I ask because it is an ingenious mechanism. Being of roughly the same generation as Mr. Green, I find it personally, as well as generally, appealing and effective.
Scrolled down to count how many comments were made about Atlantis. They were all about Spongebob.
I feel old as the sea itself.
So am I the only one who say puppycat and Chris' bee (Bravest Warriors) at 6:08?
Nope. And there's a portrait of Steven from Steven Universe in the background
Matheus Campos I missed that one. Nice catch.
No problem!
That keyblade... This show just keeps getting better and better
A kingdom hearts reference and a SpongeBob cameo in the same video 😂
'Sea People'? 'That's it? What am I supposed to imagine.
But nonetheless very interesting.
"A New History for Humanity - The Human Era" i saw that and search for an answer... sea people. Nah i keep my theory of Aliens.
Crab people, crab people
There is a possibility of it being a multitideof those things;
An Earthquake storm rushes through the area, disrupting trade and destroying cities.... even damaging the massive irrigation systems that these people built, leading to both widespread famine and destruction of trade networks... Then, a massive group of northern tribes, velieving they can reincigorate their own clans and tribes economy through plunder and war, unite to attack the more rich and powerful kingdoms which hold the most money. This has the effect of utterly obliterating the economy throughout the Middle East. Then, with no money to upkeep an army to keep peasants down, massive famines, and peasants losing alot of money, the disheveled peasantry of this civilization rise up against the governments which they believe have completely failed them.
BOOM
Sea Peoples !! Haha
Now it makes sense why Caligula declared war on neptune !!
Watching this with my "We're The Exception" Mongol t-shirt, and thinking a combination of "Yeah man, the Mongols kicked ass!" and "Oh god, I'm glad I wasn't around back then..." Love this series!!
Fascinating, astounding, I lack superlative to describe the Crash Course history show!! The talent to vulgarise events of the past in their proper complexities and to insist in trade and ressources rather than specific individuals and war details is amazing! Also for the intertainment in learning the vlog brothers are AW some! One thing only, id be great that you would show the dates or periods of the things you're talking about, for instance at the top right of the screen. Also could you explain the economic crash of 2008 please. Thank you, fantastic work guys!
But then, everything changed when the Sea People attacked.
Earthquake storms: The Fault In Our Tectonic Plates.
Well if a large populated area is hit with 50+ years of major earthquakes, trade collapse, famine, and drought all at the same time, it makes sense that increased warfare and political strife would be one of those "circling the drain" results, not only caused by the other problems but also contributing to those problems to make things even worse, which leads to even more famine and more war and so on until the civilization is in utter free fall.
well we know that the region suffered multiple major earthquakes in a short period of time, we know that one of the results was that one of the major rivers that agriculture was dependent on shifted it's course (and thus untold square miles of farmland and expensive irrigation infrastructure was rendered useless almost overnight, we know that there was a surge in volcanic activity in the region for around 100 years that also affected much of Southern Europe, we know that for a couple of hundred years local climate dried out (and likely caused mass waves of refugees fleeing from parts of Southern Europe and probably becoming militaristic when these empires are unable or unwilling to help them), we know that populations suffering extensive long term famine also become far more prone to disease outbreaks and that trade routes help such disease outbreaks spread very quickly, and we know that the assyrian empire to the east (which wasn't suffering as badly as these empires were and wouldn't meet it's own decline for another 100 years) was putting tremendous pressure on these civilizations, particularly on their trade dominance, and we know that regional trade had 2 central commodities, food (which due to localized climate change described above was likely not enough to feed everyone anymore) and bronze, which relies on tin to be produced, and tin is a shockingly rare element and in this part of the world there was maybe only 2 worthwhile sources of tin to be found, and we know that each of these empires used highly centralized command economies (and modern examples of authoritarian governments with command economies suffering massive economic collapse (like the USSR) demonstrates how fast things can turn sideways once the administrative/beaurocratic state cannot function any longer). Finally, as the institutions of society start to break down in various locations in these empires, you will have desperate people and opportunists take up arms and fight over the remaining resources, which perpetuates the downward spiral even after the effects of the natural disasters wane.
So yeah, I figure it wasn't any one or two big things, it was a "death by a thousand cuts" scenario, with a multitude of related problems over a span of decades combining to destroy their social order, which then results in the very citizens of those empires tearing what's left of their civilizations down until either an impotent shell of the former state exists (like what happened in Egypt) or society breaks down until all that remains are isolated fortified city states like what happened to the Myceneans and Hittites.
I learned a lot from this series. keep it up
Thankyou vet again CrashCourse!!! Wanted a brief rundown of ancient Greek civs.
+John Green, Mesopotamia the best civilization where life began. Can you make more videos on Assyrians please and Babylon? Because if you see ISIS is destroying Aramaic history nice videos tho!
You know, the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand really, really, REALLY indirectly caused us to be at war with Japan.
Not sure if that was the joke.
Nah, the point was that the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand caused WWI, in which Japan was involved.
I was thinking World War Two, but oh well. :P
Well, world war one did kinda lead to world war two
hence my point ;)
That's true, too!
Is this video a little bit too low? I can't hear it well.
I really appreciate how you always make room for a mongols reference
I absolutely love these videos just discovered them yesterday and watching them on my phone whilst in hospital.