5 Strangest Accounts of First Contact in History
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- čas přidán 29. 04. 2024
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Edited and Researched by Manuel Rubio
Narrated by David Kelly
Thumbnail Art by Ettore Mazza: ettore.mazz...
Art by Alex Stoica and Bilal Erlangga
Extracts taken from:
Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. Translation by Friedrich Hirth, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol 37 1917.
The Saga of Erik the Red translation in The Discovery of America by the Northmen, in the Tenth Century, with Notices of the Early Settlements of the Irish in the Western Hemisphere by North Ludlow Beamish 1841.
Ibn Fadlan on the Rus, translation by James E. Montgomery. Thanks to the Library of Arabic Literature for the use of this translation:
nyupress.org/9781479899890/mi...
Kirishitan Monogatari translation from DEUS DESTROYED The Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan by George Elison
Published by COUNCIL ON EAST ASIAN STUDIES
HARVARD UNIVERSITY and distributed by HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1988
www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.p...
James King on Shaka Zulu Nathaniel Isaacs, Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, with a Sketch of Natal by Nathaniel Isaacs (2 Volumes, London, 1836), I, pp. 57-63
Researched by historydavid
Stock footage from Storyblocks or Artlist, music from Epidemic Sound and Artlist.
00:00 Zhang Qian on The Greeks (125 BC)
04:46 Thorvald Eiriksson In America (1003)
07:50 Ibn Fadlan on the Viking Rus´ (921)
13:50 The First Christians in Japan (1543)
19:49 James King on Shaka Zulu (1825)
The Arabic account of the Vikings was my favorite. The writer spends the entire time describing how vile the Vikings live compared to the Arabs only for the irony that the Vikings believe the Arabs are vile due to how they treat their dead. It’s a really poetic account on the two culture’s flipped view of what’s important.
Gotta remember that this is just one man’s account, which is probably highly misleading and twisted.
Most other accounts of Vikings claim that they were almost fixated with cleanliness and beauty, which most archeological findings prove (combs, tools for cleaning ears and nails etc).
@@sebbe4914
Most of Ibn Fadlan's observations have been deemed honest by historians. There is no reason to deny the correctness of the ones that bother you...
@@jadawin10 Don't be mistaken, it's incorrectness that bothers me. And as someone else said he met with the kyivan rus, which probably were a bit different from scandinavia. however, i'd love the source to the studies by those historians.
@@sebbe4914 Arabs for the time placed extremely high priority on hygiene. While the Rus and their Scandinavian brothers were very cleanly compared to other European states of the time, Arabs were on a whole different level.
@@sebbe4914
other accounts from even more filthy people like the saxons lol
That Japanese account on Europeans and "Their form of Buddhism" is absolutely fascinating
I laughed so much at the parable of the cat and mirror in the end .
Japanese calling any foreign religion "Buddhism" lol :))))
As a Christian I thought it was funny, I've never heard of Christian Buddhism till now.
I suppose they are similar enough in ideals to make that mistake
@@samuraijackoff5354 also in the massive way they spread and became popular
First contact stories always strike me as records from a more magical and mysterious age, where one could stumble across whole continents of humans with totally dissimilar languages, beliefs and traditions.
we still have totally dissimilar languages, beliefs and traditions. If you want to travel a short distance and experience a rapid change in languages go to png for example.
@@MusMasi That's not even near comparable. What he means is you could find contients with different humans and cultures that is totally alien to what you're used to.
@Thomas Neale you gotta remember people were more isolated from each other. People spent their entire lives never knowing of other peoples, countries, religions, traditions and cultures. We now have the internet where we can access a plethora of information about the world around us. Albeit, culture shock is still a thing and perhaps always will be, but we are far more aware of what and who inhabits this planet than our ancestors ever did. At least today we have some degree of knowledge of what to expect in the various nations that exist...back in the old days they had to simply travel and find out, many a time with no existing information at their disposal prepare for it AND there were so many instances where they didn't intend to discover an entirely different civilization.
Yes, I’ve been digging into the history of the Silk Road for a year, mostly from Chinese records written 2000 years ago: 史记, 汉书, 后汉书. I wish one day I could follow Zhang Qian’s path and travel to the other side of this amazing continent.
@@JackY-pu5nh Yes, sadly that path is rather dangerous these days. Seems strange now to hear of Bactria as a rich, peaceful and seldom harassed land.
I will never stop finding it funny that the first missionary was so ugly the Japanese literally went ''Oh it's a goblin''
What never ceases to amaze me is how each civilisation viewed itself as somewhat superior to their counterpart based on race, empire or religion. There's often a condescending attitude attached to these accounts describing their encounters with other people's whom they deem inferior to them. I guess that's why it was so easy to wage war back then because as far as they were concerned, the people they were fighting weren't a worthy adversary.
It's also pretty common for writers to go full "Noble Savage," talking at length about how praiseworthy other cultures are over their own.
Both styles are a bit silly.
Why does that surprise you? It's simple human nature.
@@odysseusrex5908 No it isn't. Nobody is born racist. That's something you learn from the people around you.
@@odysseusrex5908 😐 True...Consider the proud and noble Bubba we see before us and observe his big blast. His primitive Pre-AI brain is something of a marvel, and as you can see here, His excitable nature has compelled him to attempt communication! _Fascinating!_
I must admit that whilst I sit in here and enjoy the warm glow of artificial intelligence, there's a certain brutal honesty in the way he lives which i find quite compelling...Indeed.
@@snickle1980 LOL! OK, you have the kernel of a fun science fiction story there. Now write the rest of it.
“Kenji, some goblins with long noses are here to see you”
Release the Kraken!
I’m always saying this
Romans when Hebrews showed up in Rome
@@ronaldwhitman1377
Romans didn’t have any such stereotype about Hebrews looking like that. That comes from the Middle Ages.
@@ronaldwhitman1377 accurate.
I forgot that Alexander named all cities after himself and was initially a bit confused in the first story
Yes, as I digging in that history I find it gets more confusing, in the history records like 汉书 and 后汉书 there are several cities sound roughly like “Alexander” spread all over the Central Asia, luckily they have the rough locations of those places so that I am able to cross exam their true identity 😂
@@JackY-pu5nh that Sound Like a real pain in the ass. Keep up the goodwork im Sure you doing fine!
@@derwolf3006 thank you, it sure is, but digging in the 2000-year-old records is already an amazing thing for me to do, as a Chinese myself I feel so privileged to be able to read the original books. Currently, I’m learning the Ptolemy’s map during the 1st century, hopefully I can connect some of his map’s locations to the Chinese recorded locations, that should be more fun to do.
No he did not name all cities after himself. Some got other names as well. He named one for example after his fallen horse.
@@oliverkroker3016 he named like 50 cities after himself though
Shaka pulling the oldest trick in the book
Shaka: "Tomorrow we will hunt elephants, come along!"
Englishmen: "We don't know if we have permission, nor are we inclined to do so"
Shaka: "Scared?"
Englishmen: "..."
Englishmen: "We agree to hunt with you"
i learned a long time ago "don't be a bitch" is a powerful phrase.
King straight yelled, "no balls!". He knows no man can resist the temptation to prove his ballsiness 😂😂😂
i found that hilarious they wanted to prove that the British are tough too. hundreds of years later people all over the world are the same!
@@bigbadndn
you ever watch the border displays between the Indian and Pakistani Armies? It's a clown show of the highest degree but also can be deadly serious at the same time.
"Oldest trick in the book", I doubt it would be considered old back then.
Never underestimate the Ancient Japanese art of absolutely decimating anyone different than them
They still do it.
@@tunxlaw it’s more PC than it was decades ago. Gaijin is racist so Gaikokojin is acceptable, but it doesn’t matter they think all Americans have sex all the time and we commit crimes. If you come here you’ll also be stared at
They still do it, but with the whales
@@deathstracklmfao
except mary lol
The Zulu-English one was weirdly wholesome.
They were fairly impartial.
why are there no replies
Heh
That's more than can be said for the rest of them. Yikes 😅
Most of them were peaceful. Only the Vikings and Indians one ended in fighting. I think that's likely because those were raiders who accidentally ran into some hunter and fishers instead of being diplomats or traders as the rest were.
I think the British were partly fascinated, partly curious about the Zulu. It has Ceasar on Galic Wars kinda vibe, "if we built up our enemies, it makes us even more impressive" but I think the British mentality, and the whole imperial success, was built upon not uselessly antagonizing everybody and trying to win them over and make them do your biding peacefully. It is cheaper, less bloody and sometimes even quicker.
Another interesting one is Francisco de Orellana's journey down the Amazon River, the first recorded European to do so. It was documented by Gaspar Carvajal, and it describes the Amazon region as being heavily populated with lots of cities, monuments, roads, and fortifications as well as bizarre cultures. It was ignored for a long time because by the time other Europeans moved in, the area did not have nearly as much as Carvajal described and it was believed the region couldn't have supported it. But recent archaeology has shown that his account was very accurate, that it had been depopulated by disease when others showed up, and these first Spaniards witnessed the Amazon as no European or outsider would ever again.
Definitely. The diseases easterners endured was their greatest weapon. I've always wondered how different the world might be if the first people's were immune to the diseases or even had their own that weren't STDs that the invaders were susceptible to.
The world would look vastly different and it would have taken centuries for Europeans to get a foothold in the west if they ever could.
Most of the population of civilizations/tribes/kingdoms/died from the newly arrived diseases.
Good news because of LIDAR tech we have found eveidence of massive buildings in the Amazon forest
There are multiple scientific studies using modern lidar, aerial surveys etc which show the early Spanish were true and there were complex cities and kingdoms in those times
@@josephmatthews7698 Big up Stephen Milo
It’s always fascinating to hear how these chroniclers detailed the new and unfamiliar. You can feel the curiosity driving them
imagine if some modern skeptical, cynical burnout was writing a "blog" back then? 🤪 where did we go wrong
I don't think it was so much curiosity as it was greed.
@@ge2623 curiosity sparked by greed
@@ge2623 Perhaps the ones who funded these expeditions, for the explorers though I'm sure it was curiosity. We saw the same thing with the astronauts that rode missiles into space.
The encounter between Portuguese and Japanese is colossal.
Tbh I thought it was the Dutch lol
@@skeletonwguitar4383 The first arrival of the Dutch was 60/70 years after the Portuguese :)
@@skeletonwguitar4383 you know it isnt the dutch bc they called their buddha deus, and the sky, paraíso, both portuguese words
@@skeletonwguitar4383 The Dutch were protestant: no father, no images, no penitence with a whip (I don't recall exactly, but I think they did confess)
@Skeleton w/ Guitar
Catholic dutch? Lol you must be american
It's quite interesting how the most "respectful" account was that of the British with the Zulu
Because of ethnocentric expectations of manners that we are accustomed to due to being Western. Also, British manners are largely about reserved emotion and perceived nobility. Like . . . it's okay to take over cultures and completely change them but hey let's say how decent but primitive they seemed. It's actually a way of making themselves sound better. Because you're just doing decent but primitive people a favour old chap. Dashed good of us
@cerijohn8826 projecting
@@rhiAction. Actually British Imperialism, was mainly economical. The culture changes was a side-effect, not the goal. French imperialism on the other hand, very much so.
You don't have to put anyone down when you're on top.
It’s interesting to us because we just assumed the Zulu would be looked at derisively.
It's amazing how ancient and mysterious these accounts are. Now that the world is a smaller place, events like these will never happen again.
They're still happening, as there are still "uncontacted" tribes around in the Amazon and Indian Ocean, probably a couple others elsewhere, and I'd imagine their descriptions of non-tribe humans would probably be interesting to say the least.
Ngl the poetry of witness writing from those explorers are top notch
Whilst internet made us without bounds anymore, we can probably still do tourism or travelling and writing our own accounts on different places.
We are all connected now, but the same issues persist. I was reading Suetonius and he described the inflation in Rome almost 2000 years ago.
they can still happen, times i have gone too far into the outer suburbs of my own city they have happened to me......
Aliens
The Japanese description of the missionaries is great. What I'd love is to hear the account (if it exists, of course) of the same missionaries so we can have parallel stories of the same event(s).
Awesome as always!
I am sure there's plenty of documents in medieval Spanish. If you learn modern Spanish you can probably read them and understand 90%. A lot of times these things do not get translated into English because of the historic rivalry, but they most certainly are readily available.
Portuguese, not spanish, they were Portuguese missionaries.
@@korosuke1788 Spanish? Spaniards didn't get to Japan. The Portuguese did.
I've actually heard a video on this channel of a Portuguese missionary's account of Japan
Edit: here you go
czcams.com/video/qu-pSBEnMt4/video.html
@@tryingtotryistrying
He probably told them to stop because he considered suicide to be an unforgivable sin.
"Our arms aren't sufficient for hunting an elephant", proceeds to drop one with two shots . These people are using spears and bows which obviously worked well for them but nothing beats the boom stick .
Thing is they probably never hunted one before and were unsure of it being successful.
Also, you got to be damn accurate.
@@PlaylistProleteriat Probably the the first shot was lucky and was what killed it.
@@PlaylistProleteriatYeah, those muskets weren't very accurate. That's why they used to fire them in long firing lines, basically spray and pray that at least some bullets will hit something.
The boom shell beats the boom stick
To be fair they probably assumed they would need a much larger caliber gun like the elephant guns that were eventually made for the job to take it down
Ibn Battuta's account of meeting the Rus is probably one of my favourite historical accounts, it's so funny to me how aghast he is with their hygiene
Ibn Fadlan , not Ibn Battuta .
And the funniest part is, the Norse were some of the cleanest people in Europe. So either the Rus lost that practice after going down the Volga, or Middle Eastern standards of "cleanliness" were really high.
Except those were mongols, not Rus.
@@chickenlover657 Except no, they were Rus - the Mongols didn't arrive along the Volga until the 13th century, that is nearly 400 years after Ibn-Fadlan's account.
@@jackarius101 Actually that's not quite correct. You're talking about the period when the wars started, but the mongols were around long before. But my point is he's describing typical mongol "hygiene" practices, not that of the slavs.
Ibn Fadlan was such a gentleman. Everyone else is basically calling foreigners horrible, malformed creatures and abominations against natural order, meanwhile he just berates the Viking Rus for their dirtiness but still calls them gorgeous.
True, He was honest
Note how articulate he was, both ways. Something early arabs know for, their writings and poetry.
I doubt that hunt was planned, and it wasn't for the meat either. They were politely showing the guests their strength, so that they would be dissuaded from any invasion. Shaka Zulu was truly wise.
Yeah I've never heard of elephant meat eaten in my culture. Living in KwaZulu-Natal my whole life 😅
The last story of the British meeting with Shaka is pretty heart warming, usually anything to do with Europe and Africa ends with dead natives or some very uncool words being written about them, but in this acount the British seem to really be more friends rather then strictly empriacal visitors or conquers of the Zulu people which was a very fun exprience to watch.
As always, your videos are one of a kind!
The British generally had good relations with the Zulu.
It wasn't until the Great Trek really stirred up relations that things went south and the Zulu war started
I get the feeling that most of the time things started out quite nicely, sometimes even remarkably friendly and then things happen later, when the adventurous, explorative spirit is replaced with: alright, now how can we profit? And that's usually different people than the original meeting.
@@kjn3350 If you think about it, explorers and consuls can't really expect a profit when making new contact, they do it for the sake of it, or at least for the sake of other people.
It's only when greedy bad actors realize there's money to be made and take over that things go south.
Or when the diseases take over. Or cultural differences get in the way. But greed is a big one.
@@bobmcbob49 A really good movie that shows this is Zulu. While both nations are at war, they never call the other inferior, and when someone does, there is always a person there to shut that idea down immediately.
They were cut from a similiar clothe. The Zulu were experienced in genociding and conquering other peoples lands, and so too were the British.
The Japanese account in this video needs some explanations, otherwise it’s quite misleading. The text (Kirishitan Monogatari) was written in 1639, that means 96 years after the first arrival of the Portuguese (1543). And it was written with the specific purpose of denigrating Catholic missionaries.
It was published right aftermath of Shimabara Rebellion (1637-1638), the last and the largest uprising against Tokugawa Shogunate in the former half of Edo period.
The Tokugawa strengthened its dominance by destroying Toyotomi clan at the siege of Osaka(1614-1615) and they replaced pro-Toyotomi Daimyos with pro-Tokugawas in the region. Shimabara was once the domain of the Arima clan, which had been Christian. The Arima were moved out in 1614 and replaced by the Matsukura.
The rebellion was mainly against Matsukura's misgovernance by peasants, with Christians and discontented samurais later joining the rebellion.
Because the shogunate suspected that European Catholics had been involved in spreading the rebellion, Portuguese traders were driven out of the country by 1639, the exact year Kirishitan Monogatari was published.
Basically Kirishitan Monogatari was written as a “propaganda” to instill the horrendous image of Catholic missionary in people. It consists of 12 chapters depicting the events in chronological order from the arrival of the Portuguese to the Shimabara rebellion. The part you heard in the video is the beginning of the first chapter of it, so it’s not “a naive first account” at all.
Thanks for providing that context.
Impressive knowledge good sir
Nice.
I thought the year looked wrong, thanks for reminding me why
damn the japanese were wicked
For anyone wondering, medieval Arabs called the North people (Rus روس) while they called the Russians and other slavic people (Saqaliba صقالبة).
So who were the Rus? The Vikings?
@@larshofler8298 the _original_ Rus were Swedish Vikings. But after they took over Novgorod and Kyiv and the lands around there, they seem to have merged into the local population pretty quickly, and their name became used for the whole population.
@Lars Höfle
From what I can understand. They were Vikings who assimilated into Slavic culture, and intermarried with the Native Slavs
@@iapetusmccool I see...
Modern russians were called "muscovites"(and they in fact are) before 1725 year, when Peter I steal "Rus" name from ukranians and litvins(belorussians)
I gotta say that the Padre giving spectacles as a gift is actually genius.
Why do u say that?
@@ssa3101 I can't imagine a more powerful gift to give than clear sight, especially to someone who didn't know it was possible
Apparently the portuguese really liked giving mirrors to newly met peoples since they did this all across Brazil in the early 1500s
The Japanese description of a crucifix is simply priceless. That's exactly how I viewed it as a kid in church.
It's innocent in a way.
I love how extremely racist they are too, it's very much like how kids would react upon seeing someone of a different race for the first time.
Edit: A lot of people assume I'm being unkind by this remark, but I mean so meanness by it. I love human nature, and even when humans are weirded out by each other, it's kind of endearing to me.
@@chrisbolland5634 it's like that scene from rush hour
Like what
@@chrisbolland5634 strange wording but i getchu
"There they have no great king or chief, but everywhere the cities and towns have their own petty chiefs."
Yep, sounds like Afghanistan since forever.
Most don't even know the shape of their countrt
Hardly changed in the past 2000+ years. Wow
@@noneyabizz8337 are u talking about US americans?
@@macbatz6734 just because you don't, doesn't mean others don't.
No. Our military presented Afghans with a plaque shaped like their country, they had no idea what was.
@@noneyabizz8337 my great aunt was a teacher in the USA , the most ignorant and benighted country on this planet. She told me that her pupils failed to recognise the shape of the US , were unable to place new York and LA correctly on the map, and thought Europe was a country. And you dare to invade and boss around the rest of the world?
After all the descriptions of the Europeans having big noses, the Emperor turns up with an enormous honker.
No, this is the description of the Romans to the European barbarians
@@user-cg2tw8pw7j I was referring to the Japanese emperor
It's far funnier considering they describe the Europeans as black.
Joos
They mention interperters, that makes me wonder how the job of trabslator started, who was the first among their people to try and learn a new tongue to try and mediate between 2 cultures, and how difficult it must have been learning with no prior help
The reason Ibn Fadlan visited this city north of the Volga river was that the Governor of this city offered to become a Muslim in exchange for the Abbassids to send supplies and provide protection. So the interpreter was most likely an advisor in the Governor's court.
Well it could have happened in a lot of ways. The native Americans and Europeans communicated and learned each other's languages by just pointing at stuff and calling it in their own language. Like pointing at a rock and saying rock. And over time they eventually understood each other's languages. Another ay was to grow up near and around both types of peoples so they'd be familiar with the languages and cultures and be a bridge between them.
I like how the Arab guy was dissing the Rus so hard, then at the funeral one of the Rus basically turned around and finally dissed him right back and even gave a good explination for WHY he thought his people's funerary practices were better - would've loved to have seen how the guy reacted! XD
I’m not sure that was a good explanation, because if you know how nature works, you’d know how the cycle of life works, and the cycle of life means you go back to which you came from. We are from the earth, so we go back to the earth, we are not from the element of fire. So no, the more civilised Arabs/Persians were again smarter and more civilised than their Slavic/rus counterparts. Hence why a lot more was contributed from those ancient civilisations as opposed to the other.
wouldn’t have meant much to the arab given he’s a muslim and would’ve still found it queer regardless
No, the Arab guy was being fair. There is no excuse for being that filthy! The Rus clearly lived in a barbaric way.
@@larshofler8298 Well, considering the Rus were Norse people that settled in Eastern Europe, and the Norse were pretty infamous for being way more hygenic than most other Europeans at the time according to other contemporary accounts, I'm inclined to say that either A)the Rus wildly diverged from the rest of the Norse in terms of hygiene, B)this specific group of Rus were unusually filthy, C)he misinterpreted what he was seeing and thus didn't record it accurately, or D)he deleberately exagerrated what he saw or outright made some stuff up to make a better story
@Amy he says that the rus showered once a week. He also said they use a communal wash bowl in the morning. These are things that we know vikings did, as western European sources mention it. Difference is the Europeans thought this was because the vikings were vain and cared too much about their looks, while ibn fadlan thought these habits were gross and that the rus aren't very clean. I'm inclined to agree with ibn fadlan.
@9:29 this text was portrayed in a scene from the film “The 13th Warrior” with Omar AlSharif & Antonio Banderas from 1999.
This is exactly what came to my mind as well. Fun movie. Great sound track imho
Susan Wise Bauer, in her book series about History, (The Ancient World, The Medieval World, The Renaissance etc.) in the first book have a great story that would fit your format perfectly, in the preface she writes:
SOMETIME AROUND 1770 BC, Zimri-Lim, king of the walled city of Mari on
the banks of the Euphrates, got exasperated with his youngest daughter.
A decade earlier, Zimri-Lim had married his older daughter Shimatum
to the king of another walled and sovereign city called Ilansura. It was a
good match, celebrated with enormous feasts and heaps of presents (mostly
from the bride’s family to the groom). Zimri-Lim’s grandchildren would
eventually be in line for the throne of Ilansura, and in the meantime the king
of Ilansura would become an ally, rather than another competitor among the
crowd of independent cities fighting for territory along the limited fertile
stretches of the Euphrates.
Unfortunately, grandchildren didn’t arrive as soon as hoped. Three years
later Zimri-Lim, still hoping to make the alliance with Ilansura permanent,
sent the king another daughter: Shimatum’s younger sister Kirum. Kirum,
sharp-tongued and ambitious, was expected to take her lawful place as
second wife and servant to her sister. Instead, she decided to lobby for a
position as the king’s first wife. She involved herself in politics,
commandeered servants for her personal use, sneered at her sister, and
generally queened it about the palace-until Shimatum gave birth to twins.
Immediately the childless Kirum plummeted in the palace hierarchy.
“No one asks my opinion any more,” she complained, in letter after letter to
her father. “My husband has taken away my very last servants. My sister
says that she will do whatever she wants to me!”
Given Kirum’s behavior to her sister in the early years of her marriage,
it is unlikely that “whatever she wants” involved anything good; and
indeed, Kirum’s letters soon begged her father for rescue. The plea “Bring
me home or I shall surely die!” progressed to “If you do not bring me back
home to Mari, I will throw myself from the highest roof in Ilansura!”
Zimri-Lim had hoped to make the king of Ilansura his friend.
Unfortunately, leaving Kirum in the the man’s household wasn’t doing
much to increase the goodwill between the two families. Seven years after
the wedding, Zimri-Lim gave up, made a royal journey north, and in the
words of his own court records, “liberated the palace of Ilansura” by
bringing Kirum home.
🤨 "Kirum"...Who's royal bloodline and arrogant expectations passed from generation to generation, until it was anglicized in the West to become the dreaded "Karen" of modern legend.
@@snickle1980 🤣
@@snickle1980 Doubtful.
@@josh-oo fair enough, but before i go back to Dwarf Fortress, lets just take a moment to appreciate your name.
It's a name that charlie would approve of.
I have the whole set, she is amazing she really takes you there
Imagine living at a time where bandits, raiders, and enemy armies threaten to plunder your village, having to learn combat for all men. Shit was wild.
You do realise that this is true for a big chunk of the world today, and could be true for the rest tomorrow.
Sounds like parts of LA. Lol
These videos are incredibly fascinating, the way they describe each other like aliens from other worlds!
Well, that was literally it for them.
Imagine the surprise of the Eskimo who didn't even think there were other worlds and then these weirdos show up out of nowhere.
Japanese thought the Portuguese were uglier than goblins 😢
that last one sounds like they honestly had some good time with eachother
Exactly you would have thought that it was the start of a great story
Funnily enough, expeditions to explore for colonisation weren't always in bad faith. Just sadly many slight bumps in communication or culture would lead to immediate hostilities. Not many new settlers wanted their neighbours to be aggressive so it was originally cooperation or war, and so there's plenty stories of cooperation but of course those of outright slaughters using advanced weaponry are more prevalent due to significance.
An interesting point, the legendary horse Red Hare ridden by Warrior Lu Bu from Pre Three Kingdom era is actually a Bactrian horse origin. This is why Red Hare was larger and sturdier war horse.
Very interesting. How was it figured out, by description?
@@charlesk22 presumably just conjecture that any horse of superior size and ability at the end of the Han Dynasty was a descendant of the horses seized in the War of the Heavenly Horses because it would be unlikely to otherwise produce such a horse in China.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Heavenly_Horses
I love how Ibn Fadlan just starts randomly roasting the Vikings
The Japanese art of Europeans is so fascinating! 😊
you mean "The Japanese art of Portuguese is so fascinating!" ?
@@DomMarmelo .....I mean, if we're gonna be *THAT* specific. 🧐
Yes, there is no such thing as “European” people, we are Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Swedish. Each as different and old from each other as most cultures in the world.
@@oliverkalamata2753 ofc we need to BE THAT specific, a portuguese is not the same as a norwegian for example. Where are you from btw?
These replies are something else....
"What he said could not be understood at all, his voice was like the screech of an owl."
That Japanese account is the first time I've laughed out loud watching these videos
It was so racist lmao People back then were wild.
I love how Ibd Fadlan went from describing the perfect creature, to brutes, in description of one group of people
A detail on Ibn Fadlan's account:
- He was accompanied by an interpreter whose primary language wasn't Norse and didn't understand the Kievan Rus culture much, so mistranslations of actions and customs were pretty common.
He described what he observed, not what he heard
@@caveman8557 Well, sounds are one of the fundamental ways that we make observations. So, if he observed, he listened. Thus, if he saw/heard something he didn't understand and asked his interpreter for answer, said interpreter definitely got some things wrong due to his own cultural/linguistic barrier.
@@vicenzostella1390
Literally most of his observations are their customs , he mostly described what he saw . I wonder how you can mistranslate 29 Vikings using the same basin to clean themselves.
Also what he mentioned are in league with other accounts like ibn rustah and other European accounts .
@@LeoLeo-Bare in mind that a lot of his digust likely comes from religion. Given the importance of flowing water in Islam.
@@nutyyyy I get what you're saying, and in many cases you're right...but the Vikings are an exception. His accounts are not unique, these are all well known Viking practices. They did wash their face with snot water. Things like shitting anywhere you wanted (yes, they had "toilets," or rather, holes in the ground...but they mostly only used them in their own 'cities,' and were more guidelines than rules) and performing "reproductive acts" in public view of the whole town, were considered "wrong" pretty much across the board, from Japan to Turkey to Portugal...
While it may have been ESPECIALLY disgusting to some cultures...yes, many of the acts of the vikings were pretty much unanimously viewed as the worst humanity had to offer at that time. I know many want to deny the Vikings were barbarians because there IS a lot of biased misinformation (for a reason) and they DID have a fairly sophisticated culture of their own (even though they had no written language and war was their main cultural driving force), the fact of the matter is, they were pretty barbaric. Literally the first thing they did when they saw Indigenous Canadians is kill them. Like, right away. And they supposedly took pride in this, no regret.
And that's not even including their pillaging practices.
I'm looking more at COLLECTIONS of historical accounts than what archaeologists today want to view through rose colored glasses, especially because Scandinavia takes so much pride in their Viking history...But you can generally see the overlap to determine what was truth and what was twisted.
It also of course depends which period of Viking history you're looking at - I'm referencing more pre-800-1200 AD before they had largely settled around Europe, and thus adopted European practices, but were also still Viking.
...Granted, your name is "the great Scot," so if that's a reference to the Scots, well...Scots were indeed influenced HEAVILY by Viking culture, so I can maybe see your perspective here 😆
One final disclaimer: Yes, other more "civilized" cultures also did similar barbaric things. But a) that was usually limited to a particularly cruel leader/general, as opposed to a widely accepted cultural practice and b) it was usually worse for "revenge" attacks, as opposed to just a simple raid of a fishing village...Vikings didn't care either way.
Amazing as always but just a little suggestion, would love if you announced the new scene and the context each time like you used to. Most people I think listen to these like podcasts and it is very easy to get confused
^^ this
The most hugely underrated history channel
Shaka really pulled the “no balls” card
Knowing where the Brits and Zulus met and hearing them describe it is so weird when listening to these stories which are mostly from another universe 🙂
Ibn Fadlan’s account inspired the book “The 13th Warrior” which inspired a movie. He was incredibly descriptive and an amazing historian, because he sets aside his judgements in order to provide a lot of details
Lol are you sure about that? He was making plenty of judgements in this account
Are you sure about the "judgements" part?
@@TomorrowWeLive yeah, i summed it up like that because he listed his judgements but still provided an accurate account compared to other historians
@@TomorrowWeLive Oh boy, you haven't read for other historians, have you?
"set aside judgement"...proceeds to lie about cleanliness of rus and call them dirty despite them being among cleanest people
I remember seeing a video recently on the burning of the library of Alexander, and how it said that it wasn't really THAT much of a loss because it was mostly cultural records that got destroyed.
This video, is a perfect example of why the part of that other video is just objectively wrong.
Lol wasn't *that* big of a loss.
@@MusMasi Understanding anthropology is the key to our species success. All the technological advancements in the world mean nothing, if we dont have the wisdom to pilot them correctly.
It is a fact that we did not loose that much though.
When the harbour of Alexandria was burned by Caesar, the institution had already been neglected for centuries, leading to the decay of entire sections of the library and its scrolls.
Subsequent damage sustained by the library during christian riots of late antiquity, and the arab conquest actually destroyed very little, as its works had already been taken and dispersed all around the Mediterranean.
And you have to remember that the library of Alexandria's primary role was conserving copies or copied originals of already existing works. Much of what was "lost" in Alexandria already existed somewhere else, and thus wasn't lost at all.
@@remilenoir1271 Yeah i've seen nearly every single youtube video about it, and have been studying ancient history for decades.
Still sounds like anthropologist copium.
@@darkranger116 That and the fact that the literary production of antiquity is largely overestimated because we take at their word ancient writers who were prone to exaggeration in order to glorify such city or such ruler.
Academic study today is still extremely hindered by what I would call the "antiquity complex", this idea that the ancient world was superior in every way possible to pre XVIIth century societies and that nothing of importance happened between 500 and 1450 CE in Europe.
The same modern scholars who would usually brush off accounts of ancient battles involving millions of soldiers as mere exaggeration, strangely take at face value the descriptions of libraries of mystical proportions numbering millions of scrolls...
That sort of bias gave rise to absurd beliefs such as the idea that the literary production of antiquity as a whole (official registers; essays on philosophy, science, history; poetry...) was only topped in Europe in the XIXth century. Which is extremely stupid when you take the time to think more than two minutes about it.
The Vikings and Inuit becoming fast and lasting friends is my favorite. Makes perfect sense too, they share the annual hardship of far northern winters. Modern Americans who are living as semi homesteaders out in the frozen sticks of Alaska will tell you: reliable and honest neighbors are all too often the difference between life and death when winter is upon you. I postulate that this fact being so well known to both the Vikings and Inuit that it is woven into the cultural fabric of both peoples is the reason why this particular case of first contact between 2 desperate peoples living worlds apart DID NOT end in bloodshed.
Imagine going so far to the point where you see people who look and are completely different than you. Must've been magical
Europeans were on something
We're so very lucky to have such stories remembered and preserved
Great Content! 😀Imagine if Han China had formed a full alliance with the Ancient Greeks on the frontiers of India! 😮
Lots of great ancient What Ifs around that time
Pan meets Han!
Too bad they got a little 7 year Xin kick lol
They did..in the multiverse..stay woke
@@VoicesofthePast Or Alexander The Great With Han China
Jeez the Japanese were very mean to that pedro guy 😂, like they called mans a big nosed goblin for god sake
😂😂😂😂
Thanks for more first contact stuff. This and petty griping reach me the most. You can learn a lot about people when you study how they react to leaving their comfort zone.
These first contacts giving similar vibes to preliminary study or introduction chapters of some discipline/courses. Fascinating and holds the graps of what would be uncovered next in depth detail
Very interesting to see all the Portuguese religious terms transliterated from speech into japanese orthography, like Bateren=Padre (Priest) and Iruman=Irmão (Brother).
There's also the portuguese encounter with natives from Brazil on 1500. There's a letter that details the encounter: "Letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha" ( Carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha )
Crazy to contemplate how many of these scenarios ended horribly, despite initially being so jovial and kind. Christians in japan, British in zululand, anytime the vikings came across ANYONE.
This is why I love history, it takes us on a journey into the past
That description of christianity by the Japanese is incredibly interesting! It's pretty spot on afterall, really the kinda stuff I'd imagine a missionary of the time would be eager to tell everyone that will listen, but it still sounds so fascinating when you consider it's someone with no prior knowledge of the Abrahamic religions describing it by comparing stuff to things their own people will understand where it's needed, it's just real neat.
It's not a real first contact account though. This was basically a propaganda piece written 96 years after first contact with the specific purpose of making christian missionaries look bad.
I like how they called the homes "fixed abodes" in the first account. Says a lot about how people viewed "their home" back then in that region. Some people were probably fine with abodes that were not "fixed" lol......which in the Western world, is a strange and alien idea these days.
"Immobile" is the common word for real estate in many languages.
strange idea? Ever heard of motor homes or trailer parks?
Basically the biggest source of conflict for much of history was settled people vs nomads
The Chinese were historically bordered to the north and west by nomadic tribes that they considered barbarians. People in those regions having "Fixed abodes" would have been a sign of civilisation for the Chinese.
@@skraskraa._.5371they were also specifically shopping around for allies against nomadic raiders, i.e. other people who live in fixed abodes
This is one of the most bizarre and interesting videos I have ever seen on CZcams. I totally appreciate how amazing it is and how it made me feel completely different than I was before I watched/listened to it! Thank you for your work!
I wish I could find really good documentaries on ancient history like this. I feel like typically a documentary follows one person, or one ruler, not the country it's about and their accounts or trades with other countries. Idk I just mean these are really interesting and detailed, it's cool seeing other ancient people in the perspective of a different ancient country.
I recommend listening to Fall of Civilizations podcast! They start off the episode with a foreigners' first contact with remnants of the empire before diving into what living in the empire during it's peak was like, what food they ate, what the people of the empire were proud of in their poems, and what eventually caused the empire's fall into the ruins which the foreigner in the beginning of the video saw when they rediscovered the place.
@@NotSomeJustinWithoutAMoustache that sounds awesome thank you!!
@@brownmuta7537 How was the FoC podcast?
Fascinating stuff! I would appreciate a little more context for each account so its easier to place who was meeting where and in what time period.
As someone from the British isles the Japanese account has me HOWLING 😭😭😭
Funny thing, my school in Portugal was in honour of Padre Pedro Arrupe, a Spanish priest who was the first to get in Nagasaki after the city was bombed, transforming his house into a hospital and having a major role in creating the jesuista order. Funnily enough, one record he recall was how the Japanese kids would call him a certain name due to his big nose
wanna know something as funny if not funnier?, there’s a species of monkey in SEA that’s also known as the Dutchman because of its big nose.
Japanese art influenced by Christianity is so beautiful.
no
@@idonthinksolad Yes.
@@idonthinksoladcry about it
The Christian's arriving in Japan was fascinating. It is rather interesting that the Padre is described as completely black save for his nose. I assume that the priest was swarthy, perhaps Mediterranean and perhaps tanned from his journey. As the Japanese at that time would not have had contact with Africans, or other black people, they would have considered the priest to be black, at least in comparison to themselves. The description of the priest looking like a goblin, might simply have been the writer being unkind, or perhaps the priest was not the most handsome of men, though the description of him having claws on his feet is puzzling. Perhaps he is referring to the pointy toes of courtly shoes. The description of the converted beating themselves seems to be a description of self flagellation practiced on some Catholic sects. It is all very fascinating seeing it through alien eyes.
I guess that because the Padre's vest was black from neck to toe, and he probably had black hair, black beard and black eyes, so it looked like only his nose was not black. The Portugueses are tanned, but Japanese men are usually much darker, so I guess the black vest has something to do with it.
@@KanukosanThat's possible.
@@Kanukosan I figured the same thing, or something similar- A Jesuit, wearing all black clothes
@@Kanukosan Yeah, when I was in High school people used to mistake my friend's Japanese father for Mexican because he used to work outside a lot and was very tan. I never understood how they were so confused he has a distinctly Japanese facial structure but apparently tan = Mexican in a lot of my peers' eyes
@@clarehidalgo Same thing on China. My colleague told me how the kids in her class used to laugh at her because she was black, when all she was, was tanned from playing outside all the time. In all cultures, even African, the darker your skin the more ugly you are considered.
Pêro Vaz de Caminha's letter narrating the first encounter between the Portuguese and natives in (what would be) Brazil is fascinating and would be a great addition. On a sinister note, but an important one, Gomes Eanes de Zurara's account in 1444 of early African enslaved people brought to Portugal in his "The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea", although I can't conclusively judge if it is appropriate for this channel as it is very upsetting.
Alexander trying to not name a city after himself challenge
lol
Just found your channel and I really enjoy the content!
I don't know if it would be much trouble but maybe adding a short introduction to each section, already for videos like this one where you have multiple accounts. Like half a paragraph to a paragraph of the time and setting, or any other relevant information.
Regardless this is now one of my favorite channels!
Very succinct narration and cool artwork choices. This video kept my attention and entertained, as well as informed me of some intriguing historical stories. I love this format!
Moctezuma, was told that the Spanish smelled. And when he first talked to Cortez, he didn't actually see him as a god (as many would believe) but he told Cortez: i am of flesh and bone as you are.
And they burned the city like devils, why no one knows
@@user-cg2tw8pw7j The Spanish burned a lot of their books, only a few of the codices still exist
Always informative AND fascinating!
Thanks!
The descriptions of mister Ibn Fadlan's are so rich, so beautiful, I lost myself in the pictures I imagined inspired by his words. I want to learn more about him.
This was exceptionally well done. I found it fascinating, particularly after listening to Dan Carlin’s series. Just excellent!
Ah yes, Boiled Beef. Truly a delight for any fine Victorian Englishman.
What?? No cabbage?!
@@davidanderson2357 Hey, sometimes you gotta make due with what you have...
"Boiled beef and carrots", as in the Song....
In my country's folklore, Dokkaebi is known as creatures that wields strength or knowledge about craftsmanship. I found out that these kind of folklore's fairy or gremlin was usually refering to people with different color that used to trade with my ancient country and some of them that decided to settle in my country. Many of them were Turkish or Northern nomadic tribes
This video showed me Soo many cultural connections that i didn't know and really gave me a more broad picture
The Roman’s first encounter with the Scottish or the British was a good one I read in grade school…
This was a delight to watch. Thank you ❤️
I've seen every History of the Universe/Earth video... how have I never stumbled upon this channel.
Instant subscribe as soon as I heard the voice.
This is gunna be so good.
I like how in history NO MATTER HOW DIFFERENT people were they recognized that there was some kind of commonality to be found in your fellow man and that the strain of TRYING TO UNDERSTAND each other, over time as technology has advances has deteriated that commonality....
If the Arabs thought the vikings were extremely dirty... then wtf where the Brits like if they thought the vikings were too clean?!
"Roaming asses." Ibn Fadlan was somehow aware of my existence over a thousand years before I was born.
A video of people talking about the technological change from the start of the 20th century would be interesting. Such as the roaring 20s, and the new things they got that we now have as standard.
Bing chilling on the Greeks 👀
Ibn Fadlan's account being so descriptive for the time is so unbelievably impressive.
Sounds like the 13th warrior great movie!
Well in this case you will love the toons of arabic chronicle (the famous in the west so translate a lot is « Journey » by Ibn Battuta (a Morrocan traveler of the late middle age)…but toons with a lot of day to day descriptions exist and are really like time machine for people that love history))
Fantastic. Highly informative and educational. Thank you.
Ibn Fadlan's story on the Viking Rus reminds me of the flick called the 13th Warrior. Because that is what they did in the beginning of the flick. One of the best flicks that I throughly enjoyed.
Be safe and be 😎
You failed to mention that the Europeans meeting with the Japanese, were from Portugal. Otherwise, you earned my subscription.✌️
Well, that explains why the writer described the Portuguese as black, having never encountered Africans the Japanese would have consider the swarthy Portuguese as black.
@@mecurian485 or maybe they were gasp black 🤣
@@terejosh13 Unlikely.
@@mecurian485 The Portuguese were big on African slavery, one can assume both their serfs and even one or more priests were subsaharan black.
@@Astraben The priest, the leader of the mission was described as black.
Interesting that the series Vikings incorporated that basin routine that Ibn Fadlan talked about, in the same order he mentioned too! They must’ve done their fair amount of research.
Well, from what I've seen from the show it isn't very historically accurate at all. Even if they got one thing right, starting with the armor, which is a mish-mash from all different time periods, to characters appearing which should have been long dead or which weren't even born by then. Also they're depiction of Norse women is wrong too, even though the Norse were more "progressive" than the rest of Europe at that time, the mere notion of a woman having any real power or participating in a raid or even choosing her own husband was unthinkable for the Norse. But at least the show was entertaining, even though it shouldn't be viewed as an accurate depiction of Norse culture or history.
This should be a series... What a video!
Jeez that Japanese historian roasted the hell out of those Portuguese guys. Listening to that description even hurt my feelings😂
Fascinating content. Would be good to add subtitle in your video, since pronunciation of foreign names in english isn't the easiest to understand 😅
love how everyone describes the other as foolish to some degree... says a lot about our human nature
Keep in mind the nature of the men writing such accounts. They have political motivations of their own. They write to stroke their own egos, and those of their superiors. They make promises of resources to exploit.
Accounts from common folk are not so widely shared or preserved
I love how all the first contacts involve confusion, missunderstanding and wonder
Dai yuan means "great Ionians" - Ionian is what the Alexandrian Greeks called themselves, essentially a general Greek endonym.
Fascinating delves into history, which is often weird, and often brutal, but important to know. Here's a like and comment for the Almighty Algorithm.
Man those may have been skillful shots from the sailors but lord are they lucky two lead balls somehow took down an elephant 😂
Might have been elephant guns (those existed- big-ass rifles meant for hunting big game)
@@Thanatar13 Considering the Gunmen's hesitation in fighting an elephant, I doubt it.
great presentation dude!
Thanks, this was really interesting!