Watch Legacy - The Origins of Civilization (Season 1, Episode 5)

Back to Details

Legacy - The Origins of Civilization

Season 1, Ep 5: Central America - The Burden of Time

4K Ultra HD

Connecting to Server 1...

Establishing authorized streaming connection

Servers

Select a server

Switch servers if playback fails or buffers.

S1 · E5

45m

1. Iraq - The Cradle of Civilization

In places like Uruk and Eridu in modern-day Iraq, humans founded the first cities nearly 6,000 years ago. They left us literature, astronomy, and mathematics, as well as lessons in overpopulation and environmental stewardship.

45m

2. India - Empire of the Spirit

Beginning 5,000 years ago, the "Land of the Seven Rivers" cultivated a tradition of nonviolence, renunciation of the material world, and a focus on humans' inner life. Today, these ideas survive in tension with the vestiges of Western colonialism.

45m

3. China - The Mandate of Heaven

With great thinkers such as Confucius and Lao-Tzu, the Chinese conceived a civilization reflecting cosmic harmony, sustained by civic and social virtue, ancient ritual, and reverence for ancestors.

45m

4. Egypt - The Habit of Civilization

In the world's first great nation, the annual flooding of the Nile conferred not only fertility, but also a deep respect for social and cosmic stability, a belief in the resurrection of the dead, and the hope of eternal life.

45mPlaying

5. Central America - The Burden of Time

Independent of great civilizations elsewhere, the Maya and Aztecs developed a violent, fatalistic culture, envisioning a cosmos that required bloody sacrifice for renewal. It placed the sovereignty of nature above all else - even human life.

45m

6. The Barbarian West

Now adopted nearly all over the globe, the modern Western ideas of individualism, property, and purposeful history trace their roots to Christianity, Greco-Roman humanism, and Germanic social values.

Legacy - The Origins of Civilization

Servers

1. Iraq - The Cradle of Civilization

2. India - Empire of the Spirit

3. China - The Mandate of Heaven

4. Egypt - The Habit of Civilization

5. Central America - The Burden of Time

6. The Barbarian West

You May Also Like

The True Story of Alexander the Great

Byzantium: The Lost Empire

Alexander: The Making of a God

Tutankhamun: Allies & Enemies

Bettany Hughes' Treasures of the World

Le Long de la Muraille de Chine