Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Our history is no more than a series

of incredible events.

Each one of us can influence its course.

The tiniest of our decisions

can influence the future of mankind.

To know the past is to anticipate the future.

(gentle instrumental music)

(dramatic instrumental music)

19th century England.

A little boy is running frantically

to get to school on time.

His name is Charles Darwin.

December 27th, 1831.

Darwin, now age 22, boards the Beagle,

a Royal Naval vessel.

1859, London.

Customers in a book shop jostle for copies

of On the Origin of Species, his most famous book.

These three intimately connected events

will lead to the development

and then to the spread of the Theory of Evolution

which will turn our way of seeing the world upside down.

(lively instrumental music)

Our story takes place in the 19th century

in a world that is changing fast.

Invented just a few decades earlier,

the steam engine is about to take humanity

into a new era.

(train whistling)

Free of the Napoleonic Wars,

the United Kingdom sends its ships out

to conquer the world.

This is the age of steam engines,

of industrialization and great scientific discoveries.

At the beginning of the century,

the United Kingdom is a prosperous country

of 16 million inhabitants.

Cut off from the continent by the Channel,

the island has long banked upon its fleet.

The Royal Navy is synonymous with prestige and power.

In the following century, one in four of the Earth's people

will be a subject of the British empire.

The power of the United Kingdom is unrivaled.

The inventor of the steam engine,

the country is sacrificing its agriculture

and staking everything on coal and industry.

(dramatic instrumental music)

The England of the 19th century is teeming

with scientists, writers, architects, and free thinkers.

In London, people are passionate about the new sciences,

such as paleontology, the first steam ships,

or the huge metallic structures of suspension bridges.

The English scientists are aware they're living

through a unique moment.

The Victorian Age is a veritable explosion of knowledge

and everybody wants to play a part.

- [Narrator] Welcome to the memory of humanity.

(gentle instrumental music)

Here, we can control time,

analyze and compare billions of events,

and alter them to rewrite history endlessly.

Our contemporary creations from the cell phone

to artificial hearts are the distant descendants

of generations of inventions.

Let's go back in time to 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia.

The Sumerians invent a counting system

based not on 10 units but on 60.

Our minutes and seconds have just been born.

A little later, Egypt divides the year into 12 months

or 365 days, each of 24 hours.

The Venetians create the alphabet,

later taken up by the Greeks,

who themselves will discover major mathematical theorems

and invent democracy.

While Indians will discover the zero and the numerals,

unfairly known as Arabic.

And we are still centuries before our age.

From the Roman aqueducts to the Millau viaduct,

only a tiny part of the techniques is really invented.

The major part of the road was already traveled.

This massive sum of knowledge constitutes a heritage,

a treasure belonging to civilization.

Without it, we would have to reinvent the wheel

at every generation.

Not to lose it seems an absolute priority.

(gentle instrumental music)

- [Narrator] Accumulating knowledge by learning by rote.

That is exactly what the young Charles Darwin

has problems with.

(birds chirping)

Born in 1809 in England, he is the fifth child of a doctor

with great aspirations for his son

that he follows the same path as his father.

However, Charles is much more interested

in the world around him than in school.

Often late, he describes himself later

as a simple little dullard.

His teachers think the same.

And yet, his difficulties at school have nothing to do

with his ability.

He is quite simply made for other things.

(energetic instrumental music)

He carries out chemistry experiments

after setting up a tiny secret laboratory

in the shed at the bottom of the family garden,

neglects his studies to collect marine samples at low tide,

and then study them with a makeshift microscope,

learns taxidermy from a former slave

who tells him fabulous stories about tropical forests,

collects rare beetles and classifies them by species,

crosses the country in a straight line,

off the beaten track by using a compass

to discover fabulous spots that are still wild.

His thirst for discovery is insatiable.

The world is too rich for him to spend his time

on a school bench reading Greek classics,

so he doesn't hurry his studies.

He knows that his father will pay whatever is necessary

for his son to become a doctor,

largely sufficient to give Darwin the time

to slake his thirst

for scientific experiments and discoveries,

until his father realizes his ploy

and suggests that Darwin enter the church.

- [Narrator] Everyone is unique.

Human beings are all different.

We all react to events in our own way.

Love specific things.

(gentle instrumental music)

School cannot adapt to everyone.

It is forced to offer an education suited

to the greatest number.

On the scale of a country, case by case proves complicated.

Thus, a pupil achieving poor results

may well attribute them to a lack of work

but it may also be that he is simply made

for different teaching.

Darwin is far from being an isolated case.

Albert Einstein, who developed the Theory of Relativity,

wasn't always a good student.

The same goes for Bousa, Churchill,

Thomas Edison, or John Lennon.

When Darwin carries out his own chemistry experiments

in his makeshift laboratory

or when he conscientiously classifies his beetles,

he is showing proof of real scientific reflection,

observation, hypothesis, experimentation,

data gathering, comparison of results, deduction.

He is unable to limit himself to one science.

His thirst drives him to delve into a whole range of fields.

This will be his strength.

For Darwin, it is not about learning

or even less believing,

but about observing and wondering.

(birds chirping)

- [Narrator] It is at this pivotal moment in his life

that he receives a letter from his teacher and mentor.

In the letter,

he suggests that he leave England for two years,

join a ship as a volunteer naturalist,

and set off to the other side of the world

to map the coastlines.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Darwin is excited, but immediately comes up

against his father's refusal.

He only sees this as yet another excuse not to study.

However, his uncle will take the young man's side

with a weighty argument.

At least Darwin will cost a lot less money.

♪ For a dash of whiskey and a bottle of rum

And so on December 27th, 1831 at 2 p.m.,

the Beagle, his majesty's exploration vessel,

sails from the port of Plymouth with Charles Darwin aboard.

(lively instrumental music)

After a long crossing,

the ship arrives within sight of Brazil.

This is the first stage of a huge voyage

during which the young naturalist

will seize every opportunity to go ashore

and explore the hinterland.

He braves the sticky heat of the Brazilian Pampas

to collect insect specimens,

digs up fossils of prehistoric mammals in Uruguay,

suffers the cold of Tierra Del Fuego,

and storms of Cape Horn.

He is amazed to discover animals surviving

in the muddy waters of Argentina's salt lakes,

endures thirst for hours on end

as he observes armadillos, ostriches, and lizards.

(dramatic instrumental music)

Then, on September 15th, 1835,

the Beagle sails within the sight of the mythical Galapagos.

These volcanic islands lost in the middle

of the Pacific Ocean

provide a formidable laboratory for Darwin.

Not content with just being able to observe close

the animals that are unique in the world,

he notices that on each island,

different bird populations,

even though from the same species,

present particular characteristics

as if isolated from each other,

they had become new branches, new animals.

This tiny observation is fundamental

and will be the basis of all his reflection.

And yet, all these discoveries almost never came about.

Let's now go back several years.

Darwin applies for the post of naturalist.

However, the captain of the Beagle studies him

and decides from the shape of his nose

that the young man lacks determination.

Aware that he will spend long months

in the young man's company,

the captain refuses to have him on board.

Fortunately for Darwin and for the rest of the world,

the captain finally changes his mind.

(eerie music)

(dramatic chords)

- [Narrator] We have just reached a turning point.

A turning point is a key event,

a crossroads in our history

where the world swings one way or the other.

The captain of the Beagle at first refused Darwin

because of a physical feature.

Let's have a little fun imagining what could have happened

if he had stuck to his original position.

For Darwin, it's easy.

He would have returned home

and his father would have made him go into the church.

One thing is certain.

Darwin would never have gathered sufficient observations

to develop his theory,

and even less gained the prestige necessary to defend it.

For the rest of the world, it's another story.

Darwin is the father of the Theory of Evolution,

but he is not the only one to have had intuitions about it.

Despite everything, the idea would have come to light,

but certainly not in the same way.

Based on hypothesis and not on direct observation,

it would probably have been contested

in a much more effective way

and very quickly, the population would have split

into pro- and anti-evolution.

Perhaps even to the point of creating a real crisis

in the United Kingdom.

More conservative countries like the United States

would have defended the old beliefs

while others, more liberal, such as Germany,

would have become evolutionist.

Our contemporary society would have been marked

by this split.

The radical opposition between creationists

and evolutionists would have seemed

like a veritable war of religion.

You can never underestimate the power of ideas.

(dramatic instrumental music)

- [Narrator] On October 2nd, 1836,

after a voyage lasting four years, nine months,

and five days, the Beagle finally returns home.

What Darwin doesn't know is that in his absence,

his former teacher has conscientiously

made his discoveries known.

So Darwin returns to the United Kingdom

with an already established celebrity.

It will be useful to him.

He brings with him hundreds of samples,

whole books crammed with precious notes

and an idea, an intuition.

Relying on his accumulated experience,

Darwin reflects, crosschecks, analyzes,

takes the time to be sure

and will do so over many years before he publishes

anything on the subject.

Why all these precautions?

Because his theory is revolutionary.

It could be summed up thus.

Living beings are in perpetual evolution.

From one generation to another,

parents transmit certain physical attributes

to their children.

For example, a tall man has a good chance

of having tall children.

From one generation to the next, our children change.

They evolve.

In nature, certain of these attributes

can prove to be useful, useless, or even a handicap.

A taller child will be able to pick fruit

from the higher branches of a tree,

but on the other hand, will be seriously handicapped

when hiding from predators.

Thus, the environment will favor the survival

and therefore, the reproduction,

of individuals possessing appropriate attributes

and inversely for the others.

(dramatic chord)

Life adapts by evolving.

(birds chirping)

In 1859, 20 years after his voyage on the Beagle,

Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.

Very quickly, it attracts opposition.

The principle criticism made against it is

that it questions the model that has existed

for 2,000 years,

that of the Bible and Genesis.

According to Christian religion,

God created the Earth and all living things upon it.

He made man in his own image,

the one he has today without any change since his origin.

God created the world and therefore the world is good

which does not fit in at all

with a natural selection that is merciless,

tarnishing the image of a harmonious nature

and even less with the notion of evolution itself.

This is a veritable earthquake

for traditional Christian thinking.

- [Narrator] Ideas are powerful.

This statement is so true that in every age,

the powers that be have distrusted them.

Let's return to the ancient world,

to the place where philosophy and democracy began.

Socrates was put on trial and then executed

for, amongst other things, corrupting youth.

The philosopher could not stop himself

from asking awkward questions.

The ones the powers did not want to hear.

Centuries later, Galileo is the subject

of a sensational trial.

The scholar claims that the Earth orbits around the sun

and not the opposite.

Today we know that he was absolutely correct.

Like Darwin, he has a theory based on scientific evidence.

Like Darwin's, it runs against the Christian vision.

He has many supporters within the clergy,

including the Pope.

However, being right is not enough

and Galileo will underestimate one thing.

To admit that one is wrong

and has been for centuries is never easy,

so while the clergy is happy to allow the two explanations

to exist side by side, which would spare the ego's

of the traditionalists,

Galileo insists and criticizes them in public.

The result is a trial from which he emerges the loser.

Great religions are by nature conservative.

They are like huge ships that cannot easily change course.

They need time.

Darwin knows this and will prove to be patient and wise.

For example, the principle of evolution is

at the heart of his theory,

but the word does not appear once in his text.

He takes care to treat the work

of his predecessors respectfully.

Darwin knows how to learn from the mistakes of the past.

(lively instrumental music)

- [Narrator] The first edition of On the Origin of Species

sells out in a single day.

More have to be printed.

In the end, there are no less than six editions

corrected and completed by Darwin,

who reacts to the attacks and the criticism

through his book.

Intelligently, he adapts his work

down to its final touch.

He takes no part in sterile debates,

in the jousting between partisans and opponents.

He keeps well away from the fray.

The strength of the book lies in its reasonable size

which makes it accessible to the widest readership

and not just to experts.

In 1869, despite strong opposition,

Darwin's theory is finally accepted

by the majority of the scientific world.

(dramatic instrumental music)

The first battle is won by the evolutionists,

but the war of ideas is only just beginning.

In reaction, a new opposition movement is born

at the end of the century in the United States

among Evangelist circles.

Creationism, which is based not on scientific study,

but on a literal reading of the bible,

defends the idea that God is creator of all.

Certain sections of the movement even go so far

as to state that the Earth was created 6,000 years ago

and that the fossils found are artifacts

placed here and there by God

in order to deceive the human mind.

With several million copies printed,

The Fundamentals, is a founding text of creationist thought.

It is the origin of the word fundamentalist.

(gavel banging)

In the United States, the legal battle is begun

and in 1925, the creationists manage to ban the teaching

of evolutionary theory in more than 15 out of the 48 states.

The ban will not be lifted until 1970.

In our day, the fight to impose the teaching

of creationism in the most powerful county

in the world is still raging.

Adversaries of Darwin have never been more virulent

or more powerful,

but that is another story.

(gentle instrumental music)

- [Narrator] It is easier to destroy than to create.

Darwin developed a theory that has been accepted

by the scientific world.

Today it is being questioned and opposed.

It could well see itself banned and then vanish.

This has happened before.

It will happen again.

The fragility of our achievements

can be observed every day.

Take, for example, the recent destruction

in the Middle East of historical evidence proving

that other civilizations existed before Islam.

By wiping out traces of the past,

you finally wipe out memories.

When the Mongols sacked Baghdad,

they burned a library containing a million manuscripts.

What secrets of our history vanished that day?

When we consider all the war and destruction

the world has seen,

it seems astonishing that we still have so much left.

It so happens that along the way,

the destroyers of knowledge have always been met

by their alter egos,

people or institutions who have stepped in

and who were able to defend these treasures.

From the fall of the Roman empire

to the agony of the Mongol invasions,

knowledge has been hidden away in churches,

has found refuge with new empires,

has continued to exist within the heart

of other civilizations.

To our own day, nobody has dropped the torch.

Our history is filled with museum curators

giving their lives to protect their collections,

librarians braving all dangers to save manuscripts,

resistance risking all to preserve a heritage.

They gave their lives

so that the world could continue to progress.

Today, it is our turn to ensure the handover.

(dramatic instrumental music)