Join CNN's MILLENNIUM for a panoramic sweep over the last 1,000 years, watching the people, events and achievements that shaped the world. The 10, one-hour episodes of MILLENNIUM are extraordinary in their range of vision and compelling in their presentation. Yet MILLENNIUM is neither chronological nor all-encompassing. Instead, it is eclectic, a pastiche of things great–or small–that sculpted the world. Each of the 10 episodes of MILLENNIUM focuses on a single century, brought to life by five vignettes from five different locations worldwide. Inspired by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's book, “Millennium,” and filmed in 28 countries, the series is as geographically far-ranging as the world it covers. Its producers and crews spent more than two years and traveled 100,000 miles gathering footage. MILLENNIUM reconstructs the visual images of past ages using this footage, along with vivid re-enactments and computer-generated graphic animation.
Part 4 The Fourteenth Century Century of the Scythe
Black Death, the catastrophic plague that invaded Europe from the East, cut short the new prosperity. Treatment varied from the magical to the scientific. In Cairo, the number of deaths was said to reach 21.000 a day. While the great empires were devastated, smaller ones flourished. Mali, in west Africa, became wealthy through trading gold and salt. In Central Asia, Timur, a Turk born near Samarqand, rose from sheep-stealer to conqueror and creator of a vast empire that gave the world some of its most spectacular Islamic architecture. Seaborne trade prospered, especially at the eastern end of the Indian Ocean. In East Java, the Kingdom of Majapahit thrived under the splendid rule of Hayan Wuruk. Europe also suffered other catastrophes - terrible famine and a mini ice age. Across Europe, there was a call for greater equality between people and their rulers.
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