Historiebogen

The first "volume" is about Medieval Europe with small isolated communities - with the possessors (landowners, clergy) and the landless (peasants, craftsmen) - and the merchants who build up their capital by buying cheaply from the Arabs and selling expensively to the landowners in the small European communities. The merchants from Venice keep all competitors away - and therefore Portuguese merchants set out to find another route to India, the sea route around Africa.

Vasco da Gama succeeds in finding the sea route south of Africa to India and returns safely to Portugal. On the east coast of Africa, he sets sail for rich trading cities that have never been heard of in Europe. In the African and Indian cities, it is difficult for the Portuguese to exchange for the desired goods. They have nothing of value to give in exchange. Nevertheless, the journey pays off well, and the next time the Portuguese come to these rich cities, it is with ships loaded with cannons, rifles and soldiers, and by force they now impose dominance over all trade in the Indian Ocean. In South America, the Portuguese and the Spanish conquer, among others, the Inca Empire, the Mayan Empire and the Aztec Empire. Everywhere they plunder and subjugate the indigenous population and take their wealth to Europe.

Now the wealth flows to Europe, but the merchants who have to sell the goods are charged customs duties, bridge tolls and other expenses by the petty princes. They feel taxed and look around for support in their fight against the princes. They find this support in the king - the landowner of all landowners. The king is also interested in crushing the power of the princes and becoming an absolute ruler. The merchants supply the king with weapons and money to pay the soldiers. Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, wars rage across most of Europe; the merchants and landowners fight for power. The wars result in the king's victory over the petty princes, and the first real nation-states are formed. Customs and other taxes are abolished within the borders of the individual states.

On August 3, 1562, John Hawkins sailed from London with three ships heading south. The slave trade on the west coast of Africa had begun. Other countries quickly followed, all profiting from the human trade. Cities and forts were built along the coast, and black slave hunters sold their compatriots to Europeans for guns and cotton clothing. The slaves were shipped, tightly packed in the cargo of the ships, to America, where they were sold to plantation owners. In America, the ships were loaded with sugar, tobacco, cotton, coffee and spices, all things that could be sold at a high price in Europe.

The period from the middle of the 18th century to the end of the 19th. The breakthrough of industrialism is a triumph for employers. For craftsmen and farmers it is a tragedy. But industrial development also turns out to be a tragedy for many "capitalists".

The crisis in industry begins in 1873 and spreads to all industrial countries, the workers are put on the streets without work, wages and food. They gather for meetings and form socialist trade unions and parties. Karl Marx writes the Communist Manifesto together with Engels in 1848, and the 1st International is founded in 1864. -Stanley returns from his voyages of discovery in Africa, and the capitalists find a temporary solution to the crisis here. Here are raw materials, cheap labour and a market for European surplus production. Everyone takes their share, borders are drawn, Africa is divided into colonies. Capital also finds its way together in other ways, trusts and cartels are formed, or some become so powerful that they can form monopolies.

The two world wars, revolution in Russia that ended with state capitalism, the interwar period with unemployment, Nazism and fascism, the post-war period with the Cold War in Europe and Russian domination of Eastern Europe, and the Cultural Revolution in China.

Unrest and rebellion in the colonies characterize the period after World War II. The old colonial powers have to give up, the colonies become independent states, but lack capital and education, among other things; they are still dependent on others. The rich countries provide aid to developing countries, but on their own terms. Everywhere the new states encounter difficulties - they have to cope with monopolies, the common market, the World Bank, multinational corporations, etc.

In an interview recorded three weeks before the change of power in Portugal in April 1974, Gil Fernandes, P.A.I.G.C. talks about the Portuguese colony of Guinea Bissau and the formation of the freedom movement P.A.I.G.C. Real-life and cartoon films illustrate the conditions and developments in the colony up to April 1974.