What on Earth Happened? Christopher Lloyd Illustrations by Andy Forshaw Part 1 Mother Nature (13.7 billion – 7 million BC) How the universe was formed, and the unfolding of life on earth before mankind. 1 Crunch, Bang, Ouch! How an invisible speck of infinite energy exploded our universe into existence, with its galaxies of stars and constant laws of physics. 2 First Twitches How collisions, bombardments and volcanoes pummelled the young earth's hot, lifeless crust, and how chemicals began to replicate into microscopic forms of life. 3 Tectonic Teamwork How conditions for creating new, more complex creatures were improved by the joint forces of the earth's planetary systems and the processes of early life.
4 Fossil Fuss How life exploded into a variety of new organisms, some of which developed hard shells, bones and teeth that fossilized into a timeless museum of life on earth. 5 Davy Jones's Locker How prehistoric life evolved in the seas before living creatures colonized the land, and how some fish developed backbones – becoming humanity's oldest ancestors. 6 Friends of the Earth How plants on land eventually evolved into tall trees, and how the ground was covered with a blanket of nutrient-rich soil nurtured by insects, worms and fungi. 7 Great Egg Race How the earth's restless crusts collided into a single, giant super- continent, provoking new forms of life to evolve and triggering the first mass extinction of land creatures.
8 Dino-Wars How a race of terrible lizards came to dominate life on land, radiating from pole to pole until a freak extra-terrestrial impact wiped them all out. 9 Flowers, Birds & Bees How the earth's first flowers blossomed alongside feathered flight, and how new species of social insects constructed nature's first civilizations. 10 Prime Time How a minor family of nocturnal forest dwellers became the next masters of life on land, spilling out on to the earth's drifting continents and morphing into a new cornucopia of species. Part 2 Homo Sapiens (7 million – 5000 BC) How humans evolved as hunter-gatherers, living within the state of nature.
11 Ice Box How climate changes caused by cyclical variations in the earth's rotation and random movements of the continental crusts created expansive grasslands and caps of polar ice. 12 Food for Thought How some creatures, called apes, came down from the trees, learned to walk on two feet, began to fashion tools for hunting and evolved into species with larger than average brains. 13 Humanity How several species of early humans adapted to Ice Age conditions, learned to tame fire and cooked freshly hunted meat as they spread across Africa, Europe and Asia. 14 The Great Leap Forward How a single species of humans, Sapiens, became the last to survive on earth, colonizing previously uninhabited lands and learning to talk and hunt with new types of flighted weapons.
15 Hunter-Gatherer How humans lived in a state of nature for 99 per cent of their history on earth without permanent homes, full-time jobs or private possessions. 16 Deadly Game How a coincidence of modern humans and climate changes upset the ecological balance first in Australia and then in the Americas, leading to a mass extinction of many large animals. 17 Food Crops Up How men and women experimented with survival techniques following the last Ice Age melt, leading to humanity's first attempts to manipulate evolution for its own self-interest. Part 3 Settling In (5000 BC – c.570 AD) How farm animals and crops led to the growth of a range of different human civilizations.
18 Written Evidence How the art of writing ushered in an era known as 'history' in which merchants, rulers, artisans, farmers and priests established the first human civilizations. 19 Divine Humanity How nature's bounty helped some rulers become living gods in the eyes of their subjects, commanding supreme obedience, total devotion and absolute protection – even in the afterlife. 20 Mother Goddess How veneration for nature's cycles of birth, life and death became a hallmark for some human civilizations that devoted themselves to fertility, femininity and equality. 21 Triple Trouble How a trilogy of domestic horses, wheeled chariots and Bronze Age weapons fanned out across Asia, Europe and North Africa, creating waves of destruction, conquest, and inequality.
22 Dragon's Lair How a powerful and enduring human civilization arose from the East thanks to an abundance of natural riches in the forms of rice, silk and iron. 23 Peace of Mind How a particular civilization re-discovered that humans could live in harmony with nature and set about trying to spread its enlightened message. 24 East–West Divide How clashes between wandering nomads and rival civilizations seeded some of the world's most ancient, pernicious and enduring human disputes. 25 Olympic Champions How a range of new experimental lifestyles emerged in a cluster of highly competitive city states that learned to live off the fruits of trade.
26 Conquerors of the World How humanity's understanding of nature's systems began to express itself in philosophies and laws that were carried by conquest throughout the East and West. 27 Hurricane Force How an empire built by violent human copy-cats clung to power far beyond its natural limits despite the birth of Jesus Christ, a man who came to be called Messiah. 28 Timbuk-taboo How people living outside the scope of civilizations and wandering herders maintained their veneration for nature, resourcefulness and spiritual well-being. 29 Amaizing Americas How humans in the New World created their own civilizations, oblivious to those established in Europe, North Africa and Asia, but were fatally handicapped by a lack of large animals.
Part 4 Going Global (c.570 AD – present day) How the fates of human civilizations and the natural world fused into a global whole. 30 What a Revelation! How a series of visions appeared to Mohammed, a man from Mecca, giving birth to Islam, a new way of life that promised to perfect the errors of mankind. 31 Paper, Printing & Powder How Chinese scientific discoveries gradually spread westwards via Islam to Europe, supercharged by a Mongol chief who created the world's largest empire. 32 Medieval Misery How plague, invasions and famine impoverished Christian Europe, which found itself surrounded by Islamic civilizations, impenetrable desert and endless blue seas.
33 Treasure Hunt How each of the world's settled human societies sought out their own various fortunes through a mixture of trade, toil and theft. 34 Moules Marinière How a few maritime explorers accidentally discovered a New World. Their arrival proved fatal to ancient civilizations and provoked a fierce contest between the rival nations of Europe. 35 Fancy a Beer? How European merchants pioneered a new way of life overseas that fuelled a taste for growing lucrative crops, making some very rich and many more poor.
36 New Pangaea How crops and creatures were farmed, harnessed, transported and exploited for the fancies of a single, global and mostly civilized species: man. 37 Mixed Response How different human civilizations reacted to the arrival of European businessmen-cum-soldiers eager to trade for profit. 38 Free Reign How extreme inequality between people ignited rebellions in the name of freedom, and how armies were conscripted for the sake of a feeling, flag or song. 39 Monkey Business How the human species freed itself from nature's limitations by mastering its own source of transportable power and how its populations increased beyond all reasonable measure.
40 White Man's Race How people from the West became convinced they were superior to all living things, believing it was their duty to subjugate the globe to their way of life. 41 Back to the Future How some people tried to resist the advance of Western civilization, wishing instead to return to a more natural order, but whose attempts often met with catastrophic consequences. 42 Witch Way? How the whole world was bound into a single system of global finance, trade and commerce, sustained by relentless scientific endeavour. Can the earth and its living systems sustain humanity's ever increasing demands? Acknowledgements The year I have spent researching and writing this book would have been entirely impossible were it not for the unwavering support of my wonderful wife.
Apart from being the best companion anyone could ever hope for, her no-nonsense proof reading stopped me drifting down many narrative cul- de-sacs. The constant inspiration of our two lovely daughters has been just as important. A big thank you also to our dog, Flossie. It would have been quite impossible to work out where on earth to begin and end each chapter without our many country walks.
I have also greatly benefited from the generosity, enthusiasm and support of my parents, family, friends and colleagues for which I am eternally grateful. To mention everyone would be unfair to forests. But I would especially like to thank Richard Balkwill, Satish Kumar, Andrew Lownie and Felipe Fernandez-Armesto for their advice and guidance. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Mike Jones, who had the extraordinary courage and confidence to commission this book.
The publishing team at Bloomsbury has been a complete delight to work with at every stage of this project. Their professionalism and sheer passion for publishing beautiful books is second to none. In particular I would like to thank Richard Atkinson, Robert Lacey, Will Webb, Anne- Marie Ehrlich, Andy Forshaw, Polly Napper, Penelope Beech, Anya Rosenberg, Ruth Logan, Katie Mitchell, Sarah Barlow and Vicki Robinson. Sincere thanks also to Ludger Ikas, Malte Ritte and Sebastian Vogel at Berlin Verlag, and to Colin Dickerman at Bloomsbury USA.
However, the biggest debt of gratitude I owe is to Natalie Hunt, whose boundless professionalism, patience and sheer hard work saw this huge project safely through from early manuscript to final polish. Other thanks go to all those unknown trees that have been sacrificed in the course of telling this extraordinary story. There's a good 300 million years of evolutionary wizardry just in the paper between these covers. Finally, I dedicate this book to the memories of two special people.
Dodo, my grandmother, would have taken such a keen interest in this whole project. My other dedication is to dear Christo, my namesake and late great uncle, whose generosity of spirit and passionate interest in other people knew no bounds. Comments and suggestions about this book can be posted on the discussion forum at www. All contributions and feedback are most welcome.
Prologue HISTORY IS IN TROUBLE. It has been splintered by experts into discrete topics and chopped up by governments to suit their educational fancies. Worst of all, it is almost never presented chronologically. How old is the universe? When did life on earth begin? Who was mankind's oldest ancestor? How did ancient Chinese science shape the modern world? Why did democracy begin in Greece? Are humans really superior to other living things? Many people today are understandably confused about the answers to such a broad but fundamental range of questions, when all they learned at school was a few facts about kings and queens, a world war or two and maybe something about creatures called dinosaurs.
Knowledge about the past is now scattered among so many separate subject disciplines and buried within so many different books, it is easy to see why people may find it hard to enjoy what history has to offer without getting hopelessly lost or tied up in knots. What on Earth Happened? is a journey that begins at the beginning, 13.7 billion years ago. Using the metaphor of a twenty-four-hour clock, it tells the story of everything in four parts: the origins of the universe and life on earth before mankind (Part 1: Mother Nature); the evolution of humans within the natural world (Part 2: Homo Sapiens); the development of a range of different human civilizations (Part 3: Settling In); and the fusion of those civilizations and the natural world into a global whole (Part 4: Going Global).