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Enclaves, loaned territories, disputed areas and microstates: This is the series that looks at places with absurd borders.

More absurd geopolitics: A new season of Crazy Borders

The series that looks at 10 places with complicated and absurd borders.

Crazy Borders

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On 4 August 2024, at least three billion people around the world will watch the 100-metre final of the Olympic Games in Paris. The highly popular discipline captures our imagination as we watch athletes go beyond what seems humanly possible. But how do sprinters keep getting faster? And will we eventually reach our limit? A deep dive into the 100 metres from the beginning of the modern Olympics in 1896 to the iconic sprinter Usain Bolt.

The Fastest Legs on Earth

 A deep dive into the 100 metres from the beginning of the modern Olympics to the iconic sprinter of our times, Usain Bolt.

100 Metres

Rowing, and the eight in particular, has a long tradition that is not just about sport: political influence, relationships and women's fight for equal rights have also played a major role. This documentary follows the German men's eight as it prepares for Paris 2024 as well as the historic Boat Race between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

With all eyes on the Olympic Games in Paris, the documentary sheds light on the myth of the eight-man rowing team.

Eight on Board: A History of Rowing

In 1895, the inhabitants of Chaudun in the Hautes-Alpes can no longer survive in a depleted environment and sell their village to the state. Narrated by Marina Hands, this documentary sheds light on the political and social stakes of an ecological catastrophe with very contemporary repercussions.

A documentary that sheds light on the political and social challenges of an ecological catastrophe with long-standing repercussions.

Chaudun: Ecological Catastrophe

What makes a good socialist animal? In the GDR in the 1950s, relations between humans and animals were redefined according to socialist ideals. Gone were the days of cuddling cats at home or taking dogs for long walks: in a society that rejected individualism, animals had to be useful to the community in East Germany.

Animals of the GDR

In communist East Germany, relations between humans and animals were redefined according to socialist ideals.

Socialist Creatures

Triads, Chinese mafia organisations, are brutal criminal cartels and economic powerhouses. For centuries, they have managed to flourish under every regime and their influence today extends across east Asia and deep into Western societies. Their story is characterised by power, ambition and boundless brutality.

An investigation into Chinese mafia organisations, that are both brutal criminal cartels and economic powerhouses.

Triads: The Chinese Mafia on the Rise

Various symbols accompany protest movements and social change. But where do their origins lie? The peace sign is universal and yet few people know its origins. The rainbow flag symbolises hope, freedom, and resistance for queer people, while the raised fist is a sign against police violence and racism.

Where do protest symbols come from?

Striking symbols often accompany protest movements and social change. But how were they created?

I Saw the Sign

In April 1974, left-wing factions in the Portuguese military staged a coup against the authoritarian regime which had been in power for half a century. The uprising was largely peaceful and went down in history as the Carnation Revolution. But the path to a democratic Portugal was not easy and not without obstacles.

Carnations against Dictatorship

On the night of 24 April 1974, a peaceful uprising put an end to the Salazar dictatorship, paving the way for a democratic Portugal.

Portugal

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20th Century

Europe's peasantry has undergone much upheaval over the centuries. From their rise in the Middle Ages after the fall of the Roman Empire, to oppression by the nobility and the church, to struggles for freedom and modernisation in the modern era. Peasants and farmers have played an active role in political upheavals across the ages. Today, the farming sector faces new challenges due to technological changes and climate crisis.

A History of Peasants

The turbulent history of the people that work the land, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day.

Ploughing Tilling Fighting:

As a tattoo or worn as a pendant, the Hamsa or Hand of Fatima can symbolise many things. Originally from North Africa and the Middle East, its symbolism and religious significance varies widely.

The Hand of Fatima: A Universal Symbol?

As a tattoo or worn as a pendant, the Hamsa or Hand of Fatima can symbolise many things.

Making History

Looking at history through the prism of one object. In this episode, the intrauterine device (IDU) in plastic or copper brought birth control to the masses in the 20th century. But this form of contraception has not always been a force for women’s liberation.

Birth Control: Emancipation or Forced Sterilisation?

The history of the intrauterine device (IDU) , this plastic or copper contraption that brought birth control to the masses.

While the shipping container is instantly recognisable in today's era of globalisation, its ancestor in Greco-Roman Antiquity looked very different: it was the amphora. Patrick Boucheron and the historian Sarah Rey reveal the secrets and meanings behind this "simple" terracotta object.

While today we use the shipping container, its ancestor was the amphora

The Amphora

The history of tax returns is also the story of how the state slowly became more centralised and more controlling. From historical documents, to the most contemporary and computerised forms, this is the history of income tax returns (and tax evasion).

This is the history of income tax returns (and tax evasion)

A History of Taxes

With the advent of the modern cemetery, came the coffin. Gone were the days of mass graves and ossuaries. The adoption of the coffin results in the development of a funeral market as discreet as it is profitable.

How changing customs created a booming death industry

Coffins Gain Ground

Civilisations

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The statue of the tyrant killers Harmodius and Aristogeiton was erected in the 5th century BC as a memorial to the victory of democracy over tyranny on the Agora of Athens. The motif was also adopted on Greek vases and coins. Historian Vincent Azoulay explains how the depiction of the tyrant killers has evolved over the centuries, culminating in the most controversial of all contemporary monumental sculptures.

The Statue of Tyrannicide

The statue of Harmodius and Aristogeiton was erected in the 5th century BC as a memorial to the victory of democracy over tyranny.

The Great Wave of Kanagawa, painted by Hokusai around 1830, became internationally famous as Japan opened up to the outside world during the Meiji era from the 1860s onwards. Emmanuel Lozerand, professor of Japanese language and literature explores the meaning of this iconic work.

Hokusai: The Great Wave

Emmanuel Lozerand, professor of Japanese language and literature explores the meaning of this iconic work created in 1830.

The first magnifying glasses or "reading stones" were used in monasteries in the Middle Ages. Reading glasses appeared in cities such as Florence in the 13th century and accompanied the invention of paper. Claire Angotti, historian who studies tools related to knowledge, tells us more.

The Invention of Eye Glasses

The first magnifying glasses or "reading stones" were used in monasteries in the Middle Ages

How does a flower become a political and legal symbol? The camellia in Brazil represents the late abolition of slavery in 1888. It speaks to us of the republics of fugitive slaves, but also of the violent conditions of an abolition "conceded" by only a part of the former masters. It is under the banner of this flower that a deeply divided and unequal rainbow nation was born.

The Camelia, the Flower of Emancipation

How does a flower become a political and legal symbol?

A powerful symbol of justice meted out by the royal hand, the hand of justice played a prominent place in the coronation rituals of the Kings of France. The symbol first emerged in the 13th century to represent how kings of France delegated the management of the justice system to the courts.

The Hand of Justice

The hand of justice played a prominent place in coronation rituals in France

Symbol of the industrial revolution at the end of the 18th century, the extraction of coal catapulted the world into the modern era. It also galvanised the labour movement and continues to be burned to this day. But it will accelerate climate change.

Coal: The Poisonous Black Diamond

Symbol of the industrial revolution at the end of the 18th century, the extraction of coal catapulted the world into the modern era.

Peter Durand invented the tin can, a small but mighty innovation that changed the world. The method meant Western powers were able to feed entire armies all around the world as Europe wrestled for global dominance.

The Tin Can: Conserve and Survive

Peter Durand invented the tin can, a small but mighty innovation that changed the world

Mummies are not only from Ancient Egypt, the desire to preserve the dead runs throughout history. 19th century embalming practices, for example, revealed a new relationship to mourning and the afterlife. Historian Anne Carol takes us through our relationship to the body and death.

Mummies are not only from Ancient Egypt, the desire to preserve the dead runs throughout history.

The Mummy and its Metamorphosis

In the 18th century, patterned fabrics became fashionable and were used both in dresses and in bourgeois furniture upholstery. This trend was the result of the international cotton trade from India, an exchange that foreshadowed globalisation. Indiennes fabrics are considered the first specimen of "fast fashion", as we know it today.

Indienne Fabrics and the Birth of Fast Fashion

Indiennes fabric from the 17th century is considered the first specimen of "fast fashion"

While the shipping container is instantly recognisable in today's era of globalisation, its ancestor in Greco-Roman Antiquity looked very different: it was the amphora

The heroicisation of athletes conflates their physical ability with personal economic success. The football shirt is at once a useful everyday object and the stuff of legend. It's the modern day, real life hero's cape.

The Football Shirt: The Modern Hero's Uniform

The football shirt is at once a useful everyday object and the stuff of legend

The ceremonial smoking pipe is Amerindian, but without a name from the Amerindian language. It was 'discovered' by French and British colonists who came into contact with the indigenous population in the 17th century. Amerindians then boarded French ships and took the pipe to the other side of the Atlantic, where it quickly became popular.

Ceremonial Smoking Pipes: Conflict and Resolution

 What was the original meaning of the 'peace pipe' used by Native Americans?

The Lumière brothers not only invented the cinematograph: in 1903 they also succeeded in fixing colours on glass plates. Looking at those images, time flattens. These long-dead models staring back through a now non-existent lens seem vivid and alive. But thirty years later, colour had once again been drained out of the frame. Historian Adrien Genoudet explains what happened.

Autochrome: Life in Colour

The oldest colour photography in the world distorts time: these long-dead models seem vivid and alive

The political history of the microphone throughout the 20th century is also the story of how free speech became democratised. This advance in technology triggered major cultural shifts, as the voiceless suddenly found they could make themselves very, very loud.

The Microphone

The political history of the microphone throughout the 20th century is also the story of how free speech became democratised

The gilded frame appeared in the Middle Ages transforming a work of art into a picture that could be bought and sold. Historian Charlotte Guichard explains how the invention of the frame made the modern art market, and art collections, possible.

The Picture Frame - A Window on the Art World

Paris, 12 May 1588: the so-called "day of the barricades" marked a high point in the Wars of Religion, pitting Catholics against Protestants in 16th century France and Europe. Prompted by the Catholic League, Parisians piled rubbish and barrels full of stones to block the way of King Henry III's troops.

The Barricade: Fortifying an Insurrection

Napoleon's gray frock coat was a way of conveying to Europe that though he was now a statesman, he was first and foremost a man of war. Even more than the legendary bicorne, the frock coat became a piece of visual propaganda, proof of the Emperor's power.

Napoleon: Snappy Dresser?

Napoleon's gray frock coat was a way of conveying to Europe that though he was now a statesman, he was first and foremost a man of war

Historians reveal the fascinating history of objects: Documents, materials, devices or clothes, everything has a tale to tell.

An exploration of Cologne Cathedral, an emblematic monument and world heritage site. The towering place of worship took over 600 years to complete. Once the tallest building in the world, its ornate facade remains a masterpiece of Gothic architecture - and a reflection of the evolution of Franco-German relations.

The French Cathedral on the Rhine

An exploration of an emblematic monument and world heritage site that took over 600 years to complete.

Cologne Cathedral

Triads originated in China in the 17th century as secret societies and gradually developed into criminal organisations. This is the story of how they acquired wealth and power through the drug trade, were able to influence the founding of the Chinese Republic and have gained power and influence around the world.

Originating in 17th century China as secret societies, Triads gradually developed into criminal organisations. 

Triads: The Chinese Mafia on the Rise (1/3)

It is still not clear where in Africa the cradle of humanity lies. To date, fossilised remains of our ancestors have been found in Ethiopia and South Africa, among other places. An international research tea, Human Origins, is searching for more fossils around southern Africa to try and find the first humans.

An international research team is trying to find where the first human beings came from.

Africa: Looking for the First Humans

From antiquity to the present day, a dense account of two millennia of intolerance and persecution of the Jews, supported by the fascinating insights from a host of scholars.

In the Beginning: 38 - 1144

A history of anti-Jewish feeling from ancient Alexandria to the crusades.

A History of Antisemitism (1/4)

Why did French President Jacques Chirac chase Israeli police from a church in Jerusalem? Strangely for a secular nation, France owns property in the Holy Lands which the country ealously guards.

France's Holy Lands

Why did French President Jacques Chirac chase Israeli police from a church in Jerusalem? 

Many Europeans are probably descended from medieval peasants, but we know remarkably little about the lives of the peasantry. Often derided and misunderstood, this four-part documentary tells the story of these people at the bottom of the social scale from the early Middle Ages onwards.

The Beginning (1/4)

Ploughing Tilling Fighting: A History of Peasants

The village and West Berlin exclave of Steinstücken was less than a kilometre from West Berlin, surrounding by the GDR. During the height of the Cold War, they had real problems…

Steinstücken: A West Berlin Exclave in East Germany

During the height of the Cold War, a German village with just one fridge had problems... 

1144 - 1791: the gradual dehumanisation of the Jewish people, from the first "Jewish nose" in Christian painting and the stereotype of the "rich usurer" to the expulsion of the Jews from the great kingdoms of Europe.

Rejection: 1144-1791

In the 12th and 13th centuries, the situation deteriorated for Jews in Europe.

A History of Antisemitism (2/4)

Why does a Russian region in the far east have Yiddish as an official language? The region of Birobidzhan was the Soviet Union’s plan for a Jewish homeland within the socialist world.

Birobidzhan: A Jewish State in the USSR

Why does a Russian region in the far east have Yiddish as an official language? 

Liberty, equality, fraternity? The French Revolution gave European Jews hope that discrimination would end. However, political movements and pseudo-scientific trends generated new forms hatred of Jews, under a new term: "anti-Semitism".

Emancipation to the Holocaust 1791-1945

A History of Antisemitism (3/4)

An enclave of one country in an enclave of another country, itself within an enclave… This oddity was located on the border between India and Bangladesh in the mad patchwork of enclaves in Cooch Behar. This is a case for Crazy Borders!

Enclave Chaos in Cooch Bechar

An enclave of one country in an enclave of another country, itself within an enclave…

An investigation into four of the world's largest Chinese triads, whose global influence has grown steadily over the years. Episode 2: In 1997 and 1999, the retrocession of Hong Kong and Macau to the People's Republic of China offered the triads the opportunity to make a pact with their old Communist enemy.

In 1997 and 1999, the retrocession of Hong Kong and Macau to China offered the triads a golden opportunity.

Triads: The Chinese Mafia on the Rise (2/3)

Sleep in one country and have lunch in the neighbouring country? This is possible at the Hotel Arbez on the Franco-Swiss border - a self-proclaimed micronation with its own coat of arms.

Hotel Arbez: A Chocolate Frontier

Welcome to the Hotel Arbez, it’s a lovely place straddling the Franco-Swiss border.

The Lost Ones are stories of people who were born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their individual fates give insight into big, dramatic events in world history.

The Lost Ones are stories of people who were born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The Lost Ones

How is antisemitism still possible after Auschwitz? After the war, the Nazi horror is gradually brought to light in all its terrifying dimensions. However, the anti-Semitic Phoenix rises from its ashes once again.

The New Face of Antisemitism: Since 1945

A History of Antisemitism (4/4)

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A small island in the Rio de la Plata is shared by Argentina and Uruguay. But why does this binational island have two different names?

Martin Garcia & Timoteo Dominguez - One Island - Two Countries

A thin strip of Belgian territory in the German countryside which marks out five German enclaves? How did the Vennbahn, actually a cycle lane, come into being?

The Vennbahn: German or Belgian?

How did a Belgian cycle lane come to exist within Germany?

On a map, the village of Nahwa looks like a fried egg: An Emirati enclave in the Omani territory of Mahda, itself landlocked in the United Arab Emirates. The reason for this? The choice of local people decades ago at a time when water was more precious than oil.

Nahwa and Madha: An Enclave within an Enclave

An Emirati village surrounded by an Omani enclave was mapped out at time when water was more valuable than oil.

A territory whose inhabitants were stateless? That's what happenede in the territory of Moresnet, co-managed by Germany and Belgium. A tax haven with a major zinc mine, which was also a den of smugglers…

Neutral Moresnet

A tax haven with a major zinc mine, which was also a den of smugglers…

Why are two Royal Marines standing guard on this tiny rock covered in bird droppings? Around Rockall, the continental shelf is disputed by British, Irish, Danish and Icelandic governments. Unless Greenpeace get in on the act... This is a clear case for Crazy Borders!

Rockall: A North Atlantic Dispute

Why are two Royal Marines standing guard on this tiny rock in the North Atlantic covered in bird droppings? 

The story of Fritz, an Asian elephant taken from his native India to Europe, is one of animal exploitation and cruelty. At the height of European colonial expansion, he performed in the world's largest circus.

The story of Fritz, an Asian elephant taken from his native India to Europe, is one of animal exploitation and cruelty at the height of European colonial expansion.

Fritz, the Elephant - A Tragic Story

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Gathering the experiences of former MK fighters from the armed wing of the ANC, this documentary pays tribute to the forgotten heroes of the fight against apartheid, who sacrificed their lives to free South Africa from racial oppression.

This documentary pays tribute to the forgotten heroes of the fight against apartheid, who sacrificed their lives to free South Africa from racial oppression.

MK: Mandela's Secret Army

Patrick Boucheron brings history to life through objects. With the inventions of photography the Turin shroud, a relic venerated for centuries, found a new lease of life as the photographic negatives seemed to confirm its sacred status. A relic in the age of mechanical reproduction.

The Turin Shroud - A Relic for the 20th Century

Ostracism is still commonly used in our contemporary political vocabulary to designate exclusion and has its origins in Ancient Greece. Paulin Ismard, a specialist in the political anthropology of ancient Greece, traces the genealogy of a ritual that founded Athenian democracy.

Ostraca: A Piece of Clay Means Exile

Paulin Ismard, a specialist in the political anthropology of ancient Greece, traces the genealogy of a ritual that founded Athenian democracy.

Salvatore "Totò" Riina was the son of a poor farmer from Corleone. By the age of 52, he was the head of the Sicilian mafia, and his reign was one of blood and terror. He'd picked off the family members of his rival Tommaso Buscetta one by one, but his thirst for blood would be his downfall: Buscetta was ready to provide the police with the evidence to bring the whole house of cards down.

Blood-Soaked Power

Salvatore "Totò" Riina was the head of the Sicilian mafia, and his reign was a reign of blood and terror

Corleone, A History of La Cosa Nostra (1/2)

Judge Giovanni Falcone starts off the first trial of the Sicilian mafia, convicting a member to life imprisonment. The mafia is out for revenge. 

The Fall

Corleone, A History of La Cosa Nostra (2/2)

The turbulent history of the people that work the land, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day. Episode 2: Around the year 1000 an economic boom comes to Europe as peasants enter the market economy. But in the 14th century famine, war, and plague put an end to economic growth and it is not long before the great peasant uprisings begin.

Rebellion and War (2/4)

Around the year 1000 an economic boom comes to Europe as peasants enter the market economy.

The turbulent history of the people that work the land, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day. Episode 3: In the 17th century, peasants began to learn how to read and write, much to the displeasure of their masters.

Towards Freedom (3/4)

In the 17th century the nobility and the clergy had a great interest in depriving the peasants of an education.

The turbulent history of the people that work the land, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the present day. Final episode: In the 19th century, the industrial revolution turned the peasant world upside down. The old village communities were dispersed and the agrarian population plummeted with the rural exodus.

Against the Rest of the World (4/4)

Final episode: In the 19th century, the industrial revolution turned the peasant world upside down. 

An investigation into four of the world's largest Chinese triads, whose global influence has grown steadily over the years. Episode three: Xi Jinping intends to make China the world’s leading power. In Taiwan, some of the triads are getting involved in politics to promote closeness to Beijing...

As Xi Jinping makes China ever stronger, the triads in Taiwan are getting involved in politics to promote closeness to Beijing.