January the 1st, 1901 is the birthday of the 20th century. On this date, the most powerful entity on the planet is the British Empire, which rules over something between 20 and 25% of the world. The empire's sovereign is still Victoria, the monarch whose very name is

synonymous with the times. In the United States, William McKinley has just been re-elected

president, along with a new vice president, Theodore Roosevelt. Many citizens of both nations are upbeat and optimistic,

but there are clouds on the horizon. Both of these countries are elbow-deep in brutal

colonial wars. Poverty and deprivation are rampant, even in the world's most advanced nations,

and neither the Queen nor the President

is going to survive the year. Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

Music Episode 1. Episode 1, Age of Empires

The 19th century had been a century of profound changes.

The world of 1901 was bound together much more tightly than it had been in 1801.

There were now underwater cables, which meant that news could travel around the planet at the speed of light,

at least in locations that were at one end of cable.

Compare that to the end of the 18th century, when news could travel no

faster than the wind, by which I mean news traveled on sailing ships. In 1801, only a few hardy sailors

had traveled all the way around the world. By the end of the 19th century, it was amusing to consider

how long it would take an ordinary person to circumnavigate the planet, see Jules Verne, around the world

in 80 days. The automobile and the radio had both been invented by the end of the 19th century, although these were still novelties in 1901, and certainly not likely to be owned by the average person.

The typical mode of personal transportation was still the horse.

The airplane was on the horizon, but by 1901 people knew it was on the

horizon. Moving pictures were still a curiosity. Telephones and electricity were becoming established

technologies. As a power source, coal was king.

Coal heated homes, ran the railroads, powered the mighty battleships that plied the oceans between continents,

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