1896: The World in Parallel

In 1896, four events on four continents asked the same question: who is free, who is equal, and who gets to decide? In the mountains of Ethiopia, an African army defeated a European one at Adwa. In Athens, the first modern Olympic Games were won, famously, by a Greek water carrier, while a woman who ran the same marathon was turned away. In Washington, the Supreme Court gave America "separate but equal" in Plessy v. Ferguson. And outside Manila, a secret society called the Katipunan tore up their identity papers and started a revolution against Spain. None of these events knew about the others. Together, they show what the world looked like when a handful of countries ruled most of it. CHAPTERS 0:00 Four events, one question 1:04 Africa · March: Adwa 2:30 Europe · April: the first modern Olympics 5:00 The Americas · May: Plessy v. Ferguson 7:36 Asia · August: the Philippine Revolution 10:12 The same question 11:44 History in parallel ABOUT THE IMAGES Everything you see is a photograph or illustration from the 1890s, or a map and card made for this video. No photograph of Homer Plessy is known to survive. He is shown through New Orleans street photographs of the 1890s and cards made for this video. No reliable photograph of Stamata Revithi exists either. The "School Begins" cartoon (Puck, 1899) is a racist caricature of its time, shown as evidence of the attitude behind American rule and labelled so on screen. The photograph of José Rizal's execution is shown wide and briefly. The Coubertin portrait was taken after 1896. Maps use modern borders; the Manila map is schematic. Script, research and edit by World in Parallel. Narration voice: Kokoro, an open-source text-to-speech voice. IMAGE SOURCES (public domain or CC0, via Wikimedia Commons) Athens 1896: the Panathenaic Stadium on opening day and its entrance; George Averoff; James Connolly, Robert Garrett and the US team (Bulgarian State Archives); the Hungarian team; the marathon start, crowd and finish; Spyridon Louis; the official programme; the 1896 medals New Orleans and Washington: Canal Street (Keystone stereo view; Rijksmuseum, CC0); Sisters of the Holy Family and a Black teachers' home, New Orleans 1899; the Supreme Court of 1896 and the Fuller Court (Library of Congress); Justices Brown and Harlan The Philippines: Manila, the Bridge of Spain (Library of Congress); Andrés Bonifacio's photograph and La Ilustración Española y Americana engraving; José Rizal (Philippine National Archives); the execution at Bagumbayan (Museo del Ejército, Madrid); Emilio Aguinaldo (Göteborgs Aftonblad, 1898) 1898-99: The Battle of Manila Bay (J. G. Tyler); the peace protocol; John Hay signs the Treaty of Paris; "School Begins" (Puck, 1899); US soldiers in the Philippines (Library of Congress) Ethiopia: Le Petit Journal (1895-96), The Graphic (1896), Le Tour du Monde (1896), Menelik II's coronation portrait MUSIC (Freesound) "Ambient Documentary Build Up #02" by tyops, https://freesound.org/people/tyops/so... , licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) "Emotional Original Soundtrack - HOME" by Magmi.Soundtracks, https://freesound.org/people/Magmi.So... , licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) "Into Desert Glow" by younoise, "Echoes of Distant Memories - Heartbeat Drone" by bassimat, "Uplifting Dramatic Soundtrack - War Around Us" by MusicByMisterbates: all CC0 FACT SOURCES Adwa: Raymond Jonas, The Battle of Adwa (2011); Harold G. Marcus, The Life and Times of Menelik II (1995) Olympics.com, "Local hero Spyridon Louis earns cult status in marathon"; Wikipedia: 1896 Summer Olympics; Spyridon Louis; Stamata Revithi; Pierre de Coubertin Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), decision text (Justia; National Archives); University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law Library, "Harlan's Great Dissent"; Wikipedia: Plessy v. Ferguson; Homer Plessy Britannica: Emilio Aguinaldo; Wikipedia: Philippine Revolution; Andrés Bonifacio; Trial and execution of José Rizal; Treaty of Paris (1898) Dates for the Cry of Pugad Lawin are disputed (23 to 26 August 1896); the film says so. Spotted an error? Tell us in the comments. We correct and pin. #History #1896 #WorldHistory