5 Strangest Accounts of First Contact in History

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Edited and Researched by Manuel Rubio
Narrated by David Kelly
Art by Alex Stoica and Bilal Erlangga

Extracts taken from:

Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. Translation by Friedrich Hirth, Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol 37 1917.

The Saga of Erik the Red translation in The Discovery of America by the Northmen, in the Tenth Century, with Notices of the Early Settlements of the Irish in the Western Hemisphere by North Ludlow Beamish 1841.

Ibn Fadlan on the Rus, translation by James E. Montgomery. Thanks to the Library of Arabic Literature for the use of this translation:

Kirishitan Monogatari translation from DEUS DESTROYED The Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan by George Elison
Published by COUNCIL ON EAST ASIAN STUDIES
HARVARD UNIVERSITY and distributed by HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1988

James King on Shaka Zulu Nathaniel Isaacs, Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, with a Sketch of Natal by Nathaniel Isaacs (2 Volumes, London, 1836), I, pp. 57–63
Researched by historydavid

Stock footage from Storyblocks or Artlist, music from Epidemic Sound and Artlist.

00:00 Zhang Qian on The Greeks (125 BC)
04:46 Thorvald Eiriksson In America (1003)
07:50 Ibn Fadlan on the Viking Rus´ (921)
13:50 The First Christians in Japan (1543)
19:49 James King on Shaka Zulu (1825)

[HistoryDose]

First contact stories always strike me as records from a more magical and mysterious age, where one could stumble across whole continents of humans with totally dissimilar languages, beliefs and traditions.

[gibbons]

The Arabic account of the Vikings was my favorite. The writer spends the entire time describing how vile the Vikings live compared to the Arabs only for the irony that the Vikings believe the Arabs are vile due to how they treat their dead. It’s a really poetic account on the two culture’s flipped view of what’s important.

[Noah-SMCOC]

What never ceases to amaze me is how each civilisation viewed itself as somewhat superior to their counterpart based on race, empire or religion. There's often a condescending attitude attached to these accounts describing their encounters with other people's whom they deem inferior to them. I guess that's why it was so easy to wage war back then because as far as they were concerned, the people they were fighting weren't a worthy adversary.

[TheDJGrandPa]

That Japanese account on Europeans and "Their form of Buddhism" is absolutely fascinating

[TheThingInMySink]

I will never stop finding it funny that the first missionary was so ugly the Japanese literally went ''Oh it's a goblin''

[Aja-ej]

I forgot that Alexander named all cities after himself and was initially a bit confused in the first story

[quillquickcard]

It’s always fascinating to hear how these chroniclers detailed the new and unfamiliar. You can feel the curiosity driving them

[TheLiosoul]

Shaka pulling the oldest trick in the book

Shaka: "Tomorrow we will hunt elephants, come along!"
Englishmen: "We don't know if we have permission, nor are we inclined to do so"
Shaka: "Scared?"
Englishmen: "..."
Englishmen: "We agree to hunt with you"

[D]

“Kenji, some goblins with long noses are here to see you”

[serpicopiu]

Never underestimate the Ancient Japanese art of absolutely decimating anyone different than them

[DrBilton]

The Japanese description of the missionaries is great. What I'd love is to hear the account (if it exists, of course) of the same missionaries so we can have parallel stories of the same event(s).

Awesome as always!

[hihi-nmuy]

The Zulu-English one was weirdly wholesome.
They were fairly impartial.

[salazarway]

The encounter between Portuguese and Japanese is colossal.

[DeWitherWarrior]

The last story of the British meeting with Shaka is pretty heart warming, usually anything to do with Europe and Africa ends with dead natives or some very uncool words being written about them, but in this acount the British seem to really be more friends rather then strictly empriacal visitors or conquers of the Zulu people which was a very fun exprience to watch.
As always, your videos are one of a kind!

[MusicGamesEverything]

It's quite interesting how the most "respectful" account was that of the British with the Zulu

[goldenraptor]

It's amazing how ancient and mysterious these accounts are. Now that the world is a smaller place, events like these will never happen again.

[padraigkiley]

I doubt that hunt was planned, and it wasn't for the meat either. They were politely showing the guests their strength, so that they would be dissuaded from any invasion. Shaka Zulu was truly wise.

[NicklePizza]

Ibn Battuta's account of meeting the Rus is probably one of my favourite historical accounts, it's so funny to me how aghast he is with their hygiene

[doubled]

"Our arms aren't sufficient for hunting an elephant", proceeds to drop one with two shots . These people are using spears and bows which obviously worked well for them but nothing beats the boom stick .

[publiusventidiusbassus]

Ibn Fadlan was such a gentleman. Everyone else is basically calling foreigners horrible, malformed creatures and abominations against natural order, meanwhile he just berates the Viking Rus for their dirtiness but still calls them gorgeous.