100 Documents That Changed the World

  Magna Carta (see here).

  From Magna Carta to WikiLeaks

  SCOTT CHRISTIANSON

  For Eve, Michael, Adam, Joel and Julia

  Contents

  Introduction

  2800 BC

  I Ching

  1754 BC

  Code of Hammurabi

  c. 750 BC

  Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey

  512 BC

  The Art of War

  408 BC–AD 318

  Dead Sea Scrolls

  c. 400 BC

  Mahabharata

  400 BC–AD 200

  Kama Sutra

  c. 380 BC

  Plato’s Republic

  AD 50

  Gandharan Buddhist Texts

  AD 609–632

  The Quran

  1215

  Magna Carta

  1252

  Ad Extirpanda

  1265–74

  Summa Theologica

  1280–1300

  Hereford Mappa Mundi

  1450s

  Gutenberg Bible

  1478–1519

  Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebooks

  1492

  Alhambra Decree

  1493

  Christopher Columbus’s Letter

  1501

  Petrucci’s Harmonice Musices Odhecaton A

  1517

  Martin Luther’s 95 Theses

  1521

  Edict of Worms

  1522–25

  Journal of Magellan’s Voyage

  1542

  Destruction of the Indies

  1582

  Gregorian Calendar

  1611

  King James Bible

  1620

  Mayflower Compact

  1623

  Shakespeare’s First Folio

  1632

  Galileo’s Dialogue

  1649

  Execution Warrant of Charles I

  1660–69

  Samuel Pepys’s Diary

  1660s–1727

  Isaac Newton Papers

  1665

  First Printed Newspaper in English

  1689

  English Bill of Rights

  1755

  Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary

  1776

  Declaration of Independence

  1776

  The Wealth of Nations

  1787

  Constitution of the United States

  1789

  Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

  1791

  Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen

  1803

  Louisiana Purchase

  1803

  Meriwether Lewis’s List of Expenses

  1804

  Napoléonic Code

  1822

  Deciphering the Rosetta Stone

  1826

  First Photograph

  1833

  Slavery Abolition Act

  1837–59

  Charles Darwin on Natural Selection

  1844

  First Telegram

  1848

  The Communist Manifesto

  1852

  Roget’s Thesaurus

  1854

  John Snow’s Cholera Map

  1854–63

  First Underground Train System

  1861

  Fort Sumter Telegram

  1863

  Emancipation Proclamation

  1868

  Alaska Purchase Cheque

  1869

  War and Peace

  1878

  Phonograph

  1899

  The Interpretation of Dreams

  1912

  Sinking of the Titanic

  1916

  Sykes–Picot Agreement

  1917

  Balfour Declaration

  1917

  The Zimmermann Telegram

  1918

  Wilson’s 14 Points

  1919

  19th Amendment

  1919

  Treaty of Versailles

  1920

  Hitler’s 25-Point Programme

  1922

  Uncovering Tutankhamun’s Tomb

  1929–31

  Empire State Building

  1936

  Edward VIII’s Instrument of Abdication

  1936

  Television Listings

  1938

  Munich Agreement

  1939

  The Hitler–Stalin Non-Aggression Pact

  1941

  Declaration of War Against Japan

  1942

  Manhattan Project Notebook

  1942

  Wannsee Protocol

  1942–44

  Anne Frank’s Diary

  1945

  Germany’s Instrument of Surrender

  1945

  United Nations Charter

  1946–49

  George Orwell’s 1984

  1947

  Marshall Plan

  1948

  Universal Declaration of Human Rights

  1949

  Geneva Convention

  1950

  Population Registration Act

  1953

  DNA

  1957

  Treaty of Rome

  1961

  John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address

  1962

  Beatles’ Recording Contract with EMI

  1963

  Martin Luther King, Jr.,

  “I Have a Dream”

  1964

  Quotations from

  Chairman Mao Tse-tung

  1964

  Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

  1969

  Apollo 11 Flight Plan

  1976

  Apple Computer Company

  1981

  Internet Protocol

  1990

  Two Plus Four Treaty

  1991

  First Website

  2001

  “Bin Laden Determined to

  Strike in US”

  2002

  Iraq War Resolution

  2006

  First Tweet

  2007

  WikiLeaks

  2011

  3D Map of the Universe

  2013

  Edward Snowden Files

  Acknowledgements

  Index

  The Declaration of Independence – the birth of a nation and one of the most significant landmarks in the history of democracy (see hee).

  doc·u·ment

  noun dä-ky -mənt, -kyü-

  an official paper that gives information about something or

  that is used as proof of something

  a computer file that contains written text

  1. a:

  an original or official paper relied on as the basis, proof or support of something

  b:

  something (as a photograph or a recording) that serves as evidence or proof

  2. a:

  a writing conveying information

  b:

  a material substance (as a coin or stone) having on it a representation of thoughts by means of some conventional mark or symbol

  3. a:

  a computer file containing information input by a computer user

  ORIGIN Middle English, precept, teaching, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin & Latin; Late Latin documentum official paper, from Latin, lesson, proof, from docere to teach.

  FIRST KNOWN USE 15th century

  Introduction

  We live in the Age of Documents. They are the signposts of our history and the currency of 21st-century life. In the d
igital era documents have become even more ubiquitous as they are infinitely viewed, produced, reproduced and archived. We are flooded by them in our everyday existence; they both enrich and clutter our lives. Documents have become integral to the way people think; we use them to navigate through our current world and connect to the past.

  Of course not all documents are in themselves important or worth saving. Yet we rely on certain documents to tell us what is new and important, just as we consult others to learn about history. Without authentic documentation, recorded and preserved, there would be no inscribed remembered history and we would have no knowledge of the distant past.

  Although the definition of ‘document’ has continued to evolve and expand, as evident from the dictionary meanings shown opposite, it seems reasonable to expect that documents will continue to be even more important in the digital future and beyond. How could they not?

  By viewing documents in historical perspective, as this book does, we gain a window onto the vast artefactual record of knowledge, civilization, power, and society. 100 Documents That Changed the World presents a variety of notable examples in all forms, from the last 5,000 years of human existence. The documents are time capsules that take us into the minds of their creators and the historical situations that impelled their creation.

  The chronological listing reflects the changing material form of documents, as the historical record shows the earliest documents recorded in bamboo, silk slips, carved stones, and papyri, to finely printed manuscripts, paper documents in hand-print and type, and computerized files that collect and synthesize big data.

  The different types or genres of documents presented include decrees and proclamations, holy books, legal codes, treaties and secret agreements, official warrants and certificates, patents, literary classics, philosophical treatises, diaries and letters, business contracts and commercial records, memoranda and electronic messages, and data maps, all of which made a significant mark in history.

  There are government documents, church records and private communications, some of which appear as works of art but most of them simply impart important information – plain documents that nevertheless started or ended wars, inspired religious worship for millions, or advanced the cause of science or human rights to new heights.

  The Gutenberg Bible – the first book to be printed with metal movable type – changed the nature of document production (see here).

  Jean-François Champollion’s code for deciphering the Rosetta Stone held the key to two forgotten languages (see here).

  Several of the authors of these documents are among the great figures in history: Christopher Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci, Martin Luther, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Edison and Martin Luther King, Jr. Others are lesser known players: Shakespeare’s appreciative fellow actors; the guilt-ridden conquistador Bartolomé de las Casas; the eccentric lexicographer Samuel Johnson; the meticulous polymath Peter Mark Roget who always sought to use the right word; and the eighteenth-century French feminist Olympe de Gouges, who was beheaded for her courageous women’s rights manifesto. There are also kings and queens, generals, popes, presidents, bureaucrats and computer hackers.

  While we generally need not consult the original handwritten manuscript of the Declaration of Independence in order to grasp the meaning of such a document, the artefact itself has enormous symbolic importance and the act of looking at it takes on the quality of ritual. Important original documents possess an ‘aura’ that transcends their content and purpose, and renders them enormously valuable – even priceless – in need of state protection and conservation. Such documents embody and encode such large-scale, historic concepts as national identity, human rights, world-changing wars, massive transfers of wealth and population, and seminal scholarship in the arts and sciences. Thus readers of this book who cannot travel to the institutions in which the documents are housed, get to glimpse the oldest known versions as well as images of some of their makers and learn something of their background and context.

  Some of the documents described here clearly altered the course of history – legal documents such as the Code of Hammurabi, Magna Carta, or United States Constitution; rulers’ decrees such as the Alhambra Decree, Edict of Worms, or Emancipation Proclamation; famous treaties and secret pacts such as the Sykes-Picot Agreement and Treaty of Versailles; religious tracts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Quran; and assorted other accounts.

  There are also a few iconic documents that have influenced popular culture and modern media – the Beatles’ EMI recording contract, the first TV listings, the documents that founded the Apple Computer Company, as well as the first website and the first tweet.

  Each carries a story, and many of these are woven with the others to form a documentary history.

  Human beings have sought to preserve important documents for as long as civilizations have existed. Archaeologists have discovered archives of records made of clay tablets, papyrus, and other materials, going back to the ancient Mesopotamians, Chinese, Persians, Greeks and Romans (who called them tabularia) in the third and second millennia BC. Such accumulated historical records were important in their day for helping to maintain order and continuity in legal, military, administrative, commercial and social affairs, keeping track of taxes, crimes, victories and other vital statistics. Long kept by governments, churches, corporations and other private entities, archives have also provided a key building block of historiography, communicating to posterity historical information about previous regimes, cultures and events. Archivists have always been selective, however, saving only those records deemed worthy of retention and special care.

  In the beginning, each document was unique, like a work of handmade art. But as its stature grew, copies or replicas were made, and as those copies deteriorated more copies of copies were made by scribes so as to preserve the sacred work. Unfortunately, many of these manuscripts perished over time. But some ancient works survived – the I Ching, Dead Sea Scrolls, Mahabharata and Plato’s Republic being a few examples.

  Later there were also translations and copies made that had been mechanically reproduced by printing and other means. In some instances the printing of an authorized version, such as the King James Bible or Mao Tse-tung’s ‘Little Red Book’, took on enormous political significance.

  Today, there is yet another new twist to some of the copying. Governments and corporations have been relentlessly and intrusively compiling secret documents and dossiers on a scale that is mind boggling. But lately, as evidenced by such phenomena as WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing, a small but effective movement of computer hackers has turned the tables on the document keepers to make them the document leakers. Huge batches of hitherto secret, private or classified files are now being released en masse to the public, to expose wrongdoing.

  The term document used to simply mean an official written proof used as evidence. However, the Dutch documentalist Frits Donker Duyvis (1894–1961), who was a pioneer in information science, nevertheless contended that since a document is the ‘repository of an expressed thought’, its contents have a ‘spiritual character’.

  Many of the documents included in this book do seem to possess an aura that can still be felt, decades or even centuries after their creation and following countless reproductions. Maybe this unique human quality shining through is one of the attributes contributing to their power. In some instances that power was used as an instrument of the king, the pope, the state or the corporation, or as a ‘prop’ in the theatre of ruling and policing. The document may have embodied the governmental power to command a specific action, the sacred or artistic power to reach the reader in a profound way, the messianic power to convey a vital message at the right moment, or the power of an inventor to conceive a revolutionary new idea in its simplest form.

  All evinced some power to make things happen either now or in the future. To make it so, and in some cases to change the world. Here are 100 of t
hose documents.

  Anne Frank’s diary has become the most famous account of life during the Holocaust, read by tens of millions of people (see here).

  A page from a Song Dynasty (AD 960–1279) version of the I Ching, complete with scholarly commentary.

  I Ching

  (2800 BC)

  An ancient Chinese manual of divination employs patterns of trigrams and hexagrams, interpreted according to the principles of Yin and Yang, to offer sage guidance about an individual’s present situation and future. Scholars consider it the epitome of Chinese philosophy.

  No philosophical work has exerted more influence in Chinese culture over the millennia than the ancient I Ching, the ‘Book of Changes’.

  While its origins remain shrouded in legend, some historians trace its evolution back more than 5,000 years to a mythical emperor, Fu-Hsi, followed by other holy men, including King Wên who lived in the Shang dynasty of 1766–1121 BC and his son the Duke of Chou, and later Confucius (Kung Fu-Tze) who lived from 551 to 479 BC. It appears to be the oldest document still in continuous use.