A TedEd by Matteo Salvadore
In 1165, a strange letter circulated through Europe. It told of the biblical Tower of Babel and the Fountain of Youth. The letter was signed by a certain Prester John. Although we now know this was false, it impacted European history for centuries. It spurred on the Age of Exploration, caused intercontinental diplomacy and indirectly caused Civil War. When the letters first appeared, Europe was in the midst of the Crusades, a series of wars agains Muslims in an attempt to control Jerusalem, the Holy Land. The Church vilified all the other religions that populated the region, such as Judaism and Islam. During these wars, the Christian rulers needed allies, and were interested in the rumors of a powerful Christian king who had defeated the Muslims. This king was actually a Mongol army with a few converted Christians that had wreaked havoc. However, unreliable news transportation ended up with the tale being converted to a Christian army in the Middle East, with a letter by Prester John to back it up. Although obviously Christian propaganda, European leaders were guessing at his location, and began searching for his descendants along the Silk Road a century later. When the Mongol empire fell, Europe began to search along Africa about the time that Ethiopians began to travel to Rome. Because their location and timing matched Prester John, the Portuguese believed the Ethiopian king was Prester John and formed an alliance with them. Over time, however, it became clear that Ethiopia wasn't what they thought it was, and the alliance dissipated. On top of that, the Catholic Church declared the Ethiopian sect of Christianity heretical, which tossed Ethiopia into civil war. Eventually, the myth of Prester John faded into history books.
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