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Butterfly Effect (Season 3)

13 episodes 94%4KCC

Where tiny turning points reshape empires, wars, and the fate of nations.

Explore the decisive moments when history could have gone another way, from World War II battlefields to ancient rivalries, colonial conflicts, and great voyages of discovery. Through vivid 3D reconstructions and counterfactual analysis, this season reveals how a single event can redirect the future. Sign up to experience history as a chain of choices with world-changing consequences.

Episode guide

13 episodes
1
1Kursk: The USSR Strikes Back
In the spring of 1943, after the successive failures of Moscow and Stalingrad, the armies of the Reich go on the offensive again. Considered the greatest tank battle in History, this event represents a real turning point of World War II on the Eastern Front.
26 min
2
2Vikings: Assault on the Frankish Empire
While the Viking raids have come one after another in the Occident for almost a century, in November 885, hundreds of Scandinavian boats sailing towards Burgundy present themselves before the walls of Paris and besiege the city.
26 min
3
3Deepwater: An Ocean of Oil
Rented by the BP oil company to drill an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes on April 20, 2010, before sinking into the ocean and causing a gigantic oil spill. At issue: negligence in the maintenance and in the tests carried out.
26 min
4
4Cook in Pursuit of the Southern Lands
In 1415, the Portuguese launch an era of explorations that will lead to the European discovery of the world. The competition is intense between France and the United Kingdom for the possession of North America and the West Indies for the Indian colonies, but also for Science.
26 min
5
5Champollion: Unravelling the Mysteries of the Stone
In July 1799, during the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria, the French soldiers of lieutenant Bouchard discover by chance at Rosetta a large black stone. It is, in fact, the fragment of a stele engraved in honor of King Ptolemy V, including three writing systems: Greek, Demotic, and hieroglyphs.
26 min
6
6Gandhi: The Force of Willpower
In May 1893, a man is thrown out of a train, on the platforms of the train station of Pietermaritzburg, a little city of South Africa, for daring to sit in a first-class compartment. This young Indian lawyer is named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
26 min
7
7Lawrence of Arabia: For a Fistful of Sand
1916, the Great War, far away from the trenches, in the sand of the Middle East, war has a very different face. With a handful of intrepid men, Thomas Edward Lawrence leads the revolt of the Arabs alongside Sharif Hussein, against the Ottoman Empire.
26 min
8
8Apartheid: The Spiral of Fear
August 5, 1962, South Africa. After several months on the run, the Black leader Nelson Mandela is arrested by the South African police and incarcerated on Robben Island, a fortress-like jail off Cape Town. He doesn’t know it at that time, but it is only the beginning of his penitential ordeal.
26 min
9
9Augustus: Emperor of the Republic
At the end of a succession of civil wars which have weakened the Roman Republic, Caesar proclaims himself dictator for life. However, on March 14, 44 BC, he is assassinated by conspirators in the name of the Republic.
26 min
10
10Carthage: Rome's Rival
In 814 BC, the exiled Phoenician queen Dido founds the city of Carthage on the African Coast. The city develops and takes the lead of a maritime empire based on trade. Carthage dominates the Western Mediterranean. But in the third century BC, she finds herself opposed to the Roman Republic.
26 min
11
11Miners: Fodder of The Industrial Revolution
University of Glasgow, Scotland, 1763. A young engineer tries, in vain, to fix a steam engine before finally understanding what is wrong with it. James Watt still doesn’t know it but he will soon revolutionize the world of industry.
26 min
12
12Encyclopedia: Dare to Know
July 31, 1784, Paris. Denis Diderot has just passed away and with him, the memory of the biggest editorial epic of the Age of Enlightenment: Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts.
26 min
13
13Diên Biên Phu: A Losing Battle
Since the end of the 19th century, Indochina has been a flourishing colony, the gem of the French Empire. However, the Second World War turns everything upside down. At the end of the war, the Viet Minh movement announces its independence.
26 min
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