For over 500 years, global power has followed a predictable financial pattern — from Portugal to Spain, the Netherlands, Britain, and now the United States. Each empire rose on innovation, peaked on dominance, and fell under the weight of debt and overextension.
This documentary dives deep into that five-century cycle — from the silver mines of Potosí to the gold-backed pound, and finally to the dollar’s rise at Bretton Woods. You’ll see how the same forces that ended the British Empire’s monetary reign are now testing the foundations of the U.S. dollar.
Is the dollar entering its final phase as the world’s reserve currency?
Or will it reinvent itself once again?