Welcome to History's Not Boring by Kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. Before we start, we have some very special shout-outs today. A huge shout out to Alfie, who loves the podcast and listens every single night.
SPEAKER_01Your family asked us all about the history of passports. So this entire episode is just for you, Alfie. Great pick.
SPEAKER_00We also want to wish a very happy belated 8th birthday to Rosalie, who listens every single day. We hope your birthday was absolutely wonderful, Rosalie.
SPEAKER_01Okay, Mira. So Alfie wants to know about passports. But aren't they just boring little books your parents keep locked in a safe?
SPEAKER_00Not at all. Did you know that the first astronauts to land on the moon actually had to fill out an official customs declaration form when they got back to Earth?
SPEAKER_01No way! You mean they had to declare alien space rocks to the government?
SPEAKER_00They really did! Today we are unlocking the incredible history of passports. We'll find out how a simple letter written by an ancient king grew into the little books with tiny computer chips that let people explore the whole wide world.
SPEAKER_01So, if I want to go to another country today, I just grab my passport. But what exactly is a passport when you break it down?
SPEAKER_00Basically, it is the ultimate global permission slip. It proves exactly who you are, and it tells other countries that your home country promises you are a safe traveller.
SPEAKER_01So if I lived thousands of years ago and I wanted to travel, did I have a little booklet with an awful picture of myself in it?
SPEAKER_00Definitely not. For most of history, normal people didn't travel very far from where they were born. The only people travelling long distances were huge armies, rich merchants, or important messengers.
SPEAKER_01And it was probably super dangerous, right? There were bandits and wild animals everywhere.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. It was incredibly dangerous. Imagine it is the year 450 BCE in the mighty Persian Empire.
SPEAKER_01Whoa, that is over 2,400 years ago. Where are we exactly?
SPEAKER_00We are in the grand palace of King Artaxerxes I. He ruled a massive empire that stretched for thousands of miles. His royal cup-bearer, a man named Neermeah, wants to travel to Judea to rebuild the ruined walls of Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01Wait, Judea? That was roughly 1,000 miles away. Walking or riding a horse would take months.
SPEAKER_00Spot on! So Nermah was terrified of being stopped or attacked by local governors or rival armies along the way. He asked the king for a very special favour.
SPEAKER_01What did he ask for? A royal bodyguard of a thousand soldiers.
SPEAKER_00Not quite. He asked for a letter. King Artaxerxes wrote a royal letter addressed to the governors of the lands beyond the Euphrates River, basically saying, please let this man pass through safely.
SPEAKER_01He is a friend of the king. And a piece of paper actually protected him. That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00Well, it was the king's seal that did the magic. This is considered one of the very first recorded travel documents in all of human history.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so a fancy royal letter kept Nehemiah safe in ancient Persia. But when did they actually start calling it a passport?
SPEAKER_00We have to fast forward about 2,000 years to the Middle Ages in Europe. Cities back then had massive, thick stone walls around them for protection against invaders.
SPEAKER_01Oh I love medieval walls. They had giant wooden gates that they would lurer with huge iron chains, right? Exactly!
SPEAKER_00To get inside the city, or to bring your trade goods through the harbour, you had to pass through a gate, which was also called a port in French.
SPEAKER_01Wait, passing the port? Passport? Is that really where the word comes from?
SPEAKER_00It sure is! Around the 15th century, kings started issuing documents called passeport to their favourite subjects or important diplomats. Did they look like our passports today? Not at all. Imagine a large piece of heavy parchment paper, handwritten with fancy ink, folded up and stamped with a thick red wax seal bearing the king's personal crest.
SPEAKER_01That sounds like something out of a fantasy movie. Did everyone get one?
SPEAKER_00Nope, just the VIPs. King Louis XIV of France famously gave these out in the 1600s, but they were extremely rare. But then, by the 1850s, steam trains were invented. They were zooming across Europe at 50 miles per hour, and suddenly millions of people were travelling.
SPEAKER_01Trains, so everyone was rushing to get their wax seal letters.
SPEAKER_00The exact opposite. Because so many people were travelling so fast, border guards couldn't keep up. So, countries like France actually abolished passports in 1861.
SPEAKER_01You're telling me people could just hop on a train and cross five countries without anyone asking for their ID? That's wild.
SPEAKER_00It was the golden age of free travel. But then, something terrible happened that changed borders forever.
SPEAKER_01I have a feeling the golden age of free travel didn't last. What happened next?
SPEAKER_00In 1914, World War I broke out. It was a massive, devastating global conflict. Countries were terrified of spies crossing their borders, so they immediately brought back strict passport rules.
SPEAKER_01That makes sense for wartime. But the war ended in 1918. Did they throw the passports away again?
SPEAKER_00They thought about it, but the world had changed. Governments realised they wanted to know exactly who was entering their countries. The problem was, every country's passport looked completely different.
SPEAKER_01Let me guess. Some were giant scrolls and some were just tiny scraps of paper. Pretty much.
SPEAKER_00It was a chaotic mess for border guards trying to read 50 different types of documents in 50 different languages. So, in October 1920, 42 nations sent their leaders to a special conference in Paris.
SPEAKER_0142 countries in one room! That sounds like a massive meeting. What did they decide?
SPEAKER_00They basically invented the modern passport. They agreed that every passport in the world had to be exactly the same size. Specifically, 15.5 centimetres tall and 10.5 centimetres wide. Whoa, exact measurements. What else did they agree on? They decided every passport must have a sturdy cardboard cover with the country's coat of arms, be exactly 32 pages long, and cost no more than 10 French francs to make.
SPEAKER_01And what about the photos? Did they finally add the classic terrible passport photo?
SPEAKER_00Yes, but the early photos were hilarious. There were no strict rules yet. People submitted photos of themselves playing guitar, riding horses, or sitting with their entire families and pets. Eventually, they made the rule that it had to be a clear photo of just your face against a plain background.
SPEAKER_01So the little booklet I have today was basically designed over a hundred years ago in Paris.
SPEAKER_00Exactly, but it has gotten some major high-tech upgrades. Around the early 2000s, countries started adding tiny computer chips inside the cover. Oh, I've seen that! There's a little golden camera logo on the front. What does the chip do? It's called an e-Passport. That chip stores a digital map of your face, your fingerprints, and all your personal information, making it nearly impossible for criminals to fake.
SPEAKER_01That's incredible! Okay, but earlier you promised me a story about astronauts. What do passports have to do with space?
SPEAKER_00Oh, this is the best part! On July 24th, 1969, after travelling 238,000 miles from the Moon, the Apollo 11 astronauts returned to Earth. Did they have to go through a border checkpoint in the ocean? Sort of. When Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, the US government actually made them fill out a standard customs declaration form.
SPEAKER_01You are joking. What did they put on the form? We just came from space?
SPEAKER_00Under the section for departure place, they officially wrote moon. And for their cargo, they declared moon rock and moondust samples.
unknownHaha!
SPEAKER_01That is the coolest fun fact I have ever heard. Imagine being the border guard who had to stamp that paperwork.
SPEAKER_00I know! Another amazing fact: almost every person in the world needs a passport to travel. Except for one person. The King of the United Kingdom. Wait, why doesn't the British King need a passport? Because all British passports are issued in the name of His Majesty the King. It would be silly for him to write a permission slip for himself.
SPEAKER_01That makes total sense. From ancient kings protecting messengers with wax seals to astronauts declaring moond dust? History really is the best.
SPEAKER_00Alright, Finn, it's time for the quiz. Let's see how much you and our listeners remember about the history of passports.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I'm ready. Bring on the questions.
SPEAKER_00First question. What was the name of the ancient Persian king who wrote a letter of protection for Nehemiah in 450 BCE? Next one. The word passport comes from the French phrase passport, but what did that originally mean? Question 3. When trains became super popular in the 1860s, what did countries like France decide to do with passports? Here's number four. In 1920, 42 nations met in which European city to standardise the modern passport booklet. Last question. Let's see how you did and go through the answers. The first answer is, it was King Artaxerxes I of ancient Persia. I knew that one. He ruled a massive empire. For question two, the phrase passport originally meant passing through the gates of a city's walls or a maritime port.
SPEAKER_01Because they had those giant medieval gates you had to get past.
SPEAKER_00Number three, the answer is, they abolished passports completely because there were too many travellers to check.
SPEAKER_01The golden age of jumping on steam trains without any ID.
SPEAKER_00Question four. That historic passport conference took place in Paris, France.
SPEAKER_01That is where they decided passports had to be exactly 32 pages.
SPEAKER_00And the final answer is: the astronauts declared moon rocks and moon dust.
SPEAKER_01The absolute coolest customs declaration in human history. I am never going to look at that little blue book the same way again. Just thinking about how it connects us to ancient Persian messengers and Apollo astronauts is mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_00It really is. It's just a tiny stack of paper and a computer chip, but it unlocks the entire planet. We hope you love learning about it as much as we did.
SPEAKER_01Hey guys, if you had fun travelling through history with us today, please leave us a five-star review. It really helps the show.
SPEAKER_00Yes! Just scroll down on whatever app you're using right now and tap the five stars. Let us know which historical figures passport you'd want to see.
SPEAKER_01Oh, and don't forget to check out our site kidopoly.com. We've got tons of fun learning games, activities, and awesome resources there.
SPEAKER_00That's right! Head over to our site kidopoly.com for more cool stuff to explore. And if you want a shout out on the show or just want to say hi, email us at hello at kidopoly.com. We love hearing from you, especially you, Alfie and Rosalie. Thanks for listening, everyone. See you next time on History's Not Boring. Bye, fellow time travelers!