History Lesson I: The Ancient Era

Good day my compatriots.

HISTORY is the most fundamental basis for understanding our world today. How did it come about? I will explain to you why we live in the world we do today. This is for your own good. History tends to repeat itself, and inadequate knowledge of this fact and the basic chronology of our world is the cause of that repitition. By understanding history, we can begin to understand ALL THINGS.

The beginnings of human civilization have been traced to about 10000 before common era (BCE). This is when humans first realized they could plant and harvest crops to create an increased and steady yeild of foodstuffs. This occured world-wide silultaneously. The mastery of agriculture made humans sedentary, and always being in the same spot, forced them to get along with their neighbours. Thus they began to formulate complex social arrangements which we call today politics. When groups of individuals became too large to effectively govern themselves in a communal environment, they began to choose or were imposed upon by 'representatives'. A representative, who would make decisions for a group of individuals on their behalf, derived his or her authority from those that they were representing. By consent from the group, a representative could exercise their given authority to act upon events and circumstances for the betterment of the society. The first grand civilizations, assembled on the Nile (Egypt), Yangtze (China) and Euphrates (Iraq) Rivers, were represented by officials who held their power through coercive action. They were not elected and only represented the interests of the social group that controlled the means of production. This continued to be the case through the ancient era.

This may seem like a Marxist-democratic interpretation, but it helps explain where we are going. I am not a Marxist, Communist, or a champion of the proletarian. I am simply trying to explain the development of human society in the most abstract and general terms possible.

The ancient era in the west continued along similar patterns. Around 500 BCE we can start drawing parallels between our modern society and that of the ancients. The Greeks, who were called Hellens, formed a series of city-states along the coast of Greece. Two major, although not the only, centres of thought developed at Sparta and Athens. Sparta was an austere state of militants who abhorred money and commerce. Athens was the first known democratic state, and embraced commerce. In 490 King Darius of the Persian Empire (most of the middle east) launched an assault on the Hellens for their assistance in the Ionian Revolt. At Marathon, the Persians were defeated by Athens. A tiny city state had resisted the might of a massive empire. Xerxes, son of Darius, attempted a second invasion in 480. This invasion was crushed at Salamis, an island near Athens, by an Athenian naval force. The war continued until 448 but the Greeks had recovered Thrace (northern Greece), Ionia (Asia Minor) and the Aegean Sea from the Persians. The collaboration of the Greek city states triumphed over the massive will of a great invader. This war was the beginning of the east-west divide that we see today.

Athens benefited most from the war. Their naval power helped them consolidate an alliance with other states called the Delian League. As the century passed, Athens turned this alliance into an empire, using the allied states as tributary nations to help aggrandize itself. Sparta was displeased with this arrangement and went to war with Athens. The Peloponnesian War ruined Greek power and heavily damaged their social structure. There was no real winner, even though Sparta effectively rendered Athens itself.

During this age, we see the development of our modern ways of thinking. Philosophy, medicine, state institutions, and military thought appeared. Greek thought ceased to be the common preserve of humanity, and became the property of western civilization. The divide was partly the result of the Persian Wars, but also due to the westward expansion of Greek colonization. One of these colonies was Sicily.

In 264 BCE, Carthage sought to control the straits between Sicily and the toe of Italy. Carthage was a strong maritime and commercial empire, and Rome was expanding slowly south on the penninsula. These two interests met at Messana in Sicily and the result was three bloody wars which made Rome the great power it would become. By 146 Rome was master of Italy, Spain, North Africa, and all islands inbetween.

What relevance does Rome have today? The Renaissance and Enlightenment were both influenced by the rediscovery of classical (i.e. Roman and Greek ways). Both of these movements helped transfer the ancient era to the modern era. I will explain how this worked in lessons II and III.

With Rome at its height between 14 and 200 Common Era (CE), their institutions, law, customs, language, and architecture flourished across Europe. All of these things are still visible today. The Roman Empire streched from England to Egypt, Bulgaria to Portugal. Rome was the last classical and ancient state and arguably the most prolific and studied. It assembled and assumed the characteristics of all the nations it conquered. By 200 CE the empire had become dependant on the military. The army was the greatest non-agricultural employer, and the only thing keeping the boarders steady. Despite early persecution, many government offices were filled with Christians who had a tendancy to be good administrators. They were a minority, and had something to prove.

Forces in the far east were the result of the fall of the Roman Empire. In the steppes of Mongolia, something effected a massive boom in the population of the Huns and advancements in social structure and military technology helped this population expand in all directions. The movement of the Huns displaced various groups in Russia and eastern Europe. With nowhere to go, these groups pushed upon other groups, which in turn pushed on others. The result was a domino effect on the cultures of eastern and northern Europe and finally it reached the boarders of Rome. Centuries of decadence, social disruption, and overexpansion made the tribes of eastern Europe see Roman territory as the answer to their troubles. A string of diplomatic arrangements and eventually full invasions led to the reduction of the Roman Empire. A split occured in the early 4th century and created the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. The Western Empire, based in Rome, fell to germanic tribes in 476, while the Eastern Empire (later Byzantine Empire) lasted until 1453 when it fell to the Turks (themselves invaders of Persia from the east). Around the reign of Justinian (527-565), The Eastern Empire became Byzantium and assumed what would become its medieval nature.

Thus ended the Ancient or Classical Era. Civilization became more local, closed, religious, and fearful. Some historians call it the collapse of civilization at the hands of barbarians. It was more a transition between two different socio-political formations. The main loss here was the connection to Chinese goods via the Silk Road through Asia (due to the intense expansion of Islam and destruction of old Roman commercial links), and an idea of a wider world. Travel and trade became very dangerous and so ideas, culture, and items ceased to flow as generously as they did under the united Roman Empire.

In the Medieval Era, we will see the abject state of Western civilization and how pitiful their lot was 1000 years ago. In installment III, the Early Modern Era, we shall explore the development of Europe and the Americas and why Eurasia's weakest nations rose to prominance throughout the world. In the final installment, I will expose the intricate machinations of our development from 1918 to today and suggest how it all came to be.

For now, best wishes.