Peter Frankopan - The Silk Roads

Dear Hiveans	Liebe Hiver
Today I'd like to share my favourite excerpts from the book "The Silk Roads" (goodreads) by Peter Frankopan, a British historian, author and hotelier. (wiki)	Heute meine Lieblingsauszüge aus dem Buch „The Silk Roads“ (goodreads) von Peter Frankopan, einem britischen Historiker, Autor und Hotelier. (wiki)

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This was not without irony. The names of the sons of the eponymous founder of the dynasty suggests that the Seljuks were originally Christian or perhaps even Jewish. With names like Michael, Israel, Moses and Jonah, it is likely that they were among those on the steppes who had been evangelised either by the missionaries referred to by the Patriarch Timothy, or else by merchants who had introduced Judaism to the Khazars." Although the timing and circumstances of their conversion to Islam are unclear, it was evidently difficult to hang on to religious beliefs that were a minority among the Muslim masses without losing legitimacy as they advanced rapidly. Had their successes been won more slowly, the world might have started to look very different, with a state emerging in the east led by rulers that were either Christians or Jews. As it was, the Seljuks chose to convert. But it was non-Muslim upstarts from the fringes of the caliphate who found themselves guardians of Muḥammad's legacy, champions of Islam and masters of one of the most powerful empires in history.

• Fascinating thought of counterfactual history: how would the Middle East have developped if the Ottomans had stayed Jewish or Christian?

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As recent research based on skeletal graveyards in London demonstrates, the rise in wealth led to better diets and to better general health. Indeed, statistical modelling based on these results even suggests that one of the effects of the plague was a substantial improvement in life expectancy. London's post-plague was considerably healthier than it had been before the Black Death struck - raising life expectancy sharply.
Economic and social development did not occur evenly across Europe. Change took place most rapidly in the north and the north- west of the continent, partly because this region was starting from a lower economic point than the more developed south. This meant that the interests of landlord and tenant were more closely aligned and therefore more likely to end in collaboration and in solutions that suited both parties. It was also significant, however, that the cities in the north did not carry the same ideological and political baggage as many of those in the Mediterranean. Centuries of regional and long- term commerce had created institutions such as guilds that controlled competition and were designed to hand monopolistic positions to defined groups of individuals. Northern Europe, by contrast, began to boom precisely because competition was not restricted - causing urbanisation and economic growth to happen at a markedly faster rate than in the south.

• Surprise, open competition and collaboration lead to economic growth.

The transformations triggered by the Black Death laid foundations that were to prove crucial for the long-term rise of north-western Europe. Although the effects of the divergence between parts of Europe would take time to evolve, the systemic flexibility, the openness to competition and, perhaps most importantly of all, the sense of awareness in the north that geography counted against them and that a strong work ethic was required in order to turn a profit, all laid the basis for the later transformation of the European economies in the early modern period. As modern research is increasingly making clear, the roots of the industrial revolution of the 18th century lay in the industrious revolution of the post-plague world: as productivity rose, aspirations were cast upwards and levels of dispos- able wealth increased along with opportunities to spend it.

The Ottomans had swarmed across the Bosporus in the late 14th century, delivering crushing defeats on the Byzantines, the Bulgarians and the Serbs and establishing themselves in Thrace and the Balkans. Constantinople was left hanging by a thread, a Christian island surrounded by a sea of Muslims. Passionate pleas for military support from the royal courts of Europe went unanswered, leaving the city dangerously exposed. Finally, in 1453, the imperial capital fell, the capture of one of the greatest cities of Christendom a triumph for Islam, which was once again in the ascendant. In Rome, there were accounts of men crying and beating their chests when news came through that Constantinople had fallen, and of prayers being offered by the Pope for those trapped in the city. But Europe had done too little when it mattered; now it was too late.
The fate of Constantinople was the source of acute concern in Russia, where it was seen not so much as heralding a Muslim resurgence as marking the imminent end of the world. There were long-standing Orthodox prophecies that Jesus would come at the start of the Eighth Millennium and sit at the Last Judgement, and these seemed to be on the point of being fulfilled. The forces of evil had been unleashed and had delivered a devastating blow to the Christian world. So convinced were senior clergy that the apocalypse was at hand that a priest was sent to western Europe to find more specific information about precisely what time of day it would take place. Some decided that there was no point in calculating the dates when Easter and other moveable holy-feast days would fall in the future, on the basis that the end of time was about to arrive. Based on the Byzantine calendar that was used in Russia, the timing seemed to be crystal clear. Using the date of the Creation as 5,508 years before Christ, the world was going to end on 1 September 1492.
On the other side of Europe, there were others who shared the conviction that Armageddon was fast approaching. In Spain, attention focused on Muslims and Jews, at a time of growing religious and cultural intolerance. The former found themselves expelled from Andalusia by force of arms, the latter issued with an uncompromising order to convert to Christianity, leave Spain or be executed. Desperate to liquidate their assets, a fire-sale ensued, with property Scooped up by investors who picked up vineyards in exchange for pieces of cloth, as estates and fine houses were sold for a pittance.
[…] Three ships set sail from Palos de Frontera in southern Spain on 3 August 1492, less than a month before the end of the world was being anticipated in Russia. As he unfurled his sails and set off into the unknown, little did Colón - more familiar as Christopher Columbus - realise that he was about to do something remarkable: he was about to shift Europe's centre of gravity from east to west. When another small fleet under the command of Vasco da Gama set out from Lisbon five years later on another long voyage of discovery, rounding the southern tip of Africa to reach the Indian Ocean, the final pieces necessary for Europe's transformation fell into place. Suddenly, the continent was no longer the terminus, the end point of a series of Silk Roads; it was about to become the centre of the world.

Europe had done too little, and Constantinople fell. Let's hope Europe is doing enough to prevent Ukraine's fall.	Europa hatte zu wenig getan, und Konstantinopel fiel. Hoffen wir, dass Europa genug tut, um den Fall der Ukraine zu verhindern.
Spain persecuted Jews since 1492 (even earlier), supported Nazi Germany, and today spreads anti-Semitism, supports Hamas terrorists (under the guise of support for the "Palestinian" minority, while suppressing their own minorities). How often can a country go the wrong way?	Spanien verfolgte die Juden seit 1492, unterstützte Nazi-Deutschland und verbreitet heute Antisemitismus, unterstützt Hamas-Terroristen (unter dem Deckmantel der Unterstützung der „palästinensischen“ Minderheit, während es seine eigenen Minderheiten unterdrückt). Wie oft kann ein Land den falschen Weg einschlagen?
Europe was the centre of the world from 1492 till 1991, a whopping 500 years. What's the new centre of the world? I'd say in the Pacific, between America and South East Asia.	Europa war von 1492 bis 1991 das Zentrum der Welt, also satte 500 Jahre lang. Wo liegt der neue Mittelpunkt der Welt? Ich würde sagen, im Pazifik, zwischen Amerika und Südostasien.

There is more going on, then, than the clumsy interventions of the west in Iraq and Afghanistan and the use of pressure in Ukraine, Iran and elsewhere. From east to west, the Silk Roads are rising up once more. It is easy to feel confused and disturbed by dislocation and violence in the Islamic world, by religious fundamentalism, by clashes between Russia and its neighbours or by China's struggle with extremism in its western provinces. What we are witnessing, however, are the birthing pains of a region that once dominated the intellectual, cultural and economic landscape and which is now re-emerging. We are seeing the signs of the world's centre of gravity shifting-back to where it lay for millennia. There are obvious reasons why this is happening. Most important, of course, are the natural resources of this region.
[...] The Silk Roads are rising again.

I don't see a re-emerging of the Middle East. Natural resources are abundant, especially in America, agricultural productivity in the Middle East is too low to enable large populations, and the most important resource - human creativity - is severely impaired by religious fundamentalism.	Ich sehe kein Wiedererstarken des Nahen Ostens. Natürliche Ressourcen gibt es genügend, u.a. in Amerika, die landwirtschaftliche Produktivität im Nahen Osten ist zu gering, um große Bevölkerungszahlen zu ermöglichen, und die wichtigste Ressource - die menschliche Kreativität - ist durch religiösen Fundamentalismus stark beeinträchtigt.

Overall this was an interesting read, especially the parts until the early modern period. As the book is rather long (520 pages), I'd only recommend it to history buffs.	Insgesamt war es eine interessante Lektüre, vor allem die Teile bis zur frühen Neuzeit. Da das Buch ziemlich lang ist (520 Seiten), würde ich es nur Geschichtsinteressierten empfehlen.

Have a great day,
zuerich

Memes