Time Of Troubles
Here I will add another indicator, see Indicators.
Anyway why this talk about the indicators of a
civilization? Surely a pyramid or a ziggurat or a Chinese wall are strong
indicators? Indeed they are! But the point is to find the clear signs of the
developmental stages of a typical civilization. When does it start? When is
feudalism, the absolute state, modernity? Who is the first universal emperor?
These questions are also important for the judgment of the number of
civilizations succeeding each other in an area. How can we say that Egypt had
one, but Mesopotamia and China had two?
But to today’s point. The Time of Troubles as Toynbee calls it, the Warring States as Spengler terms it taken from the Chinese. This period is at the same time as the modernity phase. It can be regarded as the international aspect of this period, which sees strife and wars internally in and externally between the states. Until the first emperor finishes both.
Why did I not mention this as an indicator of a civilization? Well it is a very strong indicator if it can be seen with certainty. The problem is just that the pattern of wars between smaller states ending by them all being conquered by one state is not something abnormal in history. It can occur in all times and phases. So to be used as an indicator there must be other things pointing in the same direction. At least one of the following:
1. There must be clear signs of a modernity. More or less free thought, rationality, political ideological strife etc.
2. The wars must be large scale with organized bodies of troops.
3. We should be about 600 – 800 years after an feudal, epic heroic time and / or an early religious phase. This type of wars continues some time after the period, as the emperors use this type of warfare against the outside world.
Examples
Mesopotamia I: Between Ur III and Hammurabi, ca. 2000 – 1750 BC. Eternal wars between the states for hegemony. Modernity unclear, perhaps though the disrespectful treatment of the gods in Gilgamesh. But very organized warfare. And about 800 years after the epic time of the original historic King Gilgamesh.
Mesopotamia II: ca. 850 – 550. Original mythic time and the parallel modernity phase obscured, but the warfare very large scale and organized in the wars between Assyria, Elam and Babylonia.
Egypt: In Fact quite unclear. If the heroic and feudal times are around the time of the great pyramids, as it would seem from the records, then the Hyksos period should be the Time of Troubles or modernity. The use of large scale wars in Asia conducted by the New Kingdom would also point to this. There are no signs of a new feudal time after this and no new modernity follows.
Greco-Roman world: ca. 330 – 30 BC. Very clear picture of the parallel Hellenist modernity.
India I: ca. 600 – 300. Also quite clear signs of brutal large scale wars and a modernity. Also the required time after the Veda time.
India II.: Experts in this field can say more than I. I will just point to the very large mass-armies employed by the state Vijayanagar in the wars between more states up to the uniting of India by the Moguls.
China I. 500 – 221 BC. Very clear modernity with very
large scale wars between millions of troops.
Less typical examples:
The Oriental-Arab Civilization. Ca. 750 – 1071. The problem here is that after the victory over the Byzantines at Manzikert, one major player was neutralized, but the infights continued. It was first the Mongols and Turks who united the Muslim world. Therefore Toynbee putting most weight on the external affairs, saw the modernity at a very late time, that is after Manzikert 1071. But the rationalism, philosophy and political ideologies are so clear in the first half of the Abbasid period, that modernity should be placed here.
China II. 950 – 1279. Song or Sung Dynasty. Abnormally peaceful internally and externally until the arrival of the Mongols.
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So under the right circumstances the Time of Trouble
can be added as another indicator of a civilization. All the indicators
mentioned lends support to these civilizations:
Mesopotamia I and II
Egypt
India I and perhaps II
China I and II
Greco-Roman
‘Oriental-Arab
The West
Indus and Peru can only be established as facts
because their remains are there.
Mexico is a bit more clear. The feudal time is quite
clear from the early inscriptions in the Mayan lands. Feudal lords fighting man
against man. At the Spanish arrival there had for centuries been wars fought by
organized troops.
