Barbarians
I've been watching some YouTube videos taken from a BBC documentary series about peoples described throughout history as Barbarians - my kind of people. The Barbarians in focus in this series include, among others, the Vikings, the Saxons, the Huns, the Vandals, the Moghuls and my favourite, the Mongols, from whom the Moghuls were descended.
The Mongols didn't do much to contribute to the advance of global civilization, which I guess is why they are considered barbarians, but during their days of empire Marco Polo made his propitious journey to China, which in turn led to Europe's quest for a western, trans-Atlantic route to the fabled riches of the East (the Arabs/Muslims blocked the way along the Steppes and the coastline of the Indian Ocean and they had their own reasons for seeking vengeance against the Mongols).
Anyway, check it out, if you're interested.
The Mongols didn't do much to contribute to the advance of global civilization, which I guess is why they are considered barbarians, but during their days of empire Marco Polo made his propitious journey to China, which in turn led to Europe's quest for a western, trans-Atlantic route to the fabled riches of the East (the Arabs/Muslims blocked the way along the Steppes and the coastline of the Indian Ocean and they had their own reasons for seeking vengeance against the Mongols).
Anyway, check it out, if you're interested.
Labels: China, empires, history, Western Civilization
posted by Louise at 9:57 am
2 Comments:
Well, there's some good things to be said about some barbarians. For example, the Saxons, Normans, Vikings, Celts. Once they settled down a bit and interbred, ("hybrid virility" is the biological term) they ultimately produced Great Britain.
In fact, all the Anglo Democracies could be said to be the happy result of "hybrid virility" former barbarian interbreeding.
AAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHH!!
My all time favourite cartoon was one of Hagar the Horrible (a Viking) trudging home after a long hard day of work, dragging his club on the ground, looking tired and dejected.
The caption was: "Rape, pillage and plunder. Rape, pillage and plunder. Every day it's the same thing."
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