Looking at these aggressive activities that marked the excesses of the Classical period and the Middle Ages, it is obvious that the impacts reported in various regions of Eurasia were very different. Due to the geographical distance, the invaders were beyond the reach of the invaders. Southern China and Southern India were not invaded. Byzantium Because the empire was good at diplomacy, rich in financial resources, and powerful in the navy, it successfully repelled batch after batch of invaders over the centuries, including the Germans, Huns, Persians, and Arabs. During the Sasanian Dynasty, Persia opposed foreign aggression. It was also very successful. In 226 AD, the Sasanian dynasty replaced the Parthian dynasty. The Sassanians aroused the self-esteem of the Persian nation, restored Zoroastrianism as the state religion, organized cavalry troops wearing heavy armor, and unified Therefore, Persia was able to repel the offensive wave of nomads along the Oxus River, but the war with Byzantium caused both sides to suffer losses, and both sides easily became victims of the incoming Muslim Arabs. As mentioned above, China The situation in the north and northern India was not very good. Both were ravaged by barbarians, but both preserved their unique civilizations formed in the classical period!
Therefore, if people who lived in the 1st century BC were resurrected in the early 8th century, they would definitely feel very comfortable and at ease. They would find that the dynasty at that time was roughly the same as the Han Dynasty in the past. They would notice that the language of the two dynasties was the same, Confucianism. The same doctrine, the same ancestor worship, and the same imperial administration, etc., make the uniqueness of the history of the development of the West all the more striking, if the Romans of the 1st century B.C., were resurrected in Europe in 1000, 1500, 1800 , they will be greatly astonished by the way of life of the Germanic peoples who inhabited many parts of the ancient empire. They will find that several new Germanic and Romance languages have replaced Latin, and that blouses and trousers have replaced Romans. As the emerging Christianity succeeded the ancient Roman gods, they would also find that the Roman imperial structure had been replaced by a new group of nation-states, and that ancient livelihoods were being influenced by new agricultural technologies, new trade, new The challenges of the industry, this new trade was with an area of the world that no one knew existed!
Various new industries use machines that do not require traditional human power storage and can save power. This undoubtedly shows that only the classical civilization of the West has been permanently submerged and replaced by a brand-new thing. The rest of the Eurasian continent Civilized areas were either protected from invasion, or repelled invaders, or were invaded, but they survived. Only in the West, classical civilization was smashed to pieces and could not be restored. Although in these centuries In China, people have tried to restore it many times. It is precisely this uniqueness that has brought the West to the forefront of the world in modern times. Therefore, its origin must be paid attention to. The stagnation of technology is a major problem in the structure of civilizations. Weakness, then, since all classical civilizations have this characteristic, why did only the civilization of Western Europe collapse? Just compare the experience of Western Europe with other parts of Eurasia and you can draw such a conclusion!
First of all, in the classical period, Western Europe did not expect other regions to be as fertile and suitable for the growth of crops as China. In the lower months of the 19th century, the monsoon brought sufficient rain to East Asia, while in Europe, the rain was mostly concentrated in areas where vegetation was barren. In the winter months, due to this reason and the lower solar heat available in areas with lower latitudes, East Asia has a longer and more concentrated farming period, with two crops a year in many places. Moreover, the main crops in East Asia The crop rice has a much higher yield per acre than wheat, rye, and other food crops grown in the West. It is estimated that the caloric value of rice produced per unit area is five times that of wheat. , As a result, China's productivity is much higher than that of the West. Since the emergence of agriculture, China's population has been correspondingly denser than that of the West. The advantages in productivity and population have in turn enabled China to better maintain the imperial bureaucracy and military. Institutions can more effectively resist barbarian invaders and, if necessary, can absorb and assimilate them. Secondly, the West lacks a writing system comparable to China, and there is no Chinese imperial examination system. This writing system provides cultural identity. nature, and this imperial examination system improved the efficiency and stability of China's administration!
Finally, the enemies on the borders of the Roman Empire were more difficult to deal with. Because they were located in the far west of the invasion route, Europe actually bore the brunt of all nomadic attacks. In addition, the Germanic people, the closest neighbors of the Roman Empire, were more difficult to deal with than those on the northwest border of China. The nomads were more numerous, and the Persians and Arabs who bordered the empire were more advanced and posed a greater and more permanent military threat than China's barbarian neighbors. For all these reasons, these invasions dragged on in the west, far away. Far longer than it lasted in other parts of the Eurasian continent, Western Europe had a unique ending. The structure of the Roman Empire and its classical civilization irreparably died. This result is of great significance and is considered one of the most important events in history. An important turning point, so because mass destruction cleared the way for an earlier technological revolution, but the culture in question is no different from that of other parts of Eurasia, which The cultures of other regions were also in a state of stagnation, but they managed to survive these invasions and became vibrant again, but this was only a continuation of the old life!
But the West, after the demise of the Roman Empire, was able to gain new life and a new beginning. Looking back at history, the importance of this new beginning is very obvious. In ancient times, the Middle East was the center of creativity. Over the thousands of years, many major The inventions spread from here. However, in the classical period, most inventions and creations came from Europe, India and China, but the Middle East lagged far behind. The reason is that the classical civilization in the Middle East survived after the invasion in 2000 BC. came down, while the ancient civilizations in remote areas were destroyed, thus clearing the way for a new beginning, the emergence of new classical civilization. The same was true for the transition from classical civilization to medieval civilization, but this time, classical civilization in all regions All survived, with the exception of the West. Therefore, only the West could move in new directions without restraint. In the Middle Ages, it developed new technologies, new systems, new concepts, in short, new inventions. In modern times, , this new civilization is bound to defeat tribal culture just like early agricultural civilization. It is far superior to stagnant civilizations in other parts of Eurasia and even the world, thus showing its superiority!
