Large Systems hypothesis:
If we consider biological entities as systems then human beings and societies which are a collection of humans working together for a common goal, somewhat similar to an ant colony in an ant-hill, then human societies can also be described as some kind of organic systems. As described in the Historical Continuity hypothesis, these entities (human societies) evolve with time, get damaged and wounded by external forces, heal over time etc.
From earliest hunting gathering times, human societies consisted of small inter connected clans. With the rise of agriculture, we start seeing larger nations forming in fertile areas, such as Nile delta, Tigris Euphrates, Syr and Amu Daria, Yellow Yangtze, Indus Ganges etc. Empires also started emerging in these areas that could support a large population and standing army who could invade other neighboring areas. So sedentary agrarian societies initially gave rise to empires such as the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Chinese, Roman etc. These empires are first example of large systems in human societies that integrated many tribes, clans and nations into a unifying whole, sometimes permanently if the integration was complete, but sometimes only temporarily.
Lets look at Europe. During early imperial Rome, Europe was unified and then there was Western Roman empire with heavy German influence and Eastern Byzantine empire under Greek Orthodox church. Nationalism became very powerful in Western Europe and nation states divided up the continent based mainly on linguistic groups and culture. A large part of Byzantine empire got absorbed into Ottoman empire. During European colonization period the nations did very well economically but finally when they lost most colonial holdings after WW II, the economies became smaller and less influential. At this point a strange thing happened, the rising population of mostly European descent in the US, made it larger than any single European country and the US emerged as the most powerful nation on earth, with Soviet Union being a close second. The US also happened to be home to a very integrated population who originated in various parts of Europe, but became true American in one or two generation. So while the sun set for the British empire, the US emerged as the new imperial hegemon in the world stage to protect the continuation of the existing world order. This happened because the US had a higher population and hence a larger internal economy than any country in Europe and of course it was much bigger than contemporary Japan as well. The other reason was that WW II also devastated the European powers and although the US participated in the war, the war was not fought in its own land mass, so the loss was not as colossal as it was in Europe.
The strategic loss of Europe to the US was quickly and keenly felt, as I could imagine. Soon an effort was made to unite Europe and finally after hundreds years of fighting over foreign colonies and on their own soil, today Europe became wise out of necessity. So EU is the new large system on the block, although it has its challenges. There are many nations with proud national heritage, language, culture etc. There are also the Eastern European nations joining in after breaking off from the Soviet block and the Soviet Union. Muslim Turkey also wants to join in. So it has become a real challenge to manage the entry for all these new entrants and would be entrants. Despite the challenges, so far it has been a success story and I have a feeling over time, it will be even more successful. This is the validation for
the theory of large system, that a larger human social entity usually will win when in competition with a smaller one, provided that they have similar level of integration and homogeneous population and equal mastery of science and technology. The EU is still no match for the US, as the population and culture is not as homogeneous, but who knows what EU will look like 50 years from now. Speaking of homogeneous population, the US is facing its own challenge, for the first time in US history, the population of purely European descent is becoming less of a majority and is set to become a minority (less than 50%) by 2050. Hence the alarm bells by the likes of Pat Buchanan and Samuel Huntington. The EU also has similar problems of increasing immigrant population from Africa. In later posts, I recommend a solution to these problems of immigration and dilution of local European cultures in EU, North America and Oceania.
The next most powerful large system today in the world stage is rising China. How did todays China become a large system? Han Chinese who are 92% of PRC population (1.2 billion), actually became a nation in an integration process lasting for more than 1800 years, starting from Shang in 1600 BC to the end of Han around 220 AD. Since then it remained intact during Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. During Mongol and Manchu dominated Yuan and Qing dynasties, Tibet, Mongolia and Xinjiang regions were added, although Tang had a hold on Xinjiang area as well. So the Historical Continuity of Han Chinese with its huge population, united as one nation for more than 2000 years and living under a single imperial ruling dynasty (although the dynasties changed) is remarkable. It has however some major weaknesses. For the last eight hundred years it was subjugated twice, once by Mongols and a second time by Jurchens allied with Mongols. Mongol rule was particularly harsh, where the Han were treated as fourth class citizens and under Jurchen (Manchu) Qing, the Han were treated slightly better but still as second class citizens, with no permission of intermarriage with Manchu officials. Saving Han majority from oppressive Manchu rule was one of the rallying cry of Sun Yat Sen, one of the founders of Republic of China. To summarize, I should say that the Han Chinese civilization is one of the largest in number in the world, one of the oldest and as a result a highly integrated group. But at the same time, it was devastated twice and lived under foreign domination under Mongol Yuan and Jurchen/Mongol alliance Manchu Qing. Finally after WWII it was again devastated under a foreign idea imported from Europe called communism, which created further devastation for Han chinese. As of today the Han Chinese are still subjugated and under spell from this strange idea that came out of the head of two unique individuals (Marx and Angels) and modified to Chinese sensibilities and circumstances by Mao as Maoism. Lately China has been moving more towards capitalistic market economy. Sometimes I wonder if communism was a way to defeat the entrenched Manchu land owners, aristocrats and feudal lords and create a new Han elite under communist rule, may be someone more knowledgable can elaborate on this. So we could safely call Han Chinese a wounded civilization, still a little lost, but slowly getting back to its former greatness. The occupation of Tibet, Xinjiang and South (Inner) Mongolia, against the will of these non-Han people, and the ongoing demographic invasion to secure these regions against any potential "splittist" rebellion is a major symptom of a people insecure about its own ability to hold on to these occupied areas whose native inhabitants could not be trusted. In addition an attempt to sinify these three non-Han or non-Chinese people by suppressing their own ancient culture, tradition and religion and replacing their identity with a Han identity is violation of fundamental human rights and goes against UN mandated Universal Human Rights and is a serious international offense.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
As China is going through a spectacular economic rise, its neighbors are getting increasingly nervous. Russia has long term worries about its vast land holding in Eastern Siberia. Mongolia is worried about a hostile and powerful superpower at its door step, who happens to oppress its ethnic brothers in Inner Mongolia. Japan is worried about loosing its dominance in Asia as the prime economic superpower and is also worried about Chinese ambitions in the region and beyond. Taiwan's worries do not need to be mentioned. South East Asia bands together as ASEAN so it can counter some of the influence of the overbearing neighbor in the north. India is worried about future security implications and is in an arms race with China. To India's consternation China is increasing its influence and close cooperation with hostile nations Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. These worries have created impetus for India to join the US in an alliance. The former soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan engage in trade but worry about the future intentions of this giant neighbor who seem to oppress their Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz ethnic brothers in Xinjiang. Only Asian nations that seem to be in good terms with China are those who do not hold any common borders with it such as Iran and some Gulf Arab nations.
Now lets turn our attention to the next large system in the world stage, India. India is a mysterious and interesting place. The early out of Africa migration went via Indian coast line to South East Asia and eventually to Australia. There were later migration from Africa who established significant communities. These were around 40,000-60,000 years ago. Since the ice age there were probable migration from Elamite areas of Persia and Mesopotamia who mixed with indigenous proto African migrants and gave rise to the Dravidian civilization. This happens to be the main substrate of Indian population. Then came the Indo-Aryan speaking Aryans. This is a huge political issue whether Aryan Invasion Theory is correct or Out of India theory is correct, but most academics agree on a modified Aryan Migration Theory and that is also my personal view. Aryans I believe came from near Caspian region and moved via Central Asia to Northwestern India and later spread to rest of India. I say this because Sanskrit language is closest to Lithuanian and Russian. So the ancient Aryans were probably related to a later group of Scythian nomads in Central Asian steppes and Pontic Steppes some of whose last remnants are Ossetians and Alans. The Russians and Lithuanian language retain a good portion of Proto Indo European words, but ethnically they have mixed with Viking Norsemen, Swedes and Germanic people. If you happen to see the Alans and Ossetians, you will find a lot of similar features from Iran, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Northern Indian Brahmins, although the Brahmins of India has thoroughly mixed with local Dravidians and the Northwestern muslim people have mixed with later Turkic migrants. India existed for thousands of years as city states, but it was united under a single empire under Murya dynasty around 300 BC whose most famous ruler was Asoka, who spread Buddhism. Around 400 AD, the Gupta dynasty in North India tried to revive Hinduism and over centuries Hinduism came back as the main religion, except for outlying areas. Arab Khilafa had a foothold in Sindh and Southern Punjab of India, but could not extend its reach beyond that point. From 1000 AD onwards succesive Muslim Turkic invasions brought India under Muslim Turkic rule, first as Delhi Sultanate and then under Timurid/Chingisid Mughal dynasty. Mughal dynasty officially ended in 1857, when the British crown took over India. During the 800 years of Muslim rule, most areas of India was not included except for just a few centuries, but unlike Mongol Yuan and JUrchen/Mongol Qing rule of China, the Muslim rule had a very different effect on India. A large number of people of India became Muslim, a minority were descended from the immigrant Muslim from other areas such as Afghanistan, Central Asia, Arabia, Iran etc. mixed with local population, but the vast majority were converted from low caste Hindus such as Shudra and Dalit. Today out of 1.3 billion population of Indian sub-continent, around 40% or 500 million are Muslim and 750 million are Hindu with 4-5% Buddhist and Christians. In 1947 the country was divided in three parts, West Pakistan, India and East Pakistan, which later became Bangladesh after separation from Pakistan. Kashmir was a princely state and the Hindu ruler decided to go with India, although the population was majority Muslim. Pakistan and India both occupied parts of Kashmir and it remains a stalemate between India and Pakistan and is the reason for much hostility. It so far caused 2 wars and countless border skirmishes. Pakistan allegedly supports a popular Kashmir insurgency that cost more than 50,000 lives by a 700,000 strong army and security force stationed in Kashmir. The 800 year long Muslim rule have not only changed the demographics of India through Muslim immigration from other Muslim areas, but it also changed the face of the nation by conversion. The partition of 1947 was another serious blow to the Historical continuity of India that was united for more than 2200 years and have been a cooperative entity of city states since another previous 2000 years. From 1947, India tried a bit of socialist path and were close to Soviet Union, but after the break up of Soviet Union, it followed a market economy and achieved high growth in recent years. There is a rising fundamentalist Hindu movement in India associate with BJP party. India has many insurgency in different parts, some in West Bengal by Maoists, possibly sponsored by China and some in North East, possibly sponsored by Pakistan. India also supports insurgency in Pakistan such as Baloch independence movement and also is close to the Karzai govt. in Afghanistan who routinely criticize Pakistan for not being able to control the Taleban and Islamic fundamentalists. India is in a stable but not in a comfortable situation. In addition to the problem in Kashmir, India is considered to be a bully by almost all of its immediate neighboring states, which are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. In Myanmar it is in competition with China, and frequently its influence is not as much as China. Poverty and malnutrition is a big problem for India which contains the largest number of poor people in the world. India also has bad record of discrimination against minorities such as Muslims, Christians and Buddhists. The discrimination against low caste Hindu Shudra and Dalit is also a huge social problem.
It said to be the clock in every church tower in every village in Europe.
I have no way to back that up i just remember i heard it somewhere as one of the reasons why middle age Europe skyrocketed after rennaissance. A possible explanation would be it raised productivity maybe but thats just speculation.
O yeah and...the death of the khan and the 2 typhoons-thats fate man!!!! lol
Funny, isn't it, those events actually are known to have macro-historical importance, although there is debate on these issues.
Kalu Miah is hell bent on Bangladesh joing Asean. I myself would love for bangladesh to join Asean, but it is not practical and is a pipe dream and will remain so. There is hardly any movement in Bangladesh for Bangladesh to join Asean. only on pdf led by kalu miah
