Historical investigation as an essential element in understanding the historical development of the human being is not a rigid investigation, but rather an open file that is constantly renewed, thanks to cognitive variables, civilizational transfers, and crises that necessitate the review, review and amendment of previous investigations, or the addition of new criteria for their enrichment.
The role of epidemics in historical investigation ... the fall and rise of civilizations..
The historical era derives its concept from the unit of time fluctuating between two notable boundaries of a particular phenomenon, which represent a beginning and an end in the continuum of a continuous network of reading time. The unit is based on different elements, on top of which are changing the course of people's daily lives, their familiar cultural behaviors, and their attitudes towards the different phenomena, which Jack Lugoff inserts in what he calls "semi-constant time", under the influence of various natural and human phenomena, especially climate changes, disasters and pandemics that It matches the rule of challenge and response according to Arnold Toynbee's theory. In this context, this article raises the question of the role of epidemics as a driving phenomenon of historical transformations and fluctuations, and testing this approach on the new epidemic of Corona, which - if it continues with this rapid pace - can end the era of globalization to inaugurate the world after a new era.
To give credibility to this hypothesis, I will devote in the first axis some aspect of the historical lesson that proves that epidemics par excellence constituted a turning point in the history of mankind, and it was behind the rise and fall of empires and civilizations, and the transition from one historical era to another. While I will devote the remaining axes to highlight how the Corona epidemic began to carve the first secretions of the signs of the collapse of the globalization system, and move to a new historical era that humanity will know, although what we will present are just initial possibilities and indications of the coming changes, because we are dealing with an instantaneous subject that is still in the stage of monitoring and initial diagnosis So far, only his first sketch was shown.
The role of epidemics in historical transformations and the fall of civilizations:
Epidemics constitute a defining moment in the history of societies, and an element of transformation and transition from one era to another, which led Laurent Henry Venue to conclude that “the spread of an epidemic is always an examination of society and an era.” This theory may be inspired by the Marxist-Hegelian perspective, which interprets history with the laws of dialectics, including the law of negation of negation in the context of the unity of conflict of contradictions, and the negation of the old.
An observing view of human history reveals that epidemics represented major signs of the end of an old age and the beginning of a new era. We thought that the Antonine Plague epidemic, or the smallpox epidemic as suggested by some researchers, invaded the Roman Empire during the reign of Marcus Aurelius of the Antonine family between the years 165 and 190 AD, before moving quickly to various parts of Europe, forming a historical turning point. What concerns us is that this epidemic has resulted, albeit far from far, from three articulated results that will make the Roman Empire move from one era to a new era:
First, its military ability collapsed because its invading army transferred the epidemic infection to the heart of Roman society and to its own strength, which weakened the empire's entity and led to its tragic downfall at the hands of the Germanic tribes.
The second is reflected in the existential question posed by Roman society at the time about the multiplicity of deities and the extent of their role in addressing this epidemic. Then, the pagan belief began to fade, paving the way for the era of the emergence of the Christian religion, which then spread during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine (315- 333 AD).
Meanwhile, the third result that reflects the collapse of Roman civilization is the disappearance of the system of slavery that had been established by the ancient Greek and Roman regimes.
We are therefore facing profound historical transformations, embodied in the emergence of Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the slave system, due to the civilizational plague caused by the plague epidemic, and an existential question that shattered religious beliefs and ancient patterns of production.
Similar to the Antonine plague that led to the exhaustion of the Roman military power, facilitating its downfall at the hands of the Germanic tribes, the spread of Christianity and the disappearance of the system of slavery as an announcement of the emergence of a new era, the plague of Justinian contributed to historical transformations that shook the pillars of the Byzantine Empire and the heir of its Roman counterpart, and the emergence of a new era as well. This plague was named after the Byzantine Emperor Justinian when he invaded his empire between 541 and 543 AD, and conquered Egypt, Constantinople, Anatolia, the Levant, Persia, and other countries. The epidemic resulted in cutting off trade routes that were believed to be the source of its spread, as well as a large demographic bleeding that made the Byzantine state enter an era of weakness and economic contraction, so the plague of Justinian was a strong cause that accelerated the end of the Byzantine Empire, and the beginning of the birth of the era of the young Islamic civilization that inherited the glory of the Byzantines as it goes To that Henry Perrin.
The same statement is true of the terrifying black plague that struck Europe and a number of parts of the world in the 14th century, and demonstrated the inability of the authorities made up of nobles and feudal lords to confront it. To health and clinging to the right to life, which marked the beginning of the end of the feudal era in Europe and the beginning of the Renaissance.
This resulted in two results that reflect the transition from an old era to a new era:
The feudal system was unable to cope with health disasters, and bankrupted it economically after the damage to the commercial methods and demographic bleeding in the land labor of serfs.
He also posed the existential question, which is the role of the Church in facing death, after she stood paralyzed and unable to face this epidemic, which made her image shaken in people's imaginations, and she who controlled their conscience for a long time.
These two facts paved the way for the birth of the European Renaissance and the geographical discoveries, and the resulting call for emancipation from the clergy, the beginning of the ages of lights and mercantile trade, and the prevalence of European rationality, and then entered an era in which the capitalist system and liberal freedom prevailed after that.
We limited ourselves to feeling the pulse of these historical epidemiological models that swept large areas of the world, to give arguments and evidence on the link between the spread of epidemics and the upheaval of civilizations, the occurrence of major historical transformations, the slackness of an era, and the emergence of a new historical era The failure to control the epidemic played a role in weaving its threads. Does this interpretation apply to the new epidemic of Corona, which ravaged the world without mercy these days? Will it also constitute another link in the chain of historical transformations that periodically sweeps the world and thus causes a prick on the system of globalization, which has been described as the only new world order? Is it possible for a virus that does not see with the naked eye to break the bones of a well-established system that possesses power and giant companies, and that controls land, seas and airspace with all the means of control of weapons, money and media? That is what we will address in the second axis (continued).
GOOD WORK
ReplyDelete