Why did taxation and a slave-based economy evolve into feudalism, state turn to religion, invention/infrastructure to ruin?
Why did taxation and a slave-based economy evolve into feudalism, state turn to religion, invention/infrastructure to ruin?
Why did someone give you access to a keyboard?
Lead in the pipes.
Ever heard of the BLACK PLAGUE?
Do you seriously expect to get an enlightened response from a bunch of pencil-necked runners?
The correct answer was the plague, but also the fall of the Roman Empire.
Christianity
It didn't really, only in Western Europe. The Eastern half of the Roman Empire lasted until about 1500s. The western part of the empire fell because of the pressure from the German tribes and lack of wealth. Once the Germans took over, they tried to "act" Roman. It just so happened that right before the empire fell Constantine converted to Christianity. The Christian religion is the only thing that unified Europe through the medivial days.
The plague came later and helped bring on the end of feudalism. It is the Fall of Rome and the Barbarian invasions that brought on feudalism and the medieval age. It's actually pretty cool how it all happened- the high taxes on the poor, wealthy people buying up all the land/farms, barbarians raping and pillaging, people running to the latifundia, turns to feudal manors, the Dark Ages begins. Plague, opens up opportunities to peasants, middle ages ends.
Yeah, the black death is actually what drove opportunity and the emphasis on individuality: you have to catalogue everyone who's sick and keep track of them, and suddenly you have a newly individualistic philosophy of life, that recognizes a prototypical capitalist/humanist subjectivity.
Rome went down because it was too old: you're around that long and problems build up. You can pick out tons of specific reasons, but they all come down to being so freaking old. Once you get the fall of Rome, barbarians take over with a tribal rather than bureaucratic system, and people flee to manors/feudal lords.
letsdumb wrote:
Do you seriously expect to get an enlightened response from a bunch of pencil-necked runners?
If only we had bigger necks like the well-known and feared Historian tribe.
And lead in the unfired pottery.
Who gives a flying rats ass?
ponderer of things wrote:
Why did taxation and a slave-based economy evolve into feudalism, state turn to religion, invention/infrastructure to ruin?
The same way this age will become known as the age of stupidity (bigotry, trolls, etc.) in 300 years.
age of ignorance wrote:
The same way this age will become known as the age of stupidity (bigotry, trolls, etc.) in 300 years.
America is like the Roman Empire? Wow, that's the first time I've ever heard that!
+1 to the fall of Rome (and the resulting regression of all facets of society)
The plague had nothing to do with the fall from the ancient world into the dark/medieval/middle ages. In fact, that happened during the early renaissance age, so I'm going to have to disagree with a few on here that say the plague actually was the driving force in the transition from the middle ages to the renaissance (I'd say that has more to do with the patrons of the arts, increased opportunity in the forms of exploration and trade, the Protestant Reformation, education reform, and the end of the Crusades).
watchout wrote:
The plague had nothing to do with the fall from the ancient world into the dark/medieval/middle ages. In fact, that happened during the early renaissance age, so I'm going to have to disagree with a few on here that say the plague actually was the driving force in the transition from the middle ages to the renaissance (I'd say that has more to do with the patrons of the arts, increased opportunity in the forms of exploration and trade, the Protestant Reformation, education reform, and the end of the Crusades).
Wrong.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/542procopius-plague.htmlit's a subject i ruminate a lot on
an answer for the west is the sclerotic advancement of civilisation under monotheism after constantine until the reformation, & for most plebs, life was no different in 500AD & 1500AD except for more carts & horses/cows to pull them
the reformation is probably assigned to luther, so i suppose if you want an "answer" :
luther
First hand account wrote:
watchout wrote:The plague had nothing to do with the fall from the ancient world into the dark/medieval/middle ages. In fact, that happened during the early renaissance age, so I'm going to have to disagree with a few on here that say the plague actually was the driving force in the transition from the middle ages to the renaissance (I'd say that has more to do with the patrons of the arts, increased opportunity in the forms of exploration and trade, the Protestant Reformation, education reform, and the end of the Crusades).
Wrong.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/542procopius-plague.html
Well that's a fail. Everyone knows "The Plague" as the Bubonic Plague, which first struck in the mid/late 14th century and resurfaced several times up through the mid 17th century. The Procopius Plague you mentioned happened at the very start of the Dark Ages, not even 70 years after the fall of Rome.
Sarcasm Enthusiast wrote:
America is like the Roman Empire? Wow, that's the first time I've ever heard that!
Are you serious?