Banned from Historum already, posting here.
This is the summary of a thread that I wrote on Historum.com trying to explain my project, Babylonian Near Eastern Maritime Hegemony
c. Owen Gus Mills
Civilization began in Sumer because of the high level of artificiality required for sustenance; surpluses, irrigation. Why not the Fertile Crescent? The first civilization was Eridu. Eridu was in the extreme south where irrigation was required for agriculture. It was so close to sea level that irrigation caused salinity problems and infertility. It was hardly the best place for agriculture. Instead, it seems that some people really wanted to be located on the Persian Gulf, despite the adversity of it. The requirements for agriculture in this region; irrigation, surpluses during floods, created a very entrenched hierarchy. The highly organized society created the first civilization, Eridu, around 4,500 B.C.
Sumer could have been sought out by a Neolithic population looking to establish a hierarchical society, and recognizing the regions long term political importance.
Sumer or Eridu was a redistributionist theocracy for millennia before kings existed. The emergence of permanent military threats and the position of military leader, or a king, challenged the existing theocracy. This began a dynamic between religion and kingship. Religion remained immensely important in Sumer, Akkad, and Mesopotamia.
Southern Mesopotamia exhibited material superiority in every period of history or prehistory: Samarra, Ubaid, Uruk, Sumer, Akkad, Babylon, Chaldea, Persia etc.
Western Asia was gradually conquered by a series of Mesopotamian Empires from 2400-450 B.C. Akkad or Babylon was important to almost all of them. The Iron Age was a great drama between Assyria and Babylon (Winckler), and Babylon prevailed. The administrative capital of Persia was Babylon, it was very Babylonian.
The conquest of Western Asia by Persia politically connected the Mediterranean and India. Without hesitation, like a ripple outward, the focus of conquests continued outward into these adjacent regions.
The prime object of ancient Near Eastern conquest was the Mediterranean.
The consolidation of India occurred first. The wealth of trade with the Mauryan Empire was used to conquer the Mediterranean, and then it disappeared c. 180 B.C.
The Mauryan-Greek era rapidly developed a maritime order that circumvented Babylonia. Jews were prevalent in Alexandria.
As Rome's influence in Egypt and the Near East increased, Jews conquered the Edomite Palestine trade route. They monopolized Indo Arabian trade route while becoming a buffer between the Romans and Parthians.
Roman rule became unviable for Jews over the course of the 2nd century A.D. This prompted the development of both Christianity and post 2nd temple Judaism. Christianity allowed for Jews to move around the Roman Empire. Christianity became popular in time to become a political force when the empire fell apart in the 3rd century.
The establishment of the Silk Road had incorporated Central Asia and China into Near Eastern commerce (Kurinsky, The Silk Road: A Jewish Odyssey). However, these regions were inextricably linked to nomadic politics on the Eurasian steppe.
Jews moved backed to Babylonia (Amoraim) c. 220 just prior to the Sasanian Revolution. The Sasanian Revolution created a renewed division of the Near East between Rome and Persia. The invasion of the Huns into China, Central Asia, Europe, and India further contracted Eurasian economic activity back to the Near East. The movement of the Roman capitol east helped Christianity become established in the west.
The Near East became divided between Constantinople and Persia. A divide and conquer strategy culminated in the spread of Islam. Islam finalized the "ancient conquest of the Mediterranean" and just as rapidly began to conquer the Silk Road. This was the "end" of the ancient period insofar as it was the conquest of the ancient world.
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The main thesis is that Western Civilization emerged from patterns of economic and conflict cycles in Eurasia. Western Civilization was an external or western oriented component of Near Eastern politics that situated itself in an ideally proximal position to exploit the effects of these cycles. It preserved itself in different adjacent locations, and then was positioned to extend itself inward to achieve subsequent goals once these cycles had reached their peak.
In the Bronze and early Iron Age, this was an external or maritime strategy in Syria-Mesopotamia involving the extremities of Mesopotamia, primarily Syria and Babylonia. This strategy allowed for Babylon to conquer Assyria. The four separate migrations and conquests of NW Semites into Mesopotamia were the primary basis of this "Babylonian" strategy. It had a "western" significance insofar as Syria and Babylonia controlled the primary routes to the Mediterranean and Egypt.
This western location shifted to Alexandria, then Judah, then around the Roman Empire.
Western Europe emerged as an important proximal location at the beginning of the medieval era. This allowed for the survival of Judaism and Christianity despite widespread Byzantine and Sasanid persecutions. However the shift of Islamic conquests across Eurasia prompted a reorientation back to Egypt and the Near East from 650-1000 A.D. Only after this was there a re-centering of events in Europe.
The development of medieval Egypt as an independent entity and Near Eastern power was very important because Egypt continued to be the focus of global trade. The conquest of Northern India, which relied on influencing events in Central Asia, was also an important development. These two things being done created a new Indo Arabian order, the Mamluks of Cairo and the Mamluks of Delhi, that made possible the simultaneous, or staggered, conquest of Western Europe and southern India in the late medieval period. This order persisted until the rise of Atlantic exploration ended the importance of the Near East.
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I should talk about the Geonim and Islam next, but I want to talk about the Roman church working together with Sunni Islam and Judaism. The Roman Catholic Church attempts to portray itself as a medieval authority that continuously exercised power from 325 A.D., but that is a false premise. 1054 A.D. was an important starting point for the Roman Church as a permanent temporal authority in Europe. Before this, the church exercised some authority in the Merovingian period, and then experienced its first greatness during the late Carolingian period, c. 820-880.
The Merovingian dynasty was important for the preservation of Judaism and Christianity in the 6th century. These religions were threatened by the resurgence of the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires following the recession of the Huns. The Roman popes and Babylonian Jews experienced harsh persecutions during the 6th century. The Merovingian Empire established Roman Christianity in Western Europe and was preferential towards Jews.
The church didn't gain much lasting authority from the Merovingian period. The Roman pope was approved by the Byzantine emperor from 537-752.
The muslim invasions of Gaul allowed the Carolingians to conquer Western Europe. Jews dominated the Carolingian court, and probably supported the rise of that dynasty. After the fragmentation of the empire, the early Roman Church experienced its high point of authority, c. 840-880 A.D.
A economic recession across the Silk Road began in the 830's, and lasted until the late 10th century. By the late 9th century, nomadic invaders were destabilizing Europe and the Middle East. The papacy retained only a local significance from 904-964, and was mostly defunct until 1048. The Abbasid Caliphate also reached a low point, being a hostage in Baghdad from 946-1055. The last major Babylonian Geon died in 942.
The golden age of Judaism in Iberia corresponds to the volatility in Eurasia, and the low point of the Abbasids and the popes. Jews were viziers and advisers to the caliph from about 900-960. Kairouan was also an important center of Judaism during this period. The situation for Jews in both of these places worsened around 1000 A.D., while things were improving for them in Europe and Egypt.
Another important development for Judaism and Christianity during the volatile 10th century was the establishment of the Kingdom of Germany. The kingdom was centered on Franconia, which included the Jewish ShUM communities of Worms, Mainz, and Speyer, an the Archdiocese of Mainz. The proto-Ashkenazi community began at Mainz around 870 A.D. The Ashkenazi Jews became "head and shoulders" above other Jewish communities by 1000 A.D. The Archbishop of Mainz became incredibly influential while the diocese of Rome was at its lowest point.
This won't make sense until the next period up to the Crusades are explained, and all of these developments are compared to the timeline of the Near East and Egypt.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracytheories/comments/gg4v01/banned_from_historum_already_posting_here/
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