Looking at these maps, through routes of trade and transit. Maps of the world, of shipping lanes, pie graphs regarding pirates. Robin’s men laid in wait along the highways. It occurs to me that the crusades were solely about protecting trade routes. The reason cities needed to be held by Christian (ie, European) interests in the “Holy Land” was because they were vital bases of trade to the Far East. From a strictly logical perspective, you don’t want to have to pay a bunch of middle men when it comes to trade transactions. If you control the whole supply chain, it’s your people all the way down the line. You know what to expect, who to trust. As soon as it became technologically possible (and profitable) to take water routes instead of overland, you start seeing world “exploration.” People were’nt mounting these ridiculously expensive and foolish shipping expeditions just for the fuck of cruising off into the great unknown. They were making money selling goods from far away by cutting out an enormous swath of middle men. Crusades, exploration and most importantly harmonious flow of long-distance trade routes made some princes/states wealthy. Others at least aware of the wealth the Church was hoarding by making trade routes and their control a matter of religious propaganda. Those princes decided to cut out the churchly middle men in their own regions, and there’s your Reformation. Colonialism follows as states try to assert themselves abroad, cloning their social structure in far-flung regions, trying to control both ends of the supply chain. Eventually trade barons realize its neither cost-effective nor desirable to directly control other regions, so long as they have access to ports, factories, heavy industrial facilities and natural resources. Where does the story go from here? Which path, which trail?
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7 Comments
I agree with you that, historically, the main thing to look at in terms of power is the trade routes.
As far as the “why?” of the Crusades though, these were people that would fight any where any time for any reason.
It was perfectly justified at the time to fight in order to get rich. No need to cover it up.
I studied these people in my genealogy. The Normans. They were all knights fighting constantly and they were very very very devout Roman Catholics. Fanatically religious. I think it was a Holy War. Not that that’s a good thing, but I think thats what it was. The Normans only had two occupations, Knights and Clergy and some were both.
I agree with you about the reformation.
But at the time of the crusades, though, these guys were really into the whole religious thing. They still acted like Odin worshippers, but were very Catholic.
One thing I wonder too thinking about this stuff, if we aren’t simply seeing some type of collective intelligence at work? Its like we posit some mastermind scheme which assumes, some really clear thinking planning. Like there were some really smooth operators behind it all.
Just like conspiracy theory operates now. But It could just be a kind of collective intelligence, like some field these people were plugged into that had its own logic. Its like the trade networks themselves were intelligent and the used these various people for different ends.
Because how smart is it to be a Knight? To be constantly waging war as your occupation? That’s all these guys did is fight and go to mass and hunt wild boars on horseback for fun and stuff like that. They were barbarians, still.
I don’t know, that doesn’t sound so terrible…
No, I think it was a blast. I am just saying they weren’t so jaded back than that they would lie about the crusades while just doing it for the money, when they did things like sack Sicily for the money.
Getting rich through conquest was perfectly legit back then.
I think being a Norman was a blast. Can you imagine the audacity it takes to build a fleet of viking ships big enough to transport a whole Calvary across the English Channel and then take over the whole country? Just Charge up the hill on horseback and say “yep, this is all ours now.”
Anyway, Dude, I sense we both have this Karma.
Chevaliers in a former life, and or ancestry. Because you know all this stuff. Its old hat.
The way it works is now we are working out this karma.
Whats the opposite of finding the good things and going out and fighting for and taking them and keeping the best parts for you and your clan?
The opposite is Making good things from nothing and giving it away to everyone for free.
Its a circle.
I don’t know the research this came from but my understanding is that the abundance of navigable rivers is considered the reason that Europe grew so quickly when it started growing.
Africa becomes known for the Bedouin, Tuareg, etc. and Europeans become known for shorter jaunts on horseback.