That was the whole point of the book I referenced earlier: a whole bunch of things and events came together over a 600 year period that culminated in the Industrial Revolution and a huge increase in wealth. The Industrial Revolution was either going to happen in England or the Netherlands.
They also had horrendous plagues in China, India and other parts of South East Asia, but in many cases, as outlined in the book, the response from the authorities was very different to that in north west Europe. One example is grain vs rice prices. In China farmers were forced to sell at lower prices, while in the UK grain prices rose due to labour shortages in line with market forces. But that in itself lead to higher wages, and ultimately economic upliftment for peasants.
If you read Thomas Piketty’s ‘Capital’, he shows through historical data that global economic growth before the Industrial Revolution was about 0.1% per annum ie negligible and a big reason why population grew so slowly. After the Industrial Revolution it goes to a long term average of 1.6% per annum. There were decades when it was much higher than this eg USA 1940-1970, China 1980-to present, but at a top level, an average of just 1.6% dragged a large part of humanity out of the Malthusian trap and subsistence. I also didn’t realise just how wealthy (as opposed to just GDP) the UK and France were in 1914. After WWI they were broke and the US wealth and GDP took off over the next century.
Languages evolve, and modern english is also based on a mixture and bastardisations of older languages, that evolved over time. In it's core English is a mixture of old (celtic) Brittonic, Scottic, Belgic and Pictic dialects that were originally spoken in the Britisch islands mixed with (Germanic) Saxon, Anglish and old Norse (in Danisch and Norway variations) and with strong influence of old Frisian and old low Frankisch (both also ancestors of modern Dutch). Later in history midieval french (based on a mixtore of low Frankish and Gallo-Roman) had a very strong influence also. And American English is very different from British English also because the influence of the mothertongues of the immigrants in the US.
And the same happens today with modern English, it influences a lot of languages and is influenced by a lot, and so it changes over time. In the US German had a big influence in the past, but now it's mainly Spanisch and Caribian and African creole dialects (like the Jamaican Patois) have a strong influence on it i think. You can't stop that, it's a natural evolution that languages influence each other and change over time.
My mothertongue (Belgian Dutch, spoken in northern Belgium) changed a lot over the last 150 years, influenced by French (spoken in southern Belgium) but mainly by English (trough music and media) and a lot of (younger) Belgians use a lot of English expressions and words in their Dutch , in a way that the older generation is also very annoyed by that.
And the same happens today with modern English, it influences a lot of languages and is influenced by a lot, and so it changes over time. In the US German had a big influence in the past, but now it's mainly Spanisch and Caribian and African creole dialects (like the Jamaican Patois) have a strong influence on it i think. You can't stop that, it's a natural evolution that languages influence each other and change over time.
My mothertongue (Belgian Dutch, spoken in northern Belgium) changed a lot over the last 150 years, influenced by French (spoken in southern Belgium) but mainly by English (trough music and media) and a lot of (younger) Belgians use a lot of English expressions and words in their Dutch , in a way that the older generation is also very annoyed by that.
You should try studying factual history - Al Andalus was way ahead of the virtual savages to the north. about 4 centuries ahead in anatomy/medecine/agriculture/science. The stench of most people in the north meant that the rich used to clutch nosegays to stop from puking. When the last caliphate Granada fell, the Roman and Arab baths fell into neglect, only restored in Granada in 2005. You obviously have never heard about the 'Cordoba Concorde' where Jews/Arabs and Christians swore an oath that never again would they kill each other. The hijab and burka (14th century) were unknown in Al-Andalus and women had a completely different status to those in traditio0nal Muslim countries. In America women were drowned and burned as witches by the Christians. The only reason that Al-Andalus fell was disunity between Arabs and Berbers. Same reason that Euskadi/Celtic Europe fell to the Romans first and then to the white Aryan savages from the northern Steppes. Unity is strength - disunity is weakness.
I would have loved eating the superior cuisine of north Africa - far healthier and nutritious than the crap eaten by north Europeans even today. If you go to southern Spain today the women are just as beautiful since they are still mostly Semitic Arabs and Sephardic Jewish. I have actually travelled from the old border between Granada and the conquered lands and the difference in the cuisine and the women (Aryan) is noticeable. before commenting go there and see.
Pity that it is history we did not witness personally and today's factual reality (that we can witness personally without much effort) is totally different, sometimes even the about exact opposite.
But it is nice to dream of beauty and accentuate long gone good things of the past, it may be of good help looking away from sometimes unpleasant & undesired reality of today.
But it is nice to dream of beauty and accentuate long gone good things of the past, it may be of good help looking away from sometimes unpleasant & undesired reality of today.
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You first need to read the post correctly before commenting - the very attractive young woman was French not Spanish having lived in the US and if you weren't so ignorant you would know that you can travel across America speaking only Spanish, she also visited Mexico having acquired a good knowledge of Spanish. Having lived in the USA she had also acquired a good knowledge of English. So the conversation we had was enjoyed by her as well as me. Had I had more time I would like to have asked her why she preferred life back home in France to the USA - it would have been interesting.
I prefer the company of women to *********. When a man cannot recognise and complement an attractive woman maybe he has a problem with women, maybe he feels intimidated, you may well be a sleazebag, I'm not.
@Black Stuart Maybe you should learn more about the culture of Norrd Africa, I know the culture (in the whole Magreb) quiet well, my actual girlfriend is from there (Algeria) and their culture is heavy influenced by greek and roman culture. The so called advance they had was mainly because they did not destroy the roman culture that overruled them for centuries, while the Germanic tribes did destroy most of it (as they were enemies of Rome for centuries). Averoes his famous library in Cordoba was mainly filled with ancient greek and roman books, not native north african.
But that does not mean there was no advanced culture there, the Berber culture and Arab culture are going back to the prehistoric Ibermausrean culture about 15000 years ago in a straight line, with the Arabs moving to the middle east when the Sahara became a desesrt about 10000 years ago. Egyptian culture was (largely) a Berber culture, just like the Moorish and Numidian culture was.
Southern spain was not inhabited by those, but by the Tartasian culture (native european, related to modern Basks), later invaded by Phoenician and Greek colonisers and Celts. The Magrebian people only came when the romans ruled over Spain, and in small numbers. After the fall of the Roman empire the Germanic Vandals and later the Germanic VIsigoths ruled the place and added their genetic stamp on the local population. The Magrebians came only in the 8th century AD when the armies of the local (Tanger) ruler Tariq ibn Zijad in name of the Kalif attacked the Visigothic empire and could conquer it because they had superior weapons. They ruled the region for about 800 years and certainly put their stamp on it (cultural and genetical), but the Andalusians are not Berber or Arab, they are mixture of native Iberians, Celts, Germanic people, Roman, Greek (Levantic and bedouin) Arab and Berber and their culture is also a mix of that.
But that does not mean there was no advanced culture there, the Berber culture and Arab culture are going back to the prehistoric Ibermausrean culture about 15000 years ago in a straight line, with the Arabs moving to the middle east when the Sahara became a desesrt about 10000 years ago. Egyptian culture was (largely) a Berber culture, just like the Moorish and Numidian culture was.
Southern spain was not inhabited by those, but by the Tartasian culture (native european, related to modern Basks), later invaded by Phoenician and Greek colonisers and Celts. The Magrebian people only came when the romans ruled over Spain, and in small numbers. After the fall of the Roman empire the Germanic Vandals and later the Germanic VIsigoths ruled the place and added their genetic stamp on the local population. The Magrebians came only in the 8th century AD when the armies of the local (Tanger) ruler Tariq ibn Zijad in name of the Kalif attacked the Visigothic empire and could conquer it because they had superior weapons. They ruled the region for about 800 years and certainly put their stamp on it (cultural and genetical), but the Andalusians are not Berber or Arab, they are mixture of native Iberians, Celts, Germanic people, Roman, Greek (Levantic and bedouin) Arab and Berber and their culture is also a mix of that.
From the 16th to the 18th century they were quite seasoned pirates/slave traders as well in the Maghreb. This serious threat to many European countries and American ships led eventually even to the USA getting involved in the Barbary Wars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_slave_trade
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_slave_trade
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I've just looked at my bookshelves, and I have 28 manuals, mostly cars, one on a transit van, a few motorcycles and one for Cincinnati milling machines; does that mean I'm too dumb to be on here?
My favorite "book" is Dragon bone chair, which is really a young adult book; I'm not saying it the best book written, it's just the one that I enjoyed the most.
Ironically, only two of the manuals are for vehicles that I've owned, I got the rest because it was a good (and cheap - £2.50p second hand) way to understand technical design. Asoiaf is the "fattest" book I've read, but I'll have forgotten 99% by the time the next book comes out.
My favorite "book" is Dragon bone chair, which is really a young adult book; I'm not saying it the best book written, it's just the one that I enjoyed the most.
Ironically, only two of the manuals are for vehicles that I've owned, I got the rest because it was a good (and cheap - £2.50p second hand) way to understand technical design. Asoiaf is the "fattest" book I've read, but I'll have forgotten 99% by the time the next book comes out.
Here is a list of the people that made the accusations that sent innocent women AND men to there deaths in Salem:
Sarah Churchill
Elizabeth Hubbard
Mercy Lewis
Ann Putman
Mary Warren
Abigail Williams
Notice something that all those names have in common?
Witch prosecutions happened and still happens all over the planet. In certain african countries (like Ghana) witches still live in seperate villages (witchcamps) to escape being lynched by the village they come from. That prosecution is illigal since the 1930's, but it still happens a lot in certain regions, even if the gouverment is activly fighting against it.
But the worst witch hunters were the Domini Canes (bloodhounds of the lord), the Dominican priest order founded in France in the 13th century, to eliminate heresy and paganism (in the first place the Cathars) by the inquisition. This caused a very violent and scupulous witchhunt against all who dared to divert from the strict Catholic teachings with many ended up being tortured and executed by those priests or their armies. The Dominican name is no the official name that is Ordo Praedicatorum, (the Orde or the preachers). It's the name that the society gave them because of this aggressive policy of prosecutions.
The manual for the Cincinnati milling machine was for a manual machine, lovely line drawn explode diagrams.
Another sad indictment of my working class, dumb background is that I recently recognized a piece of classical music - because it was from a Castrol GTX TV advert! (Mahler, symphony No 7, 2nd movement.
Another sad indictment of my working class, dumb background is that I recently recognized a piece of classical music - because it was from a Castrol GTX TV advert! (Mahler, symphony No 7, 2nd movement.
One train of thought is that recent (2 centuries) advances in wealth are connected to rapid technical innovations in industrial production.
These innovations came about from pressures of rising wages and shortages of cheap labour, which in turn came from organised labour and unions.
Margareth Tatcher and Ronny Reagan did a lot of damage by attacking unions which slowed down technological innovations. The need simply decreased because labour became relatively cheaper. Everything connected to everything else.
Jan
These innovations came about from pressures of rising wages and shortages of cheap labour, which in turn came from organised labour and unions.
Margareth Tatcher and Ronny Reagan did a lot of damage by attacking unions which slowed down technological innovations. The need simply decreased because labour became relatively cheaper. Everything connected to everything else.
Jan
Can't speak to the US but the idea of UK unions, and I speak as a former member, as bastions of technological innovation is very funny.
Out of context.
The pressure of unions increased the cost of labour.
Increased cost of labour was an incentive for technical innovations.
Jan
The pressure of unions increased the cost of labour.
Increased cost of labour was an incentive for technical innovations.
Jan