A History of Man: A Concise Study of the World Patterns That Brought Us to Here
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History is like a novel - a single story with a single thread - but historians complicate things; make the simple difficult, so you don't bother. This book lets you be bothered.
Anthony North
Thinker & Storyteller****7,453 Words to Save the UK and I,Writer are now FREE. Scroll down to find them.*****1955 (Yorkshire, England) – I am born (Damn! Already been done). ‘Twas the best of times ... (Oh well).I was actually born in the year of Einstein's death, close to Scrooge's Counting House. It doesn't mean anything but it sounds good. As for my education, I left school at 15 and have had no formal education since. Hence, I'm self-taught.****From a family of newsagents, at 18 I did a Dick Whittington and went off to London, only to return to pretend to be Charlie and work in a chocolate factory.When I was ten I was asked what I wanted to be. I said soldier, writer and Dad. I never thought of it for years – having too much fun, such as a time as lead guitarist in a local rock band – but I served nine years in the RAF, got married and had seven kids. I realized my words had been precognitive when, at age 27, I came down with M.E. – a condition I’ve suffered ever since – and turned my attention to writing.Indeed, as I realized that no expert could tell me what was wrong with me, I began my quest to find out why. Little did I realize it would last decades and take me through the entire history of knowledge, leaving me with the certainty that our knowledge systems are inadequate.****My non-fiction is based on P-ology, a thought process I devised to work with patterns of knowledge, and designed to be a bedfellow to specialization. A form of Rational Holism, it seeks out areas the specialist may have missed. I work from encyclopaedias and introductory volumes in order to gain a grasp of many subjects and am not an expert in anything, but those patterns keep forming. Hence, I do not deal in truth, but ideas, and cover everything from politics to the paranormal.When reading my work I ask only: do I make sense? Of course, an expert would say: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I agree. And an expert has so little knowledge of everything.I also write novels and Flash Fiction in all genres.
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A History of Man - Anthony North
A History of Man:
A Concise Study of the World Patterns That Brought Us to Here
By Anthony North
Copyright: Anthony North 2020
Cover image copyright: Yvonne North, 2020
Smashwords Edition
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission
Other books by Anthony North
In 2019 I began a 3 year publishing program that will result in 14 volumes of my fiction, inc 7 novels in most genres, & 21 works of non-fiction covering cults, politics, conspiracies, religion, disasters, science, philosophy, warfare, crime, psychology, new age, green issues & all areas of the unexplained, inc ufology, lost worlds and the paranormal. Hopefully appearing at the rate of one a month, check out the latest launch at my bookstore at http://anthonynorth.com or buy direct from Smashwords for all devices at: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/anthonynorth
In addition to the above, you may like my ‘I’ Series – 8 volumes of flash fiction (horror, sci fi, romance, adventure, crime), 4 volumes of poetry & 5 volumes of short essays from politics to the unexplained. Available from same links as above. Also check out my bookstore for news of my books out in paperback.
CONTENTS
Introduction
Part One – MAN IN ADOLESCENCE
Beginning
Pre-History
Pre-Classical World
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
The Hellenic World
The Roman Empire
Early & Classical Knowledge
Part Two - THE ONE GOD
The Birth of Monotheism
The Dark Ages
Europe Gets Organised
Islamic Beginnings
The Crusades
Events of the Middle Ages
Christendom
Cracks In the System
Part Three - THE WIDER WORLD
The Mongols
Indian Sub-Continent
Early China
The East & Pacific
The Dark Continent
The Americas
Part Four - RISE OF THE EUROPEAN
The Renaissance
Reformation
Counter-Reformation
The European States
Discovery
Towards America
Later Colonies
England and Government
Industry
Napoleon and Co
The Nineteenth Century
European Thinkers
Part Five - THE MODERN WORLD
War and Peace
United States of America
World War Two
End of Empire
The Middle East
The Cold War
The Far East
South America
The Patterns of Trade
Modern Society
The New Intellect
Contents by Subject
Bibliography
About the Author
Connect With Anthony
INTRODUCTION
Most histories of man are called world histories. This is an example of arrogance. We are not the planet. Half the population would disagree with my use of 'man'. I won't provide wriggle-room by claiming its short for mankind. The reality is most major moments of history have involved men. Let's hope we can do better in future.
This book is rather short for a history of man; and for a very good reason. Most historians complicate history by delving into what I call 'localisms'. Localism can mean geographical, cultural or even temporal influence. But I feel such influences distort history.
To counter one effect of this, I don't always stick to a strict timeline as most histories do. Rather, some major events appear as back stories. As an example, I don't include the Holocaust in World War Two. It was not war, but one of the greatest crimes in history. Rather, I include it later in the back story of the Jewish people following the birth of Monotheism to the creation of Israel. Whilst certainly not letting the monster Hitler off the hook, most world histories do not allow the true impact of the horror to come through, letting too many others off the hook.
To me, history is like a great novel, with one thing leading to the next, yet in a predictable pattern. When a great world changer comes along, we think the world changes because of him. Okay, he may be a great (or evil) person, affected by localisms, but I'd argue a 'he' had to appear at that time and place in order for the story to continue.
This history is purposely concise in order to highlight the eternal patterns of our story - a story where we are all simple players in history's tune.
Part One – MAN IN ADOLESCENCE
Beginning
It begins with the origin of man. Creation myths survive from around the world which claim man was seeded on the Earth through supernatural intervention, best expressed in the west through the Creation Account in Genesis. This was popularly believed until recent times. But now evolution has replaced the supernatural.
Fundamental to modern man is our close genetic relationship to the apes. We shared a common ancestor about ten million years ago, with man entering a separate lineage three to four million years ago. This was Australopithecus Afarensis, or southern ape, bipedalism beginning to show (i.e. walking on two legs), allowing us to evolve dextrous forelimbs for manipulation of our environment.
Evidence of Australopithecus Afarensis came from Ethiopia, including the female skeleton, Lucy, from 3.5 million years ago. He disappears about 1.7 million years ago, replaced by homo habilis, meaning ‘man the toolmaker.’ Thought to be the first clearly human ancestor, fossil evidence has been found in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, although some experts would differ from this human classification. With a rounded skull with enlarged brain, he has a more human face. Rudimentary stone tools have been found close to his remains.
About the same time, a progression – homo erectus – appeared in Asia, but this may have been an off-shoot of the evolutionary line, wiped out by competition from modern man or catastrophe such as a meteor collision. But the remains of an approximately 12 year old boy found at Nariokotome, Kenya, dated to 1.7 million years ago, is only slightly different from a modern boy.
And soon we have the first appearance of Homo sapiens, or ‘man the thinker.’ He had a great advantage in his technology. Australopithecus Afarensis could only survive in warm climates, as in Africa. Home sapiens went on to fashion clothing, fire and shelter, allowing him to move out of Africa, to colder climes.
There are two theories for the dispersal of Homo sapiens throughout the world. The first argues that he appeared independently in different regions, but the most accepted theory is the Out-of-Africa model, where he moved out of the continent approximately 125,000 years ago.
In Europe he is first known as Neanderthal Man, named after the discovery of his skeleton in the Neander Valley near Dusseldorf in 1856. He could think; he ritually buried his dead, suggesting religious forms. But being short and stocky, he wasn’t fully modern. But 35,000 years ago another migration began. This was Cro-Magnon Man, a skeleton found in the Cro-Magnon cave of Les Eyzies in the Dordogne in 1868.
First appearing in Africa 100,000 years ago, he was fully modern, and with his appearance, Neanderthal Man disappears. And soon man went on to develop his technology, culture and agriculture.
Pre-History
Two million years ago our ancestors lived on the African savannas. A small, frail species it is doubtful he hunted, having a stable diet of seeds and berries, and a little meat scavenged from the remains of food killed by larger carnivores. This lifestyle required cunning, and it was most likely this trait that led to our ascendancy.
His hands were becoming increasingly dexterous and, walking erect, he used stone, bone and wood to dig, cut and pulverise. Interestingly, no weapons have been found from this period – only tools, fashioned by chipping one stone with another, leading to the chipped hand-axe a million years ago as his migrations began.
HUNTER/GATHERER
In these harsh climates early man would shelter in caves, yet sites at Terra Amata in France and Kostenki in Russia show temporary shelters made of Brushwood, early use of fire and rudimentary tools as early as 400,000BC. The Zhoukoudian caves in Beijing show definite use of fire from about 500,000BC, and also evidence of Homo Erectus (here dubbed Peking Man) using tools as early as 700,000BC.
Evidence of weapons for hunting appears about 200,000BC, yet by 35,000BC modern man in Europe was using engineered tools and weapons such as knives, spearheads and harpoons of bone, fishhooks and even musical instruments such as flutes. Spiritual life was also present, evidenced by cave art and rudimentary statuary.
Up to about l0,000BC, when the last ice age ended, man was nomadic, following the herds for food. Females gathered and males scrounged and hunted. But as the Agricultural Revolution began man slowly left his hunter/gatherer existence. As the glaciers retreated they cultivated farming stock and arable land. This was arguably helped by the hunting to extinction of the great herds, forcing them to change their habits.
BIRTH OF AGRICULTURE
By 8,000BC static village communities appear, enabled by the harnessing of wild plant species such as wheat, rice and maize to sustained, organised growth in fields. Combined with the domestication of cattle, sheep and pigs, the farmer came into being, producing wool, milk and meat, further advancing by adapting livestock to beasts of burden. Spiritual life seems to have become endemic to this process, deities representing natural elements such as wind, and taking on seasonal aspects. The movement of the sun-god told them when to plant and harvest, mingling with early science to build wood and then stone henges.
This gave power to priesthood through knowledge, and as transportation improved, villages grouped together forming large scale communities with a dual leadership of priest and chief.
URBANISATION
In the Fertile Crescent of the eastern Mediterranean additional problems had to be faced. Farming began in the foothills, but with few trees, stone building began. This required a greater engineering and administrative skill, with more advanced villages appearing about 7000BC, creating the first known towns.
Two of these were Jericho in the Jordan Valley and Catal Huyuk in Turkey. First settled around 9000BC, Jericho housed 2,000 people by 7000BC. It had a circular stone tower in its centre with a stone wall and ditch for defence. Stone bowls and clay ovens were used, and several shrines have been found.
Catal Huyuk was larger. With tighter packed houses, it had less defences and homes were entered through the roof. Jewellery, mirrors, frescos and woven materials have been found here in abundance, suggesting it was the centre of a long distance trading network.
THE BIRTH OF TRADE
The lifeblood of such towns was the closeness of running water – rivers – for agriculture. But the size of the supply limited growth. Hence, by 5000BC Catal Huyuk was abandoned, the people moving down from the foothills to the plains, especially between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present Iraq. Known as Mesopotamia, seasonal floods led to great mythologies and immense engineering skills, combining irrigation for the fields with ways of diverting flood waters.
Although securing water for agriculture, these advanced communities lacked essential raw materials, so trading on a large scale began with smaller communities. This increased their wealth, and urbanisation began proper.
By 4000BC copper ore was mined in places like Timna in Israel, leading to metallurgy, producing ornaments, tools and weaponry of superior quality. This was the prime factor of advancement, soon entering the Bronze Age with the mixing of copper and tin, and, by 1200BC, the Iron Age.
COMPLEXITY
Trade and increasing social complexity required better forms of communication. Hence, by 3000BC writing was well established. Memory was no longer enough for recording trade or myth.
Scratches and knots were used as recording methods as early as 6000BC, but now hieroglyphics appeared. This led to cuneiform, a series of geometric shapes forming representative language on clay tablets, scribed by split reeds. Used by the Sumerians by 2500BC, structure was formed with an early alphabet. By 600BC the ancient Greeks had turned this into an alphabet we can understand today.
As these advances were on-going, the veil of pre-history was slowly being drawn back, and in its wake came an explosion of human experience.
Pre-Classical World
In the previous chapter we saw how agriculture, trade, metallurgy, stonemasonry and writing led to accelerated advancement towards urbanisation in the Fertile Crescent. The process also occurred in the Nile delta and by the Indus and Yellow rivers. However, the Fertile Crescent became the cradle of western civilisation, known as Mesopotamia, meaning between the rivers.
Cities first appeared here around 3500BC. The best known was Uruk in the south. Covering 250 acres with at least a 50,000 population, a 9 mile wall surrounded it and at its centre were a number of towers known as ziggurats.
GODS AND CULTURE
The home of the Sumerians, Uruk was the centre of mythology turned into organised religion, later adapted by the Akkadians with the sky god Anu heading