Berlin Wall Anniversary

It was recently the anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. Why don't we review how history works.

THE BERLIN WALL

The Berlin Wall was an artificial barrier that ultimately didn't last. But why was this so?

The most important historical factor in the Berlin Wall is the split between east and west that we saw in the compound posting "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began" January 2016. This is where the monumental split, known as the "Great Schism of 1054" took place. The Eastern Orthodox Church split away from the Catholic Church, over disagreements about how much authority the Pope had, and the world has not been the same ever since. The conflicts between the two domains, from Napoleon's invasion of Russia to the Eastern Fronts of both world wars to the Cold War to the present war in Ukraine, are all rooted in this split, even if in modern secular form.

Another factor is the "The Rule Of Successive Revolutions" that we saw in the posting by that name, October 2024. The French Revolution of 1789 opened the modern political era. The king and queen were overthrown and guillotined in favor of a republic. But the revolution was messy and bloody and ultimately ended in the rule of Napoleon, who was the prototype of the modern dictator. 

There have been two major reenactments of the French Revolution, as well as many minor ones. The two major reenactments have each changed the basic direction of the French Revolution. The first reenactment, what we could call the Second Revolution, was the October Revolution of 1917, which was the beginning of world Communism. The second major reenactment, which we could call the Third Revolution, was the Iranian Revolution of 1979. This turned the direction of the revolution series back to religion.

The Berlin Wall was built by the Communists. It was their era, the era of the Second Revolution, and this enabled them to overreach westward, relative to the split defined by the Great Schism of 1054. But once the Second Revolution was supplanted by the Third Revolution, in 1979, it was only a matter of time before the Berlin Wall came down. Anniversaries are important and it came down in 1989 because that was the bicentennial of the French Revolution.

THE FIRST GULF WAR

During my youth, there was one major event that really took me by surprise. It was the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in 1990. I had thought that the two countries were friendly, and Kuwait had seemed to favor Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War. 

Now I understand but, like so many other things, it goes back to the French Revolution.

Iraq underwent a repetition of the French Revolution. Iraq actually had it's own revolution, where the king was overthrown and killed in favor of a republic, on Bastille Day, and it is known as the July 14 Revolution. But just like the original French Revolution the republic would end up under the rule of a Napoleonic figure in a military uniform. That figure's name was Saddam Hussein. I consider Iraq as one of the most perfect reenactments of the French Revolution. 

Saddam Hussein is generally considered as having invaded neighboring Iran, in September 1980, with the hope to acquire Iran's oil-rich, and Arab-majority, Khuzestan Province. The Iranian Revolution was still going on and Saddam was certainly worried about it spilling over into his own majority Shiite population. Border clashes between the two countries had been going on for several months. Iran was cut off from the U.S., which had been it's main ally, and Saddam decided to take advantage of the situation.

The war went on for eight years, without either side gaining much of anything. Since Iran was at odds with the west, Saddam Hussein seemed to think that the west "owed" him something for keeping Iran at bay, and would acquiesce if he seized neighboring oil-rich Kuwait. This would be Iraq's reward instead of Khuzestan Province.

Saddam Hussein seemed greatly surprised at the world's reaction to his seizure of Kuwait. America and it's allies demanded the withdrawal from Kuwait and began mobilizing immediately. Saudi Arabia would join the coalition and allow the forces of the other countries to assemble on it's territory. A deadline of January 15, 1991, was announced for Iraqi forces to leave Kuwait, because that would allow time for the Allies to assemble a sufficient force. 

But let's remember the all-important French Revolution. Iraq's own mirror revolution actually took place on Bastille Day. Iraq was ruled by a Napoleon-like figure in Saddam Hussein, in a military uniform and ultimately emerging from the revolution that overthrew the king. But Kuwait was ruled by an emir, which is a king, from the Al-Sabah family. This put the two apparently-friendly countries on diametrically opposite sides of the French Revolution.

Remember that we saw in the compound posting "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris", December 2015, that the Republican side of America, despite the name, represents a continuation of the French Bourbon Dynasty that was overthrown by the French Revolution. The king and queen that were overthrown and guillotined, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, had been America's first allies and helped it to gain independence. This is what led America to react so quickly in favor of Kuwait, although I don't think it had been that close of an ally to America before that. Saudi Arabia was also ruled by a king and quickly joined in. It amounted to the kingdoms against the revolutionaries. 

CHINA'S CIVIL WAR

The influence of the French Revolution and this Revolution Series reaches to the Far East. 

Japan and China both had revolutions. But their revolutions went in opposite directions. China had it's version of the French Revolution in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which overthrew the emperor. Japan's revolution was in reverse. The power of the warrior class, the Samurai, was ended and full power was restored to the emperor. During the war between the two countries Japan got the former emperor of China, who had been a child when overthrown in 1911, and put him in power in the northeastern part of China, Manchuria.

After the end of the Second World War was the Chinese Civil War, between the Nationalists and the Communists. China had it's version of the French Revolution in 1911, and Chiang Kai-Shek emerged as it's Napoleon figure. But that was the First Revolution. Since the October Revolution of 1917, it had been the era of the Second Revolution. This favored the Communists and is why they ultimately won. 

THE FOURTH REVOLUTION 

Since there have been three revolutions in this all-important series, what might we expect if there should someday be another revolution in the series?

I wasn't thinking about it when I wrote about this series of revolutions but what about the emergence of the Antichrist, as described in Bible prophecy? This is described in the posting "The End Of The World As We Know It".

The First Revolution was hostile to religion, the Second even more so, but the Third was all about religion and brought the world generally back in that direction. The emergence of the Antichrist will certainly be revolutionary and what would be more logical as the next step in the revolution series than someone actually claiming to be God?

The Bible states that the Antichrist will go into the Temple of God and claim to be God. Remember that Napoleon was about to be crowned as emperor, in Notre Dame Cathedral by the Pope who had come to crown him, but he snatched the crown from the Pope and put it on himself, showing that he was above the Pope. 

Decades later Napoleon's nephew, known as Napoleon III or Louis Napoleon, would be the first president of the French Republic. When his term of office was over, in true Napoleonic fashion, simply declared the republic at an end, and France again as an empire, with himself, as we might expect, as emperor.

All three of the revolutions in the series has removed the existing order and had some kind of "storming" as it's signature event. The original French Revolution had the Storming of the Bastille. The October Revolution had the Storming of the Winter Palace. The Iranian Revolution had the Storming of the U.S. Embassy. What is referred to as the "Rapture", although the word is not in the Bible, is the removal by Jesus of all true Christians from the earth before the Tribulation Period begins. Although it will not be the work of humans, it fits ideally with being the Storming and overthrow of the existing order in the Fourth Revolution.