Remember The Mongols

The world is disturbed by how brutally Iran came down on the recent protesters. But there is something that we have to remember, and that thing is history. It is so important because we tend to repeat it, sometimes intentionally but often without realizing it.

The area of western Asia and easternmost Europe might be a nice place in daily life but it has a history of harshly dealing with rebellions and uprisings. Aside from Iran, there was Saddam Hussein putting down rebellions against his rule in Iraq. In Syria, the Assad Dynasty bombed their own cities from the air. The Kurds are spread over areas of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and, Syria, but don't have a state of their own. All four countries have been harsh in dealing with uprisings by them.

In easternmost Europe there was the brutality of the consolidation of the rule of Josef Stalin, the brutality of the Eastern Front in the Second World War, and the current brutality of the war in Ukraine.

But there is a common factor in all of this, and that factor is the history of the Mongols. The Mongols once ruled this area and they were especially brutal with cities that resisted their rule. Saddam Hussein's capital of Baghdad was once possibly the most important city in the world, until it was destroyed by the Mongols. The Ottomans were one of the greatest empires ever, but early in their history lost the Battle of Ankara, which is now the capital of Turkey, to the Mongols. Damascus, the capital of Syria, was besieged by the Mongols. Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, was so devastated by the Mongols that it didn't regain it's importance until the Nineteenth Century.

So any brutal repression of uprisings in this area is a legacy of the Mongols. History is a powerful force and the Mongols are still with us. It is very true that "There is no such thing as the past".

There was another historical factor at work with IS, Islamic State, that had nothing to do with Islam. IS was proclaimed in Mosul, which was once the Assyrian capital of Nineveh. The territory conquered by IS was roughly the same as that of the Assyrians, in ancient times, and the Assyrians were even more brutal than the Mongols.

We have got to expect that there will be violence in America. The legacy of the battles against the native Indians, the Civil War and the "Wild West" are very much still with us.

Why does England have disturbing stabbing attacks? By the second civil war, the Anglicans and the Puritans in the Stuart Era, guns had been developed. But in the first civil war, the War of the Roses that led to the Tudor Era, combat was still done with swords and lances and arrows, and that history is still with us.

Here is a link to "Why We Should Understand The Mongols".

www.markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2016/05/why-we-should-understand-mongols.html?m=0