The lesson of history?
Time passes.
Things change.
Civilizations at their peak present curious spectacles, believing everything but their own mortality.
When we admire our great cities, we find it hard to believe that they will ever crumble.
Every civilization begins and ends.
Western civilization emerged in the century leading up to WWI. Colonial imperialism and empires began to collapse following WWII, and the two superpowers emerged. Western cultures following 1980 became progressively more secularized and ambiguous about identity and values. Conflicts with non-western cultures (Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, ISIL, Libya, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Bokoharam, and Russia) arise repeatedly.
Even this one.
The Holy Roman Empire 962–1806 AD
not to be confused with the Roman Empire
It is perhaps worth reevaluating our own perspective; there's always more. (ref: a perhaps difficult read but extraordinarily enlightening)
Common causal contributors:
- Economic failure
- Moral obscuration
- Environmental exhaustion
- Overpopulation
- Natural disaster, disease
- Economic inequality, revolution
- Foreign invasion
Great Civilizations and Empires Past:
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| The Ottoman Empires - a Sunni Islamic state 1299–1923 AD |
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| The Umayyad Caliphate - second of the Muslim Empires |
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| The Persian Empires at greatest extent 550 BC – Today (Iran) |
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| The Han Dynasty 206 BC–220 AD |
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| The British Empire at greatest extent 1497–1997 AD |
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| The Russian Empire before WWI |
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| The Mongol Empire 1206–1368 AD |
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| The Roman and Byzantine Empires 510 BC – 1453 AD
Empires and cultures of
the past are gone, relegated
to history, the common fate
of every civilization, and a
reminder, perhaps, that the purpose of our life is not power or rule or domination. |
The arc of history bends toward delusion. Every hegemon thinks it is the last; all ages believe they will endure forever. In reality, of course, states rise, fall, and compete with one another along the way. And how they do so determines the world’s fate.