Title:

Fall of Civilizations

Author:

Paul Cooper

Category:

Non Fiction

Rating:

Date Reviewed:

October 26, 2024

his non-fiction book describes various civilizations and their downfall. Part I is titled "The Ancient World" and covers the Sumerians, The Late Bronze Age, Assyria, Carthage, Han China and Roman Britain. Part II is "The Middle Age" and includes the Maya, the Khmer, Byzantium and Vijayanagara. Part III is "Worlds Collide" and tells of the Songhai, the Aztecs, the Inca and Easter Island. Some of this material was entirely new to me - I had never heard of the Vijayanagara empire (Southern India: 1336 - 1646) nor the Songhai empire (West Africa: 1460 - 1591). I had only vague knowledge of the Khmer (Southeast Asia: 802 - 1431) or Han China (202 BC - 220 CE). One thing that surprised me was the absence of the fall of the Egyptian empire, or the Mongols, or Persia. But I guess even a book of this size cannot include every civilization.

Despite the wide variance in location and historical era, there is a lot of similarity to all of these empires. A competent charismatic leader conquers all the nearby kingdoms, and assembles an empire. Though a golden age flourishes, it accompanied by ruthless violence against neighboring kingdoms. Eventually the surrounding enemies rise up and march on the empire, burning and looting, destroying the capital and massacring the inhabitants. Often the empire is overthrown because the throne is occupied by an incompetent king. Sometimes the cause of the collapse is due to internal strife as various factions battle for the right to rule. My conclusion is that if these civilizations hadn't been ruthless and violent, their neighbors certainly were, and any peaceful kingdom would have been quickly overrun and slaughtered. The lust for gold appears to be universal in humanity. The names change, but the outcome is always the same.

One of the most interesting things I learned in this book is that in 97 CE, the Han emperor sent his most trusted advisor, Gan Ying, to investigate the rumors he had heard of a mighty empire far to the west (the Roman Empire). Gan Ying journeyed down the silk road and got as far as the Mediterranean Sea (or else the Persian Gulf, it is not clear which body of water he reached, but he did enter the Roman Empire.) He returned to China, the first man known to journey the entire length of this important trade route, and Gan Ying achieved this feat 1200 years before Marco Polo!

The description of the Easter Island calamity was interesting. I had read how the natives had paddled out to greet Captain Cook in ramshackle canoes that were so battered that they were barely sea worthy. What I did not know was that Cook was not the first European to reach Easter Island. In 1722, a Dutch explorer named Roggeveen landed on Easter Island and discovered a thriving, though isolated society. Unfortunately, Roggeveen's crew brought smallpox, which of course the native population had never been exposed to previously. Two Spanish ships landed at Easter Island in 1770. Cook did not arrive until 1774 - and found an impoverished island inhabited by only 600 or 700 people. All the statues had been toppled. Easter Island had become the place of ruin that makes it famous today.

The chapters about the Spanish conquests of the Aztecs and the Incas are depressing. The native populace were no saints (the Aztec famously sacrificed prisoners at the top of their temples by cutting the still beating hearts out of their victim's bodies), but the cruelness and depravity of Cortez and Pizarro makes the New World natives sympathetic figures. The Aztec and the Inca did fight back, but the advantage of horses, steel armor, swords, and cannons were too much for the native forces to overcome, despite their overwhelming advantage in numbers.

Cooper adds an epilogue to his book, describing our Global Civilization and the looming threat of climate change. How will our civilization respond? Based upon all historical evidence, humans will fall upon each other in an orgy of destruction rather than working together to solve the problem. It is not a happy thought, the youth of today are right to be pessimistic about what lies ahead.

Each of these chapters could easily be expanded into a whole book - certainly there are books available describing Carthage, Byzantium and others. I already read Last Days of the Inca, which detailed Pizarro's conquest of the South American empire. The Easter Island chapter in this book was especially intriguing; I wonder if there is a book that details the latest theories and findings.