Human beings are good and have never changed
Human nature is very complex, although now compared with history, violence is on the decline, and if there is no Russia-Ukraine conflict and Palestinian-Israeli conflict in recent years, everyone thinks that war has left the civilized world. However, even if cats and dogs are distressed by a minor illness, and modern people who are willing to spend a lot of time and money to ** and take care of them, its essence is difficult to change. Human nature has a good angelic side and a vicious and cruel side, but it is not fully exposed in modern society.
In the era of market economy, people are often not so emotional, and in the modern society of respecting rights, voluntary transactions, and paying attention to contracts and credit, human nature is more manifested in the indifference of abiding by the rules and the rationality of taking it for granted. But when the economic situation is bad, the essence of human nature returns to reality.
Of course, the indifference and rationality of human nature do not only come from the market economy in life, but also from the reflection on the First and Second World Wars, which everyone believes that there are only disadvantages and no benefitsThe result of the reflection was the creation of the United Nations, which would prohibit wars between nations for the purpose of plundering territory, that is, to prohibit aggression and ensure peace.
Of course, principle is principle, reality is reality, after the Second World War, there are still some countries that launched wars of aggression, such as several wars fought by the United States, etc., but compared with before the Second World War, the war of aggression for territorial purposes has been greatly reduced, especially in Europe, and finally ended the large-scale state of war, even if later there was a confrontation and cold war between the two major military blocs of NATO and the Warsaw Pact in the world, and the shadow of the third world war has been hanging over the contemporary world, but the world has basically achieved peace and development。
The modern state is a cultural concept
However, in history, the kindness and cruelty of human nature have been more vividly manifested than calmness and rationality. The international community has largely been a society in which the law of the jungle prevails. Economist Thomas Sowell's book "Conquest and Culture" is a full illustration of the history of human conquest.
Of course, as an economist, Sowell is different from historians, who often write history books to show more historical facts, tell historical stories, and let readers analyze and judge the lessons of history for themselvesBut Sowell writes history not only to tell historical stories, but also to analyze the impact of the history of conquest on different cultures, including the culture of the conquerors and the culture of the vanquishedThe impact of human history.
Here, Thomas Sowell does not give a precise definition of culture, but we can see that human culture is diverse, and human beings will form different cultures as they live, reproduce and live in different places. These cultures are different from each other, and they may not be related to each other because of geographical remoteness or the barriers of the sea and mountains, or they may become closely related because of the geographical proximity or the continuous progress of transportation due to the high sea and mountains. Unrelated cultures evolve and develop separately, and related cultures will communicate with each other, influence each other, and progress together, but history is more about conquering and being conquered by each other. This has not stopped until now.
In a sense, the modern state is actually a cultural concept, and the contradictions and conflicts between countries are also contradictions and conflicts between cultures. The civilization that Huntington speaks of in The Clash of Civilizations is also culture in Sowell's view. Of course, Huntington's civilization may be a bit larger than Sowell's culture.
Conquest is an important force in shaping human culture
Sowell's Conquest and Culture is part of a series of books he has written. Thomas Sowell has written two books on the impact of race and immigration on human culture, one is "Race and Culture" and the other is "Migration and Culture". Now before you is Conquest and Culture, which is devoted to the study of what kind of impact conquest had on the economy, ideology and morality of culture, or what kind of results it had in history. This was the central theme of economist Thomas Sowell when he wrote Conquest and Culture. The author believes"The essence here is not in the concrete conclusions, but in the knowledge and understanding gained in the process of inference, and even when people interpret different conclusions from historical facts, they gain knowledge and understanding."
I think that readers who care about culture will definitely gain their own knowledge and understanding of conquest and culture from reading this book. This kind of knowledge and understanding opens up the horizon through exploration and discussion, and the combination of this book and the other two books can bring important enlightenment to this exploration and discussion. Reading this book, including the other two, can lead to a framework of knowledge and understanding of the consequences of historical conquests and wealth, and to think further about what we should think and do in order to be rich now and in the future.
Conquest and Culture consists of six chapters. The first chapter, Conquest and Culture, bears the same name as the book, and is a brief framework. The final chapter builds on the analysis of the history of the four regions in the middle four chapters. Chapter 2 examines Britain, Chapter 3 Africa, Chapter 4 Slavs, and Chapter 5 discusses the conquests and culture of the Indians of the Western Hemisphere. Sowell believed that conquest was an important force in shaping history and human culture. Conquest is war, and wars for the purpose of conquest have led to the destruction of some cultures, and also to the transcendence of cultures or civilizations beyond their geographical sphere. The conquest took place in history, but "not only in the past, but also in the present, and about how we have come along the way to the economic, intellectual and moral state we are today."
The role of conquest in the cultural evolution or development of various ethnic groups cannot be ignoredThe role of conquest is manifested in three ways. Conquest contributes to the spread of human capital, as well as to the development of human capital of conquered cultures. However, the subjugation of advanced culture by backward culture will damage human capital, hinder the spread of advanced culture, and even lead to the regression of human civilization. But conquest is sometimes the destruction of culture, as the conqueror kills the vanquished and even exterminates them. "Since time immemorial, conquest has relied on active atrocities and deliberate systematic terror. ”The spread of the advanced is one thing, but the cruel side is the killing and even extermination of the vanquished, and the cultural extermination that it brings.
Conquest is not for nothing, it has a reason, and at the same time it has complex consequences. In ancient times, agricultural cultures had advanced agricultural technology, and the production of agricultural products was able to feed a larger population, so that more people could defend against foreign invasions, and it was also easier to conquer hunter-gatherer cultures, which were sparsely populated and more vulnerable to raids and expulsions. The conquest of the former over the latter also led to the further diffusion of agricultural technology, and the spread of agricultural technology, learning Xi imitation is a way, and conquest is also an unexpected way of transmission. According to Sowell, irrigation system technology was spread in many areas through conquest.
The conquest was conducive not only to the spread of agricultural technology, but also to the spread of advanced culture. This includes not only the diffusion of natural products, but also the diffusion of man-made products. Conquest facilitated the exchange of skills, as did the spread of knowledge about farming techniques, mathematics, philosophy, and astronomy.
Of course, conquest did not necessarily lead to the conquered learning the techniques and commercial results of the conquerors, for example, the Welsh and Irish did not learn the techniques and commerce of the conquerors, while the Scots not only learned but also surpassed England in fields such as medicine and engineering. Therefore, the spread of advanced culture as a result of the conquest was not inevitable. In some places, it can lead to uneven outcomes, with different ethnic groups within the conquered culture responding differently to conquest, as well as differences in the degree of acceptance of advanced cultures. Some resist advanced culture, while others conscientiously study Xi advanced culture. When the conquistadors withdrew, differences in attitudes often became a source of regional unrest. For example, the Balkans have been in crisis, and this factor has made the relationship between the communities in the region even worse.
The attitudes of the different classes of the conquered towards the culture of the conquerors were also not consistent. The willingness of the higher classes to accept the culture of the conquerors, and the common people may cling to their original language and way of life, as a result of which there are rifts within these cultures, which are often the cultural source of civil strife. Historically, advanced cultures will conquer backward cultures, but there are also backward cultures that conquer advanced cultures. At this time, the conquerors often either spread backward cultures or were conquered in reverseIf the conqueror learns Xi culture of the conquered well, he can achieve long-term peace and stability. The Qing Dynasty is a classic example.
Conquest can spread artifacts and ideas and morals, but the culture created by the conquered can also be disseminated, or the culture of independent peoples can also be disseminated. For example, Arabic numerals originated in India and spread to Europe through the Arabs. Chinese papermaking and printing also came to Europe through the Arabs, when China was not conquered. Conquest brought about the spread of culture, and immigration and commerce brought more spread as well. Of course, conquest was able to bring more immigration and commerce. When the conquerors were able to establish a certain legal order and create a sense of security for outsiders, the spread of immigration and commerce would be even more pronounced.
After World War II, the conquerors gradually withdrew from the conquered areas and began to practice national self-determination, and many nation-states were formed, but most of these countries were small and weak, the world became fragmented, and some regions began to suffer from war.
Obviously, the conquest played a non-negligible role in the cultural evolution or development of various ethnic groups. Of course, there are many factors that influence and determine the direction of culture and society, and the relationship between conquest and these factors is not independent, but mutually influential. Sowell in turn tells the history of the conquest of the British, Africans, Slavs, and Indians of the Western Hemisphere, and also the transformation of their culture.
The reason for the affluence is to haveThere is better cultural capital
On this basis, Sowell further analyzes the relationship between conquest and affluence, cultural capital and affluence, negative human capital and poverty, and cultural institutions and development. According to Sowell, conquest can plunder resources, such as plundering**, diamonds, spices, and even plundering people as slavesBut few rich countries get rich by plunder. There are countries that plundered a lot of **, but then remained poor. Some countries themselves are poor in resources, frequent disasters, and even not suitable for human habitation, but later come to the top and become rich countries, and even have the strength to expand and conquer abroad. There are countries that are rich in resources, but these resources are not being used, and these countries are still poor, so they do not carry out many acts of conquest, but are coveted and conquered because they have resources.
So, rich and conquered with beenConquest doesn't matter much. The reason for being rich is to have better cultural capitalAs long as we accumulate better cultural capital, we will have better productivity and more wealth. Some impoverished areas have been lifted out of poverty by absorbing large numbers of immigrants with cultural capital. Cultural capital can bring about the improvement of productivity and military capabilities, making it easier for some countries to achieve successful conquest in the jungle world, and cultures that lack cultural capital and therefore lack military capabilities are more likely to be conquered, which seems to be the reason for getting rich, but in fact, if the conquered areas obtain good cultural capital, especially reduce negative human capital, and even establish a cultural system of development. However, although some countries are rich in resources and vast land, they lack cultural capital and are still underdeveloped regions so far, so Sowell's analysis is reasonable.
Nepal is rich in metal depositsIn history, conquestIt has always been an unstoppable impulse of a powerful and affluent culture, which has led to frequent wars, and peace and development have always been the dreams of only a few thinkers and politicians. Human beings need to have a good understanding of their own political order, and on this basis, design governance, including the governance of the state, political organization, and the international community to restrain the development of war, as stated at the beginning of the "Federalist Papers": "Whether human society can really build a good ** through deliberation and free choice, or is it always destined to rely on chance and force to determine their political organization." ”
The good choice is naturally the former, but the reality of history is often the latter. Sowell's reflections on historical conquest can help us better understand the history of human conquest and the wealth formed by chance, but how to better think about how to make mankind develop peacefully without conquest and chance is the mission of scholars and readers of this book.
"Conquest and Culture" is the authorThe result of 15 years of research and travel by Thomas Sowell. He has travelled the world twice, visiting the Mediterranean, the Baltic and Pacific Rim many times. Focusing on the four historically significant regions and peoples of Britain, Africa, the Slavs and the Indians, this book traces the origins of conquest and presents vivid examples of the history of conquest and conquest that have not been lost to time.
While narrating the development process of major historical events, the author also explained in detail the changes in the world economic, military, and political pattern caused by conquest, the fate of the nation and society, and even the changes in human biology, and presented the impact and reconstruction of culture and the reshaping of human life by these changes.
Nobel laureate economist Douglas North says that Sowell's impressive book unfolds in an extraordinary way of researchnew insights into the complex processes of social evolution. The perspectives drawn from this research method are not only historically significant, but also provide a profound ideological basis for us to re-examine many contemporary social issues.
For this reason, we sincerely recommend Sowell's historical book "Conquest and Culture", which can help us understand the cultural differences within and between countries, understand the role of ethnic culture in shaping the economic and social destiny of peoples and world civilizations today and in the past few centuries, and help us to re-examine the past, present and future. Click on the product card below to collect it with one click.