MEDIEVALI E MODERNI

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Riccardo Mariani

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I medievali credevano nella debolezza della volontà ma nel potere dell'intelletto. I moderni tendono a credere nel potere della volontà e nella debolezza dell'intelletto.

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Peter Thiel: Uncommon Knowledge — David Perell

Here are the quotes that stuck out from Peter Thiel’s interview with Peter Robinson on Uncommon Knowledge . I’ve organized the quotes into discrete sections. And at times, I paraphrased Peter for the sake of clarity. Unless otherwise noted, everything below is a quote from Thiel. The Enlighte

HL Chapter 7 A Medieval Black Hole - + LA VERA GRANDEZZA DEL MEDIOEVO

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Riccardo Mariani

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Amazon

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LA VERA GRANDEZZA DEL MEDIOEVO

La storia ha le sue leggi, una di queste è che solo un grande nemico incita un popolo a diventare grande nella fede che "Dio è dalla sua parte", non a caso le grandi civiltà germinano sempre presso una frontiera meta-etnica. Ecco, nel medioevo le frontiere di questo genere proliferarono:

1) Dalla frontiera con il nord Africa (saraceni) avremo l'impero di Carlo Magno.
2) Dalla frontiera con i vichinghi avremo l'impero normanno e il regno di Francia.
3) Dalla frontiera slava avremo lo stato guerriero della Prussia (motore che formerà la Germania).
4) Dalla frontiera con i popoli della steppa (e successivamente con i turchi) avremo il tenace popolo austriaco e il futuro impero asburgico.
Eccetera.

Sono le tante frontiere del medioevo, e in questo crogiolo si è formata l'Europa. I nemici che ci assediavano (saraceni, vichinghi, slavi, asiatici, turchi...) non distinguevano tra teutonici, francesi, italiani; ci chiamavano tutti "franchi", ovvero europei. E' lì che vedo le nostre radici più profonde.
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Chapter 7 A Medieval Black Hole
Note:7@@@@@@@@Medioevo...frontiera...francia....inhilterra....meridione....germania.....impero austroungarico..europa

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The Rise of the Great European Powers on Carolingian Marches
Note:Ttttttttt

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When Rome imploded, however, its core region (Italy, Greece, and the coastal provinces of Spain and North Africa) became a kind of “asabiya black hole”
Note:IL BUCO DOPO IL COLLASSO

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At the same time, new imperial nations, with the gift for collective action, arose on the Roman frontiers—the Franks, the Arabs and the Berbers, the Byzantines and the Avars.
Note:I NUOVI CANDIDATI

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During the second imperial age, the empire of the Franks and other Germanic peoples dominated the western half of Europe.

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Merovingian dynasty
Note:PRIMA FASE 5 60O

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Carolingians (the eighth and ninth centuries),
Note:SECONDA

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Ottonian and Salian emperors (the tenth and eleventh centuries).
Note:TERZA

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Roman frontier in northwest Europe).
Note:AREA

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Beginning in the twelfth century, this core area gradually disintegrated into a hodgepodge of statelets ruled by dukes, counts, and imperial knights; bishops and archbishops;
Note:DISGREGAZIONE

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During the third imperial age, roughly speaking the last 500 years, no single empire dominated the political landscape of Europe.
Note:Ccccccc

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This peculiarity of European history the failure of all attempts since the Frankish Empire to unify it, has generated much discussion among the scholars.
Note:UE

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A convenient date to begin tracing the making of Europe is Christmas day in A.D. 800, when Charlemagne was crowned as the new “Roman emperor” by the pope.
Note:PICCO

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modern France, Benelux, West Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the northern and central Italy, and a foothold on the Iberian Peninsula (Catalonia).
Note:TERRITORIO

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814,
Note:MORTE DI CARLO

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internecine dissension began weakening the Frankish Empire.

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The Magyar raids deep into France on Laon in 919 and on Berry in 937 proved that no region was safe anymore.
Note:ODORE DEL SANGUE

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the Saracens in the southwest, the Vikings in the northwest, the western Slavs in the northeast, and the Magyars in the southeast.
Note:Cccccccc

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“marches,”
Note:I TERRITRI DI FRONTIERA DELLA CRISTIANITÀ

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Christians confronted Muslim Saracens, and pagan Vikings, Slavs, and Magyars.

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an army of 7,000 Berber infantry and 300 Arab cavalry invaded Spain and destroyed the Christian army
Note:711

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The Muslims then crossed the Pyrenees and invaded France, but were defeated by Charlemagne’s grandfather Charles Martel,
Note:Ccccccccc

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By 759, they were expelled from France, and in 777 the Franks led by Charlemagne crossed into Spain. This campaign, however, ended in disaster. As Charlemagne’s army returned to France through the Pass of Roncesvalles, its rearguard was cut to pieces by the Basques.
Note:Ccccccccccc

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This battle of Roncesvalles inspired the eleventh-century Song of Roland,
Note:Cccccc

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But his sacrifice is not in vain because he is fighting for God
Note:Cccc

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Charlemagne returns with the main army, defeats the Saracens, forces more than 100,000 “pagans” to convert to Christianity and kills those who refuse.
Note:Cccccccccc

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texts depict the struggle across the metaethnic frontier in stark black-and-white terms.
Note:Ccccccc

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The Iberian frontier between Muslims and Christians persisted for almost eight centuries, from the Muslim invasion in 711 to the conquest of Granada in 1492.
Note:LA CLASSICA FRONTIERA METAETNICA TRA L ANDALUSIA E LA SPAGNA CENTRALE DOVE SI ERANO RITIRATI I CRISTIANI

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a broad swath of territory running east-west about one third of the way down the peninsula.
Note:DISABITATO

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but fortunately for the Christians, beginning in the 1030s, the caliphate of Córdoba lost its internal cohesion and began fragmenting into smaller statelets.
Note:SI MUOVE QUALCOSA

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The Reconquista began.
Note:Cccccc 1000

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A GLIMPSE INTO the life on the Iberian frontier?
Note:Ttttttttttttt

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James Powers in A Society Organized for War.
Note:IL GURU

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“In 1132 a small army of Christian soldiers advanced northwest along the road to Córdoba, offering periodic shouts and chants in the manner of armies attempting to keep up their spirits as they proceed through the enemy territory.
Note:UN EPISODIO

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they consisted largely of the municipal militias of two towns, Segovia and Avila, operating on a campaign they had chosen to initiate.
Note:Ccccccc

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a Muslim force commanded by the Almoravid prince Tashfin of Córdoba had been spotted encamped in the vicinity,
Note:CcccccGIUNGE LA NOTIZIA

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A more timorous force of skirmishers and raiders might well have sought the nearest ford in the Guadalquivir River and made its way back
Note:PIANO RAGIONEVOLE

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Like trained professionals, they instead sought out the enemy army. “The leaders demonstrated initiative and combativeness.
Note:INVECE

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direct assault
Note:LA MIGLIORE STRATEGI

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invoking ‘the God of Heaven and Earth, Holy Mary, and Saint James’
Note:SENZA PAURA

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In the darkness and disorder, Christian and Almoravid could barely distinguish each other. Suddenly, Prince Tashfin bursts form his field tent shouting commands in an attempt to rally his men. He was greeted by a Christian lance that pierced his thigh, transforming his determination to sudden panic.
Note:L AZIONE DETERMINATA

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Tashfin’s troops never recovered from their initial surprise to put up a good fight.
Note:DETERMINAZIONE E FATTORE SORPRESA

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The raid had been extremely successful: mules, camels, gold, silver, weapons,

Note | Location: 2,931

Cccccccc

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The warriors of Avila and Segovia divided the booty on the spot, then began the trek back to their own towns while praising God for their fortune.
Note:cccccccccccc

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this band of Castilian frontiersmen in most important ways resembled many other forces of frontiersmen, such as the Cossacks of Ermak, for instance.
Note:TIPICI

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cohesive self-organized units, for which no orders needed to be issued, because every man was ready to do his share. Both groups used similar religious symbols
Note:Ccccccc

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James Powers,
Note:GURU DEI PARALLELI

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the most striking parallel is the remarkable egalitarianism and easy social mobility
Note:Ccccccccc

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The mounted caballeros enjoyed a higher social status compared to the peones who fought on foot.
Note:Cccccccccccccc

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However, a peon who wanted to achieve the status of caballero had numerous opportunities
Note:Ccccccccc

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For example, a soldier who unseated a Muslim cavalryman in battle was awarded the enemy’s horse.
Note:Ccccccc

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The Castilian frontier society also had highly developed norms of fairness. This was reflected in, for example, the strict rules for the division of the profits of war.
Note:Cccccccc

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A portion of the proceeds was used to reward acts of heroism, but the bulk was distributed to everybody who participated in the expedition,
Note:Ccccccc

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Anybody who tried to conceal an item was punished.
Note:Ccccccc

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The system curbed self-serving behavior
Note:L EGOISMO COME NEMICO

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Clearly, the system was designed by a bunch of moralists!
Note:MORALE AL CENTRO

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As on the Russian frontier, the role of towns was not economic, but defensive.
Note:CITTÀ

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The municipal militias played the key role in the Iberian Reconquest. There was no single center orchestrating military operations.
Note:DECENTRAMENTO

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three main pushes developed: the Aragonese down the Mediterranean coast, the Portuguese along the Atlantic littoral, and the Castilians down the middle.
Note:Ccccccc

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advance was achieved not by royal armies winning spectacular victories. In fact, the Christians lost most of the major battles prior to the thirteenth century!
Note:IL RE

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the ability of winning despite repeated setbacks seems to be one of the talents that high-asabiya nations have.)
Note:SAPER XDERE

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frontiersmen, driven by relentless pressure to colonize, won numerous small victories,
Note:SMALL VICTORIES

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“but always, always, century after century, following battle, colonization, and after colonization, battle.”
Note:IMPORTANZA DELLA COLONIO

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the advance south could only happen when the Muslim states fell prey to internal strife,
Note:TUTTAVIA

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a tentative push south by the Christians during the tenth century was repelled and reversed by the Córdoban general Al-Mansur.
Note:Cccccccc

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The biggest push came in the thirteenth century, after the Almohads were defeated by a Christian coalition in the great battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (A.D.
Note:THE BIGGEST PUSH

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When Granada fell to the Christian armies in 1492, the Iberian frontier ceased to exist.
Note:FINE RECONQUISTA

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The Anglo-Saxon historiography tends to play down the glory and power of Spain, but in the sixteenth century it was the supreme power in Europe,

Note | Location: 2,997

DALLE MILIZIE PARTÌ TUTTO

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The imperial nation at the core of the Spanish Empire were the Castilians. They carried the burden of the empire. On a per-capita basis, they paid more taxes and supplied greater numbers of recruits for the tercios. They spearheaded the overseas conquests. They also had a knack for cooperating with other peoples within the Spanish Empire.
Note:CASTIGLIANI

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Italian financiers, German technicians, and Flemish traders
Note:COLLABORAZIONI A TUTTO CAMPO

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The bands of adventurers led by Cortés and Pizarro who conquered the New World and the Spanish tercios that smashed European armies were direct descendants of the Christian militias that battled the Moors during the Reconquest.
Note:PARENTELE

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it also molded the national character of its people—their deep faith, tenacity, sense of honor, and ability to cooperate
Note:LA FRONTIERA

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The metaethnic interaction zone in northern France had a much more complex history.
Note:TttttttttttPASSIAMO A UN ALTRA FRONTIERA...LA FRANCIA

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After the conquest of the Gaul, the Roman frontier was established on the Rhine, leaving North France deep behind the lines.
Note:PRIMA

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North France was subjected to severe raiding pressure from the Germanic tribes.
Note:III SECOLO LA FRONTIERA ROMANA COLLASSA

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Franks began pushing south and settling the Low Countries. As a result, North France found itself on a metaethnic frontier.
Note:FRANCHI VS TEDESCHI...UNA FRONTIERA TRA BARBARI....CRISTIANI E PAGANI

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The usual frontier pressures must have been at work, because by the end of the fifth century a reasonably cohesive society emerged in North France.
Note:SOLITA DINAMICA

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A.D. 476, its territory was divided among the kingdoms of Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Burgundians, and Alamanni. The only exception was the area of North France, which was held by the native elites led by the Roman patrician Syagrius.
Note:IMPERO ROMANO

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In 486, Clovis defeated Syagrius and incorporated his territory into the Frankish Empire.
Note:Ccccccc

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Romano-Gallic patricians were incorporated into the Frankish ruling elite.
Note:Ccccccc

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there was a very substantial immigration into North France by Germanic farmers.
Note:Ccc

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Eventually, all these colonizers converted to Christianity and assimilated to the Romance language.
Note:Ccccc

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The inhabitants of North France, thus, were of very diverse ethnic origin (which is a typical situation on the metaethnic fault line).
Note:SUNTO

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Celtic population who inhabited this region when it was conquered by Caesar were already a mongrel people.
Note:Cccccc

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added Roman legionnaires
Note:Cccccc

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and the Germanic farmers
Note:Cccccc

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added to the Frankish realm
Note:Cccccc

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During the fifth century, Roman Britain descended into anarchy and was abandoned by the legions.
Note:NEL FRATTEMPO......COME SE FORMÒ LA FRONTIERA

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Many British (Celtic) chieftains and their dependents fled from the chaos and established themselves across the English Channel in Armorica.
Note:COLONIE CELTICHE IN BRETAGNA

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the Bretons conceived an abiding hatred for the Franks, and started raiding into Francia. The Franks attempted to conquer Brittany on several occasions
Note:Cccccc

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The Breton identity turned out to be stonily resistant to assimilation by the French.
Note:Cccccc

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Bretons and the Franks were both Christians
Note:TUTTAVIA...

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the constant raiding and counter-raiding resulted in a sparsely populated gap in North France. This gap created an opportunity for a different kind of invaders to wedge themselves in—the Vikings.

Note | Location: 3,055

EFFETTO COLLATERALE...DA FINE 700

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but did not trouble the Frankish Empire while it maintained its internal cohesion. This changed dramatically when the empire was plunged into a series of civil wars among Charlemagne’s successors.
Note:MA DAL 850

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crumbling Carolingian Empire, preoccupied with internecine fighting, could not spare forces for the defense of frontiers.
Note:Ccccccccccc

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The future capital of France during the ninth and tenth centuries was a frontier fortress,
Note:PARIGI

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The next logical step was to establish permanent bases in the mouths of the rivers, such as the Seine and the Loire, which facilitated penetration deep into the Frankish territory. Finally, the bases began attracting land-hungry colonists
Note:COLONIE VICHINGHE

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In 911, the Viking chief of Rouen, Hrolfr (Rollo to the Franks), extorted from Charles III, one of the last Carolingians, a charter granting him the lands that would eventually become Normandy.
Note:NORMANDIA

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New waves of settlers from Scandinavia arrived during the tenth century,
Note:INVASIONE

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The Norman expansion exerted an enormous pressure on the surrounding people.
Note:Cccccc

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The Normans themselves were very well aware of the amount of devastation they visited on the Frankish lands, and how much hatred their raids inspired,
Note:RAIDS VICHINGHI E DEVASTAZIONI

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DURING THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES, Norse raiding and the establishment of Normandy created a metaethnic frontier in North France.
Note:NORVEGESI E FRANCESI

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On one side was a Romance-speaking Christian culture
Note:Cccccc

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On the other side were the “barbarian” Germanic Odin worshippers.
Note:Cccccc

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It took only a century or so for the north French to begin organizing effective resistance in the face of Norman pressure.
Note:DI SOLITO PASSANO UN PAIO DI SECOLI PRIMA CHE LA NAZIONE EMERGA

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by the middle of the tenth century, we see the first clear signs of political consolidation around the counts of Paris, Anjou, and Blois—and the dukes of Normandy.
Note:Cccccccc

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The Viking raiders had very high asabiya, but its social scale was small—they cooperated within small kin-based groups.
Note:DALL ALTRA PARTE...COME NACQUE L IMPERO NORMANNO

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Searle argues that the tenth century Normans creatively used their notion of kinship to cross-link the whole warrior society in Normandy. Perhaps the most striking example of such a “predatory kinship” group is the Norman conquest of southern Italy and Sicily. It was led by, literally, a band of brothers—the 10 sons of Tancred of Hauteville.
Note:IMPRESE VICHINGHE

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The army of William the Conqueror, which invaded England in 1066, was a band of brothers in a less literal sense.
Note:ALTRA IMPRESA

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More generally, however, the Normans had high asabiya because they coalesced as a nation on a metaethnic frontier.
Note:REGOLA GENERALE

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The English of the eleventh century were descendants of Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Frisians, and other Germanic tribes who began colonizing Britain in 430-440s, taking advantage of the social disintegration that followed the withdrawal of the Roman legions.
Note:L IMPRESA INGLESE FU INCREDIBILE...ERA UNA NAZIONE COESA

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The British west and north (Cornwall, Wales, Strathclyde, and Scotland) remained Celtic, whereas in the south and east the Germanic invaders
Note:Cccccc

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The metaethnic frontier running between the Christian Celts and pagan Germans existed for more than two centuries, until A.D. 670 when Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity.
Note:FRONTIERA INGLESE

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Another metaethnic frontier arose during the ninth and tenth centuries when Britain was inundated by Viking raiders and colonizers.
Note:Ccccccccc

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The ruler class in both cases was recruited from the same pool of highly cohesive Norman warriors. During the twelfth century, Norman Italy and England were probably the two best-governed states in all of Europe.
Note:CLASSE DIRIGENTE

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England conquered the whole of the British Isles and half of France, lost this first empire, and then conquered a world empire and became a hegemonic power in the nineteenth century. By contrast, southern Italy, after its Norman nobility lost its initial solidarity, slipped back into geopolitical backwater. It passed first into the hands of German emperors, and then to a junior branch of the French Capetians (the Angevins). For many centuries, it was part of the Spanish Empire, and finally it was forcibly incorporated into new Italy by the house of Savoy.
Note:DESTINI OPPOSTI

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the frontier during the tenth century around the counts of Anjou, Blois, and Paris.
Note:UNA FRONTIERA DA CUI USCIRÀ IL REGNO DI FRANCIA

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Blois was the first to succumb,

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The counts of Paris gained some advantage by becoming the kings of France in 987, but at this point the royal title was a largely empty honor.
Note:987

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Even these nominally royal lands were studded by castles owned by unruly and recalcitrant nobles,
Note:Cccccccc

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The counts of Anjou expanded their domains by skillfully playing the dynastic game. Henry II Plantagenet ( 1154-89), inherited Anjou, Touraine, and Maine from his father, and Normandy and England from his mother, the daughter of Henry I,
Note:ECCO UN MEGA RIVALE

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The main problem of the Angevin Empire of Henry II was that his ruling class was recruited from two different imperial nations, which is always an unstable situation. The Normans and the French

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The issue was resolved when Philip August (1180-1223) conquered all French possessions of the Plantagenets except for Guyenne.
Note:LA NORMANDIA FU ANNESSA

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Normandy and Flanders were annexed in the north, while the Albigensian crusade gained for France Languedoc in the south. During the thirteenth century, France became the hegemonic power in Europe. Its large territory and population generated a steady flow of taxes into royal coffers. Its warlike and cohesive nobility dominated the European battle-fields. And its brilliant and influential culture was admired throughout Latin Christendom.
Note:Ccccccccc

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northeastern frontier
Note:Tttttttt

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it is remarkable how similar the German Drang nack Osten (“drive to the east”) was to the Iberian Reconquista, as we shall see.
Note:ANALOGIA CON L IBERIA

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During the Roman times, Germanic tribes inhabited this region.
Note:GERMANIA EST

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the Germans abandoned East Germany and were replaced with western Slavs, whom the Germans called the Wends.
Note:DOPO IL COLLASSO DELL IMPERO

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By the end of the eight century, the border between the Germanic Saxons and Slavic Wends was located along the Elbe. When Charlemagne conquered the Saxons in 785 and converted them en mass to Christianity, the Elbe frontier became a metaethnic fault line.
Note:ELBA

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the Saxons went on the offensive against the Wends. In 928, they crossed the frozen Havel River and stormed Branibor (Brandenburg). Several years later, the emperor Henry I destroyed a large Slav army at the battle of Lenzen.
Note:I SASSONI

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However, in 983, a Slav uprising destroyed most of the Saxon gains east of Elbe. The problem was that the emperors were more interested in expanding their influence in Italy than in subduing the wilderness of East Germany,
Note:CONTROFFENSIVA

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The centuries-long German drive to the east put a lot of pressure on the Slavic (and later Baltic) peoples on the other side of the frontier. As it advanced, it triggered formation of the states of Czechs, Poles, and later Lithuanians. Both Czechs and Poles converted to Christianity
Note:FRONTIERA GERMANI SLAVI

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The intensity of the struggle between the Saxons and Polabians easily qualifies as genocidal.
Note:SLAVI SASSONI

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gouging eyes

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cutting off tongues,

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civilizations clash.

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Christians were forbidden to marry pagans.
Note:NESSUNA PARENTELA

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The eastward expansion resumed during the reign of Conrad III (1138-52). The pressure for the crusade came from the grass roots, not the emperors. Conrad himself did not get involved in any way.
Note:LA PANCIA SASSONE

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The expansion was orchestrated by the marcher lords, such as Henry the Lion,
Note:ANCORA LA MARCA

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The ideological cover was provided by the pope, who authorized the German crusade against the Slavs in 1147.
Note:PAPA

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In 1226, a new player appeared on the scene—the Teutonic Order. The Teutonic knights responded to an appeal from the Polish duke Conrad of Masovia for aid against the pagan Prussians.
Note:TEUTONICI

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Prussian resistance was brutally put down.
Note:Cccccc

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forced Christianization and Germanization of the survivors.
Note:Ccc

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East Germany became a melting pot that swallowed diverse peoples, from pagan Slavs to Flemish merchants, and turned them all into Germans.
Note:DOPO LA CONQUISTA...MIGRAZIONE DI MASSA

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The rise of Brandenburg-Prussia-Germany was rapid.

Note | Location: 3,218

IL CUORE DELLA FUTURA GERMANIA

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“In 1640, when Fredrick William of Hohenzollern, the Great Elector, came to power in Brandenburg, Prussia was a poor and remote province which he held in fief from the Polish crown,
Note:LA NUOVA RESURREZIONE

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But when the Great Elector died in 1688, Brandenburg-Prussia had become a garrison state,
Note:Ccccc

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As a result, what had been poor, weak, and disparate territories were knitted together into an administrative unity which proved capable of not only defending itself, but also providing an effective base from which the authority of the house of Hohenzollern
Note:Cc

Yellow highlight | Location: 3,225

William McNeill in The Rise of the West.
Note:GURU

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“society organized for war.”
Note:PRUSIA

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during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries these former frontier provinces became the core of the resurgent Germany.
Note:PRUSSIA SLESIA POMERANIA

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the greater part of the real core of the modern Germany now lies outside it.
Note:IRONIA DELLA SORTE

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This great thrust ground up and destroyed some Baltic peoples, such as the Prussians, whose very name has now been appropriated by their conquerors. Others, such as Estes and Letts, submerged for many centuries, but persisted as serfs working for their German masters,
Note:POPOLI SLAVI DISTRUTTI DALLA CRISTIANZZAZIONE

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Finally, one people responded by consolidating its forces, and building its own great empire—the Lithuanians.
Note:ECCEZIONE

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When the Sword-Brothers of Riga intruded in the territory of the future Lithuania in 1203, there were no such people as the Lithuanians. Instead, many small Baltic tribes of peasants were governed by a mounted-warrior class.
Note:ORIGINE

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the Russian lands to the south and east became Christian, and these Baltic pagans found themselves on a metaethnic frontier.
Note:LA FRONTIERA

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The situation changed dramatically with the arrival of the disciplined and rapacious knights of the Teutonic and Sword-Brother orders. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the “proto-Lithuanians” were squeezed from the western and northern directions
Note:TEUTONICI

Yellow highlight | Location: 3,244

Beginning in the 1240s, they were also assaulted from the east by the Mongols of the Golden Horde. In short, they found themselves in a metaethnic pressure cooker, where they had only two choices—consolidate or go under.
Note:UNA PENTOLA A PRESSIONE

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In 1219, there were about 20 Lithuanian princes. Forty years later, one of them, Mindaugas, had mobilized the entire population to fight for him, the nobles as cavalry, the peasants as infantry.
Note:UNIFICAZIONE

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another unifier arose. Under Gediminas ( 1316-41 ), Lithuania began expanding into the land of former Kievan Rus,
Note:Ccccc

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To the end of the fourteenth century, Lithuanians remained pagan, because paganism was an inalienable element of their national identity, based as it was on the opposition to the Latin Christianity of the German crusaders. However, after the German threat subsided, the Lithuanians found that they could now dispense with their paganism. Jogaila accepted baptism in 1386 as
Note:CONVERSIONE

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on the interface between Mongolia and northern China, lay arguably the world’s greatest metaethnic fault line, “the Mother of all Clashes of Civilizations”
Note:LA MADRE DI TUTTE LE FRONTIERE

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On the steppe side of the frontier, three great imperial nations were born—the Hsiung-Nu, the Turks, and the Mongols.
Note:OLTRE ALLA CINA

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a domino effect.
Note:DA CEST A OVEST

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China generated waves of pressure traveling westward across the great steppe. The last stop was the westernmost extension of the Eurasian steppe, the plains of Hungary
Note:Ccccc

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the Huns,
Note:L PRIMA ONDATA

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The next wave, the Avars, was an offshoot of the Turkic Empire.
Note:Ccccc

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followed by the Magyars.
Note:Cccccc

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last nomadic invasion, the Mongol

Note | Location: 3,275

Ccccc

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In 788, Charlemagne deposed Duke Tassilo and incorporated Bavaria into the Frankish Empire. The future Austria was at the time within the Avar Empire.
Note:DALL ALTRA PARTE DELLA FRONTIERA

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For about a century, the Hungarian plains became a sort of no man’s land. The power of the Avars was destroyed, but the Frankish Empire did not have enough people to colonize it.
Note:Cccccccc

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Into this political void the Magyars (also known as Hungarians) thrust themselves.
Note:Ccccc

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In 924, the first Ottonian emperor had to agree to pay tribute to the Magyars to stop their destructive forays.
Note:Cccc

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Germans gradually shifted to the offensive. In 955, the Emperor Otto I decisively defeated the Magyars at the battle of Lechfeld.
Note:Ccc

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the Hungarians, deprived of easy pickings in Germany, began settling down. As they gradually shifted from nomadism to settled agriculture, the Hungarians became susceptible to conversion to Christianity.
Note:Cccccc

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even though the Hungarians and the Germans fought many wars after 1100, and mutual enmity lingered on all the way to the nineteenth century, a metaethnic divide no longer existed
Note:Ccc

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They now belonged to the same civilization.
Note:Cccccc

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For three centuries, Austria was the Frankish march against the steppe invaders (and before that, this region was the Roman frontier province of Noricum). The centuries on the metaethnic fault line created a highly solidary nation
Note:AUSTRIA

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in 1282 became the core of the budding Habsburg Empire.
Note:Ccccc

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until the dissolution of the empire in 1806.
Note:Ccccc

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The big spurt of territorial expansion came in 1526, after the Ottoman Turks smashed the Hungarian army at the battle of Mohacs and conquered two thirds of the Hungarian Empire. The Habsburgs grabbed the unconquered Hungarian possessions of Croatia, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, and Silesia. (Silesia was lost to Prussia in 1742.)
Note:APICE

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Vienna became a frontier fortress and was besieged by the Turks twice, in 1529 and 1683.
Note:Cccccc

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Finally, after the second siege of Vienna the Austrians went on the offensive. The conquest of Turkish Hungary and Transylvania in 1699 doubled the Austrian territory and made it into a great power of the first rank.
Note:Cccccc

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In the nineteenth century, Austria was undoubtedly a member of the great powers club, but it was probably the weakest—not because of lack of territory or manpower, but because of the centrifugal tendencies of various nationalities within the empire.
Note:DEBOLEZZE

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main problem was the Hungarians. As noted before, any political construction that contains two distinct imperial nations is unstable.
Note:IL PROB PIÙ SERIO

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During the reign of Charles V (1519-58), the Habsburg Empire had two cores, the Castilians and the Austrians.
Note:DUE CUORI

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the empire peacefully separated when Charles abdicated. The Spanish part went to Charles’s son Philip II, and the German to his brother Ferdinand
Note:Cccccc

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When Hungary was reconquered in 1699, the Habsburg Empire again enfolded two imperial nations.
Note:Ccccc

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Not only did the Hungarians refuse to assimilate to German, as the logical common language of the empire, they embarked on a program of assimilating their subject Slav populations to the Hungarian.
Note:FRONTIERA NELL IMPERO

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The remarkable thing about the Austrians was that they managed to keep their multinational empire for so long, given that they were only 10 percent of the total population!
Note:RECORD

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was the arrival of the Turks on the doorstep of Vienna in 1529. For the next three centuries, the struggle against the Muslim Ottomans became the raison-d’etre of the Habsburg Empire.
Note:LA LORO FORZA

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Ottoman thrust reawakened the defensive mechanisms engraved on the national psyche when Austria was on the steppe frontier with the Avars and the Magyars.
Note:PRECEDENTE FRONTIERA

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Why did Europe stay disunited in the post-Carolingian period?
Note:Ttttt

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Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel,

Note | Location: 3,341

GURU

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European geography was not conducive to imperial unification.
Note:LA SUA RISPOSTA

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But this explanation cannot be correct. Seas are not always moats; they can also unite.
Note:Cccc

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China has more mountainous terrain than Europe.
Note:Ccc

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By contrast, Europe has a broad plain
Note:Ccc

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This huge plain offers no significant barriers to expansion. History shows that life there was always precarious
Note:Ccc

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it is not Europe that is exceptional, it is China.
Note:RISPOSTA ALTERNATIVA

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The distribution of rainfall within eastern Asia creates a sharp ecological boundary between the drier steppe and wetter agricultural regions. Ever since humans learned predatory nomadism, this ecological boundary coincided with a metaethnic frontier between nomadic pastoralists and settled agriculturalists. Under pressure from the steppe, Chinese agriculturalists built one empire after another.
Note:CcccLA MEGA FRONTIERA

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Roman and the Carolingian empires moved the frontiers away from their cores. After centuries away from the frontier, Roman and Carolingian cores became asabiya black holes
Note:LA DIFFERENZA CON L OCCIDENTE

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The Carolingian Empire was the embryonic form of what we now call Western civilization. The main bulk of Latin Christendom, that part of medieval Europe that was Roman Catholic, rather than Orthodox or non-Christian, consisted of the Carolingian successor states (for example, France and the German Reich). To this core were added regions that were conquered (Spain and Prussia, for example) or proselytized (for example, Denmark and Poland) from the formerly Carolingian lands. Although never united politically, the inhabitants of Latin Christendom knew that they belonged together in a certain, supranational sense.
Note:EUROPA

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As the historian-medievalist Robert Bartlett argued in The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change, 950-1350, the outsiders were also aware of this metaethnic identity, and called Latin Christians collectively “the Franks”
Note:TANTI NEMICI

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Latin Christendom was the direct predecessor of Western civilization,
Note:Cccccccc

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Even today, it is easy to see the traces of this identity. The first members of the European Union were, and the most enthusiastic proponents of the European Union are, France, Germany, the countries of Benelux, and Italy—almost precisely the regions that were part of the Carolingian Empire.
Note:UE

Yellow highlight | Location: 3,395

Latin Christendom, and its successor, Western civilization, never developed a universal empire. Not because of Europe’s indented coastline, its lack of unity was due to the centrifugal orientation of the empires born on the Carolingian marches, away from its fragmented core.
RISPOSTA A DIAMONDS

COME TI FREGA IL MEDIOEVO

COME TI FREGA IL MEDIOEVO

A prima vista è quell’epoca in cui per 4 secoli gli intelletti più raffinati hanno creduto che per stabilire la colpevolezza di un’ imputato bastasse spingerlo a raccattare un anello gettato nell’acqua bollente di un pentolone. Se si ustionava era colpevole, se restava illeso innocente.

Che ridere.

Poi scopri che: 1) la fede era diffusa 2) l’ammissione alla procedura cavillosa 3) le sentenze quasi tutte di innocenza, 4) gli infedeli (ebrei, mussulmani…) non ammessi, 5) le procedure somministrate da una casta come quella sacerdotale avvolta da mille misteri.

Ora, immaginatevi un colpevole: non chiederà mai l’ordalia… smascherando così la sua colpevolezza. La chiederà invece con forza l’innocente che verrà scagionato dall’acqua tiepida immessa dai sacerdoti in gran segreto.

Ergo, in un mondo senza i mezzi per fare indagini degne di questo nome la giustizia era ugualmente assicurata dal genio. Ancora una volta il genio del medioevo ci ha fregato.

1 Saggezza della superstizione (1): l’ordalia.

Saggezza della superstizione (1): l’ordalia.

Da Voltaire in poi è invalsa la cattiva abitudine di credere nella “stupidità umana”. Si tratta di una pratica malsana che induce allucinazioni.

La giustizia medievale, per esempio, che ci sembra oggi decisamente “stupida” quando è in realtà una perla rara di saggezza.

Penso all’ordalia.

Re Salomone, ovvero il saggio per antonomasia, è l’ispiratore nonché nume tutelare di tutta la giustizia medievale.

Tutti conoscono l’episodio biblico in cui è chiamato a giudicare su un caso delicato che non presenta alcun indizio si cava d’impaccio in modo egregio facendo emergere la verità attraverso una “menzogna”. Spero che il link non serva.

Nelle stesse condizioni sono i giudici medievali, che hanno finito per adottare su larga scala il brillante quanto razionale metodo-Salomone.

Quando l’evidenza manca si può fabbricare sul momento. Ma soprattutto dove non arriva il giudizio umano arriverà ilgiudizio divino.

Nell’ordalia l’imputato doveva immergere una parte del suo corpo nell’acqua bollente: qualora si fosse scottato cio’ costituiva segno di colpevolezza. In altri casi era tenuto a trasportare metalli incandescenti: qualora avesse riportato ustioni sarebbe stato condannato.

Non era facile però accedere all’ordalia. Innanzitutto era riservato ai crimini seri e comunque prima di ricorrervi occorreva istruire una causa elaborata e lunga. Condizione imprescindibile era l’assenza di ogni indizio.

L’alternativa all’ ordalìa era la tortura ma si trattava di uno strumento ambiguo: per evitare indicibili sofferenze anche l’innocente avrebbe potuto confessare. Qualcosa di intollerabile per un epoca in cui il sentimento garantista era più forte che oggi.

Consultando i registri dell’epoca ci accorgiamo di come leassoluzioni in seguito a ordalia fossero nettamente preponderanti.

Facciamoci caso: Il credente colpevole confessa sempre prima dell’ordalia, in questo modo evita la sofferenza che implicita in questa procedura.

Il credente innocente anela all’ordalia e si batte nel corso della lunga causa per approdare a questo esito.

Poiché gli imputati erano quasi tutti credenti era facile distinguere i colpevoli dagli innocenti.

Il rinvio a Salomone adesso è più chiaro: anche nel suo caso c’è una donna che mostrando una certa reazione a dichiarazioni che crede vere fornisce la prova di essere la vera mamma.

L’ordalia compie il suo “miracolo razionale” quando lasuperstizione è diffusa.

Ma a questo punto dobbiamo parlare del ruolo dei sacerdoti, ovvero di quelle persone a cui è demandata l’attuazione della procedura. Sono loro che devono aggiustarla in modo da far trionfare la giustizia.

Scorrendo il protocollo delle ordalie medievali scopriamo che le occasioni non mancano: ai cerimonieri viene lasciato un notevole arbitrio. Il sacerdote resta a lungo da solo con l’imputato nella chiesa e anche in un secondo tempo gli osservatori vengono tenuti comunque a distanza. Il rito dell’acqua benedetta è un’altra occasione in cui il sacerdote può rinfrescare le membra di chi si appresta all’immersione. La stessa preparazione della pentola è presieduta dai sacerdoti, ai quali viene demandato anche il giudizio finale circa le condizioni dell’imputato.

Sto forse insinuando che i sacerdoti “barassero”? No, non necessariamente.

Il sacerdote si sente comunque uno “strumento divino”, una persona deputata ad interpretare il volere divino, la voce di Dio sulla terra; ed è con questa concezione che la maggior parte dei sacerdoti affrontava la missione di giustizia.

Problema: ma un’ ordalìa che assolve tutti non desta sospetti?

Il problema veniva affrontato condannando gli scettici(ebrei, mussulmani, eretici…): 1) lo scettico razionale si sottopone ad ordalia e 2) lo scettico rappresenta comunque un pericolo sociale a prescindere dalla sua colpevolezza specifica.

Si noti che, vista l’istruzione complessa e approfondita della causa, per i sacerdoti era abbastanza agevole valutare il grado di scetticismo dell’imputato.

Sei la percentuale ideale di condanne non poteva essere raggiunta con gli scettici veniva condannato qualche innocente. Da che mondo e mondo ogni società ben ordinata si regge comunque su capri espiatori.

Dal punto di vista funzionale la cosa non creava particolari problemi. L’innocente avrebbe senz’altro detto di essere stato condannato ingiustamente ma era la stessa cosa che dichiarava qualsiasi colpevole.

C’erano casi ben più spinosi. Per esempio, ammettiamo che l’ordalia condanni Tizio per l’omicidio di una persona scomparsa. Dopodiché, il morto riappare. Che figura di merda! E pubblica, per di più.

Il problema veniva affrontato limitando la procedura dell’ordalia a casi ben precisi nei quali inconvenienti del genere risultassero altamente improbabili.

Ricordiamoci comunque sempre che il fondamento dell’ordalia era la fede superstiziosa e che in questi casi, nella gente, il bias della conferma tende a conservare la credenze anche in presenza di fatti che depongono contro.

La logica dell’ordalia è collegata a doppio filo alla superstizione: senza superstizione tutto cade. Nel momento in cui la chiesa comincia a smarcarsi tutto crolla.

Ciò avviene nel XII secolo quando parecchi teologi denunciano la mancanza di un adeguato sostegno scritturale.

Ma soprattutto constatano che l’ordalia implica un miracolo cotinuo, il che non si coniuga con il principio della parsimonia miracolistica.

E’ la fine.

***

Ma se l’ ordalia e il principio salomonico erano tanto efficienti, perché non vengono utilizzati anche oggi?

Dove ci sono le condizioni l’ordalia viene ancora utilizzata, per esempio in Liberia e in Sierra Leone. Provate a googlare la parola sassiword per approfondire. Si tratta di trafficare con i veleni, anche in quel caso la percentuale di assoluzioni è assurdamente elevata.

Ma il metodo salomonico fa capolino anche nelle nostre società, penso alla “macchina della verità” il cui uso fa leva su un “mito della scienza” oggi molto diffuso.

In parecchi tribunali, poi, si continua a giurare sulla bibbia o su altri testi sacri, il che puo’ essere visto come un residuo di quei meccanismi che l’ordalia sfruttava appieno.

(Trionfo di Salomone)