A Peep Into History I

The reason I wish to write is, so that what I know could be useful to others with similar interest. As everyday, I hear news of wars and justifications of their actions, one starts to wonder, why are they compelled to do it. The one reason they give is "National Interest" and before nation states came there were kingdoms. So for them it was the special interest of their kingdoms. In a word, one group or clan, wants to protect itself from another one. It boils down to the survival of the group. This was the reason, why tribes went to war in the primitive times as well, So, from its experience humans have not learnt any thing about the way to survive as Mankind, but still are thinking on local levels, and that is why, they can not find solutions.

Basically, self preservation is an instinct within every human being. A human being comes into this world within a family, which needs a male and a female, to start it. Thus it is the root element with which a society is formed. Families are bound together in a larger extended family, of ancestors mostly having similar roots, which are land based. We identify these as patriarchal societies or matriarchal societies. The Pater, or Mater, are identified by names, and in different regions they have different systems. In a patriarchal system, it is the surname of the oldest known male ancestor. In the Matriarchal system too it is the same. Some societies, get the name from their village, or 'house'. The earliest tribal conflicts were land based disputes, water rights, molestation of their female members by other groups, etc. The land and its produce was the most common cause, since it provides for the survival of the whole group.

As the land began producing what others needed, the jealousy, and greed in other groups became the reason why they would attack and plunder each other. The types of weapons and expertise they produced, gave upper hand to one over the other, and the subjugated group, had to serve the victor group, to continue survival. With this came the concept of slavery and bonded labor. To mitigate the selfishness of man, the religious thinkers in these groups, gave moral codes of conduct. They also tried to justify the actions of the victors.

Going back two thousand years, we find Jesus Christ as the teacher who changed the way the world thought. Personally he was from a small village in Palestine, but his way of thinking had a profound impact on mankind. His followers claim that it was the will of the Creator of Man, which made all this possible. One may feel compelled to see the ensuing events in history to the possibility of this thesis. Preceding Christ, was a major event in History which changed the world. It was the expeditions of Alexander of Macedonia. After him there were many, among which was the Mongol leader, Genghis Khan.

Alexander conquered eastern Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa. The Middle East, the land in which the Jews lived came under the dominion of Alexander. The Jews themselves were subjugated by the Babylonians, five hundred years before, and were delivered by the Persian Zoroastrian kings. They later came under the rule of Alexander and when his satraps were defeated by the Romans, came under the Roman rule. Thus Jesus Christ was crucified when the Roman Proconsul, Pontius Pilate was the one who was in control of Jerusalem.

In the east, India and China lived in freedom. Chandragupta Maurya had united the whole of India, and his influence reached Afghanistan as well. He was a contemporary of Alexander. After his death, the country was broken into smaller kingdoms.

In my next article, I shall follow up this story, with the consequences of the Roman occupation of the Middle East, which is relevant to the events taking place there in our times.