Civilizations and time 12 ( the environmental principle, and the external principle )

Next, regarding the 5th principle, the environmental principle, and the external principle, these 1st to 4th principles are constrained by the 5th principle. Think about it. Or you might want to think about Japan's isolation from the rest of the world. Considering the former, Europe was shut out from the Mediterranean Sea because of Islam, and its character as an agricultural civilization was strengthened. Markets and cities were established. It can be said that other environmental principles were also at work. Germanic, Magyar and Norman invasions would have had a great influence on the shaping of medieval Europe. Hicks touched on the market and trade based on the royal economy, but in the case of Europe, the establishment of the market along with the development of agriculture was dominant, and the development of the market and trade due to the royal economy was seen along with the development of the Roman church. (Venice, Genoa), ``The impetus for capitalism was in northern Europe,''* it seems that the impetus for its development was the development of a market based on agriculture.

* When did capitalism emerge?

The buds of capitalism are said to have originated in the Italian city-states and spread to northern Europe. However, the Italian cities were commercial capitalist, which seems to have been close to Islamic civilization (think of the relationship between Venice and the Byzantines and Levant). There was a relationship between Atlantic trade and Genoa (Spain's source of funds), but the establishment of capitalism was largely influenced by the rise of the "Netherland" as the center of a group of cities that developed based on agriculture. Beginning with Gentry (emerging agricultural entrepreneurs), the rise of the Netherlands against the background of the Baltic Sea trade (Hanseatic League) that handles daily commodities, the soil for the rise of Protestantism was in northern Europe, and the capital (for the masses) It can be said that a civilization in which accumulation itself was the goal, a civilization of capitalism, was decisively established here (consumption was also popular during the Italian Renaissance).

 

Japan's national isolation is an example of the constraints imposed by the environment on principles 1 through 4. This can be cited as a rare example where there was no outside influence. If medieval Europe is a closed model with a certain degree of openness, Japan during the period of national isolation can be said to be a closed model of  closed models.

The open-type closed model was a civilization that was constantly influenced by the outside but built up forces by defending it. Although it has been influenced, closed models are fortunately less affected by external influences, so we study unique values, technological efficiency, social structural forces, generation of counteracting forces, and the flow of change. It can be said that it is a material that can In the case of Japan's national isolation, it can be said that the geographical conditions are the constraints imposed by the environment. Medieval Europe is a very interesting period from the point of view of accumulating power, but from the point of view of how the mentality changes in a so-called "vacuum", the state of isolation in Japan is a more interesting period. Maybe.

 

It is necessary to look at examples of environmental principles and external principles, but it is also necessary to select cases in which the external influence is strong and weak, and to consider the nature of that strength. right. Japan's policy of national isolation can serve as a reference as an example of how history progressed only through internal principles, excluding influence from the outside, as an environmental principle. On the other hand, when thinking about the external principle, Macneil's conception of "world history" may serve as a reference as a broad framework.

In Macneil's "World History", the movement of world history up to now is largely captured in four periods.

 

The first is the age of Orient dominance.

The second is the era of multicultural coexistence and prosperity.

The third is the era of European dominance.

Then comes the era of unification and parallelization of multiple civilizations.

 

These four forms were established by some kind of forces, and during the period when the Orient was dominant, the Orient civilization influenced other civilizations. The principle was working.

On the other hand, in the era of multi-civilization coexistence and prosperity, Chinese civilization, Indian civilization, and European civilization coexisted with Islamic civilization at the center, and external principles worked on each other, but their influence was still small. However, a small shift in balance can change the situation, such as the Mongol Empire. The example of the Mongol Empire, on the other hand, suggested that the world was getting smaller.

 

The movement in Eurasia came about as a reaction to the increased seafaring activity in European civilization (the Age of Discovery). European civilization emerged from this. European civilization expanded its world through seafaring, fighting or avoiding Islamic civilization, and as a result, the industrial revolution blossomed in Britain, and competition with the forces within European civilization chasing it began. Among them, the era of European civilization's predominance came, but it had an influence on civilizations other than Europe, and it can be said that external principles worked from European civilization to Islamic civilization, Indian civilization, and Chinese civilization. 

 

And it seems that the present age is clearly heading toward an era of multicultural coexistence and prosperity. Looking at it in this way, it seems that there is a cycle from multiple civilizations to unipolar civilizations and from unipolar civilizations to multiple civilizations as an external principle. And perhaps the background behind this phenomenon is the transition of power relations between civilizations. The power of civilization itself is internal, and is the combined force of value, technological efficiency, social structural force, and reaction force. While each civilization has a relatively equal overall strength, the unipolar era can be seen as an era in which civilizations stood out in terms of their combined strength of value, technological efficiency, social structure, and reaction force.  Environmental and external forces are the forces that arise from the relative relations of forces between civilizations, and they influence the interior of civilizations and exert pressure on values, technological efficiency, social structure forces, and counteracting forces. It can be said that it has come.

 

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