Recent comments in /f/history

Darth_Barleycorn t1_j0g9fug wrote

Reply to How do countries that lack long, ancient histories and myths (or feel they lack it), or have lost all records of them, compensate for this loss or absence? Can these invented ancient myths become as "legitimate" as the truly old histories/myths of countries that have them? by raori921

It seems that your ignoring something that lies deeper than nationality, culture.

People in new countries carry their cultural heritage with them. North Americans are steeped in the history and stories of Western Europe.

Tolkien seemed to get sidetracked by the single detail of language, modern English, while talking about the cultural heritage of England from Celts, Germanic peoples, etc.

There's no one or group who justs comes into existence with no past and no connections to something before.

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WhenceYeCame t1_j0g19qn wrote

Reply to comment by Hyphenated_Gorilla in Drought encouraged Attila's Huns to attack the Roman empire, tree rings suggest by ArtOak

Fall of civilizations podcast suggested the Bronze Age collapse was partially caused by simultaneous volcanic eruption and droughts displacing people and triggering mass warfare in the Mediterranean.

Black skies and failed crops? Time to raze our neighbor's cities out of desperation.

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AnaphoricReference t1_j0g179q wrote

Reply to comment by Maccus_D in Conflict in Central Europe leading to Bronze Age Collapse by Gideonn1021

The part of that argument that makes sense to me is that a civilization that depends on bronze will need access to a large distance trade network to obtain both copper and tin. It will never have an incentive to destroy the trade network, even during war. A civilization that has made the switch to iron will more likely intentionally disrupt trade networks when it goes to war if its enemies depend on bronze.

In that sense it was a "disruptive innovation".

But iron was neither easier to work with nor better than bronze in those days. Just more widespread geographically.

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