the rise of england and france

At the start of the 8th century, the whole of western Europe was literally in the Dark Ages. Its leaders were totally immersed in theology, personal enrichment, murder and self-aggrandizement and were oblivious not only of the rising Arab threat but also of the deep misery of the people they ruled.

Emperor Justinian II and the Roman Pope Constantine -- a Syrian, as was the former pope -- met for mutually enhancing discussions at Nicomedia in 711. Emperor Justinian dutifully kissed Pope Constantine's feet and took communion -- only to be murdered soon after, as was his successor.

The new Emperor Leo III (717-741) and the new Pope Gregory II (715-731) were not so cosy, but were equally neglectful of the people they ruled. Leo III imposed enormous taxes on Italy and ordered Pope Gregory II to break all images of worship. Pope Gregory II was having trouble at home with the Lombards and Emperor Leo III's impositions acted to draw the Lombards and the pope into an alliance against imperial rule.

In Britain, at the same time as the Lindisfarne Gospels were being written the Venerable Bede wrote 'The Ecclesiastical History of the English People' in 731 from a monastery in Jarrow of the River Tyne which, while religiously based, does take note of the ordinary English people -- the Angles and the Saxons -- as well as their conversion to Christianity.

Bede was put in a monastery at Wearmouth when he was seven, became a deacon at 19 and a priest at 30. Being a soldier or a priest -- or both -- was the only occupation open to most young men without a farm to inherit, and he was perfectly aware of the comfort of his life compared to that of others.

Previoulsly, in 725, he had written 'On the Reckoning of Time' arguing that the Church should not rely on the pagan system of dating according to the accession dates of the Roman Emperors. Instead, he suggested a new way of dating by the birth of Christ -- AD anno domini. So, we have an Englishman to thank or curse for our current dating system -- and that it came about shows how much lack of prestige the Roman Empire held at that time, and how influential England had become.

It was Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People of 731 that gained him the honor of becoming the 'the Father of English History' as it was the very first account of Anglo-Saxon England ever written.

Starting with Julius Caesar's invasion in the 1st century BC, it goes on to tell of the kings, bishops, monks and nuns who helped to develop government and convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.

But, far more importantly, he also describes the landscape, the customs and the terrors facing ordinary people -- such as famines where starving South Saxon families, hold hands and jump off white cliffs in tragic suicide pacts. He also includes a famous analogy comparing life in Anglo-Saxon Britain to a sparrow's experience of flying out of the darkness into a great hall. "After a few moments of comfort the bird vanishes from sight into the wintry world that he came from."

Early western civilization, though, was about to suffer worse problems. By 750 the Ummayad caliphs were finally overthrown by the Abbasids who moved their capital to Baghdad, shifting attention to the east and splitting the Islamic empire. At that time, Persia had reasserted itself and North Africa came under the rule of the Aghlabids, Egypt was taken over by the Tulunids and Spain had been invaded and conquered by the Ummayad exiles.

During the Arab invasion, the Christian nobles of Spain rapidly converted to Islam but many Spanish scholars fled to other parts of Christian Europe, enriching their new countries with the texts they brought with them.

The Arabs were eventually checked from expanding into France in 752 by Charles Martel, a Frank, who was at the time the Mayor of the palace at Poitiers. Were it not for the actions of this man, Islam would have spread throughout western Europe in much the same way that Christianity had -- by forced conversion -- and in view of the fact that Spain flourished under Islam while the rest of Europe languished under Christianity for centuries after, one must ask whether early Islam provided a better way of life than early Christianity.

Because both the Roman Popes and the Roman Emperors were totally incompetent during this period, the resultant power vacuum was quickly filled by two rising nations -- France and Engand -- and these two countries formed the backbone of western civilization (in its Christian form) from then on.

germanic reformation and nationalism

In 1454, a year after the Moslem Turks captured the eastern Christian city of Constantinople, a German, Gutenberg, invented the printing press that allowed the Dutchman, Erasmus (born 1466) to spread humanism throughout northern Europe and another German, Martin Luther, (born 1483) to lead the Protestant Reformation against the diabolically corrupt and cruel Roman Catholic Church under the power of Niccolo Machiavelli (b.1469) and the 1478 Spanish inquisition.

Western civilization, as we know it today, was emerging from the Dark Ages and fittingly it was from the Germanic people that the Protestant movement arose because it was their leaders who had almost 1,000 years earlier made a pact with the Greek-Syrian Pope in Rome to suppress all Europe under Catholicism in return for kingdoms and wealth.

In 1492 Columbus discovered America, and religious issues were put on the backburner for most of the next two hundred years as the various states of Europe asserted their nationalism and battled each other for land rights in the new world -- the little nation of Protestant England, quite unexpectedly, coming out on top.

In 1683 the Siege of Vienna by Ottoman Turks reminded Europe that Christianity was not the only religion in the world, but by then the Christians of Europe were irretrievably divided by the Reformation and Nationalism, and an industrial revolution was underway which would push the Protestant north and the Catholic south of Europe even further apart.

During the 1700s, the Protestant north of Europe powered ahead economically while the Catholic south languished. Because the Northerners were predominantly white skinned, blond haired and blue-eyed and the Southerners were predominantly olive skinned, black haired and brown-eyed, the notion of White Supremacy and the Protestant Work Ethic also emerged about this time but it was not until the 20th century that it took on sinister connotations.

The vibrant British colony of America freed itself from its motherland in 1776 and the oppressed French peasants overthrew their monarchy in 1789. By the early 1900s, people power came to the fore in the new ideology of communism -- thought up by two German Jewish intellectuals, Marx and Engels -- and spread in popularity among the terribly oppressed people of Russia and China who overthrew their ruling dynasties and started an internationalist movement that became so threatening to both the Protestant and Catholic states that they finally stopped fighting each other and joined forces, expending a whole century in an effort to defeat it.

In addition to fighting each other and communism, the western Christian nations were also fighting independence movements within their colonies and territories, all of which caused a massive movement of diverse people and religions into Europe and America.

At this stage the parallels between what is happening today and what happened 2,000 years ago -- when early western civilization had yet to be conceived -- need to be made plain.

Like the early Christians flocked to Rome from impoverished Greece and Syria, looking for work, a better life and new converts, so did the Moslems from impoverished Algeria, Egypt, Turkey and Palestine flock to Europe.

Like the early Christians were led by prominent and wealthy Jews from Judea -- such as Peter, a disciple of Jesus, who became the first Bishop of Rome -- so were the Moslems led by prominent and wealthy Middle Eastern Arabs.

Like the early Christians living in Pagan Rome were branded as trouble-makers for railing against the barbaric practices of the Pagans, so were the Moslems living in Christian Europe branded as trouble-makers for railing against the barbaric practices of the Christians.

Like the early Christians in Rome had both moderate and extremist elements, the Moslems in Europe have both moderate and extremist elements.

Like all of the early Christians were tarnished as terrorists for causing the Great Fire of Rome in 64, all of the Moslems were tarnished for 9/11 in 2001.

Like the early Christians living in Pagan Rome were then persecuted, the Moslems living in Christian countries were then persecuted.

Like the early Christians in Rome hated the Pagan Romans as much as the Jews of Judea did and supported each other in their tribulations, so the Moslems in Europe hated the Christian West as much as the Arabs did and supported each other in their tribulations.

Like the Christians in Rome supported the uprising of their Judaen brothers against Roman rule in 66 (and later in 131, which started the Diaspora), so the Moslems of Europe supported the uprising of their Moslem brothers against the American invasion of Iraq in 2003,

Like the Christians in Rome multiplied their numbers and grew stronger -- accepting the Jews of the Diaspora into their flocks after 131, repelling all attempts to make them assimilate into the Roman culture and eventually converting the Emperor Constantine in 330 -- so the Moslems of Europe will eventually achieve a similar outcome by 2267 and then the wheel would have turned full circle because the Roman Empire upon which early western civilization was based was never white but ethnically Middle Eastern.

did christianity hold back western civilization?

While western civilization may have had Ireland as its cradle, it nevertheless evolved to become distinctively European - geographically, racially and culturally - and it remained geographically, racially and culturally intact for another 600 years, repelling Jews and Moslems and other non-Christian invaders.

At that time, Christianity was a repressive religion and it was used by the political rulers to make the masses do their bidding. It destroyed the pagan culture upon which the glorious Hellenic civilization and the Roman Empire was based, and definitely held back western civilization for centuries.

What brought western civilization out of a period that historians call the 'Dark Ages' was increasing exposure to the fabulous wealth and inventiveness of other civilizations - notably the Chinese through Marco Polo's travels between 1275-1292, and the Islamic nations through the Crusades of the same era.

The horrors of overpopulation and disease represented by the Black Death of 1348-1349 also had its impact.

The Christian Western civilization was looking decidedly primitive in relation to other civilizations.

An enlightenment was necessary, and the course it took brought out the best but also the worst in the white Christian populations.