War Loving Continent

In his book, The Incredible History of India’s Geography, Sanjeev Sanyal writes that the Harappan civilization appears to have faded gradually, not in a big bang. The archaeological evidence doesn’t show any signs of slaughter consistent with a big invasion. He wonders if climate change was the culprit instead, making previously fertile areas arid? Or perhaps a major earthquake caused the course of river(s) that fed the civilization to change, in turn killing off the cities slowly?

Regardless of the cause, the gradual non-violent fading away of Harappa stands in sharp contrast with how the Roman Empire collapsed: with violence. As Rome grew weaker, its enemies kept invading, often winning, always looting and destroying. For example, by the Goths.

The contrast in how the two faded reminds me of the point that Peter Frankopan made in his terrific book, The Silk Roads. All through history, he writes, kingdoms fought wars with each other. But it was only in Europe that kingdoms, later states and finally countries were in constant warfare with each other. In every other part of the world, sure, there were wars but after one side won, they either looted and went away or settled in to rule (think of the Mughals). All this meant long periods of peace (just or not) in most parts of the world. Except Europe.

Of course, continues Frankopan, while constant warfare was bad for European citizens, it also meant Europe was continuously improving its weapons for warfare. That probably explains why Europe was able to colonize the world once the technology to move people and goods around reliably came about: sturdy ships. They were already way ahead of everybody in war tech! That competition over colonies and empires eventually led to the first World War.

All of which is why I totally agree with the scorn that Frankopan pours on the Nobel Peace Prize being given to the EU in 2012:

“How wonderful that Europe, which had been responsible for almost continuous warfare not just in its own continent but across the world for centuries, had managed to avoid conflict for several decades. In late antiquity, the equivalent would have been giving the prize to Rome a century after its sack by the Goths.”