The US and Canada After a North America Wide Future Civil War.

I predicted that the US and Canada would divide along these lines following a Civil War in the 21^st century.

The Eastern Union (EU): A commercially centered economic union comprised of the former New England States (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont) and the regions, states and provinces of New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, Eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. Capital city: Washington DC.

The American Republic (AR): This nation’s economy depended largely on its industrial production and mining. It was comprised of the former states and provinces of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Ontario, Manitoba, West Virginia and Wisconsin, plus the territory of western Pennsylvania. Capital city: Cincinnati.

The Free States of Southern America (FSSA): A Union incorporating the states of Virginia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Capital city: Atlanta.

The Florida Republic (FR): The FR was comprised only of the former state of Florida, whose vast Hispanic population voted overwhelmingly for the right to exist as an independent state. Capital City: Miami.

The Midwestern Federation (MF): Also called the “High-Tech” Federation, the MF inherited the states of Missouri, the Dakotas, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and the former Canadian province of Manitoba. Capital city: Omaha.

The Texas Expansion (TE): This industrial-agricultural nation was made up of the former states of Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico. Capital city: Amarillo.

The California Republic (CR): A service and industrial production based economy the CR was comprised only of the former state of California. A new capital was built for the republic at Reagan City Complex, Death Valley.

The Cascade Federation (CF): A resource-based republic formed from the states of Alaska, Arizona, Oregon and Washington as well as the former Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and the Yukon Territory. Capital city: Vancouver.

Pacific Conglomerate (PC): A trading nation made up largely of the state of Hawaii and the islands of Midway and Guam. Capital city: Honolulu.

Western History 58: How did Islam and the Arab civilization expand?

From its origins in the Arabian Peninsula the Monotheistic religion Islam would sweep through the Middle East, North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, Central Asia and Asia Minor to establish itself as the great rival to the power Christendom Europe and the Near East.  The religion was founded by Muhammad an Arab merchant in Mecca who is believed by his followers to be the final prophet and the recipient of the Holy revelation of Allah (God). The revelation was later documented in the Koran (Muslim Holy Book). Key events in the expansion of Islam as both a religion and a political ideology are listed below.

20 Milestones in the Islamic and Arab Expansion (in order of date)

1. 610 CE – Muhammad has his religious experience on Mount Hira that forever changes his life. He will start building a following from this time onward.
2. 615 CE – Muslims are persecuted by Quaraish in Mecca.
3. 622 CE – Year of the Hijra – Mohammad flees with followers to Yathrib (Medina). Start of the Muslim Calendar,
4. 624 CE – Muhammad returns to Mecca. Wins important Battle of Abdr.
5. 627 CE – Starts persecuting Jews of Banu Quaiza executing their men whom he suspects of aiding his allies. In the Same year he establishes an Alliance with other Medina Merchants.
6. 630 CE – Muhammad finally takes Mecca and makes it the spiritual focal point of Islam.
7. 632 CE – Death of Muhammad. His father-in-law Abu-Bakr and Umar, his successor, move to establish authority of the Caliph (Deputey of the Prophet). Caliph established throughout Arab controlled lands.
8. 633-634 CE – Muslim take Syria and Iraq. Victory over the Byzantines follow.
9. 634-644 CE – Umar expands Muslim control over Egypt, the Levant and  Persia. Great Muslim victory at the Battle of Yarmuk (636 CE) ensures domination of Syria.
10. 637 CE – Fall of Jerusalem to Muslim forces
11. 641 CE – Muslim forces move into the Caucaus regions – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia. In the same year Alexandria falls to the Muslim invaders.
12. 644 CE – Death of Umar. Succession of Uthman. Sunni/Shi’ite split. Shi’ites rally behind Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali. Sunni follow the leadership of Uthman.
13. 649-655 CE – Attacks on Sicily and Cyprus. Muslim victory at the Battle of the Masts. Byzantines continue to lose territory in North Africa.
14. 661-680 CE – Umayyad Dynasty in the ascendancy although they will be opposed by the Abbasids. Muslims capture Rhodes but fail to take Constantinople in two sieges (668 CE and 672-679 CE). Arab conquest reaches the Indus river.
15. 711 CE – Muslims invade Spain. Overthrow the Visigoth kingdoms and establish control of the Iberian Peninsula in 718 CE.
16. 717-718 CE – Muslims fail again to take Constantinople after a brutal siege. Byzantine Emperor Leo III played a key role in this defence.
17. 732 CE – Charles Martel stops the Invasion of the Muslim forces at the Battle of Poitiers. By 739 CE much of the French territory under Muslim control will have been retaken by Christian forces.
18. 750 CE – Composition of the famous Arabian Nights tales.
19. 756 CE – Umayyad Regime under Abd-al Rahman dominates in Spain although power in the rest of the Sunni Muslim world now favours the Abbasids.
20. 800 CE – Caliph Harun al-Rashid (died 809 CE) gives keys to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to the Franks thus reinforcing somewhat of a Lain presence in the Holy City.

Western History 57: Who was Charlemagne?

Charlemagne (also known as Charles the Great) was the greatest of the Early Middle Ages sovereigns. He was the grandson of Charles Martel (whose forces defeated the Muslim Invaders in Tours in 732 CE) and the son of Pepin the Short. Charlemagne lived between 742 (?) and 814 reigning as Holy Roman Emperor from 800-814.

He expanded the Frankish State under the vanguard of the Carolingian Empire so that at its height it comprised the modern day territories of  France, Northern and Central Italy, the Low Countries, Most of Germany, Austria, Hungary  and Switzerland. His domain included the cities of Paris, Toulouse, Aachen and Rome and represented the largest contiguous region controlled by a single monarch since the Age of the Western Roman Empire.

Charlemagne was both an astute military commander and a tremendous champion of European culture – art, writing and biblical scholarship.

In 771 Charlemagne became sole ruler of the Frankish kingdom following the death of his brother Carloman. Three years later he answered a plea from the Pope to come to the latter’s aid against the Lombards and did so successfully. In 775 he attacked the Saxons and in 778 waged war in Spain (an episode immortalized in the famed Song of Roland literature).  By 783 Charlemagne had finally crushed the Saxons and followed on this success by defeating the Bavarians in 788 and the Avars (791-796) adding their territory in Hungary and Austria to his realm.

The papacy came under pressure in 799 resulting in a brutal attack on the pope Leo III. Charlemagne backed up the Pope against charges of mass conspiracy and for his support was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day in 800. This represented the only time in history when the Pope bowed before an earthly ruler.

Charlemagne died in 814 and was succeeded by his son Louis the Pious. Louis would rule until 840 eventually dividing the large kingdom among his three sons Lothair I, Louis II and Charles the Bald. What emerged from this division were the archetypes of the countries of Italy, France and Germany.

Western History 56: How did Christianity spread in Western Europe?

The Early Middle Ages (476-799 CE) were characterized by a rapid spread of Christianity. Conversions of other population groups in the North and East would follow (eg.  Scandinavia by 1000 CE) but by 800 CE Western Europe was largely a Christian entity with the Latin church based in Rome. The following outlines how Christianity spread beyond its Southern European core to the rest of the continent.

Table 12 The Spread of Christianity in Western Europe

Region/Population Group	Agent of Initial Conversion
Ireland	Christianity spread to Ireland from Roman Britain in the 5th century. St. Patrick a Romano-Britain missionary and future patron saint of Ireland is believed to have played a key role. The introduction of private penance is thought to have been an Irish innovation.
Scotland	Irish missionaries Columba and Columbans are credited with bringing Christianity to Scotland.
Anglo-Saxon England	Converted by the mission of St. Augustine and Gregory the Great.
Franks of Gaul	Adopted Christianity after the conversion of the Merovingian king Clovis I.
Frisians and Low Countries	Conversion driven by the Northumbrian Monk Willibrod who was commissioned by Pope Segius I.
German Franks	Conversion was driven by an Anglo-Saxon mission led by Saint Boniface.

Western History 55: Who were the Merovingians?

The Merovingians are the oldest French dynasty having emerged from Salian Frank origins in the Mid 5^th Century. The dynasty’s founder was Childeric I but its greatest king was Clovis I (481-511). Clovis defeated the Roman ruler Syagrius in 486 and the Alemanni in 496 uniting most of Northern Gaul above the Loire under his control. He would later go on to defeat the Visigoths but he is most remembered for spreading Christianity in his Kingdom after he adopted the Christian Nicene faith of his wife Clotilda.

Merovingian kings were known for their distinctive long hair (that contrasted with the short hair of the Franks) and there is much legend that surrounds their feats that is associated with both miracles and a type of hagiography. However by the 8^th century their power was largely ceremonial with real force residing with the Mayors of the Palace (household managers). In 751 CE one of these Mayors, Pepin the Short, deposed the last Merovingian king to establish the Carolingian dynasty.

Challenges to Western Civilization

1. Western Civilization has been opposed by various force-dynamics or barbarisms in the past. Some of these force-dynamics have been products of the outside world others were creations from within. All are problematic, some have been overcome but others remain as an epidemic that future generations will have to deal with.  These are:

·         Feudalism – Ended by the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration, early urbanization and the birth of the modern economy;

·         The Domination of the Totalitarian Church – Eventually Eclipsed by the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Rise of  Reason and Science;

·         Powers of the Aristocracy – Ended by both the violent and non-violent bourgeoisie revolution, liberalism and nationalism;

·         Fascism – Defeated by the Western Democracies in World War II;

·         Communism – Defeated by the Economic Machine of the United States;

·         Islamism – A struggle that still continues;

·         Post Modernism – A challenge in progress – a consequence of intellectual nihilism and misguided cynicism;

·         Greed Capitalism – A dangerous but age old phenomenon that still survives

Western History 54: What was the Byzantine Empire?

The Byzantium Empire or the Eastern Roman Empire had its origin in the city of Constantinople founded in 330 CE by Constantine on the Ancient Greek City of Byzantium. It grew into an important center in and around 395 CE following the split of the Roman Empire into East and West portions and unlike the West which fell in 476 CE persisted and indeed flourished until the fall of Constantinople to Arab forces in 1453.

The greatest Byzantine Emperor was Justinian who took power in 526 CE and then advanced to re-conquer parts of the Fallen Western Roman Empire – in Italy, North Africa and Spain – from the various Germanic tribes. It was Justinian who codified Roman Law into one document and built the incredible Hagia Sofia Church in Constantinople (it is a Mosque today).

However his gains were short lived. The Lombards drove the Byzantines out of Italy in 568 and from 610 onwards considerable territory in Syria, Palestine and Egypt was lost to the expanding Muslim forces. The Empire would also change its language from Latin to Greek under the 7^th century Emperor Heraclius.

Muslim attacks persisted from land and Sea but Constantinople held firm beating off the invaders in 693 and 717-718. Territory continued to be lost to the Arabs although Asia Minor was recovered in 721.

In 726 Leo III banned the use of Icons in the Empire as graven images of the divine–the use of Icons was restored in 843 following what would be later called the ‘Inconoclast Controversy’.

In the 10^th century the Byzantines struggled against a new enemy the Bulgars who overran Thrace but failed to take Constantinople. The Russians also attacked the Byzantines but suffered the loss of their fleet in 941.

However it wasn’t until the reign of Basil II that the Byzantines enjoyed a renaissance. This new Emperor would retake Syria from the Muslims in 995 and finally drive the Bulgars out of Greece in the following year earning himself the epithet in 1014 after his final destruction of the Bulgaroktonos (Bulgar slayer).

Nevertheless the Byzantines could not hang on to their gains after Basil’s death. In 1055 they lost Southern Italy to the Normans and then twenty years later surrendered Syria to the Muslims. The Turks secured a major victory against the Byzantines in 1071 at Manzikert. Thrace fell in 1087 and Asia Minor was lost in 1179.

Even Constantinople would eventually be occupied by Western knights who succeeded in conquering the city in 1204 and establishing a Latin Empire in the newly acquired territory.

Constantinople was restored to the Byzantine Empire in 1261 but its fall in 1453 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks signalled the end of an Empire that at one time represented the essence of what was Rome.