The following continues the serialization of my final chapter, #6, from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:
Early History of Asia and the Middle East
There are signs of a Chinese civilization as early as 12,000 BC., and farming can be traced back around 9,000 years. The earliest known dynasty was around 1700 BC. The Chinese are credited with having invented: gunpowder, wheelbarrow, compass, spaghetti, kites, iron casting, harnessing of animals, clock, modern boats, abacus, rudder, silk, anesthesia, printing press, and much more.
Soon after 1200 AD, Genghis Khan governed over 12 million square miles, almost twice the size of Russia, with a population of 100 million.
In the early 1400’s, Admiral Zheng He, who started as a palace eunuch in the Imperial court, but with family connections to Mecca, led seven naval expeditions to establish Chinese trade and presence, and may well have reached America before Columbus. On his initial 1492 voyage, Columbus had the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, the largest with a length of 59 feet (18 meters). In his 1405 expedition, Zheng had 62 treasure ships, with several more than ten times longer, up to 600 feet (183 meters) with 9 masts, plus 190 smaller support craft. Regarding the Orient, a case can be made that China spawned the culture of Korea and Japan, declined for a spell, but again looks promising into the future.
Likewise, India, which has been inhabited for hundreds of thousands of years, began to organize in the Indus Valley around 6,000 BC, with major trading as far back as 3,000 BC with Egypt, China and Arabia. Like China, India could well only now be maturing, again.
Ancient Egyptians ground grain by 11,000 BC, with the Pharaohs coming into power around 3150 BC, which was ended by the Roman Empire in 31 BC, more than three millennia later. Remember, if you go back an equivalent period from today, you are talking about 1000 BC.
The combination of Nile silt deposition for agriculture and papyrus served to bring eminence to the country. The Egyptians invented the first known writing system—hieroglyphics—paper, and the decimal system almost 5,000 years ago. They also built the first wine cellar (3100 BC), performed the first surgery (2700 BC), used the first alphabet (1800 BC), blew the first glass (1500 BC) and signed the first peace treaty (1258 BC). The Great Sphinx of Giza was built around 2600 BC, and remains today as the largest single-stone statue. The Great Pyramid of Giza, around 2580 BC, stood as the tallest structure until AD 1300, almost 4,000 years. But what happened to Egypt? I’ve been to Cairo, gazed at the pyramids and wondered how such a great past could lead to that grayish-brown present teeming with subsistence life.
The Fertile Crescent incorporates the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates and Jordan rivers, today corresponding to Egypt, Israel, West Bank, Gaza strip, Lebanon and parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, south-eastern Turkey and south-western Iran, now with a population of 120 million. The Sumerians came into prominence around 5000 BC, and in 4000 BC Mesopotamia gained eminence in what is now southern Iraq. The capital city of Babylon, with its Hanging Gardens, was particularly of consequence, where Hammurabi codified laws around 1800 BC. Today, Babylon, located 55 miles south of Baghdad, is dust and shrub, although one of Saddam Hussein’s former grand palaces is built close to it. The origin of Judaism was also around 1800 BC, where the supposed Diaspora (scattering from ancestral homeland) around 100 AD dispersed the Jewish population, only to return as Israel in 1948. The Persian Empire, today Iran, around 700 BC, was the largest the world had seen, but fell to Alexander the Great in 330 BC. Then the Golden Age of Islam blossomed, and never recovered from the Mongol invasion of 1258 AD. Certainly, you don’t want to live in this Cradle of Humanity today.
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The Dow Jones Industrials continued to surge, up 147 to 10,363, while most other markets also increased, the Japan Nikkei the most, +259 to 9786. Gold +$12/toz to $1211 and crude oil is at $77/barrel.
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Hurricane Conson just made landfall, canceling flights out of Manila. It will weaken into a tropical storm, enter the South China Sea and head for China. Nothing much happening with the disturbance in the Eastern Pacific.
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