1801, the underlying logic of historical changes in Eurasia
In the author's opinion, Eurasian history is a game of chess. The internal underlying logic is the same. These underlying logics determine today's world structure.
The entire Eurasian steppe belt, from the meadows in the Songhua River Basin to the Hungarian grasslands, was cut into two parts by the Jinshan Mountains (today's Altai Mountains in Xinjiang).
The eastern part belongs to alpine and alpine grasslands, and the western part belongs to desert, semi-desert arid grassland and some small grasslands with Atlantic temperate maritime climate. This part is mainly in Eastern Europe. Today's European parts of Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, etc. are all of this type.
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Why has eastern China been facing strong threats from northern nomads for three thousand years, while Europe has not had this situation?
The reason is that the western half of the Eurasian steppe is composed of a mixture of various climate types. In this case, it has a strong ability to resist natural disasters. It is easy for them to survive.
As a result, it has evolved into a scattered mess, each with its own language, culture, and religious beliefs.
The western half of the Eurasian steppe, like Europe and West Asia, is a territory composed of fragmented small countries and small tribes.
The situation in the east is completely different.
To the north of the entire Great Wall, no matter how the 400mm precipitation line moves north and south, the Great Wall has always been built on this line. For three thousand years, the distinction between farming and nomadic life has never changed.
The entire north has the same type of climate pattern. In spring, the Pacific monsoon brings precipitation. In winter, the Siberian cold current sweeps from northwest to southeast.
This leads to a devastating blow to them once they encounter a natural disaster. Every ten years or several decades, they are constantly formatted under the climate cycle. This is the revolving door of the nomadic people in northern China.
reason.
The core appeal of the nomadic people is that in order to survive, they hope to go south and control the north of the Qinling Mountains and the Huaihe River as a second pasture for grazing. These two climate types can greatly increase their chances of survival.
The core appeal of the Han nation is that the Yellow River is the mother river and the cradle of farming. You want to come to my fields to graze sheep, but you are thinking of nothing. You must be driven to the north of the Great Wall, far away from my fields.
This struggle for survival is a life-and-death struggle.
The nomads realized for the first time that if they wanted to get out of this predicament, they had to go south and go to war with the Han people to seize the Three Norths region. This happened in the Spring and Autumn Period.
At that time, northern nomads entered the Central Plains in large numbers, causing the vassal states of the Han people to be wiped out one after another. At that time, the Zhou royal family was weak and unable to lead the Han people to resist. Therefore, Duke Huan of Qi, as the overlord, launched a movement to respect the king and repel the barbarians. This wave of nomadic people who came in was wiped out.
Called out again.
This incident made the upper class of the Han nation begin to realize that this is a struggle for survival between two civilizations. It will never end here. As long as both sides survive, the struggle will become increasingly cruel and continue for a long time. And neither side will suffer.
Don’t lose anyone.
Because the grasslands cannot be farmed, the Han people cannot occupy them, because transporting food can drag them down. This leads to the fact that the problem of nomadic people cannot be completely solved, and we can only treat the symptoms rather than the root cause, and hide and hide.
The upper class of the Han people finally formed a unified understanding. For the survival of the entire civilization, they must be unified. First, they unified politically and established a highly centralized country (the unification of Qin). Then they unified ideologically and established a unique culture.
and civilization (Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only respected Confucianism)
Therefore, the long-standing unification of the Han people and the history of a highly centralized state were entirely forced out to fight against the nomads. Because the threat from the north never disappeared. Even in the last century, the Tsar and Mao replaced the nomads and continued to threaten them.
China.
What really makes us breathe a sigh of relief is that in the past thirty years or three thousand years, the huge threat from the north has disappeared for the first time, providing a rare historical opportunity and time window for our development.
Fortunately, our nation has many great people who have seized the opportunity.
We are born in an unprecedented good era, a rare peaceful era, how lucky we are. Because this kind of confrontation will profoundly affect all aspects of the national destiny and personal destiny.
Starting from the Spring and Autumn Period, the vassal states of China began fierce annexation wars. After the Warring States Period, the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period were formed. Qi State, Jin State, Chu State, and Qin State were the countries most likely to complete the historical mission here. In the end, Qin State completed this
A great historical mission.
The first thing the Qin State did after its unification was to send Meng Tian, commander of 300,000 Qin troops, to attack the Xiongnu northward, recapture Henan (Ordos Plateau), restore Linhe, Jiuyuan, Fengzhou and other places, and drive the Hu people far away
Land. Lest they covet our land.
The second thing is to build the Great Wall after driving them away and build a tight fence for your yard.
From the impatient Qin Shihuang, we can see that the unification of the Han nation was to protect their own land and civilization, and to gain an advantage in the long-term confrontation with the nomadic peoples in the future.
Because, in the past, it was unreliable to rely on the leadership of the princes and overlords to lead this long and great war.
The Xiongnu were defeated. Once they left Monan, they had no choice but to flee far away. Because the north was the Gobi and the desert. They could only go to Outer Mongolia. This made them finally realize that the Han people were unified and they could not fight against them.
The only solution is for them to unite.
Soon, Moton Chanyu unified the Huns and then the entire north. The unification of the nomadic peoples also continued into modern times.
Since then, in Northeast Asia, the two civilizations of nomadism and farming have begun a two-thousand-year history of confrontation between the unified political power of the north and the south.
If the unique culture of the Han people is determined by the closed geographical environment, then the Han people's national system, political system, military and other characteristics are all determined by the collision between the North and the South.
(In this fast region of East Asia, there is the sea in the east and south, alpine swamps in the northeast, and deserts and alpine grasslands in the north. The roof of the world is in the west, and the miasma-filled tropical rainforest is in the southwest. There is only a narrow external passage in the Hexi Corridor. This ensures
The uniqueness of Han civilization. It originated, developed and improved independently. It became the only existing ancient civilization in the world.)
The situation in Europe is completely opposite. Therefore, they have always been a fragmented political territory, a complex mixture of ethnic groups, and chaotic thoughts and religious beliefs that are hostile to each other. It will be difficult for them to unify in a few hundred years.
The reason why the European Union emerged is because of the rise of Da Mao in the past three hundred years. In their view, Da Mao are irregular white people who were mixed with Mongolians. They are the descendants of nomadic people who were discriminated against by them. The strength of Da Mao played a role in history.
, the same role of the nomadic peoples in northern China.
The old nobles of Europe finally realized the necessity of unification after two thousand years of delay. Because the threat from the north will be very terrifying, very powerful, and a great threat to their civilization. It will coexist with them for a long time.
