Kings Of This World

What do I wish to talk about today? I think it's gonna be history. I found out today that Caitlin was Belgian. Go figure. She was telling me how everyone from Britain assumes that Belgium is a pointless country where nothing ever happens.

It is a strange coincidence that I am intending to write a play on Belgian History of WW1. In fact, short of Caitlin and other Anglicised Belgians, I am probably Britain's foremost expert on Belgian History, in that I own more books on the subject than anyone else in the country (3, hopefully soon to be 4, if you can find anyone in Britain who owns five books on the history of Belgium, I shall gladly lay down my assumed title).

It is actually fascinating. Before WW1 began, The Germans asked the Belgians if they could march through Belgium to attack France. Belgium refused and the Germans were forced to spend two to four weeks conquering the country. The Belgians held out for this long despite having a standing army of barely 50,000 at the start of the war. If they had not done so, we would be speaking German as at the point of the invasion, France had not properly mobilised. Belgium basically sacrificed herself to the war machine of Germany which allowed France and Britain to mobilise their armies and meet Germany in Northern France. If Belgium had let the Germans through or had not held out. WW1 would not have been fought in Ypres and the Somme, but in Dunkirk and Dover, the French would have been quickly conquered and we wouldn't have lasted much longer.

So thank the Lord for the Belgians. They saved our arses at incredible cost as Belgium was completely ruined in the occupation. It's industries were stripped and transported to Germany. It's food supplies went to the Germans and a famine spread throughout the country. Much of the country was a permanent war zone for four years.

None of this is generally known. What did I learn in History at school? Crop Rotation. Dates. Vikings. Pretty much. Nothing actually interesting.

The Vikings - When the Vikings settled Greenland they used to have running battles with the Inuits - Eskimos. Can you imagine a battle between a Viking horde and an Eskimo tribe? The Eskimos won mostly as well. The first man to settle Iceland was a Viking called Ingolf Arnasson in 985 AD. These are interesting things. How did it feel to be the first person ever to settle a new land? Were these people just like us? I've recently finished Bernal Diaz's account of the Conquistadors conquest of Mexico under Cortes. Diaz served with him. We get fascinating snippets from Diaz such as him viewing first hand a thigh bone brought to him by the Indians that was as long as a normal person's leg. The Indians told them tales about giant humans who had occupied South America, standing up to 8 or 10 feet high. Other evidence for this has recently turned up I think.

We get a quote from Cortes that shows a side of him that may have later been obscured by his rising greed and possible magalomania. (Possibly the only case in history where megalomania might have been valid, Cortes did after all wipe out an entire civilisation almost single handed).

"It would be better not to know how to write. Then one could not sign death warrants."

The Aztecs had invented/discovered Books, Chocolate, Tobacco, Cotton Armour, Aquaducts, Broadswords edged with Jade, the Bow and Arrow, Castles (Mexico city was one huge lake fortress). They marched under banners and standards of their commanders which were differentiated by coloured badges. They were adept at Guerilla and Naval Warfare. And had a commerce system, the huge market of Mexico City selling everything from weapons to skins to incense to pottery to food to human flesh and heads. The market had a constable or two who made sure the goods and money were not counterfeit. They had not discovered the wheel. The Spaniards taught them how to burn wax and took Montezuma sailing, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Contrary to what I may have said before in my pieces on religion. The Aztecs did have a God of Hell. Diaz mentions nothing about any God of heaven that may exist. They had a God of war also and these were the two primary Gods of Mexico, although other Gods were primary elsewhere. They used to fatten up their slaves in cages hung above the streets ready to be sacrificed as the bodies would be eaten after sacrifice.

Diaz recalls the end of the battle for Mexico (Which lasted over 100 days) Cortes and his men had been separated into three groups, each of which barricaded the three causeways into Mexico. They had several Launches which disrupted the water route. They hoped to starve the Aztecs into surrender. However, over that 100 days, these three groups would find themselves attacked every day by thousands upon thousands of Aztecs all day and often much of the night. It was a waiting game to see who cracked first. As the Spaniards wearied, more and more of them were captured and in the evenings would be sacrificed at the top of the temple ("Cue" in Aztec), by the priests ("Papas") who wore long black robes like Franciscan Monks. This temple was the highest building in Mexico City and every night the Spaniards would watch their comrades being hauled to the top, while the Aztecs screamed and wailed and banged huge drums, before having their hearts cut out alive with Jade knives.

After a third of a year of constant attack, the numbers of Aztecs lessened and Cortes finally took Mexico City/Technochtitlan. He found that almost every house was filled to bursting with dead and rotten corpses either from hunger or the smallpox epidemic that the Spaniards had brought to Mexico. Thousands and thousands and thousands of corpses filled the city. The surviving Aztec King - Guatemoc was so distraught at what had happened to his people he would burst into tears whenever he was approached. He confessed that he wished to die alongside his people.

After all this, it was found that Montezuma had already given all the gold in Mexico to Cortes of his own free will. Much of which was promised to the soldiers, Cortes had hidden away. There was nothing left to plunder. Most of the Conquistadors left Mexico more destitute than when they had arrived.

Montezuma had been amicable to the Spaniards. He had long been told by the Gods that bearded men from the West would come and rule Mexico. When Cortes arrived, Montezuma tried to resist him at first, but eventually accepted that Cortes and his men were those prophecised. He went into custody willingly and became friends with all the conquistadors, many of whom turned to him for advice and treated him as a father or uncle figure. He was killed by friendly fire while trying to stop the battle for Mexico. Three stones from Aztec slings hit him on the head and he fell and died soon after. He was one of the greatest Kings the Aztecs had ever had.

Four things strike me about this potted history:

That the Indians could produce proof, by way of giant bones, and family memory of human like giants. This may be a giant ape or even a lost breed of human, Bigfoot even, maybe. Certainly corroborating evidence has been found since. 600 years ago who knows what was prowling around Central America.

The Aztecs had a God of Hell. Maybe this is just how the Spaniards interpreted the concept, but it seems to me that Hell is a concept of the Judeo/Christian religion. It is very difficult for a random basic cult religion to concieve of a hell without a corresponding heaven. Where did the Aztecs get this concept from, and did they also believe in a heaven? Was this hell simply misunderstood by the Spaniards, such as Hades' Underworld. Not a Hell, just a resting place for the dead.

The prophecy of the Gods. That bearded men from the West would come to rule Mexico. Ok, either the Aztec Gods were real and pretty damn good at predictions. Or the Priests had been smoking too much. Or, someone from the West had visited the Aztecs many many years before and it had remained in folklore.

The Aztecs could read, write and make books. Diaz tells us of Montezuma's accountant whose job it was to tot up all the taxes and gold that Montezuma/Mexico owned. This accountant's house was full, top to bottom of books - ledgers. The Aztecs were also fantastic painters. Life size and life like portraits of Cortes were taken to Montezuma. If these Indians were capable of record keeping, even if Mexico City was destroyed, there were several cities around the lake of Mexico City. Why have these records not been found? Were they capable of fiction or just fact?

The fact remains that as Diaz tells us about the South American Indians, their taste for Human Flesh notwithstanding, it often becomes plain that they are equal to the Spaniards in matters of etiquette, social mores and intelligence. Their society is the same and equal to any human society before or after it. They are just like us.

In The White Nile. Alan Moorehead, the brilliant journalist and historian recounts the exploration of the (White) Nile in the 19th century. He tells us about King Kabarega and other African Kings. He tells us about The Mahdi and his conquering of Khartoum and the killing of General Gordon. What is amazing is that these two people - The savage Kabarega, and the Islamist Mahdi (Forerunner of Osama Bin Laden) both followed the Victorian social mores and etiquette that dominated of the day. Basic politeness. Letters by The Mahdi exist where he exhorts Queen Victoria to convert to Islam and tells her all the benefits this will have. Although she did not reply, one can imagine that she was not amused, considering the state of war between the Mahdi and Gordon, Britain's emissary.

Yet The Mahdi was a gentleman. As was Gordon. They communicated by letter, making sure that each knew the boundaries, where they were set and to expect battle beyond them and being exceedingly courteous to each other. A respect for thine enemy. As Cortes respected Montezuma and vice versa.

I could go on about others - Garibaldi maybe. History is full of great adventurers and those who lived on their wits, luck and courtesy. Those who fought for life, freedom, country or just gold. And these people are wonderful, fascinating.

My next book to read is about Sei Shonagon. A Japanese girl who kept a diary. In the year 1008. 998 years ago from today on the other side of the world. I wonder how much of her I might still find in people today. How much understanding there is. For truly human understanding does not progress. Each of us has only 100 years to understand truly what life is. And what is life?
Is it what we see? what we percieve? is it how we live? or who we are? Is it who we are around? Other people? How we see the world? And is any of that really all that different from one person to the next whenever they live.

These people from history, are us. We might not be making waves but we are all part of history. We all lived, we all die. We are all part of this one great earth and there is nothing but us. Nothing but humanity, nothing but you me and Montezuma. HIstory is not a timeline, a selection of dates. It is who we are and where we have come from and perhaps most important, where we are going.

Beyond this life to someone 500, 1000, 2000 years ago. 4000 years ago? Were we really all that different? Were the questions then the same as they are now?
Did philosophy begin and end with Socrates and Plato? Two men from a different time and a different place and arguably the most intelligent men in the past 2000 years. We are still answering their questions because their questions are eternal.

How can we know ourselves if we don't know ourselves.