The Story of Civilizations

 

In his unique book “A Study of History,” Toynbee undertakes an amazing study of 21 civilizations of our world formed of societies. He traces the origin of these civilizations, studies the growth, analyses the causes of their breakdown and explains their disintegration. Such a wide coverage of world civilizations blows your mind! Let us delve into this study.

The present day Western civilization, affiliated to the dead Greco-Roman or Hellenic (Greek) society, is a living civilization, along with the Orthodox Christian society in South East Europe and Russia, which can be divided into Orthodox Byzantine consisting of Anatolia and Balkans and Orthodox Russian societies; Islamic society of North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia up to China, which includes Iranic and Arabic societies; Hindu society in the sub-continent of India and the Far Eastern society in Japan, form the five living societies. Far Eastern society can be divided into Chinese and Japanese-Korean societies. The dead civilizations include Minoan, Hellenic, Syriac, Sumeric, Hittite, Babylonian, Andean, Yacatac, and Mayan. Monophysite Christians of Armenia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Abyssinia; Nestorian Christians of Kurdistan and ex-Nestorian who are the relics of Syriac society and the Jews and Parsees are seen as the fossilized relics of now extinct civilizations. Another set of fossilized relics are Lamistic Mahayanian Buddhist of Tibet and Mongolia; Hinayanian Buddhists of Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Cambodia and Jains of India, relics from Hindu society which itself is from Indic society.  

While engaging in a comparative study of these societies, Toynbee traces four stages: 1). Time of trouble: eg. Persian wars on the Greek society during 480-479 BC and Barbarian’s attack on Roman Empire in 415 AD. 2). Formation of a Universal State: eg. Roman Empire. 3). Interregnum: the stage between the fall of a civilization and the emergence of another civilization in its place; eg. after the fall of Roman Empire and the disappearance of Hellenic civilization, Western society emerged. During this interim period, there appears (1) a Universal church, (2) dominant minority that might turn more violent to hold on to power and (3) a chaotic stage of wandering barbarians, the former two products of the internal and the latter a product of the external proletariat of a dying civilization.

Of these 21 civilizations, 15 are affiliated to previous but dead civilizations. Six emerged directly from primitive societies, these being Egyptiac, Sumeric, Monoan, Sinic, Mayan and Andean; Minoan, Sumeric and Egyptic go back to the dawn of history itself. How does a primitive society transform itself into a civilization? If we examine the last 6000 years, when human civilizations have been on earth, it is seen that neither race nor environment are the decisive factors in the genesis of a civilization. The important factor could be the encounter between two superhuman personalities (Toynbee gives the encounter of Jesus and Satan in the desert as an example for it led to the genesis of Christian society. I do not agree with this, for it is a very simplistic explanation of the rise of Christianity and the Western society shaped by it!).

Suffering seems to be another major factor in evolving a successful civilization. When faced with adversity, humans took on risks to improve their situation and this process of adjusting themselves to a harsh environment led to growth. Ice ages when some humans with pluck travelled in search of food, tropical climate and shelter; they became the pioneers. Response to challenges is definitely the most important factor in such advancement of a civilization. From food-gatherers, they became hunters and then cultivators.

In Nile River delta and Mesopotamian river deltas of Euphrates and Tigris were drained by digging canals and river swamps converted into fertile fields. Nile valley produced Egyptian civilization and Mesopotamian valley gave birth to Sumerian society of the Land of Shinar. Similar factor brought in the Sinic civilization in the delta of Yellow river. Crossing of Atlantic Ocean was the challenge that gave birth to Minoan civilization in Crete which in turn gave birth to Greek society. Colonist groups on North America faced severe challenges, but built the most powerful country. Only those who took up the challenge of harsh climatic and geographic obstacles got the toughness to emerge as living societies. So the stimulus to growth is difficulties. Greater the difficulty, greater is the stimulus and stronger the civilization that resulted.  

Some civilizations are born but do not grow to adulthood and maturity, but get stuck in their state, eg. Polynesians, Eskimos and Nomads. Of the living societies, Toynbee’s perception is almost all are now in death throws, except the Western Civilization, because all the others are getting absorbed by the Western civilization, as every society is adopting the Western culture. We may not agree with this, for he had written this in 1933-39. Today the Western culture is on decline and we do not know which civilization will replace it; may be Sinic or Indic or a new civilization that will arise from the breakup of the Western civilization.

When a civilization disintegrates, a horizontal schism splits the society to three factions: the dominant minority who are the elite ruling class; internal proletariat, the people of the society and the external proletariat, who act as pressure group on the dying society. Each of these leave institutions, a Universal State, a Universal Church and barbarian war bands. Hellenic society produced Roman Empire as its State; its dominant minority became Roman administrators and Greek philosophers. Hindu society’s State was produced by outsiders, the Mughal Empire and later British Raj. Brahmins, the dominant minority became administrators of both these empires. Syriac civilization created Christian Church; Iranian Mithraism; Egyptians Isis; Anatolians the Great Mother Cybele and Sumeric Ishtar.

The causes for such a breakdown of civilizations could be due to the normal pattern of birth, growth, disease and death, which we see in human life, but a society is not an organism and hence we cannot allude to this reason. External aggression or failure to master the environment, impact of religion, etc, is discarded as the causes. It could be because the creative dominant minority is not able to carry the uncreative majority to their heights of achievements. In such a case the society loses its capacity for self-determination, which causes degeneration. When old institutions fail to carry on the creative force of the new ideas, breakdown happens and revolution results, as in French Revolution, which put back the clock of development by many decades. When new challenges come, the society that faced and overcame challenges in the initial stage might not be able to handle the new challenge. The loss of such creativity could also lead to breakdown.

During such disintegration, people look for a Savior, who could be a creative genius or a strong man with the sword, or a philosopher-king as recommended by Plato in his philosophy. It could also be a God incarnate in a Man, who died and rose for the people, as Jesus Christ did, who seem to be the only God or God-Man who did that for the world. Those who believe in him, he said he will lead to an everlasting Kingdom.

A very interesting study for anyone interested in history, civilizations of the world and a comparative study of these civilizations, for Toynbee writes exhaustively covering many civilizations. A great feat to perform and Somervell who abridged these writings of six volumes in one single volume, which I happened to read, has also performed an admirable job.

Finally, we the believers, look forward to the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth by Jesus Christ who had promised to return to the world very soon and establish his eternal rule, which shall never be destroyed by any of the above mentioned causes or events, but will stand forever. Fortunate are those who will inherit such a blessing by believing in Jesus Christ. Amen.