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RE: Steps Towards The United States of Africa

in #politics2 years ago

In Africa today there are poorer and richer among the states. There is nowhere that one who has a better standard of living wants to share the poverty of his neighbor by throwing it away.
As for the oversimplification of the Moors and their influence in Europe, I don't see if it really helps. It is not historically true that in all of Europe in the period you mention there was spiritual decline. This mainly happened in Western Europe, where the despotism of the Pope led to spiritual decline. In the east, the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) had universities and seats in all sciences! It is no coincidence that the renaissance began when, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, all this intellectual and scientific wealth fled to Europe!

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Thanks for your very informed comment. You make a wonderful point. You said earlier that you are from Greece. That perhaps helps provide you with more insight about the important role of the Byzantine Empire than most Americans (or Western Europeans?) have. A scholar whose work I saw recently but can't find right now explained that in American universities, the Byzantine Empire is not included in "Classical" studies. So, universities do not consider the Byzantine Empire part of Europe! In other words, "Europe" to most Western European and Americans means only Western Europe! So, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Western Europe fell into the Dark Ages and was rescued by the Moors. Thank you for explaining that after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, all that intellectual and scientific wealth fled to Europe. We were not aware of that and it is a key explanation of the sudden Renaissance. We had attributed the Renaissance to the introduction of "The Hermetica" (Egyptian wisdom) -- as do the British authors of The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of The Pharaohs. You have opened our eyes to whole new (for us) and fascinating chapter of European history! Thanks so much.

However, we would say that the role of the Moors was absolutely key to bringing Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the rest of Western Europe out of the Dark Ages. The despotism of Popes you mentioned had led to a situation in which only the clergy was literate. So, until the arrival of the Moors, no one else in Western Europe could read or write. They were also using the clumsy Roman numerals. Imagine doing math with those! You also make a good point that some African nations are wealthier than others and may not be doing enough to help the poorer nations. We see that in America as well where there is enormous disparity of wealth. My guess that's also true throughout Europe. China seems to be the only nation that has worked recently to bring millions of people quickly out of poverty. We really appreciate your very informed comments!

I really appreciate you and the time you spend to write the post! Even more the time you spend to answer me! For sure i try not to read the history from the point of view only of west europe. You post help me to this!