Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of Modern Civilization
Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of Modern Civilization – Review
“Catastrophe” refers to a mid-6th century climactic cataclysm that author David Keys believes destroyed the geopolitical status quo of late antiquity and eventually gave birth to the protomodern era from which our modern world circumstances came. According to the hypothesis simply put forward in “Catastrophe”, around the year 535 AD there occurred a major atmospheric disturbance that blocked out much of the Earth’s sunlight all over the globe. Tree ring and ice-core evidence, as well as archeological and contemporary written accounts suggest that there was, indeed, severe climactic disruption at this time, and that it almost certainly was the effect of a tremendous volcanic explosion. In “Catastrophe”, David Keys explains the ways in which he believes the famine, drought and plague that resulted from this dangerous event directly and ultimately led to the end of the contemporary political powers and the appearance of the new political entities and forces which shaped the world we live in today. As every continent was moved by the failure of sunlight, Keys hypothesizes that the fall of the Roman Empire, the appearance of Islam and the Arab and Ottoman Empires, the simultaneously reshaping of Eastern Europe, the life of the new nations of Japan, China, and Korea in the East and the European powers in the West, the end of the great Mesoamerican Empire of Teotihuacan and the emergence of the Mayans, among other major shifts in power, were all secondary effects of the climactic changes accidentally unleashed in 535 AD. I find it unlikely that all of the developments that David Keys attributes to the “catastrophe” would not have occurred otherwise. While the immediate results of a specific event are predictable and substantiable, the unforeseen consequences of something are, of course, impossible to know for sure as there are other factors affected. How many of the developments which occurred in the centuries seeing the eruption of 535 AD would not have occurred, or would have occurred at a various time, or would have occurred by different means, if the climactic catastrophe had not set change in motion is impossible to say. But David Keys’ point is so taken: “Forces of nature and extra mechanisms” beyond individual control have played -and may continue to play- a major role in individual history, culture, and achievements. “Catastrophe” reintroduces the theory of determinism to the argument of individual history, which has been unfashionable for a while now and is due for reconsideration by the educational community. Keys besides gives the reader a good indication of the transition from the group of late antiquity to that of protomodern nations all over the globe, which is interesting and informative regardless of what may have probably instigated the changes.