England had a
troubled birth at a troubled time. During the fifth, sixth and seventh
centuries, transforming events of human history were taking place far away: the
great Chinese Empire was reunited under the
Tang dynasty; the emperor Justinian struggled to reestablish the Roman Empire
centred on Constantinople; the new monotheistic religion of Islam began its
conquest of western Asia, the southern Mediterranean and Iberia. Britain, along
with most of the former Western Roman Empire, had been transformed by an influx
of marauding war bands. But, unlike most provinces, it did not come under the
power of a single Germanic conqueror with a large army, able to set up an
extensive kingdom1 such as Clovis, king of the Franks from 481, who dominated
Gaul, or Theodoric the Great, who established an Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy
in 493, or Clovis’s Frankish successor, Charlemagne (r. 768–814), who created a
vast if ephemeral empire from the Pyrenees to the Baltic, being crowned emperor
by Pope Leo III in the auspicious year 800. Britain’s insular position was
largely responsible for its piecemeal conquest.
Baca juga
Even then, group
boundaries were loose. Languages were in flux, with Germanic and Latin dialects
coalescing and diverging in different ways. So conditions were not favourable
for the development of homogeneous “peoples” or organized “nations.” The identities
that mattered were either wider for example, to coreligionists or much narrower: to family and kin-group, to
local community, to a war leader. These overrode any larger loyalty, for they made
life possible, giving protection, keeping order, dealing out punishment and
reward. To be alone was likely to be fatal: even slavery might be better. So
the conception of a single English nation was surprising, and its survival
improbable.
Detail Buku:
Judul : The English and Their History
Penulis : Robert Tombs
Penulis : Robert Tombs
Penerbit : ALFRED A. KNOPF
ISBN : 9781101874776
Tebal : -
ISBN : 9781101874776
Tebal : -
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