nach oben

Erschienen in:

2014 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

10. When Things Went Wrong

verfasst von : Antoine Bret

Erschienen in: The Energy-Climate Continuum

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Einloggen

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche, um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config

KI-gestützte Suche

Aus

Abstract

The lessons to learn from Rome and Eastern Island are quite obvious, and we will see there is no need to detail them when going through each case. But some characteristics of our present times are equally featured by our two cases and are worth emphasizing.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Vorheriges Kapitel Why Societies are Fragile

Nächstes Kapitel When Things Went Right

The ORBIS system. See orbis.stanford.edu.

“Serica” means “silk” in Latin. Regarding the way Romans perceived China, see De Rome à la Chine: Sur les Routes de la Soie au Temps des Césars, by Jean-Noël Robert [2].

Publius Papinius Statius, Silvae, book IV.1.14–15, [3, p. 249]. “Bactra” was the capital of “Bactria,” an empire located toward the actual Afghanistan and founded by a remnant of Alexander’s army. Its disintegration around 130 BC is the first historical event recorded in both Roman and Chinese documents [1, p. 272].

The situation is quite similar to the present day difficulties rich countries have in reducing their public debt. France’s debt, for example, has grown nearly steadily since 1970 (see http://www.insee.fr). The whole country has been used to spend more than it earns for at least 40 years. It is therefore designed to work this way. And France is obviously not the only one in this situation. In October 2013, the USA faced default due to an impossibility to raise the debt ceiling. It has to spend more than it gets. It is also designed this way.

The denarius went from 98 % down to 58 % silver, between 69 and 200 AD [8, p. 135].

Slaves were an important part of the Empire machinery. During the third century AD, they would amount to some 10 % of the total population. But the wealthiest 1.36 % of Roman society would own 49 % of them [9, p. 59]. The rich Seneca (4 BC–AD 65), tutor then advisor to emperor Nero, wrote in his Epistulae morales ad Lucilium (87.2) that he was travelling light taking only “very few slaves - one carriage-load” (probably 4 or 5, [10]).

Those who know the movie also know it must not be confused with the “Judean People’s Front.”

The largest ever found was 20 m high and weighted about 270 tons. It was found lying and unfinished [13, p. 113].

The estimated date of colonization varies from 600 to 1200 AD [18, 19]. But the reasoning holds even with the latest date.

See Ref. [29] for more on wars in traditional societies.

I. Morris, Why the West Rules—for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future (Profile Books, London, 2010)

J.N. Robert, De Rome à la Chine: Sur les Routes de la Soie au Temps des Césars (iUniverse, Bloomington, 1999)

P.P. Statius, D.R.S. Bailey, Silvae (Harvard University Press, Caecilius Statius, 2003)

J.A. Tainter, T.W. Patzek, Drilling Down: The Gulf Oil Debacle and Our Energy Dilemma (Springer, New York, 2012). SpringerLink: BücherCrossRef

M. Weber, The Agrarian Sociology of Ancient Civilizations (Verso Books, World History Series, 2013)

Colin McEvedy, Richard Jones, Atlas of world Population History (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1978)

R. Taagepera, Growth curves of empires. Gen. Syst. 13, 171 (1968)

J. Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies. New Studies in Archaeology (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990)

K. Harper, Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275–425 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011)CrossRef

10.

J.A. Madden, Slaves in the Roman Empire: numbers and origins. Classics Ireland 109, 3 (1996)

11.

W.R. Stephens, The fall of Rome reconsidered: a synthesis of manpower and taxation arguments. Mid-Am. Rev. Sociol. 7, 49 (1982)

12.

The voyage of Captain Don Felipe González: in the ship of the line San Lorenzo, with the frigate Santa Rosalia in company, to Easter Island in 1770–1. Preceded by an extract from Mynheer Jacob Roggeveen’s official log of his discovery of and visit to Easter Island in 1722. Number v. 13 in New light on Drake: a collection of documents relating to his voyage of circumnavigation, 1577–1580. Hakluyt Society, 1908

13.

P.G. Bahn, J.R. Flenley, Easter Island, Earth Island (Thames and Hudson, London, 1992)

14.

J.F. de Galaup, Atlas Du Voyage de La Pérouse (1797)

15.

K. Routledge, The Mystery of Easter Island (Cosimo, New York, 2007)

16.

J.R. Arnold, W.F. Libby, Age determinations by radiocarbon content: checks with samples of known age. Science 110, 678 (1949)CrossRef

17.

Daniel Mann, James Edwards, Julie Chase, Warren Beck, Richard Reanier, Michele Mass, Bruce Finney, John Loret, Drought, vegetation change, and human history on Rapa Nui (Isla de Pascua, Easter Island). Quat. Res. 69, 16–28 (2008)

18.

Terry L. Hunt, Carl P. Lipo, Late colonization of Easter Island. Science 311(5767), 1603–1606 (2006)

19.

Helene Martinsson-Wallin, Susan J. Crockford, Early settlement of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Asian Perspect. 40(2), 244–278 (2001)

20.

Anthony Cole, John Flenley, Modelling human population change on Easter Island far-from-equilibrium. Quat. Int. 184, 150–165 (2008)

21.

J.A. Brander, M.S. Taylor, The simple economics of Easter Island: A Ricardo-Malthus model of renewable resource use. Am. Econ. Rev. 88(1), 119–138 (1998)

22.

M. Bologna, J.C. Flores, A simple mathematical model of society collapse applied to Easter Island. EPL 81, 48006 (2008)

23.

Jared Diamond, Easter Island revisited. Science 317(5845), 1692–1694 (2007)

24.

J. Flenley, P. Bahn, The Enigmas of Easter Island (Oxford University Press, UK, 2003)

25.

A. Mieth, H.R. Bork, Humans, climate or introduced rats which is to blame for the woodland destruction on prehistoric Rapa Nui (Easter Island)? J. Archaeol. Sci. 37(2), 417–426 (2010)

26.

M. Prebble, J.M. Wilmshurst, Wilmshurst. Detecting the initial impact of humans and introduced species on island environments in Remote Oceania using palaeoecology. Biol. Invasions 11(7), 1529–1556 (2009)

27.

C. Junk, M. Claussen, Simulated climate variability in the region of Rapa Nui during the last millennium. Clim. Past 7(2), 579–586 (2011)

28.

J.M. Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail Or Succeed (Penguin, Harmondsworth, 2006)

29.

J.M. Diamond, The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? (Viking, New York City, 2012)

30.

P. Bahn, Anthropology: head to head. Nature 476(7359), 150151 (2011)CrossRef

31.

P. Bahn, J. Flenley, Rats, men—or dead ducks? Current World Archaeology 49, 8 (2011)

32.

W.J. Thomson, Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island (Government Printer, South Africa, 1891)

Titel: When Things Went Wrong
verfasst von: Antoine Bret
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: The Energy-Climate Continuum
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07919-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-07920-2

Copyright-Jahr: 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07920-2_10