Rome, Feudalism, Europe, and Historical Progress

[cwellen <cwellen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings to all those in search of historical truth.

Why did Rome fall?  Was this simply a regression?

European Feudalism was an advance, in many ways, over the previous
epoch.  Feudalism is an advance over slavery.  Serfdom supersedes
slavery, just as wage slavery (or proletarianization) supersedes
serfdom.  Excessive centralization, slave relations, the severe
subjugation of women:  these were part and parcel of the downfall of
Rome, though there were many other factors.  Rome was a democratic
republic (with institutionalized slave relations) from about 500 BC to
50 BC.  Once the Empire came into being, the dynamism, which made Rome
the most just and progressive society on earth, was lost.  European
feudalism represented an advance because 1. It returned power to local
levels, thus allowing new forms of property relations to develop.  2.
The new feudal relations, ie serfdom, allowed a greater possibility for
one to become a freeman (thought the harshness of feudal life cannot be
overemphasized, it was barely more than slavery.

A similar pattern could be seen in Chinese history.  The Warring States
period was put to an end when the state of Chin defeated the other six
states.  Chin relied on a legalist philosophy which put the nail in the
coffin of slavery and paved the way for Chinese feudalism, which was
well in place by the end of the Han Dynasty (c. 200 AD)

Progress is rough and uneven, but History is an inevitable movement
toward the Liberation of Peoples.  The movement is away from tyranny,
and toward the creation of a Just Society based on Solidarity, Even
Distribution, and the Democratization of all political, social, and
economic organizations.

Sincere Regards,

Wei En Lin





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