Comments on: Die Wacht am Rhein.

By: RSN

RSN — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 21:30:37 +0000

“A Distant Mirror” is an excellent history book, by Barbara Tuchman, which traces the life and times of one Sieur de Coucy, a French nobleman in the 1300’s whose bloodline eventually died out. At one point we know that de Coucy gathered an army and fought a war against a nobleman somewhere in the upper Rhine, near Switzerland. No one knows what the issues were, but Tuchman speculates it was something to do with some minor inheritance rights.

I’d imagine that the period between 900-1500 was rife with such small squabbles. Tuchman makes the point that in the long run it was always the peasants who suffered the most, as each passing army wound up having to forage the countryside to sustain itself.

The book makes a good case for seeing the Middle Ages as a period of constant human misery. Luckily she tells the story in a way that makes for fascinating reading (the book was on The New York Times bestseller list for awhile).

By: David Weman

David Weman — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 18:30:55 +0000

How many wars were fought in the Rhine area between 900-1500, ewhen the whle area belonged to Germany? It doesn’t seem inconceivable there were a 60 year peace period, esp. in the early part of the period.

By: David Weman

David Weman — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 17:11:33 +0000

It won’t be all that common still. In the short term - I mean a year or two - no radical change, will be slightly less humane.

By: Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 15:10:09 +0000

I think Brad is overestimating hugely the number of barbarian incursions in the first couple of centuries AD. As far as I know, no armies headed in either direction for a long time after the teutoberger wald disaster.

By: Morten

Morten — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 08:39:55 +0000

OT
Just wondering if not one of the great minds in the fistful could have a small meditation on how a common immigration policy might work out? (You didn?t miss that veto was recently abandoned on this question thus laying the ground for a common policy, now did you?)

Easier or harder to enter the EU in the future? Relaxing the policy and blaiming Brussels while saving the demography or tightening for fear of foreigners (and fear of losing seats to the rightwing parties)?

By: Tobias

Tobias — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 07:11:25 +0000

As I said I’m not sure about it. Certainly, earlier times probably had a more relaxed definition of “peace” than we have today, given the nature of their polities, and general circumstances of life.

So, assuming this, and abstracting from the occasional anti-Jewish pogrom next door, I thought that the Franco-German stretch of the Rhine area (say up to Cologne), in the center of the Carolingian realm, including important medieval cultural centers like Worms, Speyer and Mainz, was enjoying rather peaceful periods in the medieval that might or might not have exceeded 60 years, until the Franco-German national dualism became a dominant cleavage that made the area a hotspot for centuries.

But I am certainly no one who would ever claim to possess any detailed knowledge of medieval history, let alone the ability to classify the nature of violence or peace in those times.

By: c

Mon, 15 Nov 2004 03:59:01 +0000

Russian?

By: Brad DeLong

Brad DeLong — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 02:07:16 +0000

What’s your alternative candidate period?

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 00:04:45 +0000

Dead right, Tobias. For all those who criticise the EU mercilessly, they should remember the significant achievement that the mere existance of the EU represents.

As for your comments about the Americans, I think the more transatlantic travel there is - from both sides of the ocean - the barriers and misunderstandings will begin to disappear.