HISTORY. Globalization and the first apocalypse: What else do you not know about the Bronze Age?

The course of school history only casually affects the era of the Bronze Age. And very few people know what a flourishing civilization reached long before the appearance of the Roman Empire and Greek policies. But before the catastrophe of the Bronze Age for the first time in history, a "global" economy was formed.

The key element

The flag of the small ceremonial county of Cornwall, which is in the south-west of England, is a black rectangular panel with a picture of a white cross. The white cross symbolizes tin, and the black flag cloth is the ore-bearing rock. Tin is the symbol of this land. And let the flag appeared already in the New time, its symbolism reflects the place that occupied Cornwall since the Bronze Age and until 1994, when the last tin mine closed.

Cornwall became the world center for the extraction of tin even before the advent of the Roman Empire and the heyday of Hellenic civilization. Since the third millennium BC, from here it was delivered by sea to consumers throughout the Ancient World. It is tin - silver-white, soft, ductile metal - the key element of the Bronze Age. The bronze that gave the name to this period of history is a two-component alloy. Alloy of copper and alloying (binding) component. In most cases tin acts as such a component. But this metal is found on the Earth 35 times less often than copper. Adding tin to copper makes it possible to get a harder, stronger and lightweight metal compared to pure copper, a man mastered earlier.

The appearance of bronze allowed to equip the ancient armies with more perfect weapons, superior to copper and stone. So, to ensure victory in battle is not so much at the expense of military skill, but due to technological superiority. Hence the strategic importance of tin. From the presence or absence of tin, which is necessary for the smelting of bronze, the combat capability of the armies of the Powers of the Ancient World depends. No bronze - no armor and weapons. States seek to control trade routes. National interests and politics are being formed, international trade is developing, wars are being waged.

Superpowers

By the middle of the XIII century BC. e. The civilization of the Bronze Age reaches its peak. A century will pass, and there will be no trace of its former greatness. But while the Ancient World is watching the confrontation of the superpowers - Egypt of the times of the New Kingdom and the Hittite Empire, located on the territory of present-day Turkey, Syria and Cyprus. Egypt under Ramses II is actively expanding its borders to the north, to Palestine and Phenicia. He is opposed by the mighty Hittite empire, which is expanding towards it.

On the photo: The coat of arms of the Hittite empire was a two-headed eagle. Later it will become the emblem of Byzantium, formed on its lands.

In the Middle East, in the territory of modern Israel and Lebanon, at the crossroads of the most important trade routes are the rich Phoenician cities of the Levantine and Canaan coasts, depending on the superpowers of that time. In place of the current Greece - the Mycenaean city-states, a conglomerate of independent small states that are united by a common language and culture. Hence the origin of ancient and modern Greece. The continental Middle East is represented by Babylon and the Assyrian Empire, located on the territory of modern Iraq, and by the Syrian states.

But the ancient powers not only fought. The Bronze Age is the time of the birth of diplomacy, the appearance of the first international treaties. Supported diplomatic correspondence, were dynastic marriages. Countries provided each other with humanitarian assistance during the crop failure and natural disasters. International treaties provided for the extradition of criminals who had fled to foreign territory. The Akkadian language - the language of Assyria and Babylon - occupies the same place in the Ancient World as now English, contracts are concluded on it and correspondence is conducted.

The war between Egypt and the Hittite empire ended in 1258 BC. e. signing a peace treaty between the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II and the Hittite king Hattusilis III. It was a war without the obvious victory of one of the parties. The signing of the first peace treaty known to us marked the achievement of a state of strategic equilibrium.

On the photo: The text of the peace treaty between Ramses II and Hattusilis III

In the world, relative military and economic parity was achieved. Military conflicts between civilized powers still happen, but none of the conflicting parties can prevail. As soon as one of the states begins to gain victory, all the others unite against it. Wars are becoming unprofitable. Warriors are reborn as merchants. Within the civilizations of the Bronze Age, the world becomes global.

Globalization

In the Bronze Age, the first ever international division of labor is taking shape. Egypt does not have its own metal deposits, but it grows wheat. The Hittites and Cypriots mine copper. Mycenaeans are engaged in sea trade and provide logistics. The Phoenicians trade all over the Mediterranean, swim for the "Hercules Pillars" and bring tin from British Cornwall.

Of course, there are deposits of tin in the north of Spain, and in the future French Brittany, and in the present Czech Ore Mountains. But the tin of Cornwall was special. These were large natural tin placers. Already later, for the mining of a rare metal, miners will build mines and descend under the earth, but then it was literally under their feet. Other routes, from the present Anatolia (Hittite state) and Cyprus (from the name of the island and the Latin name copper cuprum occurs) are brought copper to Egypt and Mesopotamia (Babylon and Assyria). Ingots of copper in a special form of "bull hide" with a width of 2-3 centimeters with the brand of the manufacturer become universally recognized standard.

On the photo: Phoenician merchant ship

Trade not only with metals. For the smelting of metals, wood is important, it is used in melting furnaces and for building ships. In countless numbers, forests are cut down in Mycenaean Greece and Asia Minor. An important article of Egyptian exports, in addition to grain, is glass. This, along with bronze, is one of the first artificial materials created by man. Glass beads from Egypt are found in the territory of present-day Scotland, and on the coast of the Baltic, where amber was mined. There is also a cultural exchange. Borrowed words that denote objects and metals.

The technologies of manufacturing tools and military and merchant ships are being adopted. Egyptian engineers are building fortresses on the territory of present-day Spain. There is an intensive exchange of people. There is a developed system of trade missions. Diasporas are growing in the largest port cities. The main trade routes pass by sea and rivers. This is due to the development of shipbuilding and technology in general.

Technologies

There are no roads as such, the main waterways. Coastal navigation and river transportation provide transportation of the bulk of cargo. With the increase in turnover, the need for shipbuilding is growing. Impress the ships of that time. Found in Egypt as part of the Cheops burial complex, the ship has a length of 43.5 meters. Remains of such ships have already been found in the territory of modern Britain. Their length is up to 12 meters. Metal tools are found nearby.

Progress and metallurgy. The first bronze is made of copper, adding arsenic. But it is very toxic. This was already known. Metallurgists of that time suffer from a whole bunch of occupational diseases. It is no accident that they are represented by dwarfs, they are lame stones or humpbacks, in myths and legends their appearance is usually repulsive. For the production of bronze, polymetallic ores are used, in which copper and tin are found together, but there were few such deposits and they were quickly depleted.

Many of the bronze objects found on the territory of Egypt, Crete and the western Mediterranean are made of so-called arsenic bronze. But still bronze, in which the second component is tin, better quality. Such an alloy - "classical" bronze - contains up to 22% tin.

To produce such bronze, it was required to have copper and tin, as well as forests, which could be converted to fuel. In addition, for melting copper it was necessary to create a temperature of 1084 ° C, tin was already enough and 232 ° C. Metal ores, as well as forests, were located in different places of the Ancient World, in order to bring them together and get bronze, it was required to set up branched trade.

On the photo: Copper ingot in the form of "bull hide" - standard of the time

With iron in this regard it was easier. He did not need the second component. It was found much more often than copper, much less tin. Iron and steel industry could be exclusively local. It did not require extensive international trade. That's just for melting iron, the temperature in the melting furnace had to be raised to 1539 ° C. And for a long time it was unattainable.

It is the emergence of technology for the development of iron for a long time was considered the cause of the decline of the civilizations of the Bronze Age. As a bronze weapon allowed them to dominate the neighbors who do not know the technology of bronze production, so the iron weapons of the northern barbarians probably made it possible to ruin the once blooming states of the Bronze Age. But this is only one of the hypotheses.

Apocalypse

Scientists are still looking for the causes of the catastrophe that led to the decline of the civilizations of the Mediterranean. The "Dark Ages" that followed the first civilizational apocalypse in history were accompanied by a decline in culture and trade, a practical loss of writing. The ancient cities were destroyed. In place of the majestic temples and palaces, primitive structures appear.

One of the reasons for the collapse of the Bronze Age was the discovery of iron metallurgy in the Balkans. The Achaeans and Danais, Sardis, Philistines and Etruscans, armed with new, superior bronze, iron weapons, land on the defenseless banks of highly developed nations, their cities are being eroded by fire and an iron sword.

On the photo: One of the possible reasons for the collapse of the Bronze Age is the volcanic eruption

Another version, which, by the way, is present in school textbooks, sees the reason for the weakening of the Bronze Age civilizations in the eruption of the Tera Santorini volcano, which occurred in the middle of the II millennium BC. e. It had a special impact on the collapse of the Minoan civilization of Crete, which was then easily conquered by the Greek tribes that came from the Peloponnese.

Another reason is climate change. From the north to the Mediterranean states, not just barbarians armed with new weapons poured in. With them came their families. It was the resettlement of peoples, akin to the Great Migration of Nations in the 4th-7th centuries already of our era. The coldness caused by cyclical climate fluctuations in the North Atlantic has led to a shortage of food in southern Europe and hunger in the north. The peoples, who were considered barbaric at that time, headed south.

An important role was played by the general decline of the states of the Bronze Age. The same as the one preceded by the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD. e. As well as the fall of Byzantium after only ten centuries after the capture of Rome by the barbarians, in the XV century. e. When it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, developed states are experiencing a systemic crisis. There is a degradation of the ruling elite. The bureaucratic apparatus loses its effectiveness. Corruption, internal struggle for power undermine the foundations of statehood. Destroying weakened civilizations, the barbarians laid the foundation for new civilizations - already the Iron Age. Civilizations, of which we will still hear.

The birth of a new world

To replace the developed civilization of the Bronze Age came the "dark ages", which seized the period from about 1200 to 800 years. BC. e. During this period, urban life practically disappears throughout the Mediterranean. The main trade routes fade or collapse, many knowledge and technologies are lost. But on the ruins of the states of the Bronze Age new civilizations are born - Hellenic Greece, Phoenician Carthage, which "must be destroyed" by the Romans, in ancient Etruria, on the Apennine peninsula, the Etruscan civilization is born. After a few hundred years, the Etruscans will be replaced by the Romans and the Roman Empire will appear.