4. The Cycle’s Phases In History

At this point of this text, we hope that the reader will have acquired a good understanding of the energies at work in each part of the cycle. This chapter proposes some additional historical illustrations. Perhaps the reader will have the feeling of useless repetition, and we apologize for it, but we have chosen to come back several times to the description of the different periods of the curve in order to make the nature of the energies at work felt more clearly.

Beforehand and for convenience in reading events and ease of graphical representation, we must try to see if it is possible to wedge the curve, to assign a specific date to one of the significant points.

As we have seen, the historical cycles of 2160 years are the result of the division into twelve equal parts of the cycle of precession of the equinoxes, which has a duration of about 26,000 years. This duration as well as its division into cycles has been known for a long time. On the other hand, it has no fixed origin, nor do its divisions. Astrologers’ opinions are most often divergent as to the beginning of each cycle. They place the beginning of the Aquarian era, which is supposed to begin in our time, in a range extending from the French Revolution to the beginning of the 21st century, creating a 200 year discrepancy.

In fact, this positioning of the curve, give or take a century, does not really matter, because what counts is the spacing between similar periods and not their exact place on the curve. However, to present graphs, we have to choose a starting point.

For this, a number of significant dates are available to us, either for the vertices of the curve, or for the median points, of which we only retained the main ones. For the extreme points of the curve, (up and down):

• -2260: End of the Egyptian Old Kingdom
• -27: Octave takes the name of Augustus. Establishment of the Roman Empire.
• +1049: Leo IX starts the Gregorian reform that establishes the supremacy of spirituality

For the midpoints:

• +330: Inauguration of Constantinople. Beginning of the Byzantine Empire.
• +395: Death of Theodosius and division of the Empire between his two sons.
• +410: Alaric loots Rome
• +476: Removal of Emperor Romulus Augustule
• +1453: Fall of Constantinople
• +1492: Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and junction of Europe and Asia through the Cape of Good Hope.

Among the possible dates for the beginning and the end of the Middle Ages, for the sake of convenience we used the years 410 and 1492, which have a gap of 1080 years between them.

Two choices are then possible: either we place -27 or even zero, the date of origin of our count of time at the top of the curve; but then, the medieval period we have chosen is shifted a hundred years from the horizontal axis, as shown in the diagram below.

We place the Middle Ages exactly at the bottom of the curve between +410 and +1490, and all the other dates being positioned from there is the solution we will be applying. The peak of the curve closest to the current period is thus in 2030.

Once the positioning is established in this way, all civilisations succeed each other on the curve as shown in the diagram below.

Having wedged the curve, we now illustrate our theory by attempting to highlight the similarities that exist between the homothetic (parallel) parts of the curves. For this, we are obviously not going to position the totality of the historical events, but only certain symptomatic facts.

It must first be emphasised that the number of undulations for which we have historical elements is limited, if we start the study at the beginning of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, two complete cycles and a quarter cycle only. Except for this last period, which we can compare to the Greco-Latin period (with a 2160 year interval) and to the Modern Times (with a 4320 year interval), all the other comparisons can only be done once, with a 2160 years interval.

A second remarkable fact is that it appears that the characteristic points of the curve, the vertices and the midpoints at the intersection with the horizontal axis, are generally marked by particular events: empires’ collapses, births of great men, natural disasters.

For example, the different periods of the Egyptian Empire. When we refer to Figure 8, the diagram of the Egyptian civilisation given in the previous chapter, we can see a remarkable correspondence with the phases of our curve.

End of the old empire in -2260 and about 540 years later, in the middle of the curve, is the end of the Middle Kingdom in -1785 as well as the disappearance of the civilisation of the Indus. Then the end of the New Egyptian Empire (-1085), the destruction of Mycenae and the Hittite decadence. According to historians, the end of the new Empire marks an era of general confusion.

540 years later, we find the collapse of Syria, the foundation of Rome (-753) and the beginning of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (-771). Finally, there was a great period of upheavals and disasters around the year 1000.

To make the reading easier, we will consider the first period from -2830 to -2290 separately. On the other hand, we will treat all the other periods (with 2160 year intervals between them) in groups of two.

The Earliest First Period: -2830 ⇒ -2290

For the following study, we must specify that all the dates come either from the universal chronology published by Larousse (Larousse de poche 1996), or from “L’Histoire du Monde“, also published by Larousse under the direction of Claude Mossé.

This 540-year period is in the rising part of the dividing line. It is comparable to the Greco-Latin period between the beginnings of Rome around -670 and the fall of Greece under the Roman thumb in -130, as well as in the Modern Times, between the Renaissance and the summit of the curve of the current times (between 1490 and 2030).

It corresponds quite exactly to the Old Egyptian Empire whose official dates are: -2778/-2260. It is also the period of ancient Minoan in Crete (-2700/-2200). It should also be noted that the Minoan civilisation follows a development parallel to that of Egypt, although we have almost no vestige of the first two eras, all the palaces having been destroyed at the end of the Middle Minoan, when the civilisation of the Indus also disappeared.

Ancient Egypt shows all the characteristics of an upward separating period, even though what we know of its political organisation differs from that of the corresponding Greco-Roman and current periods. The middle of the 3rd millennium was the most creative period of Egypt, marked by a passion for building – cities, temples, pyramids – and a remarkable organisation.

The first half of the period is marked by the concentration of power which culminates in -2600/-2500 with the pharaonic absolutism of the IVth Dynasty (-2589/-2496) which leaves us with the great pyramids as souvenirs. This period is closer to the century of Pericles (-443/-429, delta = 2170).

(In the remainder of this work, we will note by “delta” the difference between the two eras or the two dates just mentioned. Here, for example, between the beginning of the IVth Egyptian Dynasty and the beginning of the century of Pericles, ie 2589-443 = 2146. This allows the rapprochement with the periods of 2160 years and 2×2160 = 4320 years, which we are trying to implement in this book. It should also be remembered that at this time scale, a 1% variation in the date comparison is about 22 years.)

This period is also closer to the Persian Achaemenid Empire, and especially European absolutism with Cromwell (1599/1658, delta = 4188), and Louis XIV (1638/1715, delta = 4227).

In subsequent cycles, the second half of this period is still under the banner of the Warring States. We do not have enough evidence to say that this was the case in ancient Egypt, but it was the case in Sumer at that time.

This period sees the growing independence of the high dignitaries who receive more and more land and people increasingly crushed by forced labor, throwing the country into a serious social revolution, known as the First Intermediate Period. This is the pattern of all the high points of the curve: always more wealth for a few who kill each other for power, while the vast majority suffers injustice and poverty. François Daumas in his book (in French) La civilisation de l’Égypte pharaonique, tells us: “The old king, helpless in his palace, is no longer able. Meanwhile, the local monarchs, who became quasi-independent lords, no longer obey or send tributes to the central Treasury. Little by little, the whole social order falls apart. While the distinguished people live in misery and do not know what to eat or wear, the newly rich flaunt insolent luxuries. The noble women of the harems were forced to work in the hardest trades. Then, with famine and epidemics, the insecurity appeared; bandits haunt the roads. The country’s population diminishes. Newborn children are abandoned and births become rare. The foreign invasion brings the final blow, since no force can contain the greed of the Asians any longer. What is even more critical is the disruption of the very foundations of the old order. The legal proceedings, hitherto secret, have been disclosed as well as the laws. The Divine Cult is interrupted. This is the emergence of a scepticism of bad taste.”

All these characteristics: brigandage, insecurity, rarefaction of births, destruction of the old order, atheism, doubt, etc, are found identically 2160 years later in the Hellenistic period and 4320 years later in our time.

Parallel to the Egyptian civilisation, that of the Indus, of which we know little, shows, through the ruins left behind, an extremely developed plan for urbanism, with sewers and an advanced system for drying grain silos using ventilation. Another unusual element for this time is that it seems to meet the criterion of a religion noted by Spengler, though there is no trace of temples or palaces.

We said that the top of the cycle was also the time of the god-man, the deified emperor. If it is not a characteristic in Egypt, where all the emperors seemed to be treated like gods, on the other hand Mesopotamia, at the top of the curve, in -2250, is unified by the great Sargon of Akkad. The legend gives him the same origin as Moses, Cyrus or Romulus: son of a nomad and a priestess who had no right to keep a child, he was abandoned on a river. Raised by a gardener, he was recognised by Princess Ishtar and became the conqueror of the world and the King of the universe. One cycle before Augustus, 2220 years ago, and 2020 years before the Chinese emperor Huang Di, he called himself “divine”. (We will note a shift in China, which was 200 years ahead of Western civilisation, a phenomenon to which we will come back later).

Second Periods: -2290 ⇒ -1750 & -130 ⇒ +410

This period is marked by the inversion of the impulse at the top of the curve, which also marks the end of democratic tendencies and the beginning of the Imperium. It witnessed the climax and the slow decadence of the structures previously put in place. It is the period of the Middle Egyptian Empire, which after a century of trouble, began in -2160 with the XIth Dynasty, with Thebes as its capital, and ended in -1785 with the invasion of the Hyksos. It is also the apogee and the decline of the Roman Empire, from Augustus until the fall of Rome in 410.

As Spengler and Toynbee rightly pointed out, these periods are those of universal empires. History no longer seems to be taking place outside, but within these empires. In fact, the period of fighting states has given way to infighting for power. The number of emperors murdered in Rome and the amount of murders in their surroundings is impressive. The wars between factions are tough. Thus Octavian, in 31 BC, wins a decisive victory in Actium on Mark Antony and Cleopatra, which will open the way to the Empire.

Likewise, it was the dynasts of Thebes who, after a century of rivalry, destroyed the kingship of Heracleopolis and founded the Middle Kingdom. Sign of the top of the curve, a pharaoh of this first intermediate period, Akhtoes III, leaves a very elaborate essay aiming at replacing violence with intelligence. He writes: “The tongue is a sword and the words have a force greater than any combat”.

In the field of art, creativity loses its momentum: rules are frozen, copy is generalised, and the quest for originality becomes the goal.

In Mesopotamia, Akkad was not be able to maintain his power under the blows of the barbarians and collapsed even before the beginning of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The third dynasty of Ur succeeded him, but in an ephemeral way. Only the civilisation of the Indus seems to have maintained stably, parallel to the Middle Egyptian Empire.

Compared to the civilisations that have marked the ascent to the summit, those who establish themselves as masters of the world are often considered as barbarians and boors. This is what happened to the Thebans, Pharaohs of the New Kingdom, as compared to the Heracleopolitans. Similarly with the Romans, compared to the Greeks. And, as many think, with the Americans, compared to the Europeans.

F. Daumas, however, tells us of the Thebans: “They were tough soldiers, capable of refinement”. He continues: “Even if the splendours of the first Theban Empire, which we commonly call the Middle Kingdom, have not reached the level of power and perfection that we are tempted to attribute to the old Empire, a more human je ne sais quoi, closer to our nature, tempers its grandeur and makes its history and civilisation more seductive.”

It is also probably the judgment of the Modern Times on Rome, preferring the latter to the very austere Greece.

It was around -2000, with the beginning of the XIIth Dynasty, preceding the collapse under the blows of the invaders that were called Hyksos in Greek that two centuries of prosperity began, in other words, the regents of foreign countries. Twenty-one centuries later, we see the apogee of the Roman peace and then, in the 3rd century AD, we see the beginning of the Lower Roman Empire.

Towards -1785, at the end of this period of “Egyptian peace”, the Middle Kingdom, the civilisation of the Indus and the Minoan palaces in Crete collapsed simultaneously. One cycle after this, 2160 years later, we see the end of the Roman Empire and the entry into the Western Middle Ages.

This period is also that of Imperial China, between -221, date of the arrival of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi, and the entry into the so-called period of the Three Kingdoms, or the Chinese Middle Ages that again preceded the European Middle Ages by 200 years.

Third Periods: -1750 ⇒ -1210 & +410 ⇒ +950

With these periods, we enter the fusional part of the curve, characterised by the blossoming of the magical civilisations and the Middle Ages of the people of reason. But in this last part of the downward curve, we more specifically find the last, and often bright, resurgences of civilisations that emerged a thousand years earlier. Thus the New Egyptian Empire, which added the grace of fusional periods and its taste for opulence to the forms created in the Old Empire. To civil architecture and divine worship of the Old Kingdom, it added that of the royal cult (More about this topic in French: Les Pharaons à la Conquête de l’Art – Etienne Drioton et Pierre de Bourguet, Ed. Desclée de Brouwer, 1965, p. 211).

This is also the last Minoan period, called Recent Minoan, with the reconstruction of palaces and the apogee of Knossos (-1690). It is a refined civilisation with a gentle way of life, harmony and luxury, and one which gives a large place to women both in religion and in politics.

In the recent homothetic period (+410/+950), the Byzantine civilisation or the Roman Empire of the East (Byzantium was later called Constantinople and then Istanbul) flourished, an extension or resurgence of the Roman Empire, but even more so of the Greek civilisation, but under the influence of an entirely different energy and therefore of a different nature, in our opinion.

In parallel with these resurgences, other civilisations, in resonance with the characteristics of the fusional epochs flourish: the Mycenaean civilisation, in -1450, during which a warlike force prevailed and new beliefs developed. A typical feature of the civilisations of these fusional periods is that they never had a fixed capital. The Assyrian civilisation flourished too, succeeding in -1235 to Babylon, becoming the capital of Hammurabi’s empire in -1750.

In the recent period, the Arab civilisation has been flourishing. From 661 to 1258 succeeded the Umayyad and Abbassid caliphs, who witnessed the tremendous expansion of Islam, while the Catholic faith spread in the shadow of the Middle Ages.

The end of this period is also marked by great upheavals and the Near East was subjected to the invasions of those who were called the People of the Sea from -1200. Around 1100, all the centres of the Levant collapsed: the New Egyptian Empire in -1085, despite the often victorious resistance led by Ramses III; the Hittite Empire in 1198; the Mycenaean civilisation at the end of the 13th century that gave way under the waves of the Dorian invasion and in -1084, the annihilation of the 1st Assyrian Empire.

Two thousand years later, around the year 1000, was also a period of political chaos and demographic upheavals: dissolution of the administration created by Charlemagne, end of the Mayan civilisation, end of the Tang dynasty in China followed by devastating wars and the explosion of South China into kingdoms.

We also find the great fears of the year one thousand, characteristics of the bottom of the fusional curve where the sacred terrors are born. They were also nearly justified by unusual natural disasters between 980 and 1030: torrential rains, grasshopper invasions, epidemics, etc. In the 1030s, almost all of Europe was ravaged by the famine.

At the end of these two twin periods, we gradually return to feudal times: Greek Middle Ages, which began around 1250, and European feudal times, around the year one thousand. But even if some people returned to their dark phase, others flourished, like the Assyrians during the Second Empire and 2000 years later, the Arab and Byzantine civilisations.

It is interesting to note that the Hebrews’ exit from Egypt under the guidance of Moses is also located around -1250. This era also sees the beginning of the Zhou dynasty in China, which came to an end almost a thousand years later, with Imperial China.

Fourth Periods: -1210 ⇒ -670 & 950 ⇒ 1490

At the beginning of this period, just like 1080 years earlier, the impulse reverses. Previously following a Yin trend, it goes back to the Yang. The seeds of the reason separating time are planted. In the East like in the West, a vast synthesis of the light of reason and the power of faith is attempted. In this synthesis, Thomas Aquinas’s Theological Summa (1266/1273) reason is justified only in its service to faith. And in China, Zhu Xi (Chu Hi) completes the work of synthesis of his time by writing the reinterpretation of Confucian classics. But, under the effect of the phenomenon of inertia, this period is especially marked by the apogee of the tendencies of the fusional period: it is what, in all civilisations, one will name the Feudal Times, impregnated with a chivalrous spirit.

From -1150, Greece enters its Obscure Times, which historians chose to end in -776, date of the first Olympic Games. This is the time when the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey that tradition attributes to Homer (around -850) were penned.

In the East, it is the time of the Western Zhou, known as the Feudal Epoch, which ends in a vast philosophical crisis in-771. In India, it is the time when the great epic poem, the Mahabharata, was written. (Certain texts, such as the famous philosophical poem of the sixth book, the Bhagavad-Gita, were probably added later.)

A thousand years apart, two magical civilisations flourished: Assyria, which in 1235 captured Babylon, and which despite severe destruction by the Armaniaans in 1084, imposed itself in 884, with Assurnazipal II as the only power of the Middle East. This empire culminated with Sargon II (-721/-691) and finally collapsed in -612, while it was ruled by the last Assurbanipal monarch. The palaces of his capital Nineveh disappeared in flames. This period was marked by a remarkable development of observation, with a desire to list the data they knew both in astronomy and in medicine. But these data were never analysed with a spirit of synthesis that would have established principles or laws. The influence of the Middle Ages was still too strong for the characteristics of reason to manifest themselves.

A thousand years later, the Arab civilisation, despite its political divisions and religious differences, imposed Islam from Morocco to the borders of India. At the same time, the Byzantine Empire found a second momentum and experienced a golden age from 867 to 1056, until the consumption of the schism with Rome. The fourth crusade seized Constantinople and the Empire was torn apart. Very small, it however survived until its erasure before the Ottoman Empire in 1453.

First Periods: -670 ⇒ -130 & 1490 ⇒ 2030

In this last period we will be juggling constantly between the Greco-Roman period, and the Modern Times, 2160 years later. Several epochs succeed one another, already well identified by Spengler and Toynbee: the time of religious reforms and the renaissance of the arts. Domains in which the appeal of the new seems to be expressed more immediately, while the renewal of ideas takes shape only two centuries later, with The Enlightenment. This epoch is followed by the time of absolutism and tyrants, where the foundations of thought and ethics are also laid. Then comes the time of the cult of reason, and enlightened despotisms. Constitutional monarchies give way to republics and nations. The last epoch is that of the war of the nations, which sees the triumph of one of them, and the establishment of the universal Empire.

For the rest of this chapter, reading will be made easier if we keep in mind the scale factor, which we have already mentioned, namely that the Greek kingdoms are similar to the European states, both in their mutual relations and the external powers. That is to say that the relationship of the United States with the European nations follow the same evolution, 2160 years apart, as that of Rome with the Greek cities. (Not to mention that at this time scale, a variation of 1% corresponds to about 22 years.)

We have already approached the outline of this period with the Egyptian Old Kingdom. We come back to it in detail with the parallel of the Greco-Latin civilisation and the Modern Times, already well known by historians. It is more challenging than other periods of the curve because on the one hand, it is the one for which we have the most historical elements, and, on the other hand, it is the period that we are currently living in. If the current press announces the American Empire, it is likely to be because of the profusion of antecedents.

This period begins in the middle of the ascending curve, at the end of the feudal times, when some sort of liberation could be felt. This sensation of suffocation comes, as we have said, from fixed structures, most often religious, devoid of all sap. Reforms and counter-reforms cannot resuscitate the union of past times with the real, and inexorably, this period will lead to absolute humanism, which puts man at the centre of the world. It is therefore, at the beginning, the time of the Renaissances; the Egyptian saïte renaissance, the Greek renaissance, and the Italian Renaissance.

Some 4320 years ago, the Old Egyptian Kingdom awoke, with accomplished art. 2160 years later, the Egyptian Empire was trying to renew itself under the Saïte impulse who claimed to regain the impetus of the Old Kingdom. But it was in fact the Greek world that lit up the torch with the appearance of a new order based on the law around -650.

After a new cycle, following the same pattern, the European Renaissance took Ancient Greece as a model. The great creators shone between 1500 and 1530: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Dürer, Giorgione, Titian, Grünewald, etc. Remarkably, all these renaissances seem to have taken the artistic criteria and ideas that prevailed 2160 years earlier as a starting point.

The first two centuries of this phase correspond to a period of trial and error where spaces of reciprocal influence between temporal and the spiritual try to define themselves through political structures, where religion is always the dominant pole. This is the time of the monarchies of divine right, during which the royal power loses its might. The demand for freedom of the people, the daimos, which is guided by the emerging bourgeoisie, is growing more urgent every day. The people want to manage the government of the City, the “Res Publicae”, the public things. The transmission of the power of the monarchy or aristocracy to the plebs will be done in successive stages, with abortive attempts, backtracking, and finally, sudden progress.

The monarchy is at first exacerbated by the previously explained phenomenon of inertia, reaching its extreme with tyranny. Then come the enlightened despotisms. These will be followed by the constitutional monarchies during which the king’s role is gradually reduced. These times finally give way to the republic. In this process, the separation of church and state becomes final.

If we follow this process with some historical examples, separating civilisations appear at the beginning of this period. Beginning of the Old Kingdom with the Third Dynasty in 2778. One cycle later, we find the foundation of Rome in -753, attributed to Romulus by the myths. In the following cycle, we find the discovery of America in 1492, while Italy, from 1500, sees the emergence of its Renaissance.

The Roman monarchy flourished from -753 to -575, when it falls under the domination of the Etruscans. In China, it is the beginning of the period of Spring and Autumn (-722/-481). This first phase of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is marked by the slow deterioration of royal power in favour of feudal princes. The king is gradually dispossessed of his attributions, left only with a theoretical and ritual power. The vassal princes will eventually rule as true tyrants

In Greece, in the sixth century BC, the power of the aristocrats was defeated. The economic evolution ruins many small farmers who become dependant on the rich. The revolt was growing. The crisis called for reforms and legislators. One of those who passed on to posterity through language, Dracon, introduced an obviously draconian code of law in Athens, around -620.

Around the end of this first period which is accompanied by an intense intellectual bubbling, we observe a burgeoning incarnation of great men, carriers of different currents of the renaissance humanist philosophy. Thus, in China, appears Kong Kiu, become Kong Fuzi, or Master Kong, whose name was Latinised as Confucius (-551/-479). What he proposes is not a religion, but a social ethic. Unlike the great men who appear in the descending part of the curve and found religions who put forward the relationship to transcendence, to the outer god, those who come in the ascending parts speak of the inner god, of immanence, or simply of humanism and social ethics. This will likely be the case for everyone we meet in this part of the curve.

Confucius speaks of responsibility of the individual, and encourages one to study. His theories were fought and were not be recognised until the arrival of the Han in 202 BC. A disciple of Confucius, Master Mengi (Mencius) asserts the reciprocal responsibility of the prince and his subjects, and, as such, is the ancestor of democratic thought.

Mozi, another philosopher, invents the constitutional monarchy, and Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu) became the ancestor of liberal and ecological thought. He taught that it is in vain to want to guide the world, and hypocritical to claim its reform. In the same period Lao Zi (master Lao) or Lao Tzu (-517) leaves us the Tao Te Ching as legacy.

In India, in -564, we find the birth of Siddharta Gautama, who became the Buddha. Mahavira, founder of Jainism, who preaches non-violence, righteousness, poverty and chastity is born in the same country in -599.

Not to mention Zoroaster (Zarathustra -628/-551), promoter of Mazdaism and author of the Avesta. In the West, Europe mirrors the image of ancient Greece: Descartes (1596/1650), Spinoza (1670), Copernicus (1473/1543) and Galileo (1564/1642) answer to Pythagoras (around -540).

Socrates (-470/-399) and Plato (-428/-348), over the centuries (2160 years), reach out to Pascal (1623/1662), Locke (1690), Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Leibniz (1686) and Bossuet (1681). A little later, Aristotle (-384/322) finds Kant (1781), Fichte and Hegel (1821) as brothers.

It is also the time of great tragedies and comedies. Racine’s Andromaque (1667) and Phèdre (1677) echo Sophocles’ Electra (-415) and Antigone (-442). Euripides’ Medea (-431) and Aristophanes’ Birds (-414) correspond to Molière’s Miser and to the works of Boileau, Pascal, La Fontaine, Corneille, La Bruyère, etc. 2160 years later.

Most of these great men are born in the second century of this period (-570/-470 and 1590/1690), which is said to be the time of tyrannies or absolutisms. In China, we see the end of the Spring and Autumn period or period of Hegemonies that ends with the reign of true tyrants, the five Hegemon (around -520). “Under their rule, lineage is despised, the ancestors ignored, and rites no longer fulfilled. They fight ferocious wars amongst themselves, to the detriment of their people”

In Greece, muscular reforms, similar to those under Dracon, or moderate reforms, like those made under Pythagoras, do not prevent the arrival of tyrants: Pisistratus and Hippias in Athens, Polycrates in Samos, etc. In Rome, we find the Etruscan domination and the dynasty of the Tarquin who governed from -575 to -509, and left the memory of its last tyrant, Tarquin the Superb as legacy. Almost exactly 2160 years later, in modern Europe, we find the French and English absolutisms: Louis XIV (1643/1715) and Cromwell (1653/1659).

The establishment of more democratic structures puts an end to all tyrannical regimes. The latter give way to the government by enlightened despots legitimised by reason, or absolutism. In general, they have the same characteristics: development of cities, freedom of worship, work of unification, establishment of fair justice, development of education, intense intellectual activity and scientific and technological progress.

In Europe, from Louis XV onwards, there is a reaction against tyranny. More are liberated. Great Britain established a constitutional monarchy in 1727 with George II. Enlightened despots reigned everywhere: Frederick II in Prussia (1740-1786); Maria Theresa and Joseph II in Austria (1740-1780); Charles III in Spain, Catherine II in Russia, Gustav III in Sweden.

But with the birth of national consciousnesses, power conflicts inevitably appear between nations. In China, for more than two centuries, between -470 and -220, we find the period known as the Warring States. The incessant wars oppose countries the size of today’s European nations. The battles created thousands of victims. Populations are forcibly transplanted. Huge work was done to protect the borders.

Among the currents of thought that emerged in the first half of this period was, the “school of laws” which teaches that the law must be known to all and applied to all and from this most of the systems of argumentation and reflection that will be introduced in China came later on. It is this school of thought that triumphed with the advent of the first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi in -221. Almost exactly 2160 years later, in 1960, the Communists claimed their belonging to this current of thought.

In Greece, the year -508 marks the timid beginning of democracy with the establishment of equality before the laws. This time is famous in Greek history because it symbolises a kind of perfection. Thereafter it is marked by Pericles, who strengthens democracy within Athens, but ignored the traditional autonomy of the cities outside, as well as the Greek League, and led Athens to becoming the most imperialist of powers from -460 to -429. But the calm will not last, and from -431, the Peloponnesian War begins.

At the same time, Rome in the middle of the fifth century was marked by internal struggles between Patricians and Plebeians, while since the fall of the Tarquins the Respublicae gains importance in mentalities. The law was codified and secularised, thus making it possible to go from what was religiously permitted “fas” to what was civilly permissible “jus”. 2160 years later, Napoleon lays the foundations of our Civil Code.

The laws of -367 in Italy mark the decisive victory of the plebs. Exactly 2160 years later, we are in 1793. We also find the Declaration of Independence of the United States in 1776 and, in 1787, the proclamation of their constitution. As democracy matured in Rome after -367 and in the US after 1790, a vast attempt at unification took place: conquest of the modern West by the Americans, but especially conquest by Alexander the Macedonian from -336 to -323 to which the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte responded from 1797 to 1815. Both dream of uniting the East with the West. Alexander stopped on the banks of the Indus under the pressure of his exhausted army. Napoleon yielded to the Siberian rigours of the Russian winter. Both were revered almost as gods, but it was necessary to wait for Augustus to see an emperor truly dare confer the title of “divine” upon himself.

Recent Times

In China, as we have seen, the King of Quin, a supporter of the “school of laws” gradually annexed the last fighting kingdoms and unified the country in -221. This school of laws, established and practiced by Shang Yang during the previous century, was opposed in every respect to the school of the scholars of Confucius, which aimed at the well-being of the people through the practice of virtues. It instituted a dictatorial regime: nobility of military merit and compulsory labor. Idlers were reduced to slavery. Grouping of families was obligatory, betrayal rewarded and popular espionage encouraged. Nearly 2160 years later, in 1960, resemblance to the Chinese practices of those years may not be fortuitous.

King Zhong Quin adopted the title of Huangdi meaning “first august” and tried to impose his divine essence; he organised the Empire with an iron fist, deporting the population for the purpose of settlement, creating a single currency that will last until the twentieth century. In -213, before the opposition of the Confucians, the emperor decides to remove all traces of the old order and gives the order to destroy all written texts, all books, except those of a scientific nature. Some scholars are put to death on the pretext of having preserved forbidden texts. In 1966, nearly 2160 years later (delta = 2179), Mao Zedong launched the Great Cultural Revolution, which also aimed at erasing the past.

The succession of Emperor Huangdi is eventful, but the unity of the Empire will be maintained until 220 AD, when the period of the “Three Kingdoms” begins. It will be followed, from 316, by the dislocation of the Empire under the effect of barbarian invasions.

In Greece, starting from -323, the successors of Alexander, the Diadoques, disputed the Empire for half a century. During these infighting struggles, Greece lost a large part of its population. Competition with the East is tough for cities that fall under the thumb of a landowning bourgeoisie. Religious behaviour changes: men are looking for gods that are more transcendent, closer to them, and more merciful. Believers, fearful at first, become superstitious and turn to mystery cults, making them thrive.

Rome, meanwhile, pursued its liberal evolution. The Hortensia laws of 287 (= 1873) crown the democratic evolution by assimilating the decisions of the plebs – plebiscite – with laws. This period sees the beginning of the Roman expansion. At first, this expansion took place without Rome showing a will to conquer but simply out of respect for its agreements, out of a need to defend its territory or because Roman forces were called to the rescue by weaker neighbours. Then, gradually, this expansion grew under the influence of an unbridled appetite for power.

In -197, the Romans became the protectors of Greece. In 1949 NATO was created (delta = 2146). Finally, while the Third Punic War ended (-149/-146) and Carthage was razed, the same year, Corinth, a Greek city resisting Roman domination was sacked and burned on the order of the Roman Senate. Thus, in -146, Greece falls definitively under the thumb of Rome, while the rich province of Asia was established. The myth of protection and freedom that came with Rome comes to an abrupt end.