Remember the Romans

Empires come and go...

Approximately 1625 years ago, the Roman emperor, Constantine, moved the Roman capital east to Byzantium, near the Black Sea. The city we call Istanbul today, at that time, was called Constantinople, the city of Constantine.

Eastern Roman Empire

Western Roman Empire

Thousands of Romans, packed up their bags, to follow the army, the bureaucracy and the emperor to Byzantium. The soldiers were withdrawn from their stations guarding the Roman borders along the Danube. The army stationed in Britain was also withdrawn. The Western Roman empire was left wide open. They would no longer fight to keep Europe and Britain Roman.

No sooner were the armies of the empire gone than the Germans moved right in. And thus Europe was changed forever. Indeed, a part of the reason why Rome moved east was because things in Europe became untenable. The German tribes were a constant problem in Europe. In addition to that, like any empire, Rome, after a good run of 1000 years, failed. Constantine saved some of the empire by moving it east, however, just as the Germans were a constant threat in Europe, the Turks would become a constant threat in Byzantium.

It's just a fact of life that empires come and go. Looking at the map of the Roman empire, you can see that, eventually, it would fall apart. It isn't a matter of migration alone. The rest of the world does impact the empire. When people are starving in one part of the Earth, they have no choice, they have to pull up stakes and go to where there is food, or they die.

Successful states and nations attract those who want to better themselves. They also attract those who covet what the successful nation has. Like the Germans before them, Islam, coveted Europe. Once they controlled most of north Africa, it was just a matter of time before they hopped in boats to invade the Iberian peninsula. The irony of this invasion in the eighth century was that the Iberian peninsula was now controlled by once upon a time German tribes. These tribes, mostly Goths, had developed the peninsula into several kingdoms. These German tribes had been Christianized. Therefore, when Islam showed up in 711 AD, they were not welcomed. Islam was, and still is, a religion of war. Their mission is to convert the world to Islam. Just as they converted by the sword in the beginning, they have demonstrated they are willing to convert by the same means in the modern world.

I bring this subject up because in Los Angeles and New York City violence has broken out in support of illegal immigrants to the United States. Many of these protestors want open borders, world wide. These are unreasonable folks whose religion is to see the world as one, big, peaceful planet.

In actuality, they are naive. Without any understanding of how the world works. Don’t even try to reason with them. Their minds, like all radical religious people, are closed down to any ideas other than their own. They are right, you are wrong.

If I could, I would put the open border folks on time machines and send them back to the fifth century in Europe. Let them see how they like it when thousands of people invade their country and just take the land. Or to 7the century Arabia, when Mohammed decided the Arabs needed Islam or else. Then there is the time when Islam invaded the Iberian Peninsula. Of course, they don't have to go to Europe or the Middle East. They could just take the time machine back to the age of discovery, right here in the Americas. Let them be the Tainos looking out to the sea to see strange looking vessels floating on the waters, headed their way. They all had open borders.

Perhaps then they would understand why people want their borders guarded?

I wonder, what do these zealots envision when they say “no borders?” In a discussion with one of my physicians, who is an immigrant, the question he asked was a good one: What do you use for money? Whose currency?

I ask a simple question: Where would they live? Or, would there be a Doctor Zhivago like directive, and these individuals would be taken to mansions to be housed with families who own the house.

I wonder how that would work out in Beverly Hills?

Open borders is another utopian idea. History has shown us that utopias don't work. And yet, there are people who just won't let that dream go. It is insane. But I think one day the history books will write about this particular era as the age of insanity. Even in the days of the Hunter-gatherers, the tribes had their hunting grounds that were not open to other tribes.

Getting back to the Roman empire, after 1000 years in Byzantium, in 1453, it fell to the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, after a siege lasting 55 days. Alas, the Roman Empire was, truly, no more.

The Romans were replaced by the Ottomans. The Ottomans did not have the lasting power that the Romans did. Their rule over that part of the world ended with the reactions of WWI. Those reactions had to do with a general overthrowing of monarchs. Russia, the Hapsburg empire, those too were overthrown. The Hapsburg empire was broken up, and, along with Russia, and Turkey, they became modern states. Though Russia and Germany went from the frying pan into the fire, with their radical take on what a modern state should be.

Which is to point out that we must always be careful about what we wish for. The open border people are violent. So there is more to it than an open border. This movement is world wide, so be wary. We have already seen how Europe and the UK are faring under their policies of inviting the world in. Now there is some push back. But the fight needs to grow on the other side. Especially in a democracy, where the other side can win through fraud and intimidation during an election.

Certainly, the people of Rome grew weary of the constant fight with the Germans and Danes, plus the Huns. Because when the army went to Byzantium with the emperor, the fight fell to the general population.

Commoners cannot pick up the fight. Merchants, farmers and the crafts are not schooled in defense tactics. Once the German strongmen took up the fight against the invading Huns, they gained status, partnered with the Romans who decided to remain in Italy, and a new way of life began. The townspeople asked for protection, and before you know it, the strongmen owned the towns. Farmers and crafts people moved onto the estates. And presto, feudalism was born. And the system was necessary because there was not much infrastructure left.

Thus civilizations rise and fall. The Germanic tribes who gave us Europe, and then the Americas, from Canada to Argentina, have grown weary. Do we return to feudalism? Or do we become a cog in the new empire's wheels?

Next week we will look at the Mexican American War of 1846-1848.