Betrayal AND GREED: The forces behind History
Why do civilisations collapse? Is our civilisation in danger?
All civilisations and empires in existence have collapsed no matter how great or big they were. Is this because the rulers failed to learn the reasons of downfall of the civilisations in the past or present or was it because they were blinded by the thirst for more power, or they were unlucky to fall prey to some natural calamity? Let us look at the reasons the at why do civilisations collapse:
1.Betrayal: Most of the civilisations and empires that have collapsed have fallen prey to this vicious trait of human. The examples to prove this are:
i.In 1761 during the Third Battle of Panipat the Mighty Marathas were betrayed by their close ally the nawab of Awadh, Shuja-ud-Daulah. He joined the Afghans in the alliance treaty of Afghan-Rohilla treaty. After this the Marathas lost the battle as the major funding of war was supposed to come from Awadh. This defeat marked the downfall of the Maratha empire.
ii. In 480 BC, the Greeks led by Sparta under the leadership of Leonidas I were betrayed by their own citizen Ephialtes in the Battle of Thermopylae. He came to know the plan to stop the advancement of the Persians. So, he wanting a hefty reward, thus informed Xerxes I, the ruler of Persia, a strategy of the Greeks. He also proposed a strategy for the emperor by telling a path that went around Thermopylae, thus rendering the Greeks’ line useless in preventing forward advancement of the Persian army. Xerxes I took advantage of this betrayal and sent part of his army along this path, led by Ephialtes himself. This resulted in the victory of the Persians and the downfall of Sparta.
2.Desire for more: Some civilisations collapsed due to their ruler’s desire of getting more land or power. Mostly the empire didn’t collapse but rather it got divided in many parts by the successors causing the overall empire to lose its land, this made it easier for the intruders to invade the smaller sections of the divided empire, leading to its collapse. This desire to rule individually led to the loss of the original dynasty. Some examples are:
i.After the death of Genghis Khan, the Khan empire collapsed or began to split due to wars over succession, as the grandchildren of Genghis Khan disputed whether the royal line should follow from his son and initial heir Ögedei or from one of his other sons, such as Tolui, Chagatai, or Jochi. This led to the empire to split into many parts. This desire to rule individually, gave rise to many new dynasties and new kingdoms but resulted in the loss of the original empire.
ii.Aurangzeb’s desire for more land and power made him to invade south India despite knowing the power of the Marathas. Yet he spent so much money to conquer more land, but he couldn’t gain control of South India. After his death the dynasty ran out of funds to maintain their army and the rulers also only cared about their lavish lifestyle, not of the public. This resulted in the collapse of the Mughal dynasty.
3. Bad Rulers: All the empires (except a few) collapsed due to bad decisions made by their bad rulers. Let’s look at a couple of examples:
i. The Maratha Empire ended because the then Peshwa(ruler)Raghunath Rao was fearing to lose his seat as the emperor when the empire got divided into four sections, The Gaekwads, The Bhonsles, The Holkars and the Scindias. The peshwa was slowly becoming a namesake ruler and the four sections were not happy with peshwa. Fearing that they could attack anytime went to the British for help, instead of having a talk with the four. The British knowing the military power of the peshwa itself and getting a chance to end the only then powerful dynasty Marathas were happy to accept the offer to help the Peshwas. This resulted the four sections to lose and only the peshwa regained his territory, but he lost all his ruling privileges except his army and palace. He received an annual pension and became a puppet ruler. This resulted in the end of the Maratha Empire. Had Ragunath Rao been smart, he could have saved his empire with all the privileges and could have posed a threat to the British with the help of the four Maratha Clans and not let the British capture, India.
ii. Muhammed Bin Tughlaq decided to change his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad and ordered the entire population of Delhi to shift to his new capital. The whole population started their journey and many people died in the way as the new capital was in South India which was very far from Delhi. After a few weeks he saw people invading from the west due to the lack of central security of Delhi. Fearing an invasion he again ordered his entire population in Daulatabad to go back to Delhi, resulting in more deaths.
4.Natural Calamity: Yes, even natural calamities like tsunamis, diseases, volcanic eruptions, and droughts have resulted in the collapse of civilisations. For example:
i.Almost the whole population of the native people of the Easter Island died due to the new diseases like tuberculosis, smallpox and many more brought by the foreigners visiting the island.
ii. The main populous city of the ancient Indus civilisation, Mohenjo Daro, is said to have been abandoned when a flood hit the city. It is also believed that the civilisation collapsed due to drought or a flood.
After coming to know about these reasons for the collapse of the civilisations, have we learnt any lessons? The answer is no. In the current status of our almost whole democratic world, all the current and future governments that are there will always talk about how the governments in the past ruined the nation and how we will improve the nation in the future. This all is in vain as no one talks about the present! With this kind of attitude, we will slowly lose the whole world and our civilisation will collapse as we will keep talking about the past and future and in the middle, we will lose all our environment. Yes, we may have come up with great ideas to solve all these problems but the strength we have been ever missing is of unity. It is the absence of this strength which has led to collapse of all the civilisations so far. It is because of this strength we have been not able to maintain peace and harmony or prevent violence.
Let’s take an example of a nation whose scientists have discovered a cure for a fatal disease, but the catch is that the country does not have good diplomatic relations with most of the countries due to difference in opinions. This results in most countries not taking the cure just for a mere grudge that too the leader of that nation has caused it not the people. This is one of the most embarrassing yet the most probable way our civilisation could end.
Conclusion
Thus, the main lesson that we can learn from this example is that giving power in a hand of few people to manage a nation of millions is really absurd. This is how chaos can emerge at a nation level area or at a world level which can engulf our earth in flames. Thus, it is only unity which can save our civilisation from collapsing. Which can only obtain unity by being and getting others educated. If all the current eight billion people are educated, then we can ultimately remove all the corrupt and power minded people from there ruling seats and choose among us the most suitable man with the required qualities as our leader. There will never be a difference of opinion between people if everyone is educated about the past and how can we contribute to our world to make it a better place for the future. In this way, our civilisation will never collapse.
By: Gaurav Sai Pant
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