The Wars of Justinian

While the lengthy and sometimes tedious Wars of Justinian by Procopius can be occasionally daunting and scattershot, it raises so many questions when considered in relationship with Secret History. In the latter work, Procopius openly criticizes Belisarius and Justinian quite often, while Wars mostly praises Belisarius as a brilliant general and virtuous man. The truth was likely somewhere in the middle. However, before one can even begin to ponder that, this vast history, directly inspired by Thucydides and classical historians, contains a huge wealth of ethnographic data, anecdotal stories, legends, and accounts of military encounters across the known world. 

The sheer scale of the world as known by Procopius takes the reader on a journey across the oikumene, including rich details on the cultures and peoples of Thule (Scandinavia), the Black Sea, Persia, Mesopotamia, Nubia, Himyar and Aksumite Ethiopia, North Africa, Gothic Italy, and Germanic Europe. For us here at the blog, Procopius is a priceless source for understanding Christianization in Nubia during the 6th century in relation to the foreign policy interests of Justinian. He also provides a direct source on the proposed alliance between the Roman Empire and the Aksumites against the Sassanid Persians, which hints at the thwarted attempts on the part of the Aksumites to directly access silk goods through direct trade with India (blocked by Persia). Whether or not some of the other ethnographic, political and geographic observations and anecdotes by Justinian are true, they make up the most entertaining aspects of his long work.

As for the text's uneasy relationship with the other writings of Procopius, there is definitely a shared current of criticism of imperial policy. Justinian, for instance, comes across as distracted and unwise in his appointment of military commanders and policy during the lengthy Gothic War in Italy. For example, while the Roman forces in Italy were falling apart, and Slavic hordes raiding Illyria and Thrace, Justinian, said to never sleep, was involving himself in theological and religious disputes among Christians. And after various wars and broken truces with the Persians, Procopius sums up the result being essentially Rome paying tribute to the Sassanians. According to Procopius, Justinian did not punish or properly chastise military commanders for their mistakes in the various campaigns in the East or West. The Roman emperor, and his wife, Theodora, allegedly expressed unwise political decisions, with Theodora always siding with women in distress. Of course, according to Procopius, it was Theodora whose will and determination to remain Empress which forced Justinian to fight the rebels in Byzantion during the Nika riots. Antonina, unlike Belisarius, Theodora and Justinian, does not receive as much criticism as in Secret History.

Nevertheless, there is an underlying current of criticism of Justinian and his various wars, pointing out their questionable benefits in places like Libya, where the Romans eventually defeated Moorish forces but were left with a depopulated province. Indeed, waging wars on two fronts with powerful foes while using disloyal barbarian mercenaries or allies probably did not help, either. Moreover, as the empire's boundaries expanded, disputes over Christian doctrine, social unrest among the fan club factions, an assassination plot that endeavored to include Justinian's nephew, and a deadly plague in 542 point to several internal problems that threatened the foundation of the growing empire. In conjunction with Anecdota, one seems to see in all this war and folly of Justinian a critique of tyranny and misrule of an empire which was supposed to be favored by God. Critiques of tyrannical and murderous Persian rulers or barbarian kings must be veiled criticisms of the emperor, whose lack of proper governance and virtue threatened to unravel all the gains of the Empire. Belisarius, on the other hand, in Wars, may have been virtuous and only impeded by Justinian, but the truth was likely somewhere in the middle.

Banana Wars

This Youtube video is a nice overview of US military interventions and occupations in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. We here at the blog firmly believe one cannot understand the US Occupation of Haiti without taking into consideration similar US military occupations and interventions in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

The Caves of Steel

Asimov's The Caves of Steel is a somewhat predictable murder mystery set in a future overpopulated Earth. The New York City of this novel is one of many Cities, vast urban expanses where most of humanity lives entirely regimented and strictly controlled lives in order to centralize production and consumption. The overpopulated Earth has created a new reigning ideology (civism) after a disastrous war with the Spacers, the descendants of human colonists who live on other planets. Unlike our protagonist Elijah Baley and the people of Earth, the Spacers live in underpopulated societies which protect individualism. However, the future of the human race is imperiled by the fragility of the overpopulated Earth, whose political and economic systems could collapse at any moment. Like the human homeworld, the colonies of the Spacers are seen as too stable and lacking the kinds of social cohesion and desire to expand colonization of the Galaxy. 

However, a fusion of the two types of human civilization, along with robot technology and labor (represented by C/Fe, a union of carbon and iron to symbolize human and robot society) could ensure the fate of humanity by expanding colonization through Earth emigration and issuing new social formations that combine elements of the corporate social bonds and solidarity of Earth with robots and pioneer spirit of the Spacers. Unfortunately for the long-held dreams of some Spacers, the murder of a prominent Spacer threatens this future. A human detective who shares the Earthmen's disdain for robots finds himself forced to solve the crime with the aid of an advanced (and humanoid) robot detective, Daneel Olivaw. The case takes our heroes across the vast sprawl of the City, its discontented Earthmen, the conspiracies of Medievalists (those who are calling for a return to the soil and ways of life that are closer to the 20th century than the dystopic future), and the prejudices and beliefs of Baley himself. 

While the ultimate mystery of who killed Dr. Sarton is, after a few plot twists, somewhat predictable, the tale of this overpopulated New York and the problematic fate of humanity reminds us at the blog of the then-current Cold War. The conflict between Spacers and Earthlings and their divergent ideologies almost sounds like Cold War conflicts between the US and the USSR. That a possible solution to the great problems of modernity could be found in a synthesis of the two civilizations may have appealed to writers like Asimov, who, as a rationalist, may have seen the path forward with both the embrace of reason, technology, and communalist aspirations, and a binding ethical vision. That could explain the numerous references to the Bible throughout the text, especially Elijah, Jezebel, and Jesus Christ.

The High Crusade

Anderson's The High Crusade is a compelling, readable, and hilarious romp in which 14th century Englishmen encounter an alien race, hijack one of their ships, and eventually defeat their galactic empire. Perhaps implausibly, medieval weapons, tactics, siege warfare, and hand-to-hand fighting give them an edge against the more advanced Wersgorix, who possess space ships, nuclear bombs, and other amenities of advanced civilizations. 

This short novel is endlessly entertaining as Sir Roger leads the English crusaders against aliens with guile, charisma, and exaggerated threats of Earth's military prowess. Somehow, against all the odds, he successfully forms an alliance with the other star-faring aliens and establishes English supremacy in a feudal political system across the former Wersgorix Empire. The novel succeeds so well because it is essentially the manuscript of Brother Parvis, a friar whose writing style and language almost really reads like something written by a 14th century English friar. The use of archaic English, references to medieval theology and philosophy, and the language and moods of Sir Roger, Owain, and others really does convince the reader these are feudal lords and knights. 

For such a silly novel, it is very entertaining and points to the possible problems of political overcentralization in a galactic administration, not to mention the fact that technology alone will not save a civilization. A strong, charismatic leader whose decentralized political system allows for local leaders and fealty successfully overthrows an empire. In a short story sequel of sorts, which is heavily based on Arthurian legends and the Holy Grail, we see how the English have spread Christianity and their culture across their new kingdom, led by Roger, and incorporated various alien races into their society. Surprisingly, Anderson never did write another novel set in the same universe, although one exploring relations between Earth and the descendants of these English adventurers. 

The US Occupation of Haiti

We here at the blog have recently completed a re-read of Hans Schmidt's classic study of the US Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1934. While later studies have added a cultural dimension to American imperialism in the Caribbean republic, and others have centered Haiti and Haitian resistance to the military occupation, Schmidt's monograph remains a go-to study for understanding the conditions that precipitated, endured, and continued for the Black Republic.

 This study elucidates why the US was interested in securing financial and economic control of Haiti, inter-imperial rivalry in the Caribbean region, the context of racism and racial ideology, and the lack of development and long-term positive results of the American Occupation. Despite all the rhetoric of Wilson and subsequent US presidents, the military occupation never invested in practical and meaningful democratic or educational reforms. Of course, one reads Schmidt and gets the impression there was a degree of paternal protection of Haiti on the part of the Marine high commissioner, Russell, and attempts to minimize an invasion of US latifundia agricultural enterprises, which never materialized anyway. 

It is interesting to see how Schmidt did not discuss land dispossession and the impact of US companies like HASCO or sisal in the north as having the types of devastating consequences Haitians of the time and afterwards would describe. Although one could not omit the negative impact of corvee-styled forced labor used by the Marines against the Haitian peasantry, nor can one forget the rise of Haitian emigration to the plantations of the Dominican Republic and Cuba during the Occupation. However, we get the impression from Schmidt that the American rulers of Haiti really did want to limit the possible negative impact of US companies in the countryside. We here at the blog will have to return to the question of the Occupation's economic and social impact on the Haitian countryside.