The Rise of the Barbarians

Chapter: Origins. The barbarian invasions sweep across Europe. Some groups make their way by sea. They settle in the rainy island off the coast of Europe, called at the time Albion or Britannia. They bring with them a characteristic of social organisation which will stand them in good stead over the centuries - private and individualistic control of property.
Chapter: consolidation and absorption. The maritime barbarians fragment into several kingdoms. Kings are chosen by the powerful and fully-armed lords and fighting men. They are answerable to them and have several distinct duties, whcih cannot be carried out by individuals: defending the realm, enforcing the law, determining what the law is, and controlling the value of the currency (silver pennies).
Chapter: the rule of laws. The barbarians develop an obsession with rights which are written down in royal warrants and other agreements. This will develop into a "rule of law" which forms one of several great legal systems of the world: Common Law, Roman Law, Talmudic Law, Sharia Law, etc.
Chapter: absorbing the alien. The barbarians also absorb the Celtic inhabitants of the land, merging their genes and their language to form a single "race". This will be a recurring feature of the barbarians - their promiscuous habit of marrying anything attractive. It will result in a mongrel nation of extraordinary complexity. The Celts disappear as an identifiable group, except on the fringes of the island, though their language leaves its traces in the sentence structure and vocabulary of the barbarians tongue, as well as place-names.
Chapter: Interlude of the Normans. The original barbarians are occupied by another offshoot of the Northmen, a maritime race. This group brings a more advanced form of hierarchy in the form of a feudal system; however after a few centuries they will merge indistinguishably with the majority, leaving relics only in the language.
Chapter: the world that emerges is still based on individual land ownership and rights of the individual. Admittedly, the higher up the scale you go, the more liberties you have; but even at the lower end, there are still rights to be protected. The hierarchy of the barbarians is not a caste system, and there is still slow upward mobility and definite downward mobility. Women, too, have more rights than elsewhere in Europe, and can own land and property. (It is still better to be a woman than a horse in this barbarian kingdom.)
Chapter: the long-term effect of land ownership. The individual rights to dispose of land has two consequences. One is that wealth is more secure, therefore it is more properly looked after. The other is the rule of primo-geniture. As the land is inherited entire, the other family members have to look elsewhere for their income. They are thrown out of the nest. Those that find alternative employment survive. Enterprise is rewarded.
Chapter: the genetic effects. As the estate of a family goes down to the eldest son, there is no need for customs to keep it in the family by dividing it between sons or by ensuring that they marry cousins. There is no custom of arranged marriage among the barbarians. This ensures a reduced degree of genetic defects and a bias towards exogamy. The barbarians tend to look elsewhere than among their family for their partners, to benefit all round.
Chapter: the high middle ages. The barbarians develop the monarchy into a centralised instituation which all owe allegiance. After the Roses Wars the Tudors usurp the throne and exterminate the Plantaganet dynasty.
Chapter: splitting from Europe. The barbarian king declares independence from Rome, and the kingdom adopts the new version of the Church promoted by Luther and Calvin. This version accords well with the historic individualism of the barbarians, and also with the underlying literary tradition of the wordy people. The Bible in their own language is enthusiastically adopted and will trigger an explosion of literary magnificence that is still honoured today.
Chapter: exploring the world. The barbarians begin to explore the seaways of the world, one ship is the second to sail round the world. The captain gets a chapter to himself,
because of the way they loot ships and ports wholesale.
Chapter: El Draque (his Spanish nickname) is the archetype barbarian. Businessman, trader, slaver (briefly), looter, investor, guerilla leader, raider and above all zealous defender of the Protestant queen of the barbarians. In her greatest hour of need, he scatters the mighty Armada of the greatest empire in the world.

Chapter: Interlude for civil war. The barbarians never mind who rules them if he protects their rights. One dynasty fails to do so. A very polite civil war is fought - "a war without enemies" it is called. Eventually the king is captured and executed. This causes horror throughout the crowned heads of Europe - it is much more shocking than the "30 years war" which has gone on during that time. The maritime barbarians are seen as the ferocious religious fanatics at the edge of Europe who kill anointed kings.


Chapter: the 18th century assault on the world. The barbarians have secured their kingdom at home and held on to their colonies in the Americas. These are small settlements of the barbarians, with some factors writ large: the obsession with law, with liberty, and with self-government. However, this is not enough. The seaways of the world give the barbarians access to every major nation with wealth. The Slave Trade is adopted by the barbarians as part of their trade routes (it could equally well have been called the Sugar Trade, but the most shameful aspect is the Atlantic passage of slaves to pay for the sugar. It will always be known as the Slave Trade Triangle). The barbarians with their superior manufactures to send to Africa come to dominate the trade, because their ships sail full each time.

Chapter: industrialising the world. The barbarians find they have a huge market in the world, there is a huge demand for their goods. But how to make enough of them? The barbarians discover how to mechanise the process of manufacture; they discover that they can get people to work 16 hours a day in factories without too many of them dying.This supplies the trade goods to send out and enable to return of the luxury items such as sugar, coffee, tea and cotton. This method of production is so successful that even though the cities that develop around the factories are awful, there is no known substiute for the factory system. The methods of the barbarians conquer the world.
Chapter: connecting the world. Although the barbarians had fought two "world wars" with slo-moving ships, technology allows a speeding of communication by an unheard of amount. The electric telegraph speeds the transmission of messages by a huge factor. The barbarians - both the original ones and their Yankee offspring - wire the continent of north America and under the oceans to the far-flung corners of the empire. Now trade is facilitated still further - markets are now world-wide. And troops can be summoned rapidly when needed.
Chapter: and troops are needed everywhere. Though the era is celebrated as an era of peace, that is only in Europe. For Africa, India and China, the era is one of a series of wars with the maritime barbarians. Their "way of war" is one of going everywhere with everything; the slightest resistance is crushed, with the weapons of the modern age. Mighty warships plough the seaways of the world, imposing the "Pax Barbariana" on the blue waters. Pirates are wiped out, the slave trade is closed down, and wealth accumulates. In London.
To be continued