In all countries, the United Kingdom is undoubtedly one of the bloggers' favorites, and some friends say that why do you often black The United Kingdom? Black is also love, do not love how to collect so many bad things, insist on long-term black material is not.
This country is cold, pragmatic, unsympathetic, sees who pits whom, a small island country, and is divided into several pieces and mixed with each other, under such conditions, it is actually possible to overcome all kinds of innate deficiencies, physical disabilities, and backwardness, and dominate the world's number one power for three hundred years.
Today's story we have to start from the debate between the two big men, the year before, the two Shang Shufang walking Lin Yifu and Zhang Weiying quarreled, the specific content is not our focus today, the focus is that Lao Zhang, as a super big man in China's economics, actually said a sentence "Due to the Industrial Revolution, Britain has become the leader of modern human civilization from a border island country", causing quite a stir, this sentence sounds like no problem to ordinary people, but if you understand British history, you know that Lao Zhang is really confused.
The first industrial revolution began around 1770, probably in the 37th year of Qianlong in China, what was the position of Britain in the global village at that time? Small frontier countries? Isn't it funny that two hundred years ago in this year, that is, in 1588, Britain had defeated the Spanish Armada; a hundred years before the Industrial Revolution, that is, in 1652, Britain launched the Anglo-Dutch War and defeated the Netherlands, the sea coachman of the world's number one power at that time; 10 years ago of the Industrial Revolution, that is, in 1763, the Seven Years' War between Britain and France had ended, France was defeated, North America was returned to Britain, Britain was already the number one power on the European continent at this time, and the world was full of colonies.
Therefore, the real situation of history is inconsistent with The old Zhang's understanding, Britain did not become the world's number one power with the help of the Industrial Revolution, which was already the number one power in Europe before the Industrial Revolution. In other words, the Industrial Revolution broke out in the United Kingdom, the number one power at that time, which threw the world a hundred years in one fell swoop and strengthened this hegemonic position. So the question is, since the reason for the rise is not the Industrial Revolution, what is it? We're going to talk about that today.
I said in the title that the British Empire is a "pit cargo", I am sure that many people are not convinced, how can I say this about people? Believe the bloggers, you get to know the British, you will find that saying that they "pit" is not wronging them at all.
If there is any trait in the Uk before its rise that can see at a glance that this goods will be bullish in the future, it is that this goods is a fierce role, and it is obviously "bottom line arrears", and it is not recharged for a long time.
We know that 1500 years is the beginning of the world's modern history, because in those years Spain discovered the New World of the Americas, the question is, Spain discovered the Americas, in one fell swoop became the world's number one power, what was Britain busy with? They are busy with the "War of the Roses" and post-war reconstruction.
The word "War of the Roses" sounds very romantic, in fact, very violent and very inappropriate for children, the cause of the story is that the two branches of the British royal family fought for the throne, one of the family emblems is a white rose, the other is a red rose, so later everyone gave it a name called the War of the Roses, similar to the dispute between our country, the problem is that this war is too tragic, the two sides did not treat each other as their own people, killing is not soft at all, and the West had "unspoken rules" at that time. That is to say, nobles who are captured are generally not executed, because nobles, just so many people, marry each other, rely on each other, look down and do not look up, and when the battle is over, they will continue to live a life, so the nobles are generally redeemed with money after being caught. But the British are more ruthless, caught and executed, the two sides play too fiercely, so that the two nobles basically end up together, and the two sides in each other's turf to engage in three lights, a war down, the nobles died a large half, ordinary people were slaughtered 3%, this fierce force let the Europeans open their eyes, have said that the British are too good, fighting the civil war are so enjoyable, crazy even cut themselves.
In fact, Game of Thrones is set against the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses.
The Wars of the Roses have been fought intermittently for 30 years, and there are mutual victories and losses, but overall it is a lose-lose thing, both sides are exhausted, they really can't move, so they decide not to get married, so the heirs of both sides get married.
However, the War of the Roses was fought too ferociously, the casualties of the upper nobility were too heavy, and a large number of industrial and commercial owners entered the upper echelons, laying the groundwork for the subsequent bourgeois revolution.
At this time, someone must ask, no, since both families are royal, is it not incest for the heir to get married?
This has never seemed to be a problem in Europe, in fact, there has been a long-term intermarriage within the European nobility, the big nobles are basically related by blood, and it is very common for uncles to marry nieces, and the Habsburg dynasty of the Austro-Hungarian Empire often maintains the legitimacy of blood relations through the marriage of brothers and sisters, of course, it has also been countered by incest. The Habsburgs had a lot of rickets and couldn't stand up straight.
After marriage, it is the legendary Tudor dynasty, we often say that the "virgin queen" Elizabeth I, who laid the foundation for the rise of Britain, the full name is "Elizabeth - Tudor", in order to express the fusion of the two families, the national flower of the United Kingdom is set as a rose, and the red rose and the white rose are put together, looking like this, really ugly enough.
As for the current elizabeth II, who has a long standby time, in fact, it has little to do with the previous one, the middle dynasty has iterated several times, and in the past five hundred years, it has experienced the Stuart dynasty and the Windsor dynasty, and now the Elizabeth II is called "Elizabeth-Windsor". After hundreds of years of tossing, the current queen has no power, the daily is to wander around, pose or something, put a photo, everyone feels how vicissitudes the years are, this is the empress before World War II:
But back 500 years ago, the Queen of England's power was greater, and it was because of her persistence that Britain was the first to get a ticket to the Age of Discovery. To put it more, in the past 500 years in England, the way power as a whole has worked has been to run from the king to the bourgeoisie, and then the working class rose up before the First World War, and the power was divided among the working class.
Back then, Elizabeth I was faced with a mess that had to clean up the divisions left over from the Rose Wars at the beginning of her reign, and the royal family owed a foreign debt of £3 million, which was a huge debt at the time. Moreover, there was also a strong religious conflict in England at that time, and there were two religions in the country, Protestantism and Catholicism.
Protestant people are very unhappy with catholics, Catholics see that all they are left with is heretics who are going to hell, the religious wars in England have basically not stopped, and Scottish and Irish Catholics have revolted every few years.
And England, Scotland, and Ireland have always lived together, but in fact, the contradictions between them continue to this day.
In history, England has carried out massacres of Ireland and Scotland many times, and even after 1840, that is, the Opium War, the most important food of the Irish people, potatoes, got sick, the British did not save death, neither saved potatoes nor saved people, Ireland starved millions of people, and Ireland has always been a Catholic territory, England believes in Protestantism, don't look at the current Britain advocates religious freedom, five hundred years ago this matter was very serious, if you do not convert to Protestantism, and refuse to die, it will make the English people very embarrassed, Because of religion, countless battles have been fought, and countless people have died. So the Irish have never had a good feeling for Britain.
As for Scotland, this is simply a pit of goods, I will say two things everyone understands, everyone has heard of the "Hundred Years' War between England and France", in that great war, the Scottish people are allies with France, together to fight England, everyone feels the bad pressure of this elbow to turn outward, but considering that Scotland and England have been discordant since ancient times, it is normal. In addition, I don't know if you have seen "V-Word Vendetta", the protagonist there, the prototype is a Scottish Catholic nobleman, who buried explosives in the British Parliament to blow up the Parliament, and later the plot was revealed and hanged. The big guys on TV who wear skirts and play the organ are Scots.
Later, after the discovery of the New World, Ireland felt that the British Isles were not suitable for human habitation, and large-scale migration overseas formed a unique cultural phenomenon, the Irish generally had the impulse to participate in the underworld, and had a long history of "thugs" reputation, and their favorite occupations after arriving in the United States were the underworld and the police. Last time we talked about Kennedy, we said (who was the biggest beneficiary of the assassination of Kennedy?) Their family ran to the United States from Ireland, and they were Catholics, and they didn't have to think about it, they must have been oppressed in England before they ran. U.S. presidents are generally Puritans, and there are fewer Catholics like Kennedy.
Here's the question, what exactly is the relationship between Protestantism and Catholicism? In fact, it is not complicated, before the United Kingdom is also Catholic, catholicism has only one pope, requiring monogamy, and divorce must be approved by the pope, but King Henry VIII of England wants to divorce without consent, so he declares that he is the pope and can divorce at any time in the future. Since then, the Church of England has not been Catholic, but his own newly created church, known as the Anglican Church. But in the eyes of the Irish and the Scots, you, the king, are not their kings, and you have to teach nature and not theirs, so there is a religious divide.
And the fact that the king himself is a bishop looks very cool, in fact, there are endless troubles, you yourself suddenly declared yourself the pope, then can I also declare myself the pope? So several religions came out of England at once, and the more troublesome of them were the Puritans. The Puritans saw that both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church were pseudosciences and had to be purged, and they believed that whoever God was attached to would make money, and under this logic, the Puritans generally loved to make money, and many rich but no status bourgeoisie were willing to join the church.
This religion caused great trouble for the king, it is easy to understand well, Europe is "divine right of kings", the king was sent by God to administer the people, and now the Puritans themselves want to cut off the middleman directly and intimately with God, there is no need for the king and the bishop, the king is naturally worthless in them. So the king was going to mistreat them, and they had to leave England and go to the New World.
One thing you need to know is that Protestantism is a split from the Catholic Church, and the Catholic Church has only one pope, so it is like a court, with successive bishop appointments, such as the pope of Rome who has appointed two bishops to our country in the past two days. But Protestantism does not say so, anyone can create a religion, as long as someone believes in your set you are the leader, some Protestants are very strange, such as former US Treasury Secretary Paulson, he believes in a Christian Scientology, advocating that if you are sick, you can pray, this... Just be happy.
Elizabeth had so many troubles at home as soon as she came to power, but the stubborn and determined lesbian did not flinch at all, not only set about solving these troubles, but also put her hand across the English Channel to find trouble for the Spaniards.
The contradiction between the British and the Spaniards is actually very simple, one is religion, well, religion. The second is money. We'll talk about this in a later article.