What are the moments that have been turning points in history? That irrevocably changed the world? mondoweiss recently had a post on apartheid in South Africa: http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=166015&sn=Detail I'll post more "winds of change" events as I think of them.
"The investiture controversy had shattered the early-medieval equilibrium and ended the interpenetration of ecclesia and mundus. Medieval kingship, which had been largely the creation of ecclesiastical ideals and personnel, was forced to develop new institutions and sanctions. The result during the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, was the first instance of a secular bureaucratic state whose essential components appeared in the Anglo-Norman monarchy." Interesting, this is the first I have read of this.
The attack on the Twin Towers. I dont think anything in modern history (since the fall of the Soviet Union) has had a single bigger effect on policies and peoples world wide.
It defined Briton, which was a loose confederation until then. It's a really important moment in history.
yes the battle of hastings insofar that it paved the way for the british empire, and gave us the language that we are all communicating with this very moment. although i would have to choose the french revolution as the catalyst for the most dramatic change the western world has known since the fall of the roman empire
The invention of the written word. without that we would not know what happened before we were here. it is the most important thing that humans have done and by doing so has changed the world forever. The printing pree to make books would be right there as well.
While on the topic of histories turning points it would be remiss of us to exclude a loose chronology of our cultures more important moments(keep in mind i refer to western cultures recent history(post A.D.) 1. rise of Celtic culture 2. Julius Ceaser and the Gallic wars 3. collapse of the roman empire 4. Atilla the Hun 5. Anglo-Saxon conquest of Britannica 6. descent into the dark ages 7. expulsion of the moors from the Iberian peninsula 8. unifacation of western Europe under Charlemagne 9. the viking age 10. king Alfreds idea of a unified England 11. Norman invasion of England(battle of Hastings) 12. threat of mongol invasion 13. the 100 year war(France and England) 14. the black death 15. age of exploration(Magellan sails around the world) colonization of the Americas) 16. Spanish armada defeated(huge realignment of power) 17. the Reinassance 18. William 3rd of orange ousts Catholicism in England 19. American revolution 20. enlightenment 21. collapse of the Austrian empire 22. industrial revolution 23. American civil war 24. WW1 25. WW2 26. use of atomic energy as a weapon 27. rise and fall of communist threat 28. 9/11 please feel free to add any major events that deserve a spot on this list. keep in mind that ive excluded all important technological advances, such as the invention of the written word, the printing press etc. etc.(except the atomic bomb). only because ive got to go to work now, and feel that the topic would make a great thread on its own. for ex. "how has the application of technology shaped the our world, past and present"
The Battle of Tours, which saved Europe from Islamic conquest. America's Revolutionary War. World War II - It lead to the Cold War, the UN, Israel (all important, for better or for worse)...
I want to distinguish watershed events - when trends or changes already in progress are seen to cross a boundary of scale and acquire new significance - from turning points, when things that were headed in one direction change course and head in another. As far as watershed events, I would pick Genghis Khan's political unification of the Eurasian continent (the Mongol Empire built thousands of bridges, tens of thousands of miles of roads). As far as turning points, I would pick Columbus's landing in the Caribbean - the introduction of Eurasian diseases to the Americas, and the introduction of American domesticated plants to Eurasia, coupled with the idea of discovery of vast new realms of knowledge, changed the course of the human history of the planet up until that time. But turning points are usually small events, not widely recognized as significant at the time and hence difficult to pin down later. From a global history perspective, the Enclosure in the British Isles may have been a major turning point of human civilization, the beginning of the modern economic world, but it's difficult to pin down a pivotal event or moment. Likewise the modern turning points, even apart from the suspicion that most of what we think of as important now will end up as repressed events in some Chinese history book's edit manuscript. Odds are pretty good that 9/11 will turn out to have about the same significance in the course of larger events as Shay's Rebellion, or Guy Fawke's Day; meanwhile. NAFTA seems to have set things in motion in Mexico that can at least potentially shake the foundations of empire.
I reckon the Magna Carta was one of a series of events that led to Britain becoming the worlds largest empire and beating the Hun empire to first spot. Also, I was wondering if Battle of Thermopylae saved many western cultural concepts that we appreciate today from annihilation.
