Tough situation if there ever was one. “So Gazans are trapped.They are trapped by the religious goals of Hamas.They are trapped by their bitterness against Israel and the losses of the last century.They are trapped by a public opinion at… Read More »The Gaza Trap
No. “there was not a single Arab nation-state in the world before the 20th century. We have a hard time understanding this now, but nationalism didn’t really exist until the 1700s, it spread around the world in the 1800s, and… Read More »Do Arab States Support Palestine?
This is why simple solutions don’t work. “Who Deserves the Land of Palestine?It depends. Who do you want?We can’t answer this question before acknowledging here the massive biases. People don’t have hard moral rules that they apply consistently across situations.… Read More »Who Can Claim the Palestine Region?
Travel times matter. “Levant was closer to Mesopotamia (mostly present-day Iraq) and Anatolia (mostly present-day Turkey) so Egypt could not hold that territory for long after empires emerged there. For example, the Achaemenid Empire (Persia) emerged close to Mesopotamia, conquered… Read More »How Transportation Technologies Shaped Empires
Is it all inevitable? “Social complexity and government also appeared in other ways. For example, through trade. When pirates and marauders disrupted trade, they reduced wealth. Traders and local governments then organized to eliminate the threats. Romans expanded into the… Read More »History’s Network Effects
Freedom matters. “The Industrial Revolution didn’t suddenly happen in England. For centuries, all of Europe had been increasing its pace of innovation. The printing press eventually led to the Enlightenment, which catalyzed the scientific revolution. The greater freedom in regions… Read More »A Brief History of the UK
When you are bored… “Imagine you’re Portugal. It’s 1249. You’ve been fighting Muslims for 500 years (and a few Christian neighbors too), and this year you finally reach the southern coast after conquering the Algarve region. You’re done with your… Read More »A Brief History of Portugal
It is simple. “If you’re a pirate—or a competing European power—and you want to get your hands on that wealth, you’re going to attack the weakest points between Veracruz and Spain. If you’re Spain, you want to protect the loot… Read More »A Brief History of the Caribbean
Nothing is like a common enemy. “The northern mountains might not be very conducive to peace in normal times. But these were not normal times. These peoples were all Christian, and they shared an enemy on the other side of… Read More »A Brief History of Spain
Deserts are bad. “Crossing the Sahara by land was impossible. The desert is massive. Miles and miles of nothing. The distance to cross it was just too great. The only way through it was through the Nile, but even then… Read More »Why Europeans Colonized America Before Africa