Re: Larry Niven: Terrorize Latinos to Solve Health Care Crisis

In article <tUuTj.8308$LQ4.4815@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
 "Mike Schilling" <mscottschilling@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> John Schilling wrote:
> 
> >
> > ...wait a minute, the Dark Age of the seventh and eighth centuries 
> > was
> > one continent over.  The miserable Arabs, etc, seem to have skipped
> > that part.  Never Mind.
> 
> In fact, if you believe Pirenne (which I tend to), Islam was a major 
> cause of the Dark Ages in Europe.  Not because it's Evil, but because 
> the Islamic conquest of the Middle East and North Africa and the 
> consequent domination of the Mediterranean destroyed the trade 
> patterns which dated from the Roman Republic (and even before). It 
> took centuries for the new Europe based in the northwest of the 
> continent rather than its south to emerge. 

Before accepting the Pirenne thesis, you first need some evidence that 
the Islamic conquest actually prevented Christian commerce in the early 
period. So far as I know, there isn't any. As best I recall, that quote 
about the Christians not being able to float a plank on the sea, or 
however it went, is centuries too late.

-- 
 http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
 Author of _Harald_, a fantasy without magic.
 Published by Baen, paperback in bookstores now