Comments by "" (@craigkdillon) on "CaspianReport" channel.

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  7. There were several causes. Like always, reality is more complicated. First, trade with the orient moved to Portuguese, Dutch, and English ships, thus starving the silk road. The once trading monopoly that the Ottoman's enjoyed ended. Second, the western European development of the corporation enabled western Europe to manage capital and investment better. Western Europe slowly became wealthier and more powerful than Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Third, the development of the policy of "separation of Church and State" that occurred after the Thirty Year's War freed Western Europe from the issues of religion, bringing on the Enlightenment. Fourth, the overseas colonies and trading empires of Spain, England, France, and Holland increased their wealth and power immensely. Fifth, the maturity of the modern nation state made the empire model of governing obsolete. The Ottoman Empire could not manage its resources as efficiently, and it was in constant struggles for succession and political power. The palace intrigues of Topkapi may make for great reading, but it makes for lousy governing. BTW..Putin's apparent attempt to impose an "empire model" to Russia will also end in failure, I predict. He will seem to succeed for a while due to the strength of his personality. Eventually, he will age or die. When he goes, Russia will have the eternal succession problem of empires. Succession struggles weakened Rome, Turkey, and China. They will weaken Russia, too. One day there will be a Democratic Revolution in Russia. I just wonder how long it will take.
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  35. The profound observation of Lambert seems to be the connection between representative government, and being a Sea State. Athens, Venice, Netherlands, England, and the US I posit are too many to dismiss this proposition as coincidence. There is something about ocean borne trade that compels representative government. While, continental trade compels centralized authoritarian government. All the states involved in the Silk Road, and other trans-continental trade, were all imperial governments, or were trending that way. China, Russia, Persia, Sassanid, Byzantine, Ottoman, and so many others, all followed the same pattern. Even the states of Africa involved in the trans-Saharan caravans, all were centralized with dynastic rule. Of course, things are more complicated than that. Switzerland has representative government, and it is definitely NOT a sea power. The other observation is the ALL the examples of representative government are all in Europe. Asia and Africa had no representative governments, until UK and Netherlands brought them. Now, some Native American tribes had representative government - namely the Iroquois and Illinois Confederacies. In fact, the concept of the Eternal Flame that burns in Arlington Cemetery came from the Iroquois. The Iroquois Confederacy inspired Benjamin Franklin to propose the United States in 1756. Those Native America tribes were not sea powers in any way, yet they had a representative form of government, with no kings or inherited dynastic rule. Like I said -- history, societies, and cultures are always more complicated than they may seem at first.
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