Şerşeh🍁 Profile picture
Dec 11, 2022 12 tweets 4 min read Read on X
The Rise of the West: 🧵

You are told a myth about the rise of the west, that the scientific revolution, industrial revolution, the discovery of civil rights, liberty and freedom happened because Europeans started doing "science" out of nowhere.

1/ Image
This is a myth. The actual reasons for the rise of the west were endless wars and conflicts which led to advances in military technologies, strategies, which led to more bloody wars, which led to more advancement in weaponry which helped Europeans in global domination.
2/ Image
The ship building projects carried out by England, Portugal and The Netherlands are cases in point.

(This is called fluyts, a cargo ship by the Dutch)

3/ Image
In Europe, where wars would extend to decades and centuries, like the Hundred Years War, Eighty Years War, Thirty Years War, and later on WW1 and WW2 are the latest examples of the long running history of war and violence which is ingrained into the consciousness of Europe.
4/ Image
The unparalleled aggression and violence in Europe was unmatched by any region of the world.
In fact, wars became the staple feature and defining characteristic of Europe.
Only a European would have said that the nature of Man is to be in constant state of violence -Leviathan
4/ Image
This is why at the time when millions of paintings and great architectural designs were being built, guns were also manufactured in exponential numbers.

5/ Image
In the same vein some of the most important works of Newton and Galileo was the study of trajectory of projectiles and the causes of deviation in artillery.
Scientific advancements went hand in hand with military technological advancement

6/ Image
It was for this reason that guns had become so refined and accurate that a handful of Portuguese conquistadors wiped out the native Americans who were numerically superior to them.

7/ Image
The wealth stolen from the natives was showered on the Northern European countries, which led to patronage for science and arts, and more instability because now there was more to fight for, which led to more bloody wars and decades long conflicts.

8/ Image
It was not that the native Americans were primitives and uncivilised. In fact they were more Civilized than their European counterparts.
The inca empire had a sophisticated system of law and order, tax, and a high culture. The only reason they were dominated is because...
9/ ImageImage
...they were inferior in weapon technology.

10/
Map of all the recorded battles in history of the past 2,000 years.
11/ Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Şerşeh🍁

Şerşeh🍁 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @_titanslayer_

Jul 1
Elica argues that even if the acts of the IDF were as brutal or terroristic as Hamas we can still make no moral equivalencies. Because the IDF is protecting its people, whereas Hamas wants to kill everyone. The diff. is "INTENTION".

Let's explore this logic of liberal warfare 🧵 Image
Liberalism warfare logic:

Kill as many civilians as you like so long as you express remorse & regret at the end. That's why Guantanamo Bay, the vast network of American torture cells in Europe, the brutal sanctions, etc., were legally and morally justified by liberals.

- Talal Asad, On Suicide BombingImage
As Elica says, the intention is different. IDF can self-referentially justify its actions and claim moral superiority.

When we look at the history of western warfare we see how the lines between civilian and combatant was blurred deliberately sometimes.
Read 13 tweets
Jun 27
“Where did the name Palestine come from?”
Answer:
1. “The name ‘Palestine’ is the most commonly used from the Late Bronze Age (1300 BC onwards)”

2. “Throughout the classical age of antiquity (..)classical antiquity to Middle Ages (..)the word ‘Palestine remains the most common.” Image
3. “Herodotus was the first historian to denote a region called Palaistinê.” Image
“Palestine is found on the earliest maps beginning with late Antiquity and the famous world map of Ptolemy (170 AD) Image
Read 9 tweets
Apr 27
"5000 years of history" is a myth that the British colonial historiography created where they divided the history of the region into 3 distinct phases: Ancient (Indic), Medieval (Islamic), Modern (British Colonialism).
This was parallel to how West's history was framed during
1/ Image
Image
the Enlightenment era in the West. This historiography justified the colonial rule as a just rule to liberate the "native Indians" from the despotism of the foreigners, i.e., Muslims.

2/ Image
The narrative was further accepted by the Republic of India. Nehru wholeheartedly endorsed this fictitious colonial historiography churned up by British colonial officials who were part-time historians.

3/ Image
Image
Read 8 tweets
Mar 5
The conflict between natural philosophy and scientific observations/mathematical astronomy was already evident by Ptolemy's time.

In early 11th century, there was a huge public live debate between Ibn Sina and Al-Biruni. The former being the foremost Aristotelian, the latter, +
one of the biggest mathematical astronomers of his time. The topic of debate was the relationship between science and philosophy as distinct schools of thought.
The debate is long but the important point is this:

By this time, it was understood as a given that mathematical astronomy and scientific endeavours are not supposed to be under the authority of doctrines of natural philosophy such as Aristotelian physics and cosmology.
Read 12 tweets
Feb 3, 2024
Aligarh was not pro-British except for Sir Syed. It produced some of the most vocal anti-colonial figures. The Muslim League leadership were grads of Aligarh.

The Deoband became politically active in the 1920s during the Khilafat movement, which was led mostly by modernists.

1/

Image
Image
Kalam and Iqbal are also modernists in their theological and political orientations.

Figures like Mahmud Hasan & Ahmed Madani of Deoband were active in the Khilafat movement & had good relationships with modernists like Azad, Shaukat Ali Muhammad Ali and even Hindu figures.

2/
But even then, major figures of the Deoband movement like Ashraf Ali Thanawi were politically quietest.
For instance, he discouraged Muslims from participating in the Kashmir uprising in 1931. But figures like Ahmed Madani were politically active.

3/ Image
Read 11 tweets
Jan 29, 2024
I always respond to counter-arguments when they are backed up by academic references. That's why I have decided to respond to this brother because he made a strong case. Let's begin. Bismillah.
🧵

1/
Image
"Rulers, Religion, and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not" by Jared Ruben: A Critique

[Rubin is an Associate Professor of Economics]

2/
Content:

1. The Main Arguments of the book

2. The Critique: Problematic Assumptions and Analysis

3. A New History of ‘The Rise of the West’

4. Conclusion

3/
Read 48 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(