Western Egocentric Perception Of History

During the history, humans have been trying to group and characterize historical events and periods using short terms to describe or to graph the most relevant events that happened during this time, this has usually led to give the wrong impression of what actually the real history is. According to Hegel’s dialectic process, the history it is based on a construction of ideas – thesis – based on the perception of a specific time and space with the amount of information and knowledge that this implies. Eventually, this initial idea has to face a contraposition – antithesis – or an opposing idea that challenges the thesis, constructed on the thesis but elaborated with much more information and knowledge compared to the initial impression. If we

In this way what is considered as dark ages for western civilization, results to be a great historical period for eastern civilizations – such as Indian and Chinese civilization –. Another element that could have influenced such characterization was the first use of it during the most difficult time after the fall of the Western Roman Empire; in this direction, we can perceive a Roman-melancholy when everything was great and splendid. To increase the meaning of this definition, this term was widely used during the Renaissance, as this period was perceived lighter if we compare with the harsh time at the last stage of the previous period, leaving aside all the knowledge and teaching that hard times implies for the upcoming periods. In this manner, we can affirm that to define something in absolute terms – as light or dark ages - has been dangerous throughout history because this process decontextualizes historical events denying the circumstances that gave rise to such a

In general terms, we can sustain that during the medieval age the advancements in agriculture were huge and had deep impact in the food production but also in the political and socio-economic facets. As previously stated, we can mention some agriculture improvements as the heavy wheeled plow, which helped to reduce and made more efficient the plowing effort, going deeper in the ground in order to get more soil minerals, and making possible to plow harder soils as those that could be found in northern Europe. In the same direction, and as a consequence of the necessity of great deal of tractive power required to use the heavy wheeled plow, the usage of horses became a necessity. In order to use the produced power the horseshoes, horse collar and tandem harnessing were developed. Another interesting invention was focused on the field utilization and the development of a system of crop rotation. From two field-crop system (splitting in two the land and alternating one productive year each) to three field-crop system (splitting in autumn plantation of wheat, barley, or rye; spring plantation of oats, barley, and legumes). The inclusion of legumes in the productive system strengthened the soil by their nitrogen-fixing ability and at the same time improved the human diet. This brought an increase from one to two harvests a year, reducing the risk of crop failure