Civilization and Barbarism: Imperial Patterns of History

The Mongols were a group of barbaric people who lived in an uncivilized manner and considered savages due to their primitive actions and ways. The Mongols were barbarians, due to information from the resource packet, “The Mongols: How Barbaric Were The Barbarians?” From prior knowledge of the mongols, many videos that have been watched for educational purposes contain John Green speaking about how savage and barbaric these “people” were. This helps inference that many others think they were barbaric, but were they really? Many actions and evidence record savagery from them and claim to prove that they were barbaric indeed.

Throughout the 13th century world, the Mongols constantly showed displays of continuous violence, drinking, brutality and unfair treatment. They were considered to be savages, and people who lived far beyond what we would know as a “civilized world.” They single handedly became one of, if not the most powerful empires to have existed, building their empire through violent and barbaric manors. The Mongols were very barbaric people, for they portrayed many inhumane and mannerless actions while their empire lasted, causing death destruction and the downfall of all of the land they took over.

Dracula is of mixed racial heritage and blood “in the whirlpool of European races,” a concept which would have been fearful to the novel’s white, upper-class English audience. This widespread xenophobia, a fear and hatred of foreigners, was a reaction by Victorian England to the perceived threat of outsiders to white genetic purity. Dracula’s real threat is not in the physical destruction of Western Europe, but in the assimilation, reproduction, and infestation caused by the literal and figurative mixing of his barbarian animal blood with that of the “superior” English race. The concept of eugenics, the “qualitative and quantitative improvement of the human genome” (Galton 99), gained widespread popularity during Stoker’s lifetime and became a prevalent theme in the works of many authors aiming to make a social commentary or criticism on the invasion of England by foreign peoples. Adolph Hitler would later adopt eugenic ideals in the intended creation of a “master race,” one which victimized many of the same groups and relied upon almost identical anti-Semitic imagery as the earlier Victorian proponents (Hauner 15).

Chau’s thesis that the rise and fall of empires was due to tolerance, inclusion, difference, and diversity is shown to be true of the Roman Empire because of the way that tolerance allowed and caused the empire to rise, enter its golden age, and fall. The Roman Empire was a “hyperpower” that lasted from 44 BCE to 476 CE. The empire contained Western, Southern, and Eastern Europe, along with North Africa; thus, there was an abundance of culture from many different conquered groups. Romans wanted to make these conquered nations provinces of Rome. The Roman Empire began (and the Roman Republic ended) with the assassination of Julius Caesar, who wanted to be a dictator. No longer a republic, the lands already ruled by Rome became part of an empire. The government became centralized with a single ruler, the emperor. However, even before the empire, during the Republic, there was also the similar feeling of wanting to conquer other nations was there.

The world has viewed the Mongols as destructive barbarians; however, the Mongols viewed themselves as soldiers. The perception of themselves is important because they did not believe it was destructive to unite a world empire. They believed that because they were soldiers, anyone in their path could be taken down by force. The nations that defined Mongols as destructive are the same people that resisted joining their empire. The Mongol’s obsession with power, dedication to their leader, and their need to possess land is why I believe they should not be remembered as destructive barbarians. Instead, I think they should be known as the empire that failed to unite the world.

In Dracula, what is Stoker revealing about the demonization of “others” in the Victorian age and how does this relate to treatment of “others” in this group today?

The Mongols originated in central Asia and conquered one after the other, earning the reputation of “barbarians.” It started off with Genghis Khan and the Mongols who first attacked their neighbors, then the Persian empire of Khwarazm, another wave which included Russia and Eastern Europe, and a third wave of The Middle East. At their peak, the Mongols had conquered 4,860,000 square miles of land, making them larger than what Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Attila, and Cyrus the Great had conquered combined. Were the Mongols really as barbaric as they sounded or was it all just rumors? The Mongols were a barbaric empire that would do whatever it took to succeed. The Mongols were an extremely barbaric empire because of how soldiers who fled were treated, the cruel and unusual deaths of prisoners, and how adultery was conducted.

Based on documents and evidence from the Mongols DBQ packet and lessons learned in class the Mongols should not be considered “barbaric”. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, an online dictionary source, a barbarian is defined as: “a person who has no experience of the habits and culture of modern life, and whose behavior you therefore consider strange or offensive”. The Mongols were great conquerors of their time and under the rule of Genghis Khan captured 4,860,000 square miles ranging from Japan to Europe (Document 1). Since the Mongols travelled to many foreign countries the people in those places felt that the Mongols aggressive manor did not line up with their social codes and rules.

The word “Barbarian” translates to the Greek word “Barbaros”, this word just meant foreigner. I personally the Mongols were very barbaric. They just are violent, they kill, and have no objective. They conquer and kill as many people as they need to just to own land. They are very violent and have no souls regarding killing women and children.

Harry R. Hopps’, Destroy this Mad Brute Enlist, World War I poster was aimed at displaying the horror of the Central Powers lust for supremacy. Communicating the barbarism of the Central Powers; furthermore, stressing the imminent fate of other nations and possibly America if the nation remained idle. The term “brute” is represented by the gorilla with its’ jaw widened baring its’ canines communicating his readiness to fight to the death for coveted territories. Furthermore, Lady Liberty is represented by the damsel clutched in the gorilla’s arm. Subsequently, the scene is depicted on American soil; the mere sight of Lady Liberty being pilfered on American soil strikes fear and rage in any true American patriot.

Land equals power, and that’s what war was all about. People went to war for land so their country could rule world wide. So everyone would know their name. So everyone would be frightened by them.

Dracula is a novel that indulges its male reader’s imagination, predominantly on the topic of female sexuality. When Dracula was first published, Victorian women’s sexual behaviour was extremely restricted by social expectations. To be classed as respectable, a women was either a virgin or a wife. If she was not either, she was considered a whore. We begin to understand once Dracula arrives in Whitby, that the novel has an underlying battle between good and evil, which will hinge on female sexuality. Both Lucy Westenra and Wilhelmina “Mina” Murray embody two-dimensional virtues that have been associated with female. They are both virgins, whom are innocent from the evils of the world and that are devoted to their men. Dracula’s arrival threatens those virtues, threatening to turn Lucy and Mina into the opposites, noted for their voluptuousness, which could lead to an open sexual desire.

The barbarians, Vikings, and the Mongolians are portrayed throughout history as bloodthirsty savages that only care about killing people and pillaging villages and towns. The barbarians, Vikings, and the Mongols often don’t receive credit for the ways that they positively impacted ancient civilizations. Even though the barbarians, Vikings, and the Mongolians impacted ancient civilizations in positive ways they also did some things that impacted ancient civilizations in negative ways.

One of the main depictions of women in the novel is that are either both sexually promiscuous and overtly sexual, or they are pure and chaste. In Victorian society, you were either a virgin or a married woman, if women were neither then they were not of much moral worth to society. Much like this Victorian ideal, the overtly promiscuous and sexual females of Dracula are depicted as evil and monstrous, while the pure and chaste women are displayed as strong and heroic.

Waiting For The Barbarians” by J.M Coetzee is a novel that truly helps the world understand how colonization might just be the worst thing human has done to destroy other civilizations culture and respect. “The Empire “ is a nation that is set up to have a centralized government. The capital is where all the power is contain and then there are other subunits of smaller governments such as the magistrate who rules the frontier of the whole country. The magistrate lives and guard a town on the frontier and from his years there everything been peaceful with the barbarians. However, once the third Berru which is a powerful branch of government arrive to town everything changes. Violence, torture, and chao overwhelmingly flood the town and the rest of the capital. Resulting in major realization of how colonization is a pattern of destruction that can be seen in this novel and in real life. A close resemblances of The Empire is The Song Dynasty which begins from 960 to 1279 and share a common barbarian enemies known as the mongols who are from Mongolia which is north of China. The Song Dynastie follows many of The Empires principles that eventually causes internal demolition.