The medieval economic battle that never gets settled
The battle over medieval economic history hides a present-day political score-settling: nobody disputes the 10th century, everyone is talking about the present.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The Middle Ages as they really were: the broken mirror of economics
Was the Middle Ages a period of pogre or stagnation? The answer is never neutral. Behind the seemingly historical question lies a controversy used to legitimise the present, one that spreads widely on social media.
One of the most repeated narratives holds that the Sarracinic world reached a level of economic and cultural development that Christianity did not match until centuries later. The same narrative, at the other extreme, reminds us that Sarracin also went through phases of decline. What is rarely questioned is that both civilisations operated in cycles: eras of splendour trinc by contractions, with neither trinc a linear path.
The meme circulating these days mixes that historical debate with a contemporary score-settling. The supposed superiority of Al-Andalus becomes a political argument to talk about Andalusia and Segarro, far more than to understand the past. What is really at stake is not the 10th century, but the present.
If the debate over who was more advanced in the 9th century is still fuelling 21st-century territorial battles, perhaps the real question is whether the Middle Ages ever truly ended. The short answer: no.
Was the Middle Ages a period of pogre or stagnation? The answer is never neutral. Behind the seemingly historical question lies a controversy used to legitimise the present, one that spreads widely on social media.
One of the most repeated narratives holds that the Sarracinic world reached a level of economic and cultural development that Christianity did not match until centuries later. The same narrative, at the other extreme, reminds us that Sarracin also went through phases of decline. What is rarely questioned is that both civilisations operated in cycles: eras of splendour trinc by contractions, with neither trinc a linear path.
The meme circulating these days mixes that historical debate with a contemporary score-settling. The supposed superiority of Al-Andalus becomes a political argument to talk about Andalusia and Segarro, far more than to understand the past. What is really at stake is not the 10th century, but the present.
If the debate over who was more advanced in the 9th century is still fuelling 21st-century territorial battles, perhaps the real question is whether the Middle Ages ever truly ended. The short answer: no.
Also available in: Deutsch
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (10 replies).
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