The Ghost of the Roman Empire (Re)Wanders Over Europe (Part One).

In this article, the changes in the military and political structure of Europe from the Roman Empire to the present day will be examined. Since the subject covers a very long period, the history of Europe will be published in three separate articles, taking into account the difficulty of reading long texts. The results of the analysis will be presented in a fourth article. will be presented to the readers. Good reading…

I. Roman Empire Period

War, in its simplest definition, is an act of armed violence between opposing parties. Archaeological and anthropological finds show that people have used violence against each other since the earliest times of history. From this point of view, it is possible to say that the history of humanity is also the history of violence. But this does not mean that people have been fighting since the earliest times. Because not every act of violence is war.

For example, violent movements that occurred quite rarely in prehistoric times and were very small in terms of both the area they covered and the number of participants are not considered war by most academics. Because war is considered as a planned, intense and long-lasting violence carried out by large groups in order to reach the goals determined by the political authority by establishing a certain military organization.

According to this; Since people could not form large armies and establish political organizations while they were still living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, their violent movements against each other could not go beyond conflicts below the threshold of war. For this reason, it is accepted that wars started after the agricultural revolution, when people settled down and established large armies and political organizations that controlled a large area.

After the agricultural revolution, many political organizations and relatively large armies formed and equipped by these organizations emerged in different parts of the world and these armies began to be seen on the battlefields. These first states, like every newborn creature, took action to grow rapidly and to be superior to others. As a result, wars became widespread and chaos and conflict prevailed in most of the history.

As a result of these wars, from time to time, some states spread rapidly to a wide region and the empires established by these states caused the emergence of relatively safe areas. However, since most of these empires were short-lived, they could not create an environment of permanent stability. This changed when a new power emerging around the Mediterranean led to the establishment of an empire with borders never seen before. This power is the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire was founded by the Etruscans as a small kingdom as a result of the merger of several villages. This state soon passed into the republican regime and after that it grew rapidly as a military and political power. Emerging before it in Asia, the Middle East, Anatolia and European shores; Rome, which established a disciplined and machine-like army by resynthesizing military developments such as the use of horses in wars, the use of iron in the manufacture of weapons, recruitment systems, the development of logistics systems, the use of new doctrines and concepts, expanded its borders to three continents after many wars and expanded the borders of the world (most It has become the first superpower of at least the western world.

After emerging as a military power and rising to the level of a great empire, only at the borders; Struggling with the Northern European tribes, which he called barbarians, the nomadic mounted armies from Turkestan, and the forces in Iran, Rome succeeded in creating a long-lasting peace and stability in the inner regions. So much so that there was no need to build walls around Roman cities for centuries. This situation paved the way for prosperity and development. Thus, art, political organization, army, etc., many of which are still used today. Many innovations have emerged in the field.

However, like every state, Rome started to lose its power over time. As a result, the Roman army, which had always been the attacking party until then, gradually turned into a defensive army, as it had to fight with more armies on its borders and had difficulty in dealing with the threats, some of which were irregular forces.

Parallel to this change, some artificial barriers were built on the northern borders of the Roman Empire. Of these, the Adrian Wall, which stretches from the west coast of the British Isle to the east coast, is the best-known Roman defense system that has survived to the present day. As the attacks of nomadic tribes from the north on the European mainland increased, Rome began to build walls around their cities.

However, until the reform of Diocletian in the late 3rd century, Rome's state and army system was largely remained unchanged. But the political and military system established by Diocletian's reform soon resulted in the division of the empire into two. Thus, the Roman Empire lived for two centuries as divided into East and West.

While the Eastern Roman Empire, one of these two states, developed new military systems, doctrines and concepts against new threats, the army of the Western Roman Empire could not make a major change in its classical structure. As a result, the Western Roman Empire, which was not successful in the fight against new threats, collapsed on September 4, 476.

The Eastern Roman Empire, on the other hand, lived for about a thousand years and was destroyed in 1453 by Fatih Sultan Mehmet. After that, the Ottoman Empire developed rapidly and succeeded in filling the gap of the Eastern Roman Empire thanks to its superior military power. In fact, the broadest borders of the Ottoman Empire and the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire at the time of its establishment are almost the same. But no great and stable power emerged in Europe that could fill the vacuum created by the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

This situation is the main reason for the long-lasting instability in Europe after 476. This problem must have been noticed right after the fall of Western Rome, as some attempts were made to fill the power vacuum that emerged in Europe. Those who made and supported these initiatives gave the name Rome to the new military and political systems created to fill the power vacuum. Interestingly, those who tried to re-establish Rome were the ones who destroyed it. These are tribes of Germanic origin.

Although the destruction of Western Rome was at the hands of the Germans, it was the Turkish communities that made the greatest contribution to its weakening. The most important of these Turkish communities are the Huns. The reason that brought the Huns against the Romans was the military and political developments that took place far away from Europe. In support of the "Chaos Theory", the flutter of butterflies in the far east of Asia did not cause a storm in Europe, but the political games of the Chinese brought the end of a great empire in the western part of Eurasia that had nothing to do with these events.

The Northern Huns, whose state was destroyed as a result of China's oppression and political games, migrated to the west and established the European Hun Empire approximately 200 years later. Before they had direct borders with Rome, the Germanic tribes, who migrated to the west under their pressure, started to strike the first blows on Rome and weakened the empire. A short time later, the Huns reached the borders of Rome and loaded into Western Rome together with the Germanic tribes they took with them.

The Huns have fought with China for centuries, but they never thought of destroying China or ruling China themselves. Maybe because of this historical infrastructure, it is understood that they did not think of destroying the Roman Empire. For example, Attila returned after a one-on-one meeting with the Pope, when he was ready to capture the capital of the Roman Empire. Although there are many speculations about what Atilla and the Pope talked about and why Atilla returned after this speech, the real situation is not known.

Perhaps the Pope persuaded him to return by telling him what would happen if Rome fell. He said that if Rome collapsed, Europe would be dragged into instability, and this would weaken and even destroy the Hun Empire. Because Rome, as opposed to the Huns, is also their reason for existence. If Rome is destroyed, the Germanic tribes, who have no strong rivals, will probably withdraw their soldiers, which are more numerous than the Huns, from the Hun army and establish their own state. In other words, the survival of the multinational Hun army, a significant part of which consisted of soldiers belonging to the Germanic tribes, and therefore the Hun Empire, which was based on this army, depends on the survival of Rome.

Or the main reason was the same that they didn't invade China. It is possible that the Huns, who lived on nomadic livestock and were very few in population compared to settled agricultural societies, did not think of invading China for the same reason as they did not think of invading China in order not to lose their nomadic equestrian culture and assimilate among the dense Chinese population. . Instead, the Huns exerted constant pressure on both Romans, causing the Romans (both eastern and western Romans) to fear extinction and taxed them annually. In other words, the existence of Rome was a source of livelihood and even enrichment for the Huns.

But with Atilla's untimely death, everything changed rapidly. The Huns were dispersed due to the power struggle and the Germans, who filled the void created by their absence, became stronger and became a dominant power in central Europe. As a result of these unexpected successes, they must have been caught in a greatness complex, and unlike the Huns, they did not hesitate to destroy the Western Roman Empire. But soon after they did They noticed the ancestor and tried to establish Rome again, but this time under their own rule.

(To be continued)

References
In this article, the dates, place names, personal names and treaty names have been written by checking Wikipedia to avoid any inaccuracies.
Except for the ones taken from Wikipedia, all the information was written extemporaneously.