18 December 2010

BRITANNIA and HISPANIA

Two political states that exist today - which are really very flimsy historical creations - "El Reino de Espan~a" and "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" have some of their origins and the origins of their names in the names of Roman PROVINCES of the IMPERIUM ROMANUM -

HISPANIA and BRITANNIA.

The creation of the state of the Kingdom of Spain in particular in 1492 was one of the birthplaces of modern political nationalism.... often a great evil......

In Roman thinking political states as we conceive them would have been nearly inconceivable....

The basis of Roman political organisation and thinking about the world in general was the CITY of course - the CIVITAS...

and after that perhaps the province PROVINCIA.......

TBC

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10.09.12

It is fascinating - if a bit contrived - to compare the fact that it became absolutely illegal more or less overnight to be Jewish or Muslim in the Kingdom of Spain in 1492;
and very similarly - and for similar reasons - it became absolutely illegal more or less overnight to be a Roman Catholic Christian in the kingdom of England in about 1534.

Both of these measures - at that time - were "on pain of death".

Both these "staging posts" were also contemporaneous with the commencements of two of the biggest Empires in history - the Spanish Empire and the British Empire.

.......