Christmas Every Day

476

The Fall of the Roman Empire in the West

Though Rome was sacked in 410 by a Visigothic horde and again in 451 by a Vandal fleet, the empire in the West itself continued to exist, though in a much weakened condition. An emperor ruled, at least on paper, from Ravenna on the northeast Italian coast. Real power was in the hands of the generals, many of them of Germanic descent, in charge of the few Roman armies left in the field and of the barbarian chieftains whose tribes had overrun most of the West. Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Picts, Scots, Alemanni, Burgundians, etc., had all carved off pieces of the empire.

In 475 a teenager by the name of Romulus Augustulus had been set up as Western Emperor by one of his generals but he exercised no real power. The next year an army of Ostrogoths led by Odoacer finished its conquest of the Italian peninsula by taking Ravenna. Romulus was forced to hand over the imperial regalia — crown, orb and scepter — to his barbarian conqueror but his life was spared. The position of emperor had fallen so low that the incumbent was not even worth killing; the boy was simply sent on his way with a pension to console him. Odoacer never bothered to claim the throne either, pretending to rule Italy on behalf of Zeno, the emperor in Constantinople to whom he sent the regalia. Zeno then declared the division of the empire at an end; henceforth until 1453 the Roman Empire was ruled from Constantinople.

Italians could not have been too unhappy or dismayed by those events. Peace was restored and taxes continued to be collected. One vexatious point was that the Ostrogoths were Arian (non-trinitarian Christians) with their own hierarchy of bishops ruling over a largely Trinitarian (Catholic, Chalcedonian, Nicene; take your pick) population. Toleration was usually the order of the day — for the Gothic rulers Arianism was a tribal badge — but Catholic bishops often had to struggle to keep their church buildings. The Ostrogoths built a number of beautiful churches in Ravenna, especially the Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo, with its gorgeous mosaics. (Arians in North Africa were much less accommodating and genuine persecution took place there.)

1260

Mongols smacked down

One of the most consequential battles in world history that most people are unaware of took place on this day in present-day Israel, north of Jerusalem at a place known as Ain Jalut or Goliath’s Spring.  It was there that an army of the all-conquering Mongols was met by a force of Mamelukes from Egypt.

For three generations vast Mongol armies had erupted on to the civilized world, smashing those who resisted them, and setting up an empire that stretched from Poland to the South China Sea. In the late 1250s it was the turn of the Muslim kingdoms of the Middle East. In 1258 the Mongols sacked Baghdad so brutally that its loss is still blamed for the centuries-long decline of the Islamic world. It was then the turn of the Mamelukes of Egypt. To their ruler Qutuz, the Mongol Khan Hulagu sent the following chilling message:

From the King of Kings of the East and West, the Great Khan. To Qutuz the Mamluk, who fled to escape our swords. You should think of what happened to other countries and submit to us. You have heard how we have conquered a vast empire and have purified the earth of the disorders that tainted it. We have conquered vast areas, massacring all the people. You cannot escape from the terror of our armies. Where can you flee? What road will you use to escape us? Our horses are swift, our arrows sharp, our swords like thunderbolts, our hearts as hard as the mountains, our soldiers as numerous as the sand. Fortresses will not detain us, nor armies stop us. Your prayers to God will not avail against us. We are not moved by tears nor touched by lamentations. Only those who beg our protection will be safe. Hasten your reply before the fire of war is kindled. Resist and you will suffer the most terrible catastrophes. We will shatter your mosques and reveal the weakness of your God and then will kill your children and your old men together. 

Qutuz replied by killing the Mongol emissaries and displaying their heads on the walls of Cairo; he then led his army into Palestine. There his numerically-superior forces met a Mongol division strengthened by the knights of local Christian territories who had been intimidated into aiding the invaders. Using the old fake-retreat-hidden-ambush trick the Mamelukes pounced on the too-confident Mongols and killed all those who did not retreat. This battle marked the end of this wave of Muslim expansion westward, leading many historians to wonder what would have happened if the outcome had been reversed. One of these has speculated thus:

Had the Mongols succeeded in conquering Egypt, they might have been able to carry on across North Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar. Europe would have been surrounded from Poland to Spain. Under such circumstances, would the European Renaissance have occurred? Its foundations would certainly have been far weaker. The world today might have been a considerably different place. As it was, the Mamluks not only stopped the Mongols’ westward advance, but—just as important— they also smashed the myth of Mongol invincibility. The Mongols’ belief in themselves was never quite the same, and ‘Ain Jalut marked the end of any concerted campaign by the Mongols in the Levant. In saving Cairo from the fate of Baghdad, the battle of ‘Ain Jalut also sealed the doom of the relatively weaker remaining Crusader states. Mamluk Egypt rose to the pinnacle of Islamic political, military and cultural power, a position it maintained until the rise of the Ottomans some 200 years later.

Things did not go well after the battle for either of the two leaders. Qutuz was assassinated on his way home by one of his generals and Hulagu faced rebellions from other Mongol princes.

1966

Death of the Jihadi Intellectual

Sayyid Qutb (1906-66) was an Egyptian-born author and Islamic theorist, enormously influential in establishing the intellectual foundations of Muslim notions of the modern state and justification for violence.

Quite was born to prosperous parents in an Egypt that was theoretically a kingdom but was, in fact, a British protectorate. He received a good Western-designed education, became a teacher, and then a civil servant, with a growing reputation as a poet and literary critic. Though a devout Muslim, he came to despise the backward imams of Egypt; and despite the fact he had studied in the United States, he developed an intense hatred of the West — it was soul-less, sexually-obsessed, secular, and mechanistic.

After his return from his studies in the USA, Qutb became involved with the Islamic Brotherhood, a powerful Muslim organization that sought increased influence for their brand of religion in all aspects of Egyptian life. The Brotherhood and Qutb opposed the corrupt Egyptian monarchy and dabbled with a group of army officers who were plotting to overthrow the government. When the colonels of the Free Officers Movement, who would come to be dominated by Gamel Abdel Nasser, had driven out King Farouk they revealed themselves to be Arab nationalists and secularists, rather than the Islamic liberators that the Brotherhood had hoped for.  There was a falling out and the Brotherhood tried to assassinate Nasser, which lead to a crackdown on Islamists and Qtub being jailed.

In prison Qutb wrote his two masterpieces, a 30-volume In the Shade of the Qu’ran and Milestones, a work of political theory. Qutb wanted all human life subject to the Koran and sharia law but also respected the contributions of modern science; in order to achieve this end, offensive jihad was obligatory on all Muslims. Though Qutb ws executed in 1966 for another anti-Nasser plot, his works lives on, directly inspiring Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

1968

Riots in Chicago

1968 was a horrible year, the “Year of the Pig” as many called it. The fighting in Vietnam accelerated with the Communist Tet Offensive and its massacres of civilians, followed by the discovery of atrocities committed by American troops at My Lai.  Civil riots and violent disturbances roiled American campuses while massive antiwar protests convinced President Lyndon Johnson not to stand for reelection. A white supremacist had murdered Martin Luther King, setting off riots in 100 American cities, and a Palestinian activist had murdered New York Senator Robert Kennedy who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. In Paris, the workers and students were in revolt forcing French President de Gaulle to panic and flee the country. Similar outbursts of street disorders were experienced in Berlin and London. Russian tanks crushed the nascent liberalization movement of the Prague Spring.

Meanwhile in Chicago delegates were gathering for the Democratic National Convention bringing a host of controversial issues with them. There were rival delegations from various states each claiming to be the true representatives of the party; race was a chief issue here. The role of backstage manipulation of the agenda and voting by Chicago mayor Richard Daley and party insiders was a hot topic. Where would the antiwar delegates pledged to the dead Robert Kennedy go — to his antiwar rivals Ted Kennedy, George McGovern or Gene McCarthy or would they back the establishment nominee Hubert Humphrey?

While the media was chewing these issues over, the larger antiwar and counterculture movements were planning on hijacking the convention for their own ends. The National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE) planned large rallies and marches; the Women’s Strike for Peace announced picketing plans. Various civil rights groups were coming to draw attention to racial demands. More ominous were the threats issued by the Yippies of the Youth International Party, a loosely-knit group of anarchists, libertarians and attention-seekers who had won media time with their  warnings  that nails would be thrown from overpasses to block roads; cars would be used to block intersections, main streets, police stations and National Guard armories; LSD would be dumped in the city’s water supply and the convention would be stormed; a pig named Pigasus would be nominated for President.  Students for a Democratic Society, a Marxist group, that would later spawn a terrorist wing were out in force and prepared for street fighting. All this put the police on edge and ready for violence.

Though most of the protestors gathering in Chicago were intent on peaceful demonstrations, a significant minority was looking for trouble. The SDS, the Yippies, and local black activists provoked the police with disobedience, obscene chants, and throwing bottles and bags of feces. The police replied with excessive force involving baton charges and tear gas. The big mistake by the Chicago Police Force was roughing up several delegates to the convention and a number of media figures. All of this was televised live, giving Chicago and the Democratic party a back eye and leading to the election of Richard Nixon in November.

1940

The Hardest Day

By the summer of 1940 Hitler and his allies controlled all of western and central Europe. Britain stood alone against complete Nazi victory, but its army had retreated from France leaving all its weaponry and transport behind; the only fully-equipped force was a single Canadian division. Should German troops land in Britain, there was little to stop them occupying the whole of the island. Operation Sea-Lion was the German plan to cross the English Channel but first it had to clear the waters of the Royal Navy and the skies of the Royal Air Force.

The Luftwaffe outnumbered the RAF and its veteran fliers had gained experience and confidence in crushing the airforces of Poland France. The German General Staff believed that by attacking English air bases they could force the RAF into battle and destroy its supply of fighter and pilots. Without air cover the British would either be forced to negotiate or stand open to invasion. The attacks began in June, with Hitler demanding a resolution of the situation by mid-August. The Heinkels, Dorniers, Stukas, and Messerschmitts were met by Hurricanes, Spitfires and Defiants over southern England and the Channel.

August 18 is known as the Hardest Day because on this date because the Germans concentrated their attack on a few important bases and the resulting air battles claimed more aircraft and lives than any other single day. Both sides at the time underestimated their losses and exaggerated the damage inflicted on their enemy but it appears that the RAF lost 34 fighter craft and 21 pilots killed or seriously wounded. The Luftwaffe lost 70 planes with 90 crewmen killed and 40 captured. The result was a stategic draw. One historian’s verdict was:

The laurels for the day’s action went to the defenders. The aim of the Luftwaffe was to wear down the Fighter Command without suffering excessive losses in the process, and in this it had failed. It cost the attackers five aircrew killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, for each British pilot casualty. In terms of aircraft, it had cost the Luftwaffe five bombers and fighters for every three Spitfires and Hurricanes destroyed in the air or on the ground. If the battle continued at this rate the Luftwaffe would wreck Fighter Command, but it would come close to wrecking itself in the process

A date of considerable turmoil

1812

The Fall of Fort Detroit

Sir, The force at my disposal authorizes me to require of you the immediate surrender of Fort Detroit. It is far from my inclination to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware that the numerous body of Indians, who have attached themselves to my troops, will be beyond my control the moment the contest commences.

So said British General Sir Isaac Brock to the American commander, Governor William Hull. Hull, equally politely, refused to surrender:

Sir, I have received your letter of this date. I have no other reply to make, than to inform you that I am prepared to meet any force which may be at your disposal, and any consequences, which may result from any exertion of it you may think proper to make.

In the end, however, Hull yielded without firing a shot.

 

1819

The Peterloo Massacre

An open-air Manchester gathering to demand political and economic reform in England is attacked by cavalry of the local authorities. 15 were killed and hundreds wounded; it became a symbol of the difficulties in the struggle for fuller democracy.

1929

Palestine Massacres

Arab resentment over increasing Jewish immigration sparked tension on the Temple Mount where Muslims and Jews worship. These eventually escalated into rioting and then into full-scale atrocities in which 133 Jews were killed along with 110 Arabs.