Celts, Korea and Civilization
Celts, Korea and Civilization
Celts, Korea and Civilization
Korea resists Chinese civilization
Why this question is in the forefront of my mind is that I've been preparing articles on East Asian history. What happened there is that Chinese civilization got going (pardon these broad brush phrases) in the centuries after 2000 BC, and within a few centuries had spread throughout the core area of China i.e. the Yellow River and Yangze Valleys, together outliers such as Sichuan and the Gansu corridor. The Korean peninsula was affected by Chinese influences from c. 1000 BC at the latest, when rice came into the country from southern China; however, it doesn't seem to have been before c. AD 200 that Korean civilization reached Chinese levels of sophistication. Why did it take so long? (This is a particularly pertinent question because Korean culture later proved itself to be one of the most inventive in World history.)
Why do civilizations spread quickly and apparently easily into some areas, but much more slowly into others?
Intense contact
In the case of the Greek influence on Italy and Gaul, a large part of the answer must lie in the sheer intensity of Greek colonization of southern Italy an area which the Romans later called "Magna Graeca". This, combined with the long, narrow nature of the Italian peninsula, must have meant that no Italian community was too far from one of these new Greek settlements.
Gaul, on the other hand, was a part of the main European landmass, a vast area where most of the population would have been far distant from Greek influence. We know that this influence was indeed felt over a very wide area Greek pottery and metal jewellery has been recovered from as far afield as north Germany; and Celtic smiths and potters took to producing their goods with Greek-influenced designs. But meaningful contact would have been restricted to a small area on or near the Mediterranean coast. Also, there were only a couple of significant Greek colonies on this coast, so contact between the Greeks and the Celts would have been far less intense than in Italy.
City states v tribal societies
Is this the whole story? Going back to Korea, the Chinese Han Empire actually conquered quite a large part of the peninsula in 108 BC, some areas of which remained under direct Chinese rule for more than four centuries. The archaeological evidence shows that trade between China and Korea flourished during these centuries, and that Korean ceramics, metal work and other fields were greatly influenced by Chinese designs and techniques. However, Chinese cultural influences seem to have been comparatively superficial; they did not lead to far-reaching changes in Korean society or politics. Outside the Chinese provinces Korea remained a society dominated by warrior chiefdoms.
In the fourth century the situation changed radically ironically, after the last Chinese provinces had been taken back by the Koreans. It was now that Confucianism and Buddhism entered the country in force, when the Korean elite adopted Chinese-style literacy, and the Korean states adopted bureaucratic structures modelled on the Chinese civil service. Korean cities rivalled Chinese in size and grandeur.
Influence v change
In Europe, the first few centuries of contact between Greeks and Celts did not result in any deep changes in Celtic society. Whereas in Italy, city-states sprang up, literacy (based on the Greek-style alphabet) spread, and the republican mode of government was widely adopted, in Gaul none of these things happened. Society remained tribal and illiterate, even near the Mediterranean coast. On the other hand, strong Greek and Etruscan influences can be seen in Celtic art. It was only in the century or so prior to Caesar's conquest of Gaul that some sizeable towns appeared in Gaul, and that literacy began to spread.
Why did the civilizations of the Greeks, Phoenicians and Etruscans not have more of an impact on the Celts? One answer is that Mediterranean civilization had taken root in the social organization of the city-state a compact society with a very intense community life. Where this form could flourish, so too could Mediterranean civilization. Where, as in Gaul, these small-scale societies could only exist as foreign plants on the margins, the civilization they nourished could not spread. Gallic society remained divided into large, territorial tribes, against which individual city-states could not have survived long. It needed the military might of Rome to protect the new cities which sprang up in Roman Gaul before Mediterranean-style urban life could flourish there.
The Spread of Cities
Much the same thing happened in Korea. What is not always appreciated is that early Chinese civilization was as much based on the city as was that of Greece. Even though the republican form of government did not appear here, the walled city was seen very much as the agent and guardian of civilized life, and the expansion of Chinese civilization was the story of the planting of small cities ever further away from the Chinese heartlands.
When Chinese civilization came up against Korean society, it could make little headway for many centuries because here was a powerful, non-urban society, well adapted to its environment. It was not until, through conflict with the Chinese, the Koreans developed strong, unified kingdoms, that civilization was able to establish itself here with the need for literate officials and cities which could service the needs of elaborate royal courts.
I'll almost certainly be returning to these themes again, as I find the spread of civilizations a fascinating topic.
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