End of an Age: Difference between revisions

== Real Life ==

 

* One of the earliest examples of this would be the meteorite collision that ended the Mesozoic era, and hence the extinction of the dinosaurs.

** The ending of the Paleozoic thanks to the [[Apocalypse How|Great Dying]] is an even earlier example.

*** And a bit more than two billion years before that, the "Oxygen Catastrophe" marked the extinction of most anaerobic organisms as oxygen first became a significant part of Earth's atmosphere.

 

* After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Europe was cast into the Dark Age, and large parts of Roman technology and culture where forgotten. Of course, sixth-century Europeans didn't see themselves as being in a Dark Age, and many may have been very happy not to be on the business end of Roman imperialism any longer. Also, "Dark Age" in this context doesn't necessarily refer to the standard of living at the time but rather the fact that we're "in the dark" about a lot of what went on then due to a dearth of contemporary writings. Nowadays most historians refer to this time period as the Early Middle Ages to avoid the connotations of the word "dark."

 

* The destruction of Baghdad in 1258 at the hands of the Mongols ended the so-called "golden age of Islam", which had probably ended by the time of the crusades in most places, but probably continued on in Baghdad. Although Islam had been declining in relative power for quite some time in most areas (thanks to the Crusaders, Mongols, and the Reconquista in Spain), it wasn't until Baghdad was utterly destroyed that Islam's decline really set in. The city of Baghdad was razed, the greatest center of Islamic learning was destroyed, and more people died in that city than (possibly) in the destruction of any other up to that point in time. Losing these centers of learning crippled the progress of Islam. How bad was it? For the next 700 years (roughly), Islam retreated into a rigid state, held back by antique tradition, and going from a relatively tolerant religion into the repressive mess seen today. After Baghdad fell, the momentum of Islam shifted from the Arabs to the Turks, whose Ottoman Empire kept the Middle East in stasis, while Europe would go through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, and advance in every human field. It is only today that (possibly), Arab and Islamic countries are starting to adapt to international standards, and with great resistance from dictators, terrorists, and religious fanatics.

** Losing the second of three Islamic intellectual centers was a hideous blow to the Muslim world, especially when one considers that the first intellectual center to be lost, Cordoba, was reconquered by the Christians, and the last, Cairo, never recovered from the bubonic plague until modern times.

 

* The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 marked the end of [[The Middle Ages]], and it was also the final defeat of the Roman Empire that had been in existence for almost two thousand years. By then, the Empire was just [[The Remnant]], but the defeat sent shockwaves through Christendom. The fifteenth century also brought the flowering of the Italian Renaissance, and the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation that ended the religious dominance of the Catholic Church in Western Europe.

** Of course this is a highly contentious issue - for others the End of [[The Middle Ages]] is marked not by the fall of Constantinople, but by Columbus' first voyage (1492) or Luther's Reformation. And from a Greek-Byzantine point of view there were no Middle Ages, the fall of Constantinople marking the end of antiquity. To a large extent, "The Middle Ages" is a construct of snooty Renaissance writers badmouthing their antecedents. In the view of many (social) historians, the Middle Ages went on until the 18th century in many respects throughout large parts of Europe.

** The Wars of the Roses, which went down just two years after the above happened and would not end until 1485, spelled the end of the age of feudalism in England.

 

* The [[Golden Age Of Piracy]] ended in the early 18th century, with the passage of the Treaty of Utrecht and the rise of conscript armies.

 

* Commodore Perry's arrival in Japan hastened the end of isolationist shogunate rule, which officially came with the ascension of Emperor Meiji in 1867. From that point, Japan embarked on a programme of rapid industrialisation.

* In 1890, the US Census officially declared that the "Frontier" no longer existed. This marked the end of American expansionism and of the "frontier culture" that had characterized the US until then.

 

* [[World War One]], the War To End All Wars, is considered to have ended an era. Before that, human progress seemed unlimited and war and many other ills would be abolished. Alas, the mighty technologies of mass production and automation can be applied to killing people. The realization pretty much put the kibosh on the centuries-old idealism of the Enlightenment. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Nice work, fading monarchies of Europe]] ([[My Friends and Zoidberg|And France]]).

* Very much the sense of Sir Edward Grey's famous words about the outbreak of [[World War I]]:

* The era after the fall of Communism in Europe (E Germany, etc) and friendship between the reforming USSR and America was called The New World Order by Bush 41. [[Conspiracy Theorist|Some took it another (facepalming) way.]]

 

* The above era was said to have ended on 9/11/2001, and the Long War/Terrorism era began.

* Periodically, and especially from 2000 onwards, commentators within and abroad say that this is approaching for the [[United States]]. And [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment|that is all we are going to say about that]].

 

* Chinese scholars have described China as this since the time of [[Confucius]] himself, if not before. This hasn't been affected by the fact that China's had at least three Golden Ages since unification.

* The idea that man is in a state of cultural degeneracy from a perfect golden age is [[Older Than Feudalism]]. [[Plato]] complained that the youth of his age were degenerate and antiauthoritarian. This cycle of the older generation believing 'the youth' are corrupt and only getting worse has basically continued until the present day and probably will not stop now. [[Moral Guardians]] often latch on to [[The New Rock and Roll]] and cite it as a symptom of cultural degeneracy (which can only be reversed by reverting to [[The Good Old Days]]). [[Comic Books]], [[Video Games]], and [[Socrates]] were all blamed for corrupting the youth.

** This tends to run in cycles, as the last big thing becomes more and more dominated by label-created groups that are focus grouped to death until the stage is set for the next revolution in music (movies follow the same pattern). The fact that most of what we remember from past eras is the cream of the crop and ignores [[Sturgeon's Law]] is also a big part of it.

* Pretty much every generation laments for their respective "good old days". Those born in the 20's wished for the days before rock'n'roll; those born in the 50's wish for the days of ''[[Leave It to Beaver]]''; those born in the 60's keep telling those born in the 80's that "we didn't do that sort of thing when we were your age"; and those born in the 80's bitch about how kids have it too easy now, and are growing up soft. It's happened since the dawn of time and will keep happening until the end of mankind as we know it.

** ''[[The Daily Show]]'' lampooned this and said it was because everything seems less complicated when you're a child.

* Atlantis in new-age/pop-culture/pseudohistory.