Brian Griffith's Blog - Posts Tagged "empires"

In the Old World civilizations of ancient warlords and absolute monarchs, subordinate creatures fell into several categories. There were loyal servants of their masters, like the conquered peasants and domestic animals. Then there were non-subject creatures, like the people of rival states or animals in the bush, who were fair game for attack and plunder. Last and worst were enemies within the kingdom, such as traitors, rebellious minorities, criminal gangs, and animal foes of civilization. Back around 1700, as the age of colonial empires got rolling, French archbishop François Fénelon reasoned that “If all countries were peopled and made subject to law and order as they should be, there would be no animals that would attack man.”