Ever wonder how history affects us today? I will tell you one part of history and how it affects you today. Particularly the part about the Roman empire. The things I shall teach you about the Roman empire, that affect you today are: today’s legal systems, empires and a lot of wars. In my opinion history is very important to learn, because it can teach you as much about present things as it can about past things.

We’ll start about talking how today’s legal systems are affected by the Roman empire.

The Roman model was a legal system that was used during the Roman empire. The legal system has a large central government, that is able to levy taxes, make war and create inflation. This causes unemployment and poverty. The Roman model was the predecessor of political law. Almost every country in the world has political law as it’s legal system.

The Roman disease is the assumption that laws can be made by lawmakers, instead of judges discovering laws, like in common law. The Roman disease created the Roman model and statism.

Statism is the assumption that political power is good and that we should embrace it. It also assumes that government can solve problems and that to solve these problems you should use force. The last thing it assumes is that the governments laws are the most important and only type of law. Statism originated from the Roman empire.

If you don’t believe me that all this came from the Roman empire then i have proof with me. At the end of the Roman empire there was crushing taxes, inflation, a lot of poverty, unemployment and they we’re fighting against barbarians. When the barbarians invaded the Roman empire, the roman citizens welcomed them as their savior. The things i mentioned here we’re only a few things that we’re happening at the end of the Roman empire.

The second way that the Roman empire affects us today, are the several empires popping up every few centuries.

The reason politicians want to build empires is, because they want to recreate the Pax Romana. (if you don’t know what the Pax Romana is then click this link: link) The politicians want to create it due to the strong central government. They don’t care about the peace part.

The reason these empires die is, because of the roman disease. The citizens get sick of, high taxes, inflation, war, poverty and high unemployment, which is all caused by the Roman disease. Then what happens next is either they get attacked by somebody else and the citizens welcome them or the citizens rebel against the government. Example’s of these empire’s are the Soviet empire, the Roman empire, the British empire, the Ottoman empire, and more.

After the empire fall’s the empire splits into small pieces. Without a good legal system, like common law, the small territories start warring with each other. After a while of continues wars one territory starts rebuilding the empire before it. It becomes a endless loop of empire -> small territories  -> empire and so on.

A example of an empire falling a part. Then after the empire fell small countries start warring with each other to become the new empire. This is the Soviet empire. When the Soviet empire fell it split into a lot of countries. Very soon some of these countries will start fighting again. We’ve already seen countries in the Eastern-Balkans and in the Caucasus fighting with each other, but that is not all. The’re will soon be more to come.

Lastly the third way that the Roman empire affects you today is a ton of wars. I mean a ton of wars. I don’t only mean the wars that it fought during it’s existence.

You might be wondering how the Roman empire caused a lot of wars after it collapsed. I will tell you how this happens. First, the Roman disease created the Roman model and statism, which leads to politicians wanting to build empire’s. Empire’s want to expand their empire, they declare war on other countries. See the connection? The countries the Roman empire actually declared war on are the wars it directly caused. The other wars it caused with the method i just taught you, are the indirect wars the Roman empire caused.

A example of a war that was caused by the legacy of the Roman empire was WW1 and WW2 (World War 2 blog post coming soon). the Roman empire caused Germany to want to build a empire, like the British and the Soviets  in WW1 and WW2. It obviously didn’t work out for the Germans very well.

Another example of a war that was caused by the legacy of the Roman empire was the war between Christians and Muslims. The war started when the Byzantine empire fell, which was replaced by the Ottoman empire. The Christians didn’t like it that the Ottoman empire was Muslim and they wanted their land back. The Christians fought a few wars in the Balkans, but it stopped eventually. Then after the Ottoman empire came the Soviet empire. The Christians got their land back during the Soviet empire. When the Soviet empire fell it got split into a lot of countries. Now the war between the Muslims and the Christians is coming back with a vengeance. There could be wars in the areas that were controlled by the Soviet empire.

To summarize, the Roman empire affects today’s legal systems, the drive to establish empires and a lot of wars.