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7.5. Antarctica

Antarctica is the sixth continent of the Earth with the area of 50 million square kilometers, being twice more than the area of Australia. It is discovered in 1820 by Bellingshausen and Lazarev, the great Russian navigators. Prior to this moment, the history of the continent remained under the ice cover. The international-legal status of Antarctica is defined by the corresponding treaty of the 1st of December, 1959, which foresees the exploitation of the territory of Antarctica for peaceful purposes only, prohibits declaring the territorial claims in Antarctica, and ensures the freedom of scientific researches under the condition that natural resources be conserved and preserved[59].

CHAPTER 8

National-state (micro) level of analysis
of the history

Having viewed the main points of the scheme of development of epochal cycles at the global (macro) and regional (medi) levels, we focus our attention at the research of historical cycles at the national-state (micro) level, which corresponds to the scale of our research in general.

The criteria for construction of a similar sampling may be the following: various states should be represented, first, countries of all continents, second, countries belonging to various world religions, and, third, countries with the population of at least 8 million persons as of the end of the 1990’s.

According to the criteria given above, the required sampling may be the following:

##	Country	Population (millions)	Religion	The beginning of development
EUROPE
1.	Austria	8.039	Catholicism	ХIII century
2.	Belgium	10.190	Catholicism	1830 AD
3.	Bulgaria	8.628	Orthodox	680 AD
4.	Vatican	1 thousand	Center of Catholicism	750 AD
5.	Great Britain	58.550	Anglicanism	VI century
6.	Greece	10.560	Orthodox	VIII century BC
7.	Spain	39.220	Catholicism	VII century AD
8.	Italy	57.520	Catholicism	VIII century BC
9.	Netherlands	15.615	Protestantism	ХIV century

Continued

##	Country	Population (millions)	Religion	The beginning of development
10.	Germany	83.870	Catholicism, Protestantism.	843 AD
11.	Poland	38.915	Catholicism	960 AD
12.	Portugal	10.800	Catholicism	1143 AD
13.	Russia	150.50	Orthodox	1147 AD
14.	Belorussia	10.204	Orthodox, Uniate.	ХII century
15.	Hungary	9.963	Catholicism	1000 AD
16.	Romania	22.260	Orthodox	1859
17.	Ukraine	50.500	Orthodox	988 AD
18.	France	58.160	Catholicism	843 AD
19.	Czech Republic	10.320	Catholicism, Protestantism	Х century
20.	Sweden	8.928	Protestantism	IХ century
21.	Yugoslavia (Serbia)	10.635	Orthodox, Catholicism, Islam	IХ century
ASIA
22.	Afghanistan	23.230	Islam	ХVIII century
23.	Bangladesh	124.17	Islam	1947
24.	Vietnam	74.570	Buddhism	VI century AD
25.	Israel	5.575	Judaism	ХI century BC
26.	India	961.69	Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism	IV century BC
27.	Indonesia	208.06	Islam, Catholicism.	VI century AD

Continued

##	Country	Population (millions)	Religion	The beginning of development
28.	Iraq	21.810	Islam	VI century BC
29.	Iran	66.820	Islam	VI century BC
30.	China	1232.310	Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, Catholicism.	ХIV century BC
31.	Korea	45.710 + 24.550	Buddhism	VI century AD
32.	Malaysia	20.770	Islam	ХIII century AD
33.	Pakistan	133.572	Islam	ХII century AD
34.	Saudi Arabia	18.835	Islam	VI century BC
35.	Turkey	63.050	Islam	1071
36.	Japan	125.580	Buddhism, Shintoism	VI century BC
AFRICA
37.	Algeria	29.505	Islam	1711
38.	Ethiopia	57.970	Monophysite Christianity	V century AD
39.	Ghana	17.895	Catholicism	III century AD
40.	Kenya	29.460	Islam	ХIV century AD
41.	Nigeria	105.470	Islam	ХIV century AD
42.	Republic of South Africa	42.120	Catholicism, Islam	1820
AMERICA
43.	Canada	28.975	Catholicism	1608 AD

Continued

##	Country	Population (millions)	Religion	The beginning of development
44.	Mexico	96.630	Catholicism	VI century AD
45.	USA	266.890	Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam	1607 AD
46.	Argentina	34.845	Catholicism	ХVI century AD
47.	Brazil	163.640	Catholicism	1500 AD
48.	Chile	14.420	Catholicism	Х century AD
49.	Peru	23.565	Catholicism	VI century BC
AUSTRALIA
50.	Australia	18.350	Catholicism	ХVII century

First of all, we would like to emphasize the existence of the most characteristic peculiarities of the microlevel of development of cycles. Firstly, ethnic differences are becoming more clear, secondly, the chronology is changing since various nations created their political organizations in different times, thirdly, the differences in the number of epochal cycles are defined more clear, which is the consequence, on the one hand, of the historical age of a nation, and, on the other hand, of the intensity of its history.

It is worth to note that the construction of schemes of the development of epochal cycles for all countries of the presented sampling is the subject of a special research. That is why, we only demonstrate the work of our conception by the example of 11 countries, included into the representative research sampling of 50 countries.

Now let us directly examine the scheme of epochal cycles of Vatican, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, France, Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia, China, India, Japan, and the USA, representing the historical advance-guard of Europe, Asia, and America in the sampling presented above.

8.1. Vatican

The papal States is the center of the catholic world. In the context of the offered conception, we deal with a specific object. The history of Vatican cannot be examined at the national level, as the territory of the state is only 4.4 km2, and the population is about 1 thousand people, mainly Catholic chaplains and the Swiss Guards. However, the state of Vatican as the embodiment of spiritual authority of the Catholic Church that has a global spreading, exerted the influence on the course of history. That is why, in our opinion, it is rightful to show the hypothetical scheme of development of the epochal cycles of Vatican.

The first epochal cycle began on the boundary of Anno Domini since the revolutionary period, whose content was the birth of Christianity as a world religion and a gradual creation of Church structures. The specific event, symbolizing this phase of development, may be the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine (68-69 AD). The involutionary stage of the first epochal cycle (70-313 AD) has, as its content, the struggle between the nascent Christian Church with the state machinery of the Roman Empire. That was the period of mass terror against Christians. In 313 AD, the Milanese edict on the latitude in religion, which turned Christianity into the state religion, was published, and the co-evolutionary stage of the cycle began. Chronologically, this phase continued till 395 when the Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. For the analysis, it is important that this event legalized the differences between the Western and Eastern Christianity.

The evolutionary stage is connected with the history of decline and downfall of the Western Roman Empire (395-476 AD). During this period, the temporal power of Roman Popes is strengthening. They tried to organize a rebuff to Barbarian attacks. But to realize such intentions without necessary material and military resources turned out to be impossible. The subsequent events of VI-VII centuries turned the papal throne into the small change of Barbarian kings, who occupied an ambivalent position. On the one side, in interests of the reinforcement of their political influence, they gradually Christianized, on the other side, they shamelessly robbed Christians.

The situation was overcome by the formal creation of the papal States (756), followed by the victory of the king of franks Pippinus Brevis over Langobards and consolidation of the territory under Pope Stefan III[60]. These events symbolize the revolutionary phase of the second epochal cycle. The content of the new involutionary period (760-800) was a gradual strengthening of Pope’s position in spiritual and civilian affairs of Europe, reaching its culmination with the coronation of Carolus Magnus (800). The co-evolutionary phase of the cycle may be the turn to the policy of intense Christianization of Barbarian nations of the Old continent (800-846). The evolutionary period lasts from 846 through 960 when the growing authority of Rome favored the organization of an attempt of giving a rebuff to the Arabian attacks at the Southern Italy (846) and stimulated the creation of the Holy Roman Empire in 960. In fact, it meant combining the dominative possibilities of Germanic emperors with the spiritual influence of the Holy See and represented «marriage of convenience».

At the same time, growing contradictions between the Eastern and the Western Christianity led to the disruption of the Church to the Catholic and Orthodox ones in 1054. These revolutionary events opened a new epochal cycle of development of Vatican. The Lateran Synod of 1059 concluded that the only electorate of the Pope is the College of Cardinals but not civil feudalists. The content of the involutionary stage of the cycle is the exacerbation of struggle for the supremacy in the feudalist hierarchy between spiritual and civil powers. The most important event became the «travel» of Germanic emperor Heinrich IV to Canossa (1077), that led to a natural weakening of both the spiritual and civil powers and to the spread of heretical sects on the territory of Western Europe. The activity of Pope Innocentius (1198-1216), the symbol of the milestone in the history of Vatican and creation of the Dominican Society in 1215, which prepared the personnel for the Inquisition, was the co-evolutionary phase of development. The history of this period is marked by the activity of such prominent theologians as St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Albertus Magnus (1206-1280), and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). In the following evolutionary period of the cycle (1216-1309), the fall of authority of the Catholic Church and its structures took place. It was favored by low moral qualities of Popes, the acquisitiveness of the church, and the growth of prices of indults.

The political subordination of the papacy to French kings became an obligate consequence of the events described above. It was the so-called Avignon capture of popes that became the symbol of social revolution and marked the beginning of the fourth epochal cycle. The further events reflected the tendency to a strengthening of national hierarchies of the Catholic Church. The remarkable event of the involutionary period of the cycle became the plague epidemic in Western Europe (1348-1349), which not only cut the number of parishioners but undermined the faith. The spirit of tendencies was reflected in the activity of John Wyclif, the professor of theology at Oxford (1320-1384), who demanded abolishment of the pope system and secularizing the property of the Church. His ideas did non gain a wide social support then. The co-evolutionary (reformist) phase of the cycle is connected with the activity of Jan Hus (1369-1415). He was the very person who created the necessary spiritual atmosphere for the future Reformation. The fight of the Catholic hierarchy, well-equipped by the civil authority against the Czech taborits defeated ultimately in 1434, became the repetition of religious wars in Europe.

The evolutionary phase of the cycle lasts from the Florentian Union (1439) – a formal union of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, aimed to save Constantinople from the Turks – to the commencement of the Reformation (1517). In this period, the Inquisition becomes more active, as was guided by the instructions given in «Massacre of Witches» (1487). But a decrease of authority of the traditional Catholic Church structures was not stopped by any means.

The revolutionary stage of the fifth epochal cycle is identified with the beginning of the Reformation (1517) – the declaration of Martin Luther’s 95 theses including the demand for abolishment of indults, justification of faith regardless of Catholic structures, cheap church, and the possibility of worship in national languages. As a result of the partial victory of the Reformation, the influence of the Catholic Church decreased. That is the content of the involution phase of the cycle. Vatican’s attempts to restore its positions by means of the Counter-Reformation resulted in the mass terror of the Inquisition, prohibition of freethinking (during 1559-1966, «Indices of Prohibited Books» were regularly published). The involutionary phase lasted to 1648, till the end of the war between coalitions of Catholic and Protestant states.

The co-evolutionary phase of the cycle (1648-1656) was connected, firstly, with the renewal of Vatican’s control over national catholic hierarchies of Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy and, secondly, with the creation of the Protestant church hierarchy. The evolutionary phase of the cycle (1665-1789) is connected with the fight of the papacy for preserving its influence upon national states. The process became particularly critical because of the struggle for integration of Italy. The Great French Revolution (1789-1792) delivered a blow at the Holy See. The Italian campaign of Napoleon livened up the activity of Italian patriots, directed against the papal States. The Pope became the prisoner of the revolutionary situation which opened the sixth epochal cycle.

In the following involutionary stage (1801-1870), the forces of the united Italy, notwithstanding the proclaimed principle of Pope’s infallibility, liquidated the papal States. The co-evolutionary phase of the cycle (1871-1880) included a further desecularization of life in most European countries. The bright example was the Kulturkampf of Bismarck in the German Empire and the Pope’s declaration of being a king’s prisoner. In the evolutionary period of the cycle (1880-1928), the Catholic structures tuned themselves to the new tendencies of development. «The separation of the Church and the State», the forced refusal from attempts of dictating moral and law norms to parishioners, the acknowledgement of the principle «render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's» opened the way for reconciliation between Vatican and the Italian state.

The revolutionary phase of the seventh epochal cycle began with the Lateran agreements between Benito Mussolini and the Pope on creation of the State of the town of Vatican with the rights of a political subject (1929-1933). In the following involutionary period, the Concordat with Hitler is realized, and a struggle with the godless Soviet regime grows. Vatican is trying to preserve the Church’s institutions under the conditions of the Second World War and takes the function of the spiritual shield of the Christian civilization. The co-evolutionary phase may be hypothetically linked to the Second Vatican Synod (1962-1966), which became a successful attempt of modernization of the Catholic Church. During this period, the worship in national languages was allowed, national Episcopal conferences were established, the representatives of which formed the Pope Synod, and «The Index of Prohibited Books» was abolished. The evolutionary stage of development (since 1966) includes such important events as the election of Karol Voityla (John Paul II) to the Holy See against the 400-year monopoly of Italians, the display of new tendencies of the informational society – the creation of Vatican’s web page in the Internet (1997), public discussions on virtual confession, women’s right to be priests, permissibility of aborts, etc.

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