“Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” - Thomas Hobbes
“Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.” Jean Jacques Rousseau
In January 1238 the Moskva River was frozen solid. This made it a great highway for the advancing army. The Golden Horde was commanded by Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan. Batu only knew victory and approaching Moscow he must have felt confident in continued success on the battlefield. His latest round of imperial conquest had begun the year before.
In 1237 Batu marched on Riazan. He was seeking a tribute of ten percent of armaments and of the armed men. Iurii Igorevich the prince of Riazan refused. This meant a battle would ensue. Iurii reached out to the nearby cities requesting aid, but it would be too slow in coming. Riazan fell to Batu.
Batu continued his advance. Geoffrey Hosking in his book Russia and the Russians notes:
“In Vladimir many of the inhabitants took refuge in the Cathedral of the Assumption, where they were burned alive or hacked to death by the assailants if they tried to escape. Suzdal suffered a similar fate: they plundered the church of the Holy Virgin and burned down the Monastery of St. Dimitri, and the others they plundered. The old monks and nuns and priests and the blind, lame, hunchbacked, and sick they killed, and the young monks and nuns and priests and priests’ wives and deacons and their wives, and their daughters and sons-all were led away into captivity.”
Moscow was a town of about 6,000 people when Batu Khan began his march on the city. The defense of the city fell to Phillip the Tutor. Simon Morrison in his book A Kingdom and a Village writes about the attack as follows:
“The commander sat on his horse as the enemy approached then reinforced his head with the sign of the cross, opened the gates of Moscow and screamed. The mongols imagined a huge army coming at them even though there wasn’t one and retreated. Batu advanced captured Philip alive, tore him apart and scattered the pieces in a field. The commander of Moscow died, the primary chronicle declares for his orthodox Christian faith. The mongols torched Moscow’s walled wooden palace, churches, and everything else.”
The Golden Horde could not be defeated and thus began the 240 year Mongol yoke over Moscow and the other cities of Russia. Until someone could rise up and throw off the shackles that bound them Russia would be controlled by foreign power. The jungle only respected the strongest.
Thomas Aquinas is credited as one of the greatest proponents of natural law. During his time in Cologne he was taught by Albertus Magnus. Magnus used the teachings of Aristotle in his mentorship of Thomas Aquinas.
Samuel Adams believed in American Independence from Great Britain. He is one of the most well know Son's of Liberty. On August 1, 1776 he gave a speech to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.
Hefei, China Thursday 6:00AM
The rising sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon. The darkness of night was about to give way to the light of day. The sleeping city would soon be bustling with activity completely unaware of what had occurred while it slept.
Zhao Kai stood outside a small warehouse looking building. For all of the modernization that had been occurring in China this building had been skipped. At least on the outside. It appeared old and nearly abandoned but the inside told a different story. Before Kai entered the building he glanced at the rising sun. This was his favorite moment of the day. The blinding light of the sun was a weapon that he used literally.
On numerous occasions he would take a prisoner to a spot where there was an unobstructed view of the rising sun. Then he would bind them in such a way that they had to stare directly into the sun. If he did his job right they would not be able to close their eyes and would return to their prison cells blinded for life. If he didn’t just kill them. That punishment would not be on the table today but perhaps tomorrow. He liked ...
