Re: [HIST??] Culture shock

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>

> And would have been pretty well unentrenched had large
> armies of peasants with firearms been allowed to
> attain battlefield effectiveness and stay that way.
> Once peasants could stand against a charge by the
> aristocracy without the benefit of terrain and
> obstacles (ie, by the introduction of flintlock
> muskets with socket bayonets) the aristocracy either
> starts sharing power (see: England) or gets stood
> against a wall (see: France).  The Japanese didn't get
> effective democracy until we nuked them flat.

Unfortunately, the link between firearms and democracy is not quite that
close. Germans and Russsians had firearms as early as anybody. We needed
the
end of WWII to get a solid democracy and the Russian are only now
getting
one (let's hope).

Conversely, some democratic institutions were established well before
firearms, Athenian democracy, Scandinavian 'Thing' assemblies, Medieval
City
states, 'Habeas Corpus' etc.

Greetings
Karl Heinz