Wait, France wasn’t a single country several centuries ago? Several years ago, one was interested in the language of French, but never learned the history of France, until one read this book. The prospect that Europe was a warring place were misty then, but not totally unknown. Yet, without reading history books in depth, one really thought the world was similar to what we have today, with nations as the main ruling country. After all, one only have more knowledge on China’s history and its neighboring countries, which are ruled by dynasties; but the general history books never mentioned about life of peasants. Furthermore, one heard of the Roman Empire, but don’t know how it was rule either. The macro blurs the micro.

It was interesting to know France was divided into smaller entities, from the smaller villages to larger pays, and perhaps only country; but the single voice probably never exits the capital; and the further from the capital, the less effective the words of the king. Local rulers probably don’t even influence much on the villages, but only in the nearest “city” or “town.” Different people speaks different patois (dialects), it’s a wonder how, when a villager makes a visit to the nearest town/city, communicate with other people. Though, it’s possible that the nearer the village, the more similarity in the patois, making one able to understand another that’s not too far away. But there are case where crossing over a river, you might find patois that’s so different from yours that one can’t understand. Perhaps trade between villages facilitates patois to be more similar, if applicable. One don’t know.

Centralization has its advantages, like easier communication, easier information flow, a lot of things easier. Yet, a top down design tends to aim for efficiency, and brings lots of side effects, especially after the fall of the top. For example, if a city suddenly got cut off from central government, food, water, and other stuffs not local to the area can’t be received. On the other hand, a decentralized farm ensures a spread out of risk: if it plants its own food, it won’t have the problem. If it has its own well and water supply, it won’t rely on central distribution. Read more in Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Anyways, after the Revolution (one isn’t sure which Revolution it is, there seems like several Revolution, perhaps the 1789 French Revolution? [1]), they decide to wipe out patois in favor of the French language, build schools that teaches in French and punish whoever using the patois.

France was neither Protestant nor Catholic. In fact, it has its own fairies, virgins, gods, and priests. The Christian spread later. Still, some still throw the Christian’s god and saints away in favor of older customs, with its familiarity. One was misled by present religion, imposed on the distant past, when it could only explain at most “leftover” [2] from within a century.

Before Greenwich Mean Time, the meridian was in Paris. No wonder we have difficulty tracking clock, and figuring out time from the past from our international definition of datetime today. Yet even today, some countries and cities still use their own datetime format; and just several centuries ago, different cities have their own time as a continuum, until the advent of railway, which the station clock has to make it discrete to time its departure and arrival, to make people’s life easier. Unfortunately, time had never been discrete, even today. Yet, we already lived in this unnatural world with unnatural time, perhaps with the most stupid invention about time: the timetable [3].

It’s interesting to know that dogs of the past and dogs of the present are different. Since the invention of automobiles, dogs lost their jobs, and become a pet to be pat at home; at least most dogs. There are still trained dogs at police department to sniff drugs, and other dogs to help human with disabilities, and other dogs to climb the mountains; but overall, many species of dogs no longer have these abilities, nor do we train them to do anything other than going on the stage and make some audience laugh, or being posted to YouTube and other platforms that goes viral for no other reason than people feeling the world too boring and needs something viral to watch. It’s nice to hear that dogs know about travelers who got trap during heavy snow (unsure about blizzard), and they bring with them a basket with food, (water?,) and medical kits which the traveler who got lost can use, and the dog can lead them to the hut. Most fascinating, they aren’t only trained by human owners; but passed on generations to generations, with older experienced dogs teaching it to younger dogs. That would be a rare sight today, perhaps, at least one never heard of it before.

In Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, author mentioned that the Age of Reason was the realization of our ignorance. Yet, even into the early 20th century, France was ignorant of their natural treasure, their land. It wasn’t until British travelers coming to look for some adventure that they “discover” NewFoundLand that locals take for granted. Yes, locals know about them all the time, people are living there, yet no one ever stop and took notice of it, nor have the idea that it’s worth taking notice. Even until British travelers arrived in groups, to see these places before they disappear, “modernized” by railways and other modern inventions, the French didn’t realize it yet as a lost treasure, except probably as a chance to earn some money.

It comes as a shocking news: France got the largest artificial forest in Europe! One know forest can be artificial, but at a large scale? Actually, one don’t know. One don’t know how large is the largest artificial forest, nor do one know how it looks like. In one’s memory, artificial forest tend to be neat and tidy, clearly not randomly placed. Though, as plants grow, it’ll become random. As for animals like deers, they’re imported! Can you believe it? Imported just for the forest to have some life! One is speechless about this, with mixed feelings, unsure to marvel, or to absorb that forest have to be artificial after so many cutting down done in the past, due to our ignorance of nature protection. But who can really protect nature in the past? Bandits lurked in the depth. There’s a phrase in Chinese during war, called “逢林莫入”, meaning to not enter the forest in case there are soldiers hiding and close the encirclement, finally all annihilated. In war times, burning down forest would be a clever trick to save the life of your soldiers; or if you have the time and able to, to go around.

Even today, there may be secrets that we still don’t know. Yes, satellites allow us a view of the world, but from the surface, we can’t scan anything under it. Adventurers may still be traveling to discover things and places not yet discovered. Perhaps, you may one day heard of some underground cavern? One don’t know. Even if not, there are a lot of lost culture that we don’t know today. We probably don’t know how to carve the Damascus sword (or is it some sword that we lost the smithing process, what temperature for how long, and their hammering technique, hence we can’t made that metal anymore). Similarly, the loss of patois was seen by teachers, who’re also historians, as a regret. In certain days, people still dress up as they did several centuries ago, though. Yet, it’s a wonder whether cultural dress are really cultural, as in lasted for several centuries since the Roman Empire. Some scientists who tried to look for it eventually got disappointed, as their cultural dress wasn’t even a century old, and many were spread from Paris, but due to communication barrier, their “fad” was a fad in Paris of the past, yet the new fad didn’t reach the tailor until many years later.

Speaking of Roman Empire, the fascinating thing is, Roman’s road were built to last!!! Can you believe it? They are the best roads, because locally-built roads are shitty! It’s no wonder: if you need to maintain a road made of smashed rocks and stones, and if it’s done by the slaves, it’s near impossible. The slaves built the road for the rich to use, yet it need maintenance, yet the slaves had no obligation to maintain the road that they almost never going to use. And with roads building in sections, and one section unbuilt can make the road unusable for very long. [4]

Perhaps, this was all around Europe. The tiny villages instead of a single government was the norm of Europe several centuries ago. At least, one’s friend told me it was in Germany. Who knows, how it would be in other countries too?

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Notes

1. A list of revolution can be found here, though one can’t ensure that’s all.

2. By “leftover”, one means that science had gradually replace religion globally, so even if it was established within the last one or two centuries, it’s slowly being “replaced.” Though, one don’t know how religious people in France are today, so one can’t really speak about it.

3. The timetable was invented to control the factory workers. Since factory workers have to work in assembly lines, they can’t go to break when they want to. The stupid thing is, you’re not allowed to break if you already feel hungry, and you must go to break even if you don’t feel hungry; perhaps even toilet visits are time, one don’t know. Imagine, you have to pee within 30 seconds, so any extra pee you have, you have to suck it back into your liver. Imagine, you’re only given a fixed amount of time to poop, and any extra poop that didn’t come out during that time, you have to leave it inside your large intestine. Such stupid invention.

4. One wonder, why people can’t cross without the road, even at a slower pace? Is it because of the horse carriage wheel that’ll get stuck? But other people’s carriage wheel had got stuck for long, and had already suffer for many years, can’t they just go? Or maybe there are marsh and swamp, which one doubt how you fill that without it sinking… Though, they’re able to drain the whole province of that land which one forgot the name and plant trees and other plants, such a marvel feat, who say they can’t build a road on a marsh/swamp?

(This article was first published in wabinab.github.io. For more of similar stories, check out the “afterthought” category, where one discuss about the books one read.)