Throughout history there have been brief bits of time where everything in the developed world was going pretty good, and by pretty good I mean pretty peacefully. They're typically brought about when an empire or nation gets a little cocky and decides that they're superior to the rest of the whole known world. Now these blocks of time are pretty important, because during times of stability and peace you get a lot of art and trade, which is what historians really like to sink their teeth into. The reason for a whole lot of art and economic development during times of peace is pretty understandable; you can't run a business or hold a paintbrush if you've got to run into battle and hold a sword. And so in this article we're going to take a look at each of the different Paxes, take a look at the cultural developments during their time, and why they ended it they were so great. 

 

The Pax Romana (27BCE - 180CE): The Pax Romana is the Grandaddy of all Paxes, and directly translates to "Roman Peace." The 200 year span covers a period of peace and prosperity throughout the Roman Empire. You saw Rome reach it's peak size under Emperor Trajan from Mesopotamia to England, while you still had civil order and rule of law. It started up when Octavious (better known as Augustus Caeaser) was declared "Augustus" by the senate in 27BCE, after long series of civil wars which he pretty much started after his uncle, Julius Caesar, got stabbed 23 times on the floor of the senate. Augustus finished what Uncle Julius started, and through his careful statesmanship was able to maintain his position as Emperor, and with a unified Rome and a few thousand legions behind him, the Pax Romana. Throughout the next 100 years, you saw all sorts of cultural developments; those Roman roads which all ancient historians obsess over were built, you had the Pantheon and the Colosseum constructed, the Augustus of Prima Porta statue was created, the Roman Forum became a thing, theatres also became a thing, and so on. Basically if it had to do with the arts, it happened. Now the question of the end of the Pax Romana is a bit of a tough one, because it has to do with the decline of Rome itself, and historians love to point fingers at like a thousand different things as to why that happened. The official end of the Pax Romana is marked in 180AD by the death of Marcus Aurelius rise of his son, Commodus to power. Now obviously, things don't go from really good to really bad in a day and it's hard to really pin moment of the beginning of the end, but blaming Commodus is a solid start. The guy was essentially an egotist, who actually believed he was the reincarnation of Hercules, and would often fight exotic animals in the Colosseum himself, and would force the Roman people to go. Sources say he killed 100 lions in a day, and once decapitated an ostrich. Not the best PR for an emperor. Imagine being so bad at what you did that your ascention to power marks the end of a golden age. Tough looks for Commodus. Worse looks for that ostrich.

 

 

Pax Mongolica (1200AD-1300AD): This one has by far the coolest name. Now, many people don't associate the Mongols with peace. Most people associate the Mongols with flinging bubonic plague infested corpses over the walls of cities. Pretty much the antithesis of peace. And yet, they too have a Pax. The Pax Mongolica is a little less clean cut, in that there's no direct start date or end date. Most historians agree that ironically the Mongol peace begins with a whole lotta Mongol war. But you know what they say, you need to break a few eggs to make an omlet, only in this case a few eggs were fourty million people. Genghis Khan is the true star of this story, in 1203 he reorganized the army of his small nomadic tribe on the steppes of Asia. And by 1279, he'd conquered all of Eurasia, from Korea to China to Ukraine to Syria. How he did it  is a topic for another article (here's a hint: bows and arrows and a lot of horses), the main importance is the effect it had. It's important to realize that the Mongols were not very artsy folks, and during their Pax you didn't see many sculptures or architectural wonders coming from their camp, unless you're a big fan of yurts. What they did introduce, however, was the art of trade. You see before the Mongols did their thing, you essentially had a very fragmented Eurasia. China was off in the East, and the Mediterranean world was off in the west, and so these centers of wealth were totally disconnected. The Mongols flipped all that upside-down. The Khan's of the empire facilitated trade between their newly conquered area, and for the first time ever goods made on either side of the known world could reach each other. Merchants began to safely travel between Europe and China forming, you guessed it, the Silk Road. These two worlds, previously totally isolated from each other, became eternally fused together as trading partners thanks to the stability the Mongols provided in the land between them. Through a strict legal code known as Yassa, a massive mobile army to enforce it, and their new invention the postal service, they were able to effectively administrate the largest land empire ever. Until it very quickly wasn't. The end of the Pax Mongolica is just as obscure as it's start, and there's a variety of causes which pulled the Mongols back into the Asian Steppes. Firstly, when you have a territory as big as they did, it's easy for little factions to gain power, which is exactly what happened. The land was divided into "Khanates", which started to demand more and more autonomy. Some Khanates converted to Islam. Some got super into Chinese stuff. Regardless, the rivalries between the Khanates lead to decentralization, and political rivalries. That combined with the black death lead to a whole lot of instability, and uprisings throughout the empire eventually tore everything apart, and the land trade between the East and West as a result grinded to a halt.

 

 

Pax Britannica (1815AD - 1914AD): The Pax Britannica, also known as Britain's "Imperial Century", is basically when the British decided that it was only fair that the world was theirs. And with a new industrial base and France out of the way after Napoleons defeat in 1815, there wasn't really anyone around to stop them. With their victory in the Napoleonic Wars, England had themselves a few new colonies: little bits of southern Africa, and Malta, along with the colonies which they already had: Australia, a chunk of India and Bangladesh, Australia, Newfoundland, and some islands in the Caribbean. Now the British government during this rise to power embraced what is known as Mercantilism, which basically means the government controls the trade, and the trade's gotta benefit the government. And so the British East India company was formed to do exactly that, and controlled the spice trade in the East and rained opium down in China. The English navy had the back of these companies, and through their total oceanic dominance the seas and all trade therein was pretty much controlled by the English. China tried to say no to that opium trade a few times, but you don't mess with a Pax and so the Chinese got smacked, but as a consolation they got even more opium. This victory in China led to the establishment of what's known as the "informal empire"; places like India and China where the British didn't govern directly, but still had influence and control. The British then were able to stop Russia from growing any more powerful through the Crimean War, which was a great success because Russia was really the only threat to the Empire. Canada then became a thing, New Zealand became a thing (after killing a whole lot of Mauri), South Africa became a thing, the East India Company grabbed a little more land in India, which led to a bit of a revolt, which lead to the British government taking all of India (whoops). Then, after the Berlin Conference in 1885, Britain grabbed a solid half of all of Africa. And so, through total naval dominance, the British controlled 10,000,000 square miles and forty million people. But you know what beats a sailor? A machine gun. And that's exactly what went down in 1914, and the kickoff of the first World War. The creation of Germany and Italy in Europe pretty much destabilized the whole thing, and with the advent of the US and Japan as world powers, England didn't look so scary. Even though the British Empire won and even gained territory after the war, the Pax Britannica certainly had come to an end.

 

Pax Americana (1945-???): And so we come to the final Pax. The greatest of Paxes. The Pax Americana. The reason for this new period of peace is pretty clear - there was just a period of very not peace, and America came out on top. And now, Americans had an interest in abandoning the usual strategy of isolationism in order to rebuild the world in a favorable way, namely rebuilding Japan as an ally, and establishing friendly democracies around the globe. Now, the beginnings of the Pax Americana is a bit weird, because in order for you to have a Pax we've established that you need to have dominance over the entire globe, or at least the relevant parts. Well, in the post-war period, you had some communist polar bears who would have said that they were in fact the sole global power. And this has lead some historians to dub the period from 1945-1992 the Pax Americana et Sovetica. Credit where credit is due, I guess. But, eventually America slapped those polar bears back into Siberia (also known as the collapse of the Soviet Union), and the true Pax Americana emerged. Most notably, there's been no major wars, no nuclear weapons used in conflict, and the United States emerged as the dominant player on the United Nations Security Council, and the US leads the World Trade Organization.  Now there has of course been backlash to the Pax Americana. The idea of "American Imperialism" is a little bit of a gut check, in that American influence in meddling with other countries in the name fo democracy has been damaging and selfish. Now the question becomes, when will the Pax Romana come to an end? Will it come to an end? Has it already ended (cue dramatic music and "thanks Obama" memes)? As historians that kind of leaves our field because it has to do with the present, and we're far more concerned with dead people. So, the answer to that is give it a hundred years and then I'll have an answer for you.