Tonight I spent some time watching a documentary by BBC called, "Cahokia, America's Lost Metropolis" (Link is to the radio program regarding Cahokia). The film delves into the mound builders of the Mississippi River area where a great city was built. The society grew to become a major metropolis, only to collapse after hundreds of years of developing a growing culture.
The fascinating part of the documentary to me is that when the society began to crumble, it is thought to have resulted about the same time a stockade was built around the ruling elite's central seat. This tells me that class warfare, where the rulers placed themselves above the other people, took place. They built the stockade, but it is believed the collapse happened within. A battle for power.
The power structure had expanded, and government became too big for its britches. Elitists fought for position, and the corruption within brought down the whole system.
Sort of like today's expanding progressive system.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Sort of like today's expanding progressive system.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
1 comment:
I visited Cahokia about 10 years ago. From the top of the largest mound, known as Monk's Mound, you can see St. Louis to the west. (Some French monks settled there long after the natives abandoned it, hence the name.) Nearby is a reconstructed circle of wooden posts called Woodhenge, which might have been used to track the seasons. The name Cahokia comes from an Indian tribe that lived in the area when Europeans made contact, but the actual builders had already left the place.
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