Post-Colonial History

When it comes to history, there are two remarkable and obvious ways in which it shifts. The more obvious example is when new facts emerge and thus the narrative of what happened during a given time period changes. Another, but less obvious example, is when the perceptions and considerations about a given time period change even though the basic facts remain unchanged. The latter has absolutely happened when it comes to the post-classical era, which ran from 500 to 1450 CE. When looking at the more modern treatises and authors when it comes to that era, it is clear that the perceptions and prisms have changed. While much of what has been established and decided prior about the post-classical era has changed, there is much that has changed in a marked, although not unanimous, fashion.

Analysis

One way of thinking that has clearly changed, and that will be described here, is the lexicon and terminology of that time period. Indeed, the lexicon and how it is crafted and employed gives many firm clues as to what historians and other scholars are thinking about the time period in question. One term that typifies and clarifies this is southernization. This refers to the movement that started in Southern Asia and then extended around the rest...
...

It had its genesis with the Gupta kings in the fifth century CE and happened within the same environment and realm as the Muslim caliphates that were occurring at the same time. It is now attested and asserted that this process started in 500 and then continued to 1300, at which point it seemingly laid the groundwork for westernization and came to pass from 1300 CE to the present. Indeed, Lynda Shafer from Turfs University describes Southernization and westernization as being analogous. The latter of those two terms refers to certain developments that first occurred in Western Europe. Indeed, the advent and emergence of exploration and colonization led to the spread of a singular culture or set of cultures around the world. Indeed, the spread of the cultures endemic and native to the Southern parts of Asia did much the same thing from 500 to 1300 CE [footnoteRef:1]. Another part of the lexicon and vernacular that is shifting is the use of period titles and conventions, with the post-classical era being a good example. Obvious, there are trends and examples that are specific to certain eras in history. However, speaking with too broad a brush and keeping things too high-level just helps to get things wrong and it disregards outliers and variations during certain periods. Periodization, as…