#Balkan slave trade

[worldwide-blackfolk]

Don’t ever think that there weren’t other #slaves; damn near every race on earth was enslaved at one time or another. Yes, we’re more concerned about Blackfolk, but it’s helpful to know otherwise too. Research it, look into Asia and other areas. Mankind will take a society that is a peaceful people and enslave them.

European slaves

See also: Balkan slave trade, Black Sea slave trade, and Bukhara slave trade

Saqaliba is a term used in medieval Arabic sources to refer to Slavs and other peoples of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe, or in a broad sense to European slaves under Arab Islamic rule.[citation needed]

Through the Middle Ages up until the early modern period,[76] a major source of slaves sent to Muslim lands was Central and Eastern Europe. Slaves of Northwestern Europe were also favored. The slaves captured were sent to Islamic lands like Spain and Egypt through France and Venice. Prague served as a major centre for castration of Slavic captives.[77][78] The Emirate of Bari also served as an important port for trade of such slaves.[79] After the Byzantine Empire and Venice blocked Arab merchants from European ports, Arabs started importing slaves from the Caucasus and Caspian Sea regions, shipping them off as far east as Transoxiana in Central Asia.[80] Despite this, slaves taken in battle or from minor raids in continental Europe remained a steady resource in many regions. The Ottoman Empire used slaves from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The Janissaries were primarily composed of enslaved Europeans. Slaving raids by Barbary Pirates on the coasts of Western Europe as far as Iceland remained a source of slaves until suppressed in the early 19th century. Common roles filled by European slaves ranged from laborers to concubines, and even soldiers.

Christians became part of harems as slaves in the Balkans and Asia Minor when the Turks invaded. Muslim qadis owned Christian slave girls. Greek girls who were pretty were forced into prostitution after being enslaved to Turks who took all their earnings in the 14th century according to Ibn Battuta.[81]

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Hi,

Can I ask your opinion? There is one YouTuber who is lives Spain and USA and he sounds quite basic. Thing that makes me think is that he says that ottoman and Arab slavers weren't as bad as Atlantic slave trade. Reason for that was because slaves can earn their freedom and their children weren't slaves and after they get free they lived part of society etc. He says that best way to find information treatment of slaves is people who own them. What is your opinion of this? Like I know how Balkans they tattooed girls to keep the safe and captured young boys were convert to islam and rise soldiers.

"that best way to find information treatment of slaves is people who own them." oh, really? Let's go read old WASP's accounts of their Black slaves. I'm sure they will be very reflective of the truth, right? 😂😂 It's all "please look at the perspective of the slaves!" until the slaves are European, apparently.

I think this whole discussion of "Arab slavery wasn't that bad" is a way to minimize an extremely wide and despicable slave trade that lasted for more than A THOUSAND YEARS (and still hasn't ended). In comparison, slavery in America lasted from the 17th to the 19th century. (400 years if we are generous)

Also, I'm sure they would change their tune once they learned that "Brown" and "Black" people too were taken as slaves in this slave-trade. Especially "Black" people were taken a lot and in rural areas they were forced to work in the hardest of conditions, often not living more than 5 years.

I will link videos below that mention all the countries where slaves were taken from, reviewed by Black African women. But I will focus here on Europe because that's what USians have in mind when they say "it wasn't that bad".

Whole villages were taken. Villages. For centuries on end. The sheer amount of people who were taken is scary. We are talking about large populations that changed the genetic makeup of certain areas. And we have veeery few accounts of these people earning their freedom. Just because they legally could, it doesn't mean their "masters" let them.

Families were separated. They were killed when they were trying to escape. They could be beaten and lashed at any moment, for any minor inconvenience they created for their "lord". Yes, there were house slaves, too, like in transatlantic slavery, but they were also made to work under extreme conditions (e.g. extreme heat). They were working in plantations and in mining, things that the free people wouldn't do themselves.

They were castrated. They were raped and often carried the child of their rapists. Through these rapes, many children were born and mothers tried to hush this fact and hide it from future generations. Being seen as an "exotic commodity" isn't the flex these people think it is. Being a "white breeding mare" the pirates went all the way to Norway to capture, isn't a flex.

A White woman cost higher than a Black woman (racial discrimination against Black people that spread in other areas too) but that meant that European women were hunted down intensely and they had almost no chance of escaping captivity through ransom. It was more profitable to be sold, than to be returned with a ransom paid by their families or foreign countries. Arabs "preferred" non-Black slaves, and so many non-Black slaves were taken for many centuries. A double-edged sword, because you don't exactly want a slaver to "prefer" your "race" for any reason.

And if you think that highly sought enslaved women in the "entertainment" industry weren't frequently abused or raped, you can look at the abuse numbers of free women in the entertainment industry today...

People born from rape during slavery were much more than we think. Having to "ruin yourself" with tattoos (according to your tradition) and raise your child as another gender, speaks volumes of the lengths people went to avoid a very frequent phenomenon. The Greek revolution against the Ottomans clearly stated "we don't want to be taken as slaves anymore! We prefer one hour of freedom over 40 years of slavery!" In many cases, the slaves were outright called "chattel"!

Taking the male population as children is also looked by the outsiders as "good" because "they lived in good conditions and they were educated" but please go tell that to the mothers who never saw their children again. These children were also stripped of their culture and religion and language, and were often employed to oppress and kill their own people. Many Balkan countries have songs about this phenomenon.

This slave-trade was totally legal and acceptable within the Ottoman and Arab empires but it was also pirating activity that supplied the slave traders. It was mostly the Beber nations but many Africans, and West Asians and Arabs in the Arab peninsula benefited from it. They often took part in the "stealing people" operations. For example, the most exposure to Black people Greeks had was when they saw them as pirates in Arab ships. That's why the slur for a Black person in Greece historically is basically "Arab".

Europeans were building WALLS toward the sea to prevent these attacks. (Ironically, some were built by the same government that took their subjects as slaves) Thessaloniki had these walls, for example. Like, I'm not sure if the USians who often compare the slave trades ever thought of having a wall towards the sea as a normal thing. Some European nations still have sayings like "there are no Moors at the coast" as another way to say "all is safe". That's how much the trauma has stuck.

In the video linked below, there's also mentioned a revolt towards an Ottoman leader because "why won't you let us have slaves from Europe??" Does this conflict ring a bell, fellow US-ian friends? 😂

European nations and the US had created TREATIES with African states (which didn't stop the attacks in many cases) as an effort to basically say "ok, stop taking our people! we will pay you!" The amounts paid were extravagant but they were still small in comparison to how many people (and profit lol) would be lost otherwise.

There were a few cases where a slave could free themselves in the Arab slave trade but this was the case in the American slave trade too! Legally slaves in the Americas could be freed if their master wanted it, if they paid off their master, or if they were illegally enslaved. They could also have court cases to win their freedom, or serve in the military in exchange for freedom. Some were allowed to have side businesses and earn their own money (and eventually pay for their freedom).

We know there were such cases but, as I mentioned above, just because it is the law, it doesn't mean that it happened a lot.

An American would tell you "noo! Despite some legal protections it was still horrible!" and I'm asking, why don't you say this for the millions and millions of slaves in the Arab slave trade when it comes to laws VS actual treatment?

"their children (the children of slaves) weren't slaves". The recorded history shows that they usually were slaves, though. A minority, if lucky enough, could gain freedom while being born a slave. But slaves were often lumped together in certain areas so they had children with other slaves. And even children by free men often were considered slaves, unless the free male master decided to recognize them.

Just because it isn't Louisiana weather and just because the slaves (usually) didn't die on the way to their destination, it doesn't make it less atrocious. There was a reason our traditions speak of people killing themselves before they could get captured into slavery.

Like a gay Greek man said the other day "we are not supposed to be thankful just because you're not dragging us on the streets and stoning us". The laws saying "Provide shelter, and healthcare and don't mistreat your slaves" doesn't mean this was followed. "Shelter" could be a dirty shed. "Medical attention" could be splashing some water on the wounds from the lashing. "Don't overwork them" could be "I work them too much but not to death, so it doesn't count."

The video speaks more about the white slave-trade of US people but it's good to note how this looks "mild" (for lack of a better word) to what was happening in Europe. I'm not saying this as "these slaves had it better compared to the European ones". No. I'm simply saying that the danger and frequency were much larger for European people, mainly those who lived in coastal nations.

This video focuses on other areas, mainly in Africa, where slaves were frequently taken from.

[pogasssm]

i’ve done a lot of self reflection and i’ve come to the realization that im not racist to all white people, i like the spicy whites

[fatehbaz]

Kurdish ecology. Indigenous seeds and food heritage. Palestinian edible plant archive. Ezidi foods and reverence for landscapes. The narratives of “exiled foods.” Suryani, Zaza, Kurdish, and Armenian displacement. Okra and mustard greens. Dispossession and native plants in  Anatolia and the Mediterranean. Imagining alternative worlds and affirmative care structures. Landscapes breathing in slow, deep time. Seed exchanges and “entanglement of solidarity” across regions in defiance of military surveillance, industrial monoculture, and extraction. “Homeland is not where you were born, it is where you are fed.”

---

Okra is strong and can survive the precarity of exile and migration: it can be found in a Bangladeshi vegetable stand in Rome, an Ezidi camp in Diyarbakır, or a guerilla garden along the highway in Kowloon. Okra is one of the world’s oldest cultivated crops, spread by the processes of colonization and the slave trade from Africa and India to the Mediterranean and westward to the new world. Its versatility makes it well suited for states of dispossession and survival. [...] The colonization and standardization of landscapes is always rooted in controlling the cultivation and erasure of localities. [...] Today, the same region [Anatolia and the Mediterranean] is inundated with wars and oppressions that destroy not only biodiversity but also the intangible heritage of ingredients and their narratives across our earth.

“Survival-with” and “through” is something of an entangled kinship that can be described as migrating ingredients, refugee seeds, and exiled foods. Works by artists Seçkin Aydın and Gülsün Karamustafa deal with forced eviction and exile from their homelands in different historical periods in the last century in Anatolia. Aydın is a Zaza minority from an evicted Kurdish town called Kulp (Diyarbakır Province). His work I can’t carry my grandma, i can also not eat her or wear her (2015) uses the metaphor of Aydın’s grandma keeping small fruits in his pocket during their journey of exile when he was a child. [...]

Karamustafa’s work Heimat Ist Wo Mann Isst (1994) depicts three spoons wrapped in an old cloth. The title means “Homeland is not where you were born, it is where you are fed,” which refers to cross-Balkan and Anatolian transnational migration.

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Practices of collecting and archiving heirloom seeds are a form of solidarity and resistance against extractive capitalism and industrialized agriculture. Such projects protect and aim to restore natural habitats and biodiversity. They are critical of dominant monocultural approaches [...]. How can we consider a more-than-human ethics around seed and seed heritage? How can we collect cross-narrative assemblages of seed heritage? [...]

Indigenous phenomenologies are essential for tracing food heritage and the ingredients that are tightly connected to local communities of Zazas, Ezidis, Armenians, Suryanis, Kurds, and others who are continuously exiled by force in the ongoing extracted landscapes of the Tigris. Often with colleagues we find ourselves discussing, for example, the giyayê xerdelê (mustard greens) that can be easily foraged in the hills of Heskîf, a millennia-old archeological heritage site that has almost been destroyed by the nearby Ilisu Dam, which justifies the expropriation of lands from Kurdish villages and from many nomadic shepherds who were forced to leave. Military surveillance of farmers and of the common grazing grounds of Ezidi, Suryani, and Kurdish villages leads to a loss of the network [...].

Kurdish ecology activists Bişar İçli and Zeki Kanay, who were banned from their municipality and their university positions by the Turkish government in 2017, started an agro-ecological solidarity commune in Diyarbakır. They archive, exchange, and create networks of seeds around the Tigris River basin, producing an entanglement of solidarity infrastructure among Kurdish communities against military surveillance and capitalism-led extraction in this region.

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Cineria, an Ezidi village near Batman, Turkey, was nearly emptied out in the 1980s due to conflict in the region between the Kurdish movement and the Turkish state. [...] Soil, stone, rocks, caves, and water are fundamental cosmological elements of Ezidi cultural practice connecting the past, present, and future. Each year the village hosts semi-nomadic Zaza shepherds who migrate from another southeastern Turkish city, Bitlis [...]. The Ezidis accommodate the shepherds for six to seven months in Cineria; both communities communicate using the Kurmanji language. [...]

Long walks through landscapes are a basic practice of Ezidi women, where they learn about the land and the cultivation cycle connected to Ezidi cosmology, which is about keeping and protecting ingredients, seeds, and healthy soil. Honouring nonhuman elements is fundamental to Ezidi cosmology. As Ezidi women walk through the landscape, they tell stories of dispossession, mourn for lost soil and seeds, and whisper continously: “av, agîr, erd, ba, roj.” [...]

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Palestinian geographer Omar Tesdell, who created the Palestinian edible plants archive, tells us that landscapes move in slow, deep time, and that all wild plants, seeds, and healthy soil are our heritages. These heritages will not only support our precarious societies but may create an ethical, responsible entanglement of resilient coexistences for our collective future. [...]

Following an okra plant through narratives, infrastructures, forgotten languages, and entangled exiles is not a metaphor. As artist Jumana Manna writes, we strive toward “imagining alternative/affirmative care structures that remain, within and beyond the current reality, aligned towards plant and human life alike.” Navigating through migrating ingredients, refugee seeds, and exiled foods, we witness and learn about extractive strategies, state-making, and slow violence.

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Text by: Pelin Tan. “Entangled Exiles.” e-flux (journal). Issue 131. November 2022. [Italicized first paragraph/heading added by me.]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Keith Woods

Published: Jul 2, 2023

A look at slavery outside of the West

It has become popular to blame White people for slavery, to the point that many actually believe slavery was invented by or exclusively practiced by Europeans.

But the history of slavery outside the West is far more brutal.

The Arab slave trade emerged in the 7th century, 10 centuries before the Atlantic slave trade

Arabs sold Africans to the Middle East for a variety of jobs such as domestic work or harem guards - castrating male slaves was common, causing over half of males to bleed to death

The Arab slave trade was particularly brutal: it's estimated that 3/4 captured slaves died before they reached the market for sale

Historians estimate that between 10 and 18 million people were enslaved by Arab slave traders, including women and children taken as concubines.

Arabs did not create the slave trade out of nothing, in fact, enslaving conquered tribes was already common practice in Central Africa when they arrived.

The West African Songhai Empire relied heavily on captured slaves in all levels of society, even as soldiers.

Africans themselves also played a large role in facilitating the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

African tribes conducted raids on rival groups to provide slaves for sale. African middlemen facilitated trade between European traders and African suppliers.

The Arabs also had a slave trade in Europe. Estimates are that up to 1.25 million Europeans were enslaved by Barbary pirates, who would raid villages in coastal countries like Italy, France, England and Ireland, bringing them to North Africa for sale.

In some cases entire villages would be captured, such as the Irish coastal village of Baltimore, entirely raided in 1631.

These slaves faced a brutal future, engaging in hard labour or sexual servitude, and spending nights hot and overcrowded prisons called bagnios.

Many slaves captured by Barbary pirates were sold eastwards into the Ottoman Empire. Slavery was central to the Ottoman Empire, most towns had dedicated slavery markets called Yesirs.

Slaves came from Africa, the Caucasus, the Balkans and Eastern & Southern Europe.

Sexual slavery was a big part of Ottoman society. Slavic women were popular slaves, and Köçeks became a popular source of entertainment in the 19th century:

These were young boys, usually from European backgrounds, who were circumcised, cross-dressed and trained as dancers.

Hereditrary slavery is recorded in China dating back to the Xia Dynasty in 2100 BC. Africans purchased on the Silk Road were used as a sign of wealth.

After Chinese law began to treat women as property around 1000AD it was common to sell daughters and sisters into slavery.

The Mongols enslaves tens of thousands of Chinese as punishment for resistance.

In the post-Mongol Ming Dynasty, thousands of slaves were employed to do bureaucratic jobs for the government, and rich families also employed thousands of slaves to perform menial labour.

Slavery was common in American civilizations like the Aztec and Maya

Among the Aztecs, slavery was a punishment for a variety of crimes or even failure to pay taxes. Husbands and wives sold each other in times of economic hardship. Slaves were identified by wooden collars.

Slavery was also common practice in the civilizations of South-East Asia.

The Khmer Empire had a massive slave class that did much of the work building monuments like Angkor Wat. Historians estimate 25-35% of the population of Thailand/Burma were slaves in the 17th century.

Slavery also existed among Native American tribes. Slavery was common practice among Northwest tribes like the Tlingit, for whom one third of their population during the mid-1800s were slaves.

Various tribes practiced debt-slavery and enslaved captives of other tribes.

The only difference between these cases of slavery and that practiced by Europeans is that Europeans abolished slavery on humanitarian grounds, and spread this across the globe.

The intense focus on the White role in slavery is a product of widespread Anti-White animus.

==

American exceptionalism comes in two varieties: "we're exceptionally virtuous," and "we're exceptionally evil."

Both rely on lying about or being ignorant of history.

https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/dashboards/schools_dashboard.aspx

And that's just American history. Can you imagine world history?

[magnoliamyrrh]

the thing is to be very clear too i don't mean this in any sort of "islam is the only religion or culture or etc which has some sort of particular issue with this" way. at all

the very very very old ancestors of my people came to the balkans from most likely central asia and mixed with the indigenous population. they were patriatchal, and practiced polygamy, and the idea was that powerful men needed like at least ten wives to be satisfied. this is as far back as my peoples history can be traced, and women were still treated like property of men and sex-things. and after that? well, centuries on end of women and girls being seen as property to be traded and sold, sex slaves, bridal kidnapping, child marriages, domestic abuse and rape being common, etc. christianity brought its own flavour. islam broutht its own flavour. but. like. there are parts of the world which can, because they werent patriarchies. but i really can't blame either christianity or islam for the patriarchal system my people have held and the endless crap endured

like. its often painted as this so thats why im saying it. islam isnt some sort of unique thing in its history twoards these sort of things. men taking girls as child brides and sex slaves and everything else that surrounds this, is very much a cross-cultural, historical, very widespread issue among humans

[rose-teeth]

it drives me so. incredibly insane reading western anthropological studies about "sex work" prostitution in western europe, it truly does, because 99% of them are written from this god forsaken postmodern narrative

nevermind the cruelty and dishonesty in them so often //barely// bringing up the poverty in the balkans, and that its not just our women being trafficked and horribly exploited but our men as well. nevermind the dishonesty in the idea that this mass migration is somehow a "choice" and whatnot. nevermind that noone wants to point out that economically&racially there is something incredibly fucked abt the dynamic of the entire situation, us being hated by the westerners while our cheap or alltogether uplayed labour keeps western europe running, while in many brothels its ~/+80% romanian and bulgarian/other balkan women. nevermind that this whole choice narrative is not only privileged but it just leads to incredibly lacking science

but. i find it. truly vile and disgusting that these "social scientists" genuinely do not give a single shit about our women, not at all, not even with 0.5% heart and soul. truly downright morally bankrupt and just. disgusting.

how the fuck can you even write this shit. and completely ignore and not bring up the undeniable massive sex slave trade of balkan children that's being directly fuled by the legalization of "sex work." how can you not bring up that the sex traffickers who "help women migrate for legitimate sex work" are th exact same ones who traffick minor girls and produce child pornography. how can you not bring up and care at all that so many already-traumatized refuggee women and girls are being dragged into this fucking nightmare all the time

you know HOW many cases there are of romanian, moldovan, balkan women being sex trafficked? sexually enslaved? tortured in every god awful unimaginable way? having bar codes and numbers tattooed and branded on their skin?? how many cases there are of balkan girls under 17 being raped several times, sold several times, tortured, even killed? how in romania you cant watch the news without hearing of more and more of our minor girls and women being rescued from some other horrific sexual slavery situation in the west??? how here police departments and the government are involved in trafficking minor girls? how foreign men move here to become pimps or rape children?? how, once again, there is case after case of our women being fucking sexually enslaved and tortured???? in large part directly because of this fucking ideology??? how, how, how, xyz every other horrific fucking thing???

how? how can they ignore this. how can these god damned good for nothing "social scientists" ignore this (they dont give a shit abt us and theire privileged and brainwashed). but how can they lack the...... the BASIC fucking Empathy??? How can they write this bullshit and not care how many of the women they talked to were molested as children, started working before 18, were raped before or after they were interviewed, were beaten after they talked to them or got hooked on drugs or sex trafficked again or tortured or killed?? there was this one study that 7/10 moldovan sex trafficking victims left because they were being domestically and sexually abused by male family member - does that matter maybe?? how can they not care of their ptsd, of their exhaustion, of their physical pain????

it truly. disgusts me aint even enough of a word, but it does. it makes me sick to my fucking stomach, the absolute lack of basic empathy and care and especially sense of responsibility these female western anthropologists feel for us - especially considering how mant of these women are 17-19, so, young as hell - when all of this is in large part the fault of the ideology they helped create and spread in the first place anyway. their most basic lack of care makes me vomiting levels of upset and angry.... and again, worse of all.... even if we buy their bullshit choice narratives.... could they PLEASE care that outside of theoretics they're writing about one of the worlds biggest and most profitable child sex slave trafficking currents? please?? lord help us

[bharatnomics]

Stay Hungry

 There is one person whose hunger had changed the world forever. He is someone who abolished slavery and got assassinated. He is none other than Abraham Lincoln, a man who is a great epitome of staying hungry for his goals. He was a lawyer by profession. He was born in 1809 near kentucky.His Journey started at the age of 15 years.When he was passionate about Law.He had no money to buy the books. By looking at his zeal, someone suggested him to cross the river and on the other side , there was a barrister who lives there. So, He started his journey by riding the boat but while crossing the river, his boat got flipped. But he did not lose hope. Here comes stay hungry Philosophy came into play. Despite of heavy river flow and danger, he crossed the river . and he turned to Barrister house. First,barrister refused to share his books. By looking at his not giving up attitude, he allowed him to read his books and in return, he had to do all the home chores work.He did and like this, he became a lawyer.. His First wife died at the young age. He married second time to mary todd . They had 4 children out of which 3 died. He was in depression all his life because of this. He entered into politics, he lost most of the elections in his lifetime.You can also read about sania nehwal  who is a great example of sportsman spirit.

 Despite of having hunger in him, he was elected as president of USA in 1860. His presidency was tough but had changed the world forever. At the time, Slavery was at its peak. Trading of human for labour slave was violation of the human rights. Despite of opposition within the party and outside, He abolished the slavery which the dynamics in history. This abolition led to Civil war within America and southern states which supported slavery in American seceded from rest of America. Like India and Pakisthan, America had its balkanization. Lincoln could not see his nation divided in north and south. Since he was representing Northern Part of America, he sent the Army and he defeated the southern states and unified the country as a whole. 

We always try to give you best information on our websites.so you can follow Manav Gupta Motivation and you will find interesting content every week.

This story is a great example of stay hungry despite of lot of obstacles, challenges, his hunger for his goal made him one of the greatest person of world history.

His grit,perseverence is a inspiration of billions of people around the world.

[10blue10]

Drago Bludvist’s Origin Story

As we all know, Drago Bludvist is a victim of the ‘ambiguously brown’ trope, due to the writers inability to commit to a specific culture. He’s described as having Slavic, Asian, Mediterranean and North African influence in his design; all of which are disparate areas with multiple cultures. However, there is one potential melting pot where all four of these areas mixed geographically or via trade/war/slavery, which in the Viking age would’ve been the Byzantine Empire.

Now to narrow it down even further. Drago’s spiel about how his village was destroyed by dragons and he’s out for revenge…should be taken with a grain of salt, since he had every reason to lie. His exact words, however, are “my village, burned. My family, taken.” Now to me, that’s an odd word to use. If they didn’t want to have him say “killed”, why not have him say “lost” or “gone”?

What if there’s a grain of truth to his story? What if his village was burned and his family was taken…not by dragons, but by soldiers? Here’s where things get interesting. The Byzantine Empire had slaves, and according to Wikipedia: “After the 10th century the major source of slaves were often Slavs and Bulgars, which resulted from campaigns in the Balkans and lands north of the Black Sea.” So assuming it’s the 11th century, that lines up with the Viking era.

“The Bulgars were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as nomadic equestrians in the Volga-Ural region, but some researchers say that their ethnic roots can be traced to Central Asia.”

There’s the Mediterranean and Asian influence. The Bulgars went on to found the found the Bulgarian Empire in, well, Bulgaria, which is in the Balkans. What else is in the Balkans? Slavic countries. If you want to include African influence, maybe Drago could have mixed heritage in his parents or even grandparents.

I really do think Drago being a Bulgar who was enslaved by the Byzantine empire fits his character almost perfectly. It’s not much of a leap to go from ‘warrior on horseback’ to ‘warrior on dragonback’, it gives him a plausibly tragic backstory as motivation, and he must have gotten the idea to build an empire and/or conquer the known world from somewhere. Why not like this?

TL;DR - my headcanon is that Drago Bludvist was born in Bulgaria to mixed heritage parents (Turkic & African), enslaved in the Byzantine Empire, at some point found a young Bewilderbeast and used it to escape (possibly losing his arm in the process), only to abuse it into obeying so he could start conquering.

[robertmarch82]

You will hate me for historical facts. And call me names.

What's something that sucks about being white?

Olzhas Yessenbayev

, Studied philosophy of history

Updated December 24, 2017

https://www.quora.com/q/worldhistory?__ni__=0&__nsrc__=4&__snid3__=6456142643&__tiid__=5166533&sort=top

Quick disclaimer here: I am not White. I am not European. I am Asian, and I come from such a part of the world where History lessons are not tied up with Identity Politics and the concept of “White Guilt”. So perhaps you will be a bit shocked.

If you are white, everyone will accuse you of racism, oppression, cultural appropriation, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia - every sin in the world, even though you by all standards are better than 95 percent of the world.

What’s about slavery?

Did you know that slavery existed throughout the entire history of human beings? Europeans were also held as slaves - not only in Ancient Rome, but also quite recently - by historical standards - as part of the Arab, Barbary and Ottoman slave trades.

In Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), the administrative and political center of the Ottoman Empire, about a fifth of the population consisted of slaves in 1609 - many of whom came from Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and Africa. And yet there is no “Turkish” guilt whatsoever. There is no “Arab” guilt. No one in the Arab or Turkish world has a “White Pride Parade” today, nor are Arabs forced by their educational system to cast aside their glorious history and deride their ancestors for slavery.

You can read the same about Slavery in muslim Spain, in Iran, and so on.

Slavery was ubiquitous until it was ended in the 20th century. By Europeans.

What’s about “colonialism”?

Did you know that it also existed pretty much everywhere in the world?

Here, you can see, that almost a third of the European continent was once a place conquered by the Islamic states, let alone the Islamic conquest of the North Africa. Why no one speaks of Islamic colonialism and Islamic guilt?

Colonialism was ubiquitous until it was ended in the 20th century. By Europeans.

Life was a mess before the 20th century - pretty much everywhere in the world. The whole concept of human rights, that we today take for granted, did not at all exist until it was established by Europeans.

I am by no means claiming that Europeans are - or were - holy.

It is just that everything bad that is ascribed to Europeans - colonialism, racism, slavery, sexism - was ubiquitous everywhere in the world, until it was ended by Europeans. It is just that Europeans were more successful at doing these things.

So please, stop hating your(European) history and take pride in it - just as everyone else in the world does. Every history of every race and ethnicity has its bright and its dark moments. Let’s forget what is long gone and look forward to a world where no such things will exist - only beautiful moments!

[warsofasoiaf]

Did the Ottoman Empire ever express interest in establish colonies in the New World? Or were they content to let the Christian powers of Europe squabble over the land there while they made inroads into Africa?

Not to my knowledge.

The primary reason was that it wasn't very necessary. The Ottomans controlled the land and sea trade routes for silk and spices, so they didn't need to go west toward the New World. One of the reasons why the European powers sailed west was to find new routes to bypass the Ottoman stranglehold on those routes. No need to do that if you are the one with the monopoly on those trade routes. That's the same reason Venice and Genoa never really needed to colonize the Americas.

Second, the Ottoman Navy was primarily a galley navy. While the Ottomans did have a naval presence in the Indian Ocean (and fought with the Dutch and the Portuguese for naval supremacy), the Ottomans elected not to invest significantly in a large ocean-going navy like the Portuguese Empire, but to establish a powerful galley navy that would secure control of the Mediterranean. Couple that with less access to the Atlantic Ocean, and you can see why the Ottomans wouldn't be looking at the New World. The Ottomans did have activity in the Atlantic, but this was primarily to raid northern and western Europe for plunder and slaves.

Third, and related to the second, was that the Ottoman's primary method of expansion was land conquest, into the Balkans, into Africa. The army drew a significant amount of military investment, to both keep up the strength of their army and devote manpower to maintaining control of their conquests in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, against the myriad enemies - Austria, Hungary, the Mamluks, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Safavid Persia, Russia, etc.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[snitling]

Why does everyone hate England/the UK so much? Specifically in Europe?

There is nothing the UK did which has not been done elsewhere in Europe. France, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands all had empires; in fact, one of the contributing factors to the First World War was a scramble over who got to take the Balkan states.

As a colonial power, the UK didn't have the reputation for cruelty which, for example, the French or Belgians had in their colonies. France and Spain also did their best to destroy and suppress the languages of native people, and to kill off as many native people as possible.

All of these countries participated in the slave trade, and made fortunes off the back of the labour of slaves. Haiti is actually still a desperately poor country, despite its natural resources, because of reparation payments made to France for rebelling against colonial rule. The Spanish conquistadors also handed smallpox laden blankets out to the native South Americans, destroying the Incan, Aztec and Mayan cultures to the point at which we know almost nothing about them.

Before anyone says 'stolen cultural artefacts', there are museums across Europe filled with things nicked from other countries, France again being the main culprit there. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey all had possessions in the continent of Africa.

Equally, I know someone will come at me with Scotland issues, but the alliance between Scotland and England was made when King James VI of Scotland became James I of the United Kingdom. It wasn't a case of subjugation with Scotland. Before that, England had been at war with Scotland countless times, many times because of Scottish invasions and raids on the English border, and vice versa.

The alliance of Scotland and England is no different to, for example, the Catalonian region of Spain. Also, nobody seems to care too much about Scottish independence when they're denouncing the UK as a whole in other competitions. Also, the reason is not Brexit. This has been going long before June 2016.

So why am I going into the tag for the euros and seeing people say things like 'I hope the English national team die'? What evil separates the colonialist murderers of England from the rest of you European colonialists and murderers?

[richterscales3652134]

Seductive Spin Class

Seductive Spin

My 4 p.m. Timberlake spin class is about to start and all I can think about is the path my life has taken. I, Benjamin, a once bad-boy with a fetish for bees used to brothel hop and go to matinees alone to use only the most buttery of popcorn to relieve myself in times when my flesh light was stolen. It wasnt until I hit rock bottom half way through what I thought was flight of the bumblebees, when I realized I was masturbating to Akeelah and the Bee and tearing up along with Laurence Fishburne as Akeelah correctly spells logorrhea, when I decided to turn my life around. Trading matinees for daily spin classes, I have devoted my life to healthy eating, exercise and the LA lifestyle. Although my life is now back on track I cant help but have cravings for large breasts, dripping pussies, and holding my cock watching it blow with the force of one thousand fire hydrants – now thats some good shit.

I eye all my clients as they come in the spin room – the environment not unlike one of a vagina—dark, moist, and pulsing to the beat of Justin Timberlakes voice. Looks like the normal group of spinners, until I laid eyes on her. She was the sturdiest woman I have ever seen. Hot like Megan Fox, but body strong enough to withstand a World War. Hair just down to her shoulders, breasts the size of a newborn baby and an ass that I knew that just wouldnt quit. She looked slightly Bulgarian – I love myself a Balkan who knows her way around a glass of Rakia.I looked up her name on the spin chart – Gaby.

Alright guys time to start spinning! Today were spinning along to Justin Timberlake! Just remember to pedal to the beat. DONT FORGET TO TURN YOUR RESISTANCE UP AND ENGAGE YOUR CORE!

As I pedal, I cant help but glance at Gaby, watching her tits bounce with every step. I feel my cock start to move around in my pants; it begins to harder and my semi-erect cock starts to push against the compression shorts Im wearing. There are so many things I could do to her right now. No one would know. I know I cant though; Ive cleaned up my act and one more slip like this….

COME ON LADIES LETS DO THIS!! SING ALONG, DIRTY BABEE YOU SEE THESE SHACKLES BABY IM YOUR SLAVE

I jump off my bike and round the room getting the ladies pumped. I get to Gabys bike and conveniently theres no one sitting around her. The Justin lyrics are starting to push me over the edge -- You see these shackles, baby Im your slave Ill let you whip me if you misbehave…

Hey Gaby, couldnt help notice your form, let me help you, I purr.

I start a slow gradual descent down her back, rubbing my hands down her arms until I reach her fingers grasping the handles of the bike. I can tell her grip is getting weaker as I kiss the back of her neck and rub my now entirely erect penis on her tail bone.

Benjamin what are you doing! There are people around!

I couldnt help notice you when you came in. You know youre the sexiest girl in here. Come on listen to Justin, get your sex on, I coo in her ear.

Gaby starts to moan as I move my hands down her back onto her butt, massaging every inch of her until I get to her dripping pussy.

Ohh yeah, okay but as long as no one else notices Gaby purrs.

The song switches to What comes Around Gos Around.COME LADIES STANDUP AND ENGAGE YOUR CORE, LETS GET THROUGH THIS ONE SLOWLY.

As Gaby stands up I slowly pull down her gym shorts while easing my cock into her pussy, and start to fuck her slowly. Her body begins to arch as I go deeper and her breathing turns into panting, becoming unsteady and exasperated.

Oh baby dont stop, she murmurs.

I look around the room and the other spinners have no idea whats going on. The rush of the secret fuck is making me so hard I need a hat for it. I pick up my legs and wrap them around her body, holding my feet on the handlebars for support. I can feel her trembling tight body and my cock swimming in her drenched pussy. She tries to turn around but I dont let her – it would be too obvious. Instead she kneads my thighs with her hands working her way up to my asshole. She licks her finger looking back at me tickles my puckering hole with it.

Im about to cum, she whispers.

Not yet, I want to keep going,

I slowly pull out and kneel to the floor, pretending to pick up weights. I start licking in the inside of her thighs and make my way up the juiciest pussy Ive ever seen. I start licking her clit and she cant stop quivering.

Gaby you have to stop trembling its too noticeable!

I cant stop. Benjamin your tongue feels so good, ohh dont stop oh dont fucking stop. Да! Не спирайте!

You Bulgarian tigress!

My tongue darts around, swirling and sucking, making sure Im getting every last drop.

Now you stop! IM about to come, come behind me, Gaby begs.

I go behind her and gently rub my mushroom tip on her crevasses, not going in but letting her juices drip right down to the floor.My pre-cum starts to spray on the bikes surrounding but I just dont give a fuck.

Oh Baby just finish me off PLEASE! ХАЙДЕ СКЪПА!

I ram myself inside of her.

COME ON GUYS LAST SONG. REALLY GIVE IT YOUR ALL, I yell as 4 minutes by Justin Timberlake comes on.

I grab her body and pull her in and out of me, grabbing her tits, and pinching her nipples making them so hard anyone in the room could see. I grab her pussy and start fingering her innards around my cock, playing with her lips making my way into her clit. As Madonnas verse comes on I know Im about to cum. With every stroke our bodies become more rigid and our hidden pants turn into loud yells.

OH YES FUCK ME BENJAMIN, FUCK ME.

My cock is swelling and about to burst, her hands are clawing at my thighs in anticipation. Our moaning and screaming became yells and as I was about to climax my cock had a mind of its own.

OHH YEAH we both scream in unison as my cock fires round after round of hot steaming cum into her pussy.Our bodies quiver as we fall to a silence, and look around us. Oblivious to our surroundings we realize everyone has left the class and the manager is standing in the front of the room. The Manager walks over to our naked bodies and looks us up and down.

Benjamin you are fired.

Needless to say Gaby was a fucking smoking hot woman and I regret nothing.

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https://www.anime.se/profile/7080-chaeliadogtnes/?tab=field_core_pfield_22

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[journeymanwithpen]

A Story of Split

I recently visited Split, Croatia. It's steeped in history. Wherever you turn, you’re mired in it. When you lean back in your chair in one of the numerous cafes of the old town, your shirt is brushing against 1700-year-old Roman wall. You sip your coffee and can almost hear in your mind the banter of legionnaires who leaned against this same wall with cups of wine during the break from duty. Houses of the downtown Split sprout like unruly hair from within the Roman limestone walls dating from 3rd century A.D. The city’s Cathedral of St. Domnius is consecrated in 7th century. The black granite sphinx guarding the front entrance to the cathedral is estimated to be from 15th century B.C. It is no wonder then that an aspiring scribe who finds himself walking the cobblestone streets of ancient times can’t stop imagination from running wildly back through centuries. Allow me to take you through the time to the very beginning of Split:

The year is 260. We are standing at the seashore in Aspàlathos, a Greek trading outpost in a charming bay on the central coast of Dalmatia. Several ships are tied to the shore, their sails folded like the wings of seagulls lining their masts and the shore. Slaves and sailors bustle over gangplanks, unloading ships and loading the others. At our back, the habitat is not much to look at, just a few rows of stone houses stretching along the shore. Most of them have dual function, as a warehouse and an abode. People who own them are from the Greek colony of Issa on the island of Vis. It’s about half a day sail south-southwest from here. Aspàlathos was built for one purpose: trade. It's trading with Dalmatae and other Illyrian tribes inhabiting the coast and hinterland of the Balkans, and with Romans from Salona, a metropolis of 60,000 souls, the Roman capital of the province of Dalmatia, and a cultural, political and commercial center of the region. It sits less than two-hour walk, or half an hour on a fast horse from Aspàlathos.

Next to us stands a lanky youth. His shoulders are wide and long muscles are taught from military training. His hair is cropped short, revealing high brow and sharp features. He wears a legionnaire's uniform, with leather-strap sandals instead of boots, common for legionnaires on those warm days of spring. He gazes into the distance, dreaming of faraway places, dreaming of seeing Rome one day. He's only 16, eager to leave family's nest. Next to him stands a man with stooped shoulders holding his hands behind his back. Man's fingers are smeared with ink, an unmistakable mark of a scribe. His squints at the youth.

"Diocles, my son," the man speaks, "go with fortune and may Jupiter keep you safe and return you to us. When you can, send us a word, so that we know you're alive and well." The man places a hand on Diocles's shoulder and the youth turns to meet his eyes.

"Remember," the man continues, "when you tire of marching and battles, your home will wait for you. You won't find a better place to rest than this." The man swipes an arm wide over the peaceful bay, the village and rolling green hills behind it.

Diocles smiles at the man. "I know, father. Thank you. It's time to go back to my legion."

They clasp forearms for a long moment, eyes locked on each other's. Then Diocles breaks the hold and walks with long, impatient strides north, across the hills, toward Salona and its garrison. His father returns to the house which is also his office. A scribe is an important part of every trade, the hand that writes contracts, permits, receipts and counts coins. Unfortunately, most of those coins are transferred from one client to another, from a buyer to a seller. A pay for scribe's services will not build him a palace. Diocles's father is doing alright, keeping his family well fed and clothed, with solid roof over their head, and a nice little farm where his wife tends to her cabbages which grow so well in this weather. He hoped to pass all this to Diocles one day, but the youth is eager to see the world, as young men often are. And what better way to do it, but with the mightiest army of the time: Roman legions.

Thirty-five years later, in 295 A.D., the youth who is now a man of over 50, returns to the bay of his youth. He observes the works started to build a large structure that will stretch from the seashore and climb the gentle slope of the hill. His name has changed, as is his appearance; he is stockier now, almost stout. His chestnut hair, streaked with grey throughout, recedes further from his brow, and his jaw and face are covered by neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper beard and moustache. A toga picta died Tyrian purple was draped over his shoulders, marking his stature. He is Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, or Diocletian, the emperor of the Roman Empire. The structure whose foundations are just being built is going to be known as Diocletian's Palace.

In the year 305 A.D. Imperator Caesar Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus - Diocletian for short - took his stroll along the raised promenade atop the southern wall of his new home. Flowerbeds and trees lined the promenade on both sides to offer the emperor shade from the scorching Adriatic sun. A few marble benches were placed in regular intervals to allow a breathtaking view over the Brettia channel at the islands Brettia (today's Brač) and Solentium (today's Šolta). The emperor moved with shuffling steps, leaning on a cane for support. He was gaunt, his cheeks were hollowed, his shoulders stooped and boney. His skin was grey and a size too large for a man he became. Diocletian was fighting an ailment for over a year, a mysterious illness that almost killed him. It left him emaciated and weak. Next to Diocletian walked a stout man with powerful if somewhat stooped shoulders and strong arms clasped leisurely behind his back. He had open round face with eyes perpetually half-closed and eyebrows that climbed a touch too high, giving him a disbelieving, inquisitive expression. The lower half of his face was obscured in bushy dark hair which greyed at the sides, trimmed to follow the line of a strong jaw. His meaty lips were slightly downturned as if in disapproval. He was Maximian Herculius, co-emperor and Diocletian's partner in ruling the empire that grew too big for a single person to rule over. When Diocletian was confirmed as the emperor of Rome, he turned east to secure the eastern borders of the empire. He soon realized that the news from the Gaul and western borders of the empire travelled too long and his imperial decisions and decrees weren't reaching the west in time. To remedy it, Diocletian elevated his friend Maximian to Cesar, and soon after Augustus, making him equal in status, an emperor in the west, although Diocletian's seniority gave him the upper hand in decision-making. The two worked well together, Maximian's military brawn complemented Diocletian's political wisdom and the alliance born of friendship lasted throughout the twenty years of their rein.

Reaching the bench, Diocletian gingerly lowered himself on it and lifted his face toward the healing warmth of Dalmatian sun. The almost forgotten scent of the homeland wafted to his nostrils.

"I think, my friend, that I can get easily used to retirement," he smiled. "I already feel better."

"You'll miss the action when your strength returns," Maximian grunted in response. "Is your wife joining you?"

Diocletian shook his head. "Prisca is staying in Thessalonica with Galerius and Valeria. She may come when my strength returns."

Galerius was Diocletian son-in-law and successor, the Cesar in the East. His wife - Diocletian's daughter Valeria asked her mother Prisca to stay with them.

"Come Maximian," Diocletian reached his hands to his friend who helped him stand up - "let me show you the gardens. I'm going to grow cabbage here, the way my family did." They walked on to the colonnaded gardens accessible from the promenade.

Diocletian's failing health made the other emperors of the tetrarchy convince him and Maximian to retire. Weakened by disease, Diocletian accepted without much objection. Maximian resisted at first, but Diocletian talked him into leaving the post to younger men. Not suffering idleness well, Maximian sailed to visit his friend's retirement home.

It was an imposing fortress built at the place Diocletian called home so many decades earlier. An impressive walled compound had 16 watchtowers along east, west and north land-facing walls. The only unfortified wall was the southern wall, built on the edge of the sea. Its only opening was a small landing for the imperial galley and supply ships. The walls were built of large limestone blocks. An arcaded gallery bearing the tree-lined promenade stretched along the south wall. The imperial palace with private living quarters and audience hall covered the south half of the fortress. A Peristyle with a balcony from which the emperor greeted his subjects was the very center of the compound. The west side of the Peristyle housed the temple of Jupiter with gardens built for worshipers. The emperor attended the round temple of Jupiter on the east side of the square. The main streets traversing the fortress from east to west and north, met at the forum on the north edge of the Peristyle. The north half of the compound held twin military garrisons for the emperor's legions.

Upon Diocletian's death in 312 A.D., the palace was reclaimed as a property of Roman Republic, and was used as a refuge for exiled dignitaries and deposed rulers. In 7th century A.D. the Roman metropolis of Salona was sacked and destroyed by invading Slavs. Refugees fled from the ruins of the city to find refuge within Spalato's fortified walls. Once luxurious palace and garrison compound was taken down. Its stones were used to build many smaller houses. With time, the willy-nilly building continued outside the Roman walls, under different rulers. Venetians built another set of walls to protect the city from the Croatian-Hungarian and later Ottoman threat. Parts of the wall, as well as "Mletačka kula" (The Venetian Tower) have grown into the tissue of modern days Split.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Facts about slavery never mentioned in school | Thomas Sowell

“The instrumental use of the history of slavery today also underlies the claim that slavery grew out of racism. For most of its long history, which includes most of the history of the human race, slavery was largely not the enslavement of racially different people, for the simple reason that only in recent centuries has either the technology or the wealth existed to go to another continent to get slaves and transport them en masse across an ocean. People were enslaved because they were vulnerable, not because of how they looked. The peoples of the Balkans were enslaved by fellow Europeans, as well as by the peoples of the Middle East, for at least six centuries before the first African was brought to the Western Hemisphere.

Before the modern era, by and large Europeans enslaved other Europeans, Asians enslaved other Asians, Africans enslaved other Africans, and the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere enslaved other indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. Slavery was not based on race, much less on theories about race. Only relatively late in history did enslavement across racial lines occur on such a scale as to promote an ideology of racism that outlasted the institution of slavery itself.”

How much of this did you know?

I knew some of it, including the fact while the Transatlantic slave trade had higher peaks, Islamic countries took far more slaves over a much longer period... including Europeans. A fact nobody wants to acknowledge, solely for intersectional reasons.

Not only that, but the Islamic empires forcibly castrated their male slaves. If you wonder why the descendants of those slaves aren't looking for "reparations," it's because there aren't any.

What's most remarkable though is the US's parochial, navel-gazing view of itself as a bizarre form of exceptionalism.

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[magnoliamyrrh]

and like sorry theres something very funny about damned liberal western academics going on about how "prostitution abolitionists use the word slavery and abolition to encite overly dramatic connotations and connections to the african slave trade" in the context of balkan and eastern euro trafficking. my sis my sister you idiot the word slave literally partially comes from slav and slav girls and women spend some solid hundreds of years being sexually enslaved mainly by ottomans and arabs, but also west. literally shut up