THE FATE OF EMPIRES and SEARCH FOR SURVIVAL Sir John Glubb John Bagot Glubb was born in1897, his father being a regular officer in the Royal Engineers. At the age of four he left England for Mauritius, where his father was posted for a three-year tour of duty. At the age of ten he was sent to school for a year in Switzerland. These youthful travels may have opened his mind to the outside world at an early age. He entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in September1914, and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers in April1915. He served throughout thefirst World War in France and Belgium, being wounded three times and awarded the Military Cross. In1920he volunteered for service in Iraq, as a regular officer, but in1926resigned his commission and accepted an administrative post under the Iraq Government. In1930, however, he signed a contract to serve the Transjordan Government (now Jordan). From1939to1956he commanded the famous Jordan Arab Legion, which was in reality the Jordan Army. Since his retirement he has published seventeen books, chiefly on the Middle East, and has lectured widely in Britain, the United States and Europe. William Blackwood & Sons Ltd 32Thistle Street Edinburgh EH11HA Scotland © J. B. G. Ltd,1976,1977 ISBN0851581277 Printed at the Press of the Publisher
Introduction As we pass through life, we learn byexperience. We look back on our behaviourwhen we were young and think how foolishwe were. In the same way our family, ourcommunity and our town endeavour to avoidthe mistakes made by our predecessors.The experiences of the human race havebeen recorded, in more or less detail, forsome four thousand years. If we attempt tostudy such a period of time in as manycountries as possible, we seem to discoverthe same patterns constantly repeated underwidelydifferingconditionsofclimate,cultureandreligion.Surely,weask ourselves,ifwestudiedcalmlyandimpartially the history of human institutionsand development over these four thousandyears, should we not reach conclusionswhich would assist to solve our problemstoday? For everything that is occurringaround us has happened again and againbefore. No such conception ever appears to have entered into the minds of our historians. In general, historical teaching in schools islimited to this small island. We endlessly mull over the Tudors and the Stewarts, the Battle of Crecy, and Guy Fawkes. Perhaps this narrowness is due to our examination system,whichnecessitatesthecareful definition of a syllabus which all children must observe. I remember once visiting a school for mentallyhandicappedchildren.“Our children do not have to take examinations," the headmaster told me,” and so we are able to teach them things which will be really useful to them in life." However this may be, the thesis which I wish to propound is that priceless lessons could be learned if the history of the past four thousand years could be thoroughly and impartially studied. In these two articles, whichfirstappearedinBlackwood’s Magazine
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