A different history of the world

Author: Fernando Trías de Be

🧭 Main Idea of the Book

Trías de Bes proposes a reinterpretation of universal history, not through great events or heroic figures, but through human impulses, collective needs, and repeated errors. His central thesis is that humanity’s most fundamental decisions have been driven more by emotional and psychological factors—such as fear, ambition, and the need to belong—than by logic or reason.

🧠 Key Pillars of the Author’s Perspective

The human being as a collective irrational creature:

Unlike traditional accounts that idealize humans as rational builders of civilization, Trías de Bes argues that many historical decisions (wars, revolutions, empires) stem from irrational impulses.

Error as a driver of progress:

Far from being negative, error is seen as an essential part of historical advancement. Humanity evolves by learning (or not) from its mistakes.

Narratives as historical constructions:

Much of what we take for granted about the past is shaped by hegemonic stories built by the victors. The author deconstructs several myths and offers alternative interpretations.

📚 Structure of the Book

The book is divided into thematic chapters addressing different periods and key events—such as the Middle Ages, colonialism, the industrial revolution, capitalism, and the rise of neoliberalism—always viewed through the lens of:

Collective motivations behind each era
The fears driving political decisions
The role of shared ignorance as a foundation of civilizations

🔎 Fascinating Points Raised:

History does not progress linearly, but rather through collective emotional imbalances
Power has never been a direct consequence of knowledge, but of the control of fear
Humanity learns far less from the past than we think: it repeats patterns in new disguises

🗣️ Key Quote from the Book:

"We are not children of reason, but of necessity, error, and shared narrative."

📖 Chapter 1 — The Emotional Homo Sapiens

This chapter lays the theoretical foundation of the book: human beings are not essentially rational, as so often repeated in philosophy and historical narratives, but are profoundly emotional creatures. Trías de Bes suggests that the history of humanity can only be understood if we accept that emotions and collective impulses have guided many of the key decisions that shaped our destiny.

🔍Main Points Developed:

💥 Emotion as an evolutionary driver

From the beginning of the species, humans reacted first with emotion, then with reason.
Basic emotions like fear, anger, desire, and joy shaped early decisions: how to hunt, form groups, or when to flee.
This isn’t an evolutionary flaw, but an adaptive survival mechanism.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Emotion as a social bond

Emotional bonds strengthen cooperation. Without them, tribes, clans, or civilizations would not exist.
Empathy, attachment, and shared fear create collective identity, more powerful than rational arguments.

🔥 Emotion as the foundation of narrative

Every culture needs an emotionally powerful story to survive: myths, religions, anthems, flags.
Reason doesn’t move crowds—but emotion does. That’s why great leaders appeal to the heart before the mind.

⚠️ The dangers of overvaluing reason

Trías de Bes critiques the Enlightenment tradition of idolizing reason.
He argues that most human decisions are emotional and collective, not individual or rational.

📌 Chapter Conclusion

The author proposes a paradigm shift: to understand humans as emotional beings who reason after acting, not before. Only with this lens can we begin to comprehend many historical decisions that seem irrational through a purely logical perspective.

🗣️ Key Quote from Chapter:

"We are human not because we reason, but because we feel."

📖 Chapter 2 — The Birth of the Collective Myth

This chapter explores how collective myths—that is, the stories a community shares and believes—have served as the glue that enables large-scale human coexistence. Trías de Bes argues that without such shared narratives, humanity would not have been able to organize, cooperate, or build lasting social structures.

🔍 Key Topics Developed:

🌍 From clan to civilization: the role of myth

In small tribes and clans, coexistence was based on direct personal knowledge.
But as groups grew, it became necessary to create shared stories that generated trust and obedience among strangers.
Examples: gods, royal lineage, manifest destiny, social contract.

🛐 Religion and myth as structuring order

Religions emerged as forms of collective myth, not necessarily to explain reality, but to organize society.
Gods were not just theological concepts, but narrative tools used to justify authority, morality, and power.

📜 Myth as a useful narrative

It doesn’t matter if a myth is "true" or not—what matters is its effect on collective behavior.
Examples given by Trías de Bes include:

The divine right of kings
Capitalism as a narrative of personal progress
Even the modern idea of "freedom" as an organizing myth in the West

🧠 Myth and emotion: a powerful alliance

The success of a myth depends on its emotional charge.
Myths that generate fear, hope, or belonging are more effective.
That’s why nations, flags, and even commercial brands function as modern myths.

📌 Chapter Conclusion

The collective myth is not a lie, but a necessary tool for the organization of large societies.
History advances not by truth, but by the stories we choose to believe.
And understanding those myths is understanding how power works.

🗣️ Key Quote from Chapter:

"A society without shared myths is a society without cohesion."

📖 Chapter 3 — "Error as a Foundational Principle"

Trías de Bes presents a counterintuitive thesis: the greatest historical advances have not been the result of reason or success, but of error. Errors—whether collective or individual—have acted as engines of change, forcing humanity to adapt, correct itself, and reinvent. Far from being accidental, error is foundational to the evolution of societies.

🔍 Main Axes of the Chapter:

❌ Error as a catalyst for change

History moves forward not through rational planning, but through crises triggered by prior errors.
Example: The fall of the Roman Empire was not planned, but it paved the way for new forms of social organization.

🔄 Systemic errors as opportunity

When systems collapse—economic, political, or religious—they create vacuums that invite innovation.
Many major historical turning points (e.g. the French Revolution, industrialization, world wars) are direct results of accumulated structural failures.

🧠 Collective learning is slow and partial

While errors teach, humanity rarely learns fully: it repeats patterns under new disguises.
What changes are the narratives we use to justify or reinterpret those errors.

📉 Failure as an evolutionary mechanism

🧭 Examples Mentioned:

The Crusades: strategic and religious mistakes that reshaped Europe.
The Russian Revolution: collapse of tsarism due to political errors and extreme inequality.
The 1929 crisis: a financial error that led to deep economic reforms.

📌 Conclusion of the Chapter

The author encourages us to read history without idealism: not as a path led by human wisdom, but as a story filled with missteps that paradoxically pushed us forward.
Error, more than genius, is what has brought us to where we are.

🗣️ Key Quote from Chapter:

“Every mistake humanity makes is a door that opens to the unexpected.”

📖 Chapter 4 — "The Empires of Ignorance"

In this chapter, Trías de Bes asserts that collective ignorance has been one of the most effective tools for building and maintaining power. Far from being an obstacle, ignorance—when shared and structured—allows empires to form, expand, and sustain themselves over centuries.

🔍 Main Topics of the Chapter:

🧱 Ignorance as the structural foundation of power

Power has always needed a population that doesn’t question, that believes before it understands.
Dominant elites have used ignorance as a strategic resource, not as a flaw in the system.

🕍 Religion, empire, and hidden knowledge

In great empires—such as Egypt, Rome, or medieval Christendom—knowledge was reserved for minorities: priests, scribes, nobles.
This created knowledge asymmetry, which legitimized control: if you don’t know, you obey.

🧩 Functional and shared ignorance

Trías de Bes introduces the concept of “functional ignorance”: not knowing can be useful to maintain order.
Modern example: millions of people use the internet without knowing how it really works. Shared ignorance keeps the system running.

🧠 Knowledge as a threat

Throughout history, when knowledge becomes democratized, power becomes unstable.
Example: the invention of the printing press challenged the power of the Church by giving people access to ideas.

🔁 Ignorance hasn’t disappeared—it’s just changed form

Today we still live in empires of ignorance, but with an appearance of freedom.
Information overload, fake news, algorithms, and mass media have replaced older forms of structured misinformation.

🧭 Key Historical Examples:

The Middle Ages: Church control of knowledge
Colonial empires: concealment of real knowledge about conquered peoples
The digital world: massive digital ignorance that supports the technological system

📌 Conclusion of the Chapter

Ignorance is not the enemy of power—it is its silent ally. To understand past and present empires, we must look not only at what people know, but at what they don’t know—and why.
Trías de Bes invites us to view ignorance as an active element in the historical architecture of power.

🗣️ Key Quote from Chapter:

“Where there are no questions, power sleeps peacefully.”