Gold bars (also called ingots or bullion) by Ariel Palmon for Wikipedia “gold” under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
TOP 10 GOLDEN AGES
(SPECIAL MENTION)
But wait – there’s even more Golden Ages! Given that it has been adapted for common usage to connote peaks of history or culture, real or idealized, virtually everything has its own Golden Age. Indeed, too many to choose from that I had to narrow it down to twenty of the most golden for my usual number of special mentions.
(1) GOLDEN AGE OF ANCIENT EGYPT
Not surprisingly for a civilization spanning millennia, ancient Egypt had a number of golden ages, albeit apparently not sufficient for their own Wikipedia entry unlike other historical golden ages. The golden ages usually identified for ancient Egypt include the Fourth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom – 2613 to 2494, embodied (or is that entombed?) by the Great Pyramid of Giza built in the reign of pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) – and also the New Kingdom, when Egypt was an empire.
(2) GOLDEN AGE OF CHINA
China has multiple golden ages – prolific enough for their own Wikipedia entry, although this seems to identify a golden age for each imperial dynasty. Notably the golden age of China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing is its peak from 1662-1779, prior to its spectacular decline in the nineteenth century or its Century of Humiliation. Apart from the Qing, the usual golden ages of China are identified as those in the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties.
(3) GOLDEN AGE OF INDIA
Much like China, numerous golden ages are proposed for India (again prolific enough for their own Wikipedia entry). I tend to prefer the Gupta empire (as the golden age of Hindu India) but others include the Mauryan empire, Vijayanagra empire, Chola empire, and Mughal Empire (as the last golden age of India)
(4) ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE
The golden age of Islamic civilization, usually proposed as the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun-al-Rashid from 786 AD to 809 AD, with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in the imperial capital of Baghdad, with the city itself representative or symbolic of the golden age. Think the Arabian Nights and you have the legendary depiction of the Islamic Golden Age
Since 23 years or so seems short for a Golden Age, it is usually proposed extending beyond the reign of Harun-al-Rashid through to “the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the siege of Baghdad in 1258”, although I think that understates the decline and fragmentation of the caliphate before that. Some extend it beyond that – to 1350 to include the Timurid empire or even to the 15th or 16th centuries to include the rise of the Islamic gunpowder empires. Sometimes a separate Golden Age is proposed for Spain under Islamic rule or Al-Andalus.
And yes – the Islamic Golden Age gets its own Wikipedia page in that name.
(5) GOLDEN AGE OF BYZANTIUM
The Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty – at least dubbed as such by the historian Robert Browning. It seemed only fair as I included the period of the Five Good Emperors as a Roman golden age in my Top 10 Golden Ages.
(6) PORTUGUESE GOLDEN AGE
My first special mention for the golden ages proposed for a whole host of European nations – I limited myself to five such special mentions (from sixth to tenth place special mentions) but it seems to be a common trope used for the political or cultural history of European nations or even regions such as Flanders so that was hardly exhaustive. I could readily have done a top ten (and perhaps even special mentions) just for golden ages proposed by European nations. As it was, my top ten included entries for the French golden age (Grand Siècle and Belle Epoque) and for the English or British golden age (Merrie England – with a shout out to the Elizabethan era for England and the Victorian era for Britain). If you count the Roman Empire and classical Greece or Athens, my top ten included entries for those as well.
Note also the usage for political or cultural history – the denomination of golden age tends to connote not just a zenith of power but also of culture, although those things tend to overlap with each other. Not always, however, as is the case with one of my European golden age special mentions.
The Portuguese Golden Age is usually proposed from 1415 to 1518, corresponding to when Portugal was at the forefront of the European maritime discovery and trade – “possibly the European power of the time most proficient in sailing” – and as such, the first European power to being building a colonial empire in the so-called Age of Discovery. Indeed, for a century or so, the Portuguese were effectively the Age of Discovery.
The Portuguese may have been eclipsed, both in history and popular imagination, by the subsequent and more spectacular Spanish role in the Age of Discovery (and Conquest of the Americas) and their empire may have been more modest – with the exception of Brazil – than Spain or other European powers but it endured from being the first to being one of the last, with its imperial holdings in Africa or East Timor lasting until the 1970s.
Speaking of Brazil, a second Portuguese Golden Age is often proposed revolving around its empire in Brazil and particularly the Brazilian gold rush from the late 17th century to the 19th century. Brazil was the crown jewel of the Portuguese empire – indeed, it was the ruling seat of the empire by the Portuguese royal family in exile during the Napoleonic Wars – and certainly the empire was not the same after Brazilian independence.
(7) SPANISH GOLDEN AGE
The Spanish Golden Age or Siglo de Oro – also known as the Golden Century, although it’s usually stated to be for a longer period, from 1492 to some point in the seventeenth century.
“The Spanish Golden Age is broadly associated with the reigns of Isabella I, Ferdinand II, Charles V, Philip II, Philip III, and Philip IV, when Spain was at the peak of its power and influence in Europe and the world.”
1492 of course coincided with the final defeat of the Muslims in the Reconquista, as well as Spain’s unification into a single state under the union of the Catholic Monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand II. 1492 also coincided with the discovery by Columbus of the New World – which was ultimately to result in Spain achieving heights of empire in the Americas and elsewhere previously undreamed of solely in Europe.
It’s in common enough usage to get its own Wikipedia page in that name.
(8) POLISH GOLDEN AGE
It’s somewhat surprising to think of a Polish Golden Age coinciding with or even commencing before the Spanish Golden Age, potentially in the fourteenth century or so, and similarly extending through to the seventeenth century – reflected in the territorial extent of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as one of the largest kingdoms of Europe – “at its peak…from modern-day Estonia in the north to Moldavia in the south and from Moscow in the east to Brandenburg in the west”.
And yes – it gets its own Wikipedia page.
(9) DUTCH GOLDEN AGE
The Dutch Golden Age resembles the Portuguese Golden Age – as the zenith of a smaller European nation punching above its weight in maritime trade and empire.
The Dutch Golden Age “roughly lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the Rampjaar occurred” – the Rampjaar, or Disaster Year, following the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch war.
Another Golden Age that gets its own Wikipedia page – as does the Golden Age of Dutch Painting with which it largely coincides. There’s also the Golden Age of Dutch cartography, again largely overlapping the Dutch Golden Age in general.
(10) DANISH GOLDEN AGE
Something of an exception to the rule of Golden Ages for nations in that the Danish Golden Age usually connotes “a period of exceptional creative production in Denmark, especially during the first half of the 19th century” without coinciding with any corresponding peak of Danish political power or empire. (If it did refer to the latter, it would probably refer to the height of Danish power in the Viking Age or at least when Denmark had a colonial empire beyond Greenland and the Faeroes).
Yet another Golden Age with its own Wikipedia page.
(11) GOLDEN AGE OF THE BARBARIANS
Sadly, not a term in popular use but one coined by James C. Scott in his book Against the Grain, in which he wrote that until about 400 or so years ago humanity was in the Golden Age of the Barbarians, an era in which the majority of the world “had never seen a tax collector”. In part, this was due to “barbarian zones” – areas where “states found it either impossible or prohibitively difficult to extend their rule”, typically due to geography or terrain. “Not only did this place a great many people out of the reach of the state, but it also made them significant military threats to the state’s power.”
I’m not entirely sure about Scott’s thesis although one might identify a Golden Age of the Barbarians in the Migration Period or barbarian invasions of the Roman Empire. More broadly, other historians have written of the recurring impact or military power of Central Asian steppe empires or peoples, the so-called steppe effect, punching well above their weight in population.
(12) GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY
Scott’s Golden Age of the Barbarians prompts to mind a term that is in popular use (so much so that it gets its own Wikipedia page) – the Golden Age of Piracy, typically from 1650 to 1730, “when maritime piracy was a significant factor in the histories of the North Atlantic and Indian Oceans”.
Apparently, some historians subdivide it into three periods – the buccaneering period from 1650 to 1680 or so (characterized by Anglo-French pirates based in the Caribbean attacking Spanish colonies and ships in the Caribbean and Pacific), the Pirate Round in the 1690s (characterized by longer voyages from the Americans to prey on East India Company shipping in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea), and the post-Spanish Succession period when former English sailors or privateers turned to piracy.
Of course, fans of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise know the Golden Age of Piracy came to an end when the East India Company took control of Davy Jones and killed the Kraken.
(13) GOLDEN AGE OF CAPITALISM & GILDED AGE
The Golden Age of the Barbarians and the Golden Age of Piracy naturally prompts to mind the Golden Age of Capitalism.
At first glance, it might seem somewhat surprising that the Golden Age of Capitalism, at least in the Wikipedia article of that name, is used for the twentieth century postwar economic expansion after the Second World War to the 1970s but it really shouldn’t. It was a period of unprecedented economic expansion in which North America, Europe and eastern Asia (particularly the “Four Asian Tigers”) “experienced unusually high and sustained growth”, including countries devastated by the war
It was period in which the term economic miracle came or has come to be commonly used – for Japan, for West Germany and Austria (the Wirtschaftswunder or Miracle on the Rhine), South Korean (Miracle on the Han River), Belgium, France (Trent Glorieuses), Italy (Miracolo economico), Greece, Sweden (Record years), and even Spain and Mexico.
However, it might have seemed that the Golden Age of Capitalism would apply to the rise of industrial capitalism in the nineteenth century, particularly when combined with laissez-faire free market political policy. And indeed, the term of the Gilded Age is used for the 19th century, at least for United States history from about 1865 to 1902 or between the Reconstruction Era and the Progressive Era. Apparently, historians in the 1920s sourced the term from one of Mark Twain’s lesser known novels contemporary with it, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today in 1873. As the term gilded implies, it is not as complimentary as the term Golden Age – suggesting a thin gold gilding or veneer of economic expansion over robber barons, materialist excess, political corruption and social problems.
(14) GOLDEN AGE OF PHYSICS
Or rather Golden Ages of Physics, as more than one period of dramatic advancements or achievements in physics, including cosmology and astronomy or astrophysics, have been dubbed as golden ages, arguably going all the way back to Galileo or Newton.
Perhaps the most prolific use of Golden Age of Physics is for the first thirty years of the twentieth century, or even more narrowly the few years from 1925 to 1927 or so – although even this seems to have been immediately followed by a Golden Age of Nuclear Physics, potentially through to the fifties (in turn followed by a Golden Age of Non-Linear Physics or Golden Age of General Relativity from the 1950s or so to the 1970s). A Golden Age of Cosmology is often proposed from the 1990s to the present.
(15) GOLDEN AGE OF SF
From the Golden Age (or Ages) of Science (or Physics), it’s only a small step to the Golden Age of Science Fiction usually proposed from 1938 to 1946 or through to the 1950s – after the ‘pulp’ era of SF in the 1920s-1930s and ending with New Wave science fiction in the 1960s.
The start of the Golden Age of Science Fiction is usually identified with the editorship of the magazine Astounding Science Fiction by John W. Campbell and particularly the July 1939 issue – as well as SF authors Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, who wrote stories for Astounding Science Fiction.
(16) GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS
The Golden Age of Science Fiction largely overlaps with the Golden Age of Comics, usually identified at least from 1938 to 1945 but variously through to the 1950s. Essentially, this was when comics in their modern form were born as well as the superhero archetype and the enduring holy trinity of comics (or DC Comics) – Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.
(17) GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ANIMATION
The Golden Age of Comics prompts to my mind at least that related medium I associate with comics as a guilty pleasure, animation – although the Golden Age of Animation actually preceded the Golden Age of Comics, starting in 1928 (with the advent of sound in cinema) through to the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts started losing out in popularity to television. Many or most iconic animated characters originate in this period, most notably those in the Disney canon such as Mickey Mouse or the Warners Bros canon such as Bugs Bunny.
(18) GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION
Indeed – two Golden Ages of Television.
The first Golden Age of Television is proposed for the era of American television from 1947 to 1960 “marked by its large number of live productions”.
A second Golden Age of Television is proposed for American television in the 21st century as having “such a number of high quality, internationally acclaimed television programs”.
(19) GOLDEN AGE OF RACE QUEENS
Well, I just couldn’t resist special mention for the Golden Age of Race Queens or promotional models. Indeed, there are two Golden Ages of Race Queens – “the first was the swimsuit clad race queen bubble of the late 1980s to late 1990s and the miniskirted second golden age of race queen of the 2000s, when the influx of models came with the ability to draw the same as or bigger popularity than some of the drivers competing in the events.”
(20) GOLDEN AGE OF P0RNOGRAPHY
I tend to reserve my final twentieth special mention for a kinky entry. I believe I’ve fulfilled that obligation with this entry, but there is indeed such a proposed Golden Age and it even gets its own Wikipedia page.
The Golden Age refers to the period from 1969 to 1984, “in which s€xually explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the general public”. It ended when video supplanted films or theaters as the predominant distribution medium.
TL;DR – TOP 10 GOLDEN AGES (SPECIAL MENTION) RECAP
(1) GOLDEN AGE OF ANCIENT EGYPT
(2) GOLDEN AGE OF CHINA
(3) GOLDEN AGE OF INDIA
(4) ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE
(5) GOLDEN AGE OF BYZANTIUM
(6) PORTUGUESE GOLDEN AGE
(7) SPANISH GOLDEN AGE
(8) POLISH GOLDEN AGE
(9) DUTCH GOLDEN AGE
(10) DANISH GOLDEN AGE
(11) GOLDEN AGE OF THE BARBARIANS
(12) GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY
(13) GOLDEN AGE OF CAPITALISM
(14) GOLDEN AGE OF PHYSICS
(15) GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION
(16) GOLDEN AGE OF COMICS
(17) GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICAN ANIMATION
(18) GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION
(19) GOLDEN AGE OF RACE QUEENS
(20) GOLDEN AGE OF P0RNOGRAPHY
