Details and sequences of events provide the contents of what happened, but the meaning of history comes from what can be learned from the contents.  Meaning is derived from understanding how to apply the lessons of history to one’s own experiences.  Lessons that come from a diverse set of history about the sovereignty of capitals. 

 

Lessons that include how cultures endure the passage of time better than political power.  While cultures share intergenerational knowledge with the community, the continuity of institutions depends on fostering an intergenerational loyalty of the people.  People prefer and are more loyal to the more local communities than the larger entities.  Should any political power want political legitimacy, want the support of the people, those in power will need to provide the people with more than just infrastructural conveniences. 

 

This is a short book that contains a diverse set of regional histories.  The details provided are meant to introduce the reader to the locations, and provide context about them.  To understand any specific region would require more research. 

 

The historic examples and the lessons have a contradiction.  One lesson is that experiences of history are singular, that individuals and neighboring regions can have different experiences within the same era.  This should make each lesson local and limited.  But the lessons themselves apply more broadly, as others shared variations of the experiences.  The examples give context to lessons derived from a larger sample set of histories.