FIRST AND LONGEST VS FASTEST AND MOST : CIVS (comparison and explanation) This i

FIRST AND LONGEST VS FASTEST AND MOST : CIVS
(comparison and explanation)

This is largely correct. China has the geographic advanteage of multiple river systems for irrigation, a wet season, and even greater territorial isolation than Europe from ‘the bad people in the middle’, but less isolation than Africa. So china had access to trade, but, limited genetic and cultural conflict compared to Europe, and almost nothing compared to the continuous conflict of the middle east because of its intersection of the four continents.

However, that’s like saying egypt was a durable civilization because it’s a long river (highway) with constant irrigation, surrounded by nearly impenetrable deserts, and was one of the most defensible positions in the world. however they all but stagnated for effectively 3000 years.

The same is true of china. They had better conditions, a better crop (rice), and more time to develop than all other civs. And they had a large enough population (like india) that it was all but impossible to conquer them, and instead, everyone who tried was merely integrated and bred out of existence.

To claim that china was more developed that Greece and Rome is a questionable argument since they focused their energy on the administration of a huge population and Europeans on commerce and innovation with a small population.

The question is why did every civilization other than Europe fail to progress, exhausting knowledge and industry by 800ad. Every single one. Whereas Europe experienced a pretty bad time from 400-800 but after 800 restored rather quickly, and progressed faster than the rest, in every aspect of life.

And this leads to my primary criticism of the frame of reference that is common, and that you’ve just demonstrated: confusing first-and-longest with fastests-and-most. Europeans are the fastest-and-most. But we burn out by overexpansion. Others aren’t fast or most, but they endure even if they stagnate and decline.

So the bronze age expansion, the Mediterranean expansion, and the Atlantic-pacific expansion are three waves that are ended by over-expansion and the exhaustion of the founding European population – which is always smaller.

Why? 😉

-FIN-