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It would be extremely interesting to be able to look back in time, as if on a TV screen, and see what really happened in ancient civilizations and see why they

by magduf 7y ago

It would be extremely interesting to be able to look back in time, as if on a TV screen, and see what really happened in ancient civilizations and see why they really collapsed. From anthropological studies, it seems the usual cited reason is either environmental problems or invasions. Environmental problems are probably the main reason for most: they have a long drought, rivers dry up, crops fail, etc. But that doesn't explain why these peoples were unable to adapt, perhaps by moving elsewhere. Of course, there's the Romans. They had some problems with volcanoes (Pompeii and Herculaneum I think), but those were local, whereas the empire spanned most of the continent, so they should have been able to handle it. From what I've read about it, it seems their society collapsed basically from too much corruption and bad governance; at some point, it became more sensible for people to abandon the cities with their aquaducts and plumbing and their highly specialized trades and move to a feudal lord's land and be a serf, working in the fields and living in a hut. So I really do have to wonder: what kind of stupidity on a massive scale happened to cause things to go that badly?

Nasrudith 7y ago
Well the Romans had an unsung reason as well which goes for many but not all invasions - pissing their neighbors off and then getting too weak. I recall one documentary about Minioan archaeology - they had a practice of demanding/taking sacrifices from tributaries - the sacrificed adolescents weren't related to the other remains found. Apparently they suffered many deaths from an eruption and then when they were weakened their feared reputation backfired as their tributaries invaded and decided now was the time for vengence and to put an end to them for good. Corruption as a downfall seems to be a case of short term vested interests resulting in massive stupidity which also comes back to bite them. China weakened their navy massively over internal political disputes and even after they were forced to pay massive ransom and pardon pirates who decimated them. They even ignored the opportunity/hint as the pardoned pirates offered to sign up to be the new navy. Imperialism by western naval powers followed.

by magduf 7y ago

Nasrudith 7y ago

Well the Romans had an unsung reason as well which goes for many but not all invasions - pissing their neighbors off and then getting too weak. I recall one documentary about Minioan archaeology - they had a practice of demanding/taking sacrifices from tributaries - the sacrificed adolescents weren't related to the other remains found. Apparently they suffered many deaths from an eruption and then when they were weakened their feared reputation backfired as their tributaries invaded and decided now was the time for vengence and to put an end to them for good. Corruption as a downfall seems to be a case of short term vested interests resulting in massive stupidity which also comes back to bite them. China weakened their navy massively over internal political disputes and even after they were forced to pay massive ransom and pardon pirates who decimated them. They even ignored the opportunity/hint as the pardoned pirates offered to sign up to be the new navy. Imperialism by western naval powers followed.