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Are there any alternate history books were Rome kicks off the industrial revolution?
by FreshStart 3y ago
Are there any alternate history books were Rome kicks off the industrial revolution?
- mdpye 3y agoKind of the opposite of what you're asking for, but you might enjoy an earnest exploration of why it didn't happen: https://acoup.blog/2022/08/26/collections-why-no-roman-industrial-revolution/ https://acoup.blog/2022/08/26/collections-why-no-roman-indus...
- ideamotor 3y agoCool
- Eumenes 3y agoOne important thing that I feel this article left out was how technological innovation was driven by military endeavors. From antiquity to Europe getting comfortable with gun powder was a very long time. Prior to gun powder, the focus was on siege warfare - how to destroy walled defenses in a timely fashion before supply chains before untenable. With the rise of gunpowder, innovation followed. Alot of industrial success came out of America, and with a giant ocean between itself and any potential invaders, they were able to focus that innovation for industry as opposed to militarily.
- bombolo 3y agoYou do realise that "america" didn't happen for more than a thousand of years since the roman empire right?
- Eumenes 3y agoThe Byzantine empire fell in 1453 and you can argue that the Vatican maintained some institutional power of western Europe through the middle ages
- thom 3y agoThat isn’t left out - everything rested on the three centuries European countries had spent perfecting the cannon.
- nunuvit 3y agoTold in Stone has a good video series on this too. https://youtu.be/5uqPlOAH85o https://youtu.be/5uqPlOAH85o
- jabl 3y agoSometime ago I stumbled upon Kingdom of the Wicked by Helen Dale. Haven't read it myself though.
- BurningPenguin 3y agoStretching it a little bit, but: "Ultima" from Stephen Baxter. But you should read "Proxima" first to understand the context.
- Eumenes 3y agoIf you think of the West/US as the inheritor of the Roman Empire, they technically did !!
- onpensionsterm 3y agoWhy would I think that?
- imbnwa 3y agoThis has been the #1 meme of Western Europe since Clovis
- tgbugs 3y agoLest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague de Camp would be a classic answer (though it is also scifi so maybe not quite what you are asking for).