It’s not that accurate to describe Europeans “conquering” the Americas, more like moving in after the smallpox did most of the dirty work then mopping up the remainder. A better example is Africa, where it was unquestionably deliberate acts of aggression that saw nearly the whole continent subdued.
That too, but I think Americas are a better example because nowadays the mainstream media is full of bison excrement about how Native Americans led wise, serene, and peaceful lives in harmony with Nature until the stupid and greedy white man came and killed them all.
Maybe it’s a provincial thing. Europeans get the same or similar thing about our great-grandfathers’ treatment of Africans. Here in Britain we get both :/
For a counterexample, see WWII. Sure, overwhelming technological superiority is overwhelming. But that’s unlikely to happen again in a globalised world.
WWII was, to oversimplify, provoked by a coalition of states attempting regional domination; but their means of doing so were pretty far from the “outcompete everyone else” narrative upthread, and in fact you could view them as being successful in proportion to how closely they hewed to it. I know the Pacific theater best; there, we find Japan’s old-school imperialistic moves meeting little concerted opposition until they attacked Hawaii, Hong Kong, and Singapore, thus bringing the US and Britain’s directly administered eastern colonies into the war. Pearl Harbor usually gets touted as the start of the war on that front, but in fact Japan had been taking over swaths of Manchuria, Mongolia, and China (in roughly that order) since 1931, and not at all quietly. You’ve heard of the Rape of Nanking? That happened in 1937, before the Anschluss was more than a twinkle in Hitler’s eye.
If the Empire of Japan had been content to keep picking on less technologically and militarily capable nations, I doubt the Pacific War as such would ever have come to a head.
In the modern world, attempts at takeover produce concerted opposition, because the modern world has the techontological and practical mechanisms to concert opposition. There are plenty of examples of takeovers in theaancient world because no one could send the message,”we’ve been taken oher and you could be next”
There are plenty of examples of takeovers in theaancient world because no one could send the message,”we’ve been taken oher and you could be next”
Funny. I’ve just finished reading Herodotus’s Histories, the second half of which could be described as chronicling exactly that message and the response to it.
(There’s a bit more to it, of course. In summary, the Greek-speaking Ionic states of western Turkey rebelled against their Persian-appointed satraps, supported by Athens and its allies; after putting down the revolt, Persia’s emperor Darius elected to subjugate Athens and incidentally the rest of Aegean Greece in retaliation. Persia in a series of campaigns then conquered much of Greece before being stopped at Marathon; years later, Darius’s son Xerxes decided to go for Round 2 and met with much the same results.)
In the modern world, attempts at takeover produce concerted opposition
Remind me, who owns that peninsula in the Black Sea now..?
because no one could send the message,”we’ve been taken oher and you could be next”
I think you severely underestimate the communication capabilities of the ancient world. You also overestimate the willingness of people to die for somebody else far away.
But that’s unlikely to happen again in a globalised world.
I don’t see why not. Besides, in this context we’re not talking about world domination, we’re talking about assimilating backward societies and spreading to them the light of the technological progress :-D
Attempts4 at byouts and world domination tend to produce concerted opposition
For a historical example consider what happened to the Americas when the Europeans arrived en masse.
It’s not that accurate to describe Europeans “conquering” the Americas, more like moving in after the smallpox did most of the dirty work then mopping up the remainder. A better example is Africa, where it was unquestionably deliberate acts of aggression that saw nearly the whole continent subdued.
Either way, it’s not relevant to the “best” politcal system taking over, because it’s about opportunity, force of numbers, technology, and, GERMS.
And genes.
If one genotype took over, that would be fragile. Like pandas . Diversity is robustness.
I dunno man, milk digestion worked out well for Indo-Europeans.
If by genes you mean smallpox and hepatitis resistance genes, yes.
That too, but I think Americas are a better example because nowadays the mainstream media is full of bison excrement about how Native Americans led wise, serene, and peaceful lives in harmony with Nature until the stupid and greedy white man came and killed them all.
Maybe it’s a provincial thing. Europeans get the same or similar thing about our great-grandfathers’ treatment of Africans. Here in Britain we get both :/
For a counterexample, see WWII. Sure, overwhelming technological superiority is overwhelming. But that’s unlikely to happen again in a globalised world.
WWII was, to oversimplify, provoked by a coalition of states attempting regional domination; but their means of doing so were pretty far from the “outcompete everyone else” narrative upthread, and in fact you could view them as being successful in proportion to how closely they hewed to it. I know the Pacific theater best; there, we find Japan’s old-school imperialistic moves meeting little concerted opposition until they attacked Hawaii, Hong Kong, and Singapore, thus bringing the US and Britain’s directly administered eastern colonies into the war. Pearl Harbor usually gets touted as the start of the war on that front, but in fact Japan had been taking over swaths of Manchuria, Mongolia, and China (in roughly that order) since 1931, and not at all quietly. You’ve heard of the Rape of Nanking? That happened in 1937, before the Anschluss was more than a twinkle in Hitler’s eye.
If the Empire of Japan had been content to keep picking on less technologically and militarily capable nations, I doubt the Pacific War as such would ever have come to a head.
In the modern world, attempts at takeover produce concerted opposition, because the modern world has the techontological and practical mechanisms to concert opposition. There are plenty of examples of takeovers in theaancient world because no one could send the message,”we’ve been taken oher and you could be next”
Funny. I’ve just finished reading Herodotus’s Histories, the second half of which could be described as chronicling exactly that message and the response to it.
(There’s a bit more to it, of course. In summary, the Greek-speaking Ionic states of western Turkey rebelled against their Persian-appointed satraps, supported by Athens and its allies; after putting down the revolt, Persia’s emperor Darius elected to subjugate Athens and incidentally the rest of Aegean Greece in retaliation. Persia in a series of campaigns then conquered much of Greece before being stopped at Marathon; years later, Darius’s son Xerxes decided to go for Round 2 and met with much the same results.)
And Genghis and Atilla ..
Remind me, who owns that peninsula in the Black Sea now..?
I think you severely underestimate the communication capabilities of the ancient world. You also overestimate the willingness of people to die for somebody else far away.
Remind me, who’s not in G8 anymore?
Brits fought in Borneo during WWII. Yout may be succumbeing to Typical Country Fallacy.
Remind me why anyone should care about the G8?
I don’t see why not. Besides, in this context we’re not talking about world domination, we’re talking about assimilating backward societies and spreading to them the light of the technological progress :-D
Do they see it that way? Did anyone ask them?
And why not is the fact that there are ways of telling what the other people are up to:its called espionage.