Most Influential Civilization?

[headshot91]

Kasz216 said:

headshot91 said:

Kasz216 said:

Well... lets take a look at the list.

 

1) British Empire... too young.

2) Roman Empire... not counting the Byzantines, it doesn't really work.

3) Spanish Empire... again too young, and largely influenced by others.

4) USA... Also, too young... with the one caveat being that the "American" way of life does seem to be permiating across the world in was even the British Empire didn't when they actually OWNED most of the world.   Not yet... If the USA stays on top for a while more though... all culture may be a hybrid of US culture.

5)  Islamic Empires/Dynasties... Maybe... they did di a lot, but a lot of it didn't end up working well... a lot of stuff having to be rediscovered.

Those off the Board.

 

1) China... too inturned on themselves.

2) Greece... Alexander the Great... did do a lot.  Still... doesn't seem like enough.  They influenced the Romans... but the romans did all the real legwork.

3) Mongol Empire.  The largest land empire in the world... and debatibly the biggest in the world. 

4) Akkadians, Precursors to Bablyon and pretty much the Islamic Empire.

5) Persian Empire... Huge Empire.  Powerful... etc.

 

 

I'm going Mongols.  Why?

1) Yuan Dynasty.

2) Mughal Empire

3) They caused a crapload of destruction where they came.  This was greatly infuential... in the demography greatly changed... and you could definitly say your country wasn't the same if the Mongolians came in.

4) The Mongols lead to the rise of Moscow, and effected why Russian history ended up.

5) Greatly expanded europes knowledge of the world, which lead to colonilization and trips like Columbus.

 

What? The langauge of English permeated across the world from India to North America to Australia because they were colonies of the British at one time or another. Also, the British empire has had a MASSIVE political, linguistic (mentioned) and cultural legacy. I mean, the english langauge is the language of the world, english law is the basis for many different countries judicial systems and dont even ge tme started on the cultural aspect- Football, cricket, tennis, golf, literature,architecture, education have all been higely influenced by this empire. And also you know, the industrial revolution, and the basis of many scientific principles today was started in Britain, and spread across the world via our trade!

Eh, not so sure about the cultural legacy, language legacy i'd put more on America then the UK, though the UK should get some credit for America.

Also, it's not really the same.  The UK legacy, somehwat left traces... Americanization is practically overwriting culture.  For example the effects of Hollywood and how other countries feel they need to be protectionist just to protect their film industries... and even then the kind of movies they are making are REALLY changing and just may end up hollywood esque locally.  It's the same with most of the arts etc.

As it is, the American culture for better or worse is priming to take over as the world culture.  This may even be the case if America loses superpower status just because of it's roots at this point.

Not really. English was already established in world trade before america became a great power in the early 20th century. Australia, New zealand, Canada, south africa, India, hong knog etc all had itas an official langauge, and it was because of britians title at the time as the "workshop of the world". Also i feel that in our modern, consumer driven society, the industrial revolution (started by britian and propagated around the world with the help of the empire) has influenced the world the most.Also while americanisation is occuring, this is quite a new thing technically, only really in the last twenty,thirty years with the advent of globalisation.

Britain and her empire were the most influential.