Event that most shaped the World

Moss

CFC Scribe
Retired Moderator
Joined
May 1, 2002
Messages
6,584
Location
Minnesota
What historical event, or events, do you believe most influenced and shaped the world we know today?

When detailing your events, also describe how the world could have been different if the end result of the event you describe would have changed.
 
Columbus discovering the New World, for obvious reasons. What would the world be like without America or Brazil? To go even further into it, where would the top NAZI leaders go once they had to leave Germany (assuming Britain and the U.S.S.R. would have won without America's support)? After that, who would there have been to stop the U.S.S.R. from complete world domination post W.W. II?
 
The Battle of Thermopylae.
Without this sacrifice the Greek cities wouldn't have had time to prepare for the advancing Persians and would have been utterly defeated. Thus, Western civilisation as we know it would probably not have happened (shortly after the Golden Age of Greece began). Europe would have been influenced by Persian culture and may never have developed into what it is today.
 
Battle of Marathon

Think. Had they failed at MArathon, the Athenians would have fallen. With no Athens, there's no Athenian Philosphy. No Athenian Philosophy, no Athenian Democracy. No Athenian Democracy, say good-bye to the modern world as we knew it.

To think the entire fate of the world fell into the outcome of one single battle.:eek:
 
writing and mathmatics
Not really events ... more discoveries.
I think discovery has played a larger role in shaping the world.
Event, I guess maybe the dropping of the atomic bomb.
For such a localized event it still shakes the world and overshadows our future.
 
Some things I think are important

* Columbus discovering America (Wester power was made becuase Europe discovered America more than anything else).
* Lifes of Budha, Jesuschrist, Mahoma ---- changed the world (probably Mahoma more than any other else becuase Islam spreaded quickier than any other)
* Genhis Khan's world conquest.
* American/French Revolution

It's very hard to choose only one.
 
Originally posted by Amenhotep7
Battle of Marathon

Think. Had they failed at MArathon, the Athenians would have fallen. With no Athens, there's no Athenian Philosphy. No Athenian Philosophy, no Athenian Democracy. No Athenian Democracy, say good-bye to the modern world as we knew it.

To think the entire fate of the world fell into the outcome of one single battle.:eek:

Marathon was an incredibly minor battle, if you could call it that. The Persians landed in Attica, sacked it for 5 days with no encounter of the Athenians, and got on their boats and left. Marathon was when the Greeks came along to the very last of the Persian forces were yet to get on their ships.

For me, the most importnat events were:

- Battle of Ecbatana 550BC Cyrus II the Great founded the Persian Empire after it.
- Battle of Thermopylae
- Final division of the Roman Empire 395 (the West was doomed to fall, so I wouldn't say the fall of it was major)
- Initial expansion of Islam
- Fall of al-Andalus
- Genghis Khan uniting the Mongols 1206
- Conquest of Constantinople 1453
- Christopher Columbus' official discovery of the New World 1492
- French Revolution
- American Revolution
- World War I and II
- Fall of the Soviet Union
 
Just out of curiosity, why do you name the French Revolution, but not American Revolution?
 
Oops! Did I call it MArathon? I meant Thermopylae.:blush:
 
I would agree with the battle of Thermopylae. I would also suggest
1) Mohammed's ministry and military success at Medina, which resulted in a vast Muslim empire that preserved most of the writings of classical antiquity (Aristotle, Plato, etc.) that later returned to Europe and stimulated the Renaissance.
2) The fall of Constantinople in 1453-- the death of the Roman Empire and all that...
3) The Battle of Trafalgar, which prevented Napoleon from invading the British Isles.
Many more, of course, but this will do for now...:)
 
The Beginning of the Earth and universe, whether by God's Creation or by Big Bang, is the event that most shaped the world, in my honest opinion. If that didn't happen, would we even be here discussing what the event that most shaped the world is/was? I don't think so. Would any of the other significant events that you mentioned, and others that WEREN'T mentioned, ever occur had the beginning of Earth and the universe not happened? I highly doubt it. ;) :p :D :)
 
Originally posted by Ribannah
Er ... there were already people there. :crazyeye:

We had a similar thread like this before.
For me, it's still:

1451 AD The Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois

I know there were already people there, but had Columbus not discovered it, the British/French/Spanish/Portuguese (Sp?) would not have expanded as large as they have been, and everything else is explained in my first post...
 
Originally posted by Godwynn
I know there were already people there, but had Columbus not discovered it, the British/French/Spanish/Portuguese (Sp?) would not have expanded as large as they have been, and everything else is explained in my first post...
You forgot the Dutch. :p

But if Columbus' expedition had failed, another would have succeeded shortly after. He didn't even use the best technology.


(Big Bang, Agriculture and Monotheism all happened well before 4000 BC - do they count? Also, the last two aren't events, and neither are paper, electricity and computers.)
 
Top Bottom