In your view, what were/are the 5 greatest Civilizations of History?

[Pavel Chichikov]

Since so many suggestions here almost seem like veil'ed attempts at debating Civilizations respective greatnesses, I thought I'd make a thread on it.
Obviously no ethnic slurs or personal insults but otherwise anything goes.

Don't have time to elaborate now, but here very tentatively is mine:

1. Greek Civilization (too obvious)
2. British Civilization (magna carta, rights of individual, the spread of Liberal ideas around the world, creation of global lingua franca)
3. Sumerian Civilization (the wheel, writing, the first cities, agriculture)
4. Japanese Civilization (like China, but adapted and borrowed much more succesfully to the modern world)
5. Persian/Hebrew Civilization (not the same just can't decide. again to obvious)

idk this thread probably isnt a smart idea

 

[calad]

Nice list Pavel but I strongly disagreed because your list is heavily eurocentric. The biggest flaw is that you left China complitely outside.

1st: China.

Not matter how hard or how many times China has been collapsed it has always risen again as a great power. China is also one of oldest civilizations on earth which has had continous tradition since earliest age I can say without doubt China is the greatest civ ever.

2nd: Greek.

I doubt I need to mention any merits why Greek is on second place. Greek also like China has had lot of misfortunes during the history but the reason why it is behind China is because Greek has been steadily declining last 500 years.

From this point I cant anymore put civs on the list. How can I say British were better than Summerians? Both of them contriputed enourmosly for mankind. I cannot argue how French are lower than British or Romans.

 

[soul-breathing]

China,Greece,British,Russia and Arabia

And I also think America will be a great civilization at last

 

[Comrade Yeshi]

I would say China and India joint first. So many important things, ideas, creations etc have come from that part of the earth.
Then the Arab/Islamic civilisation as they continued to develop a lot of what came from China and India.

In my mind I always see the european civilisations as a 'European civilisation". As an Englishman I know we had a massive empire etc etc but were we a 'great civilisation'? Hmmm my instant response is 'no'. Powerful yes, but war doesn't make one great!

For me the 'great' civilisations are those that have a legacy of some kind. Preferably positive (or neutral such as language).

 

[calad]

In my mind I always see the european civilisations as a 'European civilisation". As an Englishman I know we had a massive empire etc etc but were we a 'great civilisation'? Hmmm my instant response is 'no'. Powerful yes, but war doesn't make one great!

Europe is definetly a civilization. Thats why North-America+Europe is called western world because even divided on multiple states we share more or less same religion, politics and moral values. Even differences between America and Russia, two old enemies, are superficial.

Euro civ is important. But all roots of Euro leads to older civ, especially Rome and Greek which are based more older civs. American civ compared to history is rather irrelevant. America is young and has not achived anything truely unique what other nations could not have done later expect breaking record of fat people in society. America defeated Nazis and Commies but it is less than hundred year in known history which is older than 5000 years.

 

[Jusos2108]

1. Egypt (everyone is forgetting that when the Greatest Pharaoh Ramses II saw the Pyramids, they were already 2000 years old)
2. China (for the reasons mentioned above, truthfully China actually spawns way too early)
3. Roma (argueably their empire lasted a good 2000 years straight)
4. Britain (greatest 'modern' civ)
5. India (could also be Russia)

 

[Comrade Yeshi]

As an historian I agree with the analysis that Egyptian civilisation was a 'dead end' civilisation

 

[IrishDragon]

Rome
Egypt
China
Britain
Greece

Then after that Persia, Spain, France, Russia, India, Japan

 

[iOnlySignIn]

Greatest:

1. Greco-Roman

2. Anglo-American

3. Sino-Japanese

4. Turko-Persian

5. Indian

We're talking about civilizations, not polities.

 

[Mef]

3. Sino-Japanese

This civilization doesn't exist. The Chinese and Japanese civilizations are clearly seperate from each other, since they were never even close to being ruled together as one entity.

 

[2phunkey4u]

Europe is definetly a civilization. Thats why North-America+Europe is called western world because even divided on multiple states we share more or less same religion, politics and moral values. Even differences between America and Russia, two old enemies, are superficial.

That's an interesting point. I've always thought it is difficult to dismiss the idea to treat Europe and China in Civ similarly. So if there is only one Chinese civilization to speak of, there might as well be one Romanic-European (France, Spain, Portugal, Italy), one Germanic-European (Britian, Scandinavia, German-speaking countries, Benelux, maybe even add USA) and one Slavic-European (Poland, Balkans, Russia) civilization each at best.

 

[IrishDragon]

Greatest:

1. Greco-Roman

2. Anglo-American

3. Sino-Japanese

4. Turko-Persian

5. Indian

We're talking about civilizations, not polities.

Civilization doesn't have a universally agreed definition. Could also divide into Christina, Islamic, Hindu etc. civilization

 

[calad]

That's an interesting point. I've always thought it is difficult to dismiss the idea to treat Europe and China in Civ similarly. So if there is only one Chinese civilization to speak of, there might as well be one Romanic-European (France, Spain, Portugal, Italy), one Germanic-European (Britian, Scandinavia, German-speaking countries, Benelux, maybe even add USA) and one Slavic-European (Poland, Balkans, Russia) civilization each at best.

What is a civ? There are some common element that are hard to disagreed: holy days, festivals, calendar, language, justice, morals, religion and large non-goverment decentralized organization.

As I said differences are superficial. For example British people are mixture of Celtic, Romans, Saxons and Scandinavians. They clearly dont belong to any specific ethnic group, even English is largely mixture of differencent languages.

Chinese are also a big huge house of nations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China
We thought they all are same people because their language and scripts are so alien to us.

Even I must admit for being superficial. I said America+EU are Western countries but I ignored whole Latin America. So Euro civ does not exist but Western civ exist definetly. Western civ is loosely organized civ but also most powerful. Before New World was discovered Euro civ existed.

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

1. Greek (Roots of metacognition, geometrical appliance outside of shapes, secularism)
2. Indian (Buddha, roots of mathematics)
3. Japanese (Honestly, having lived here, it's one of the most moral and sophisticated countries out there. Don't let those anime shows make you think otherwise!)
4. American (Pre- Cold War)
5. Roman (even if they are sons of es -- and they wrecked mathematics and slaughtered my ancestors. They were a virus.)

But it's important to remember that civilizations are just cultures, and cultures are just memories and peer pressure.

 

[Royal Tenenbaum]

In my mind I always see the european civilisations as a 'European civilisation". As an Englishman I know we had a massive empire etc etc but were we a 'great civilisation'? Hmmm my instant response is 'no'. Powerful yes, but war doesn't make one great!

Some scholars believe that the Roman Empire never collapsed, but lives on in the Western World.

 

[iOnlySignIn]

This civilization doesn't exist. The Chinese and Japanese civilizations are clearly seperate from each other, since they were never even close to being ruled together as one entity.

Well if you follow this argument the German civilization doesn't exist either.

 

[Mef]

Well if you follow this argument the German civilization doesn't exist either.

I have no idea what you are saying. What has Germany to do with China and Japan being two separate civilizations?

Most of Germany has been under a more or less unified rule for more than 1000 years and has been a region with similar culture and language, while China and Japan always have been two clearly different countries.

The fact that Japan was controlled by an outside power only once in its entire history (the US after WWII) is clear evidence that it's a civilization of its own and China is obviously one too.

 

[Tomorrow's Dawn]

I have no idea what you are saying. What has Germany to do with China and Japan being two separate civilizations?

Most of Germany has been under a more or less unified rule for more than 1000 years and has been a region with similar culture and language, while China and Japan always have been two clearly different countries.

The fact that Japan was controlled by an outside power only once in its entire history (the US after WWII) is clear evidence that it's a civilization of its own and China is obviously one too.

Civilization is more culture than country, but that's my opinion.
Nation-states and civilization simply do not equate.
The Germany statement is also incorrect. Germany was a cluster of independent states
(the HRE does not count as a cohesive entity, imo)
until the late 1800s coinciding with the rise of Prussia and German unification after the Franco-Prussian War.

I think iOnlySignIn is thinking of it in terms of the Sinosphere:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinosphere

Personally, I would treat the two (China & Japan) as separate myself unless discussing within context,
shared cultural heritage, which is the broadest sense of civilization, in which I would agree that they belong together as Sinic civilization.

That being said, in no particular order:

1. Indian
2. Slavic
3. Sinic
4. Western
5. Islamic

But going by what the general style of the thread is,
which focuses on individual, specific members of the
overarching cultural bubbles of civilizations:

1. Greek
2. Chinese
3. Arab
4. Roman
5. British

 

[mykeedee]

1. Greco-Roman
2. Chinese
3. Arab
4. Persian
5. British

 

[teriaky]

Most influencial
1 China
2 Western
3 Arab
4 Greco-Roman
5 Persian or Mongol
Greatest
1 China
2 Western
3 Arab
4 Egypt or Mesopotamian