top 100 civilizations

[Camulodunum]

ok i am making a list of the top 100 civilizations.

to help me, post a civilization and post why it should be number 1. give at least four reasons. and cut the crap too i dont want any "theyre cool" junk just convince me that theyre the best. and once ive seen 100 different civilizations, i will make the desicions. if a civilization's already been posted, ill make a list of the ones that have been used. the contest begins now. (moderators, if this is in the wrong forum, please move it)

 

[TheLastOne36]

Well if everyone says the number 1 civ then we'd all say something like china, rome or greece or something.

Why not just Nominate 1 civ,regardless if it should be 1st or not, just in the top 100.

 

[Camulodunum]

the civ that wins depends on the reasons that support it if say you post the romans and you give 4 weak reasons, and someone else post india and gives 6 good reasons, then india wins. the ranks depend on the reasons.
remember once someones posted a civilization, nobody else can post the same one again. so rome or greece might not win, because it all depends on how you can convince.

 

[philippe]

nr1: USA USA USA
cause the rest sucks.

(haha, yankees, I r smart.)

 

[Dachs]

Arnold Toynbee disagrees with the idea that there even were a hundred civilizations.

Having said that: Greco-Baktria was cool.

1) It was a march state.
2) It was syncretic, culture-wise. Indic, Persian, Hellenic, native Baktrian elements.
3) They had an excellent coining system, producing, among other things, my avatar, as well as the famed great gold stater of Eukratides. This is fortunate, because, due to the paucity of historical references, the history of Baktria relies heavily on the coinage.
4) Kataphraktoi.
5) Ant-gold.
6) They friggin' conquered India. Alexandros couldn't even do that.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

I just made a top-100 not that long ago. I based it on 20 per area, though. And it has slightly more than 100. And I'm not posting the reasons. Because it's obvious.

Americas-
America
Aztecs
Incas
Mayas
Iroquois
Anasazi
Mississippians
Huron
Canada
Tupi
Toltecs
Brazil
Haida
Inuit
Argentina
Mexico
Venezuela
Sioux
Cherokee
Uruguay
Chile
Wrst Indies

Europe-
Greece
Rome
England
France
Germany
Netherlands
Spain
Portugal
Vikings
Celts
Russia
Byzantines
Poland
Austria
Illyria
Italy
Hungary
Serbia
Romania
Latvia
Finns

Africa-
Mali
Ethiopia
Zulu
Songhai
Ghana
Nubia
Kanem-Bornu
Kongo
Malagasy
Maasai
Mutapa
Matamba
South Africa
Sokoto
Wolof
Khoisan
Baguirmi
Hausa
Takrur
Swahili
DRC
Nigeria

Middle East-
Egypt
Babylonia
Assyria
Sumeria
Hyksos
Turks
Arabs
Hittites
Armenia
Persia
Medes
Israel
Nabataea
Phoenicia
Carthage
Kurds
Scythians
Khazars
Huns
Parthia

Asia-
China
India
Japan
Mongols
Korea
Khmers
Tamils
Sri Lanka
Thais
Burma
Vietnam
Champa
Funan
Laos
Malays
New Guinea
Polynesia
Aborigines
Australia
New Zealand
Philippines

 

[Dachs]

Toynbee considered all of Western Europe one civilization, Huayna Capac, with similar classifications for the others. So if you went by his precepts, your list would be greatly shortened.

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Well I was bored. And I do this crap. So I posted it. Even though it's crap. Oh well. Whatever.

 

[Dachs]

Well I was bored. And I do this crap. So I posted it. Even though it's crap. Oh well. Whatever.

Oh, I'm not saying the list is crap, I'm just expanding on my previous comment.

 

[Camulodunum]

ok i have many things to say.

1 i am really camulodunum (this thread starter) just on a different account since i forgot my password and the password recovery thing doesnt work well with verizon, i went and created camulodunum1 so its just im both camulodunum and camulodunum

2 philippe, please post some reasons. i even said that you have to have at least a few reasons that make sense.

3 @ dachs. i never heard of the greco bctrans, so ill look in to it. but it does not need to be a civilization, it can be a really powerful barbarian tribe like the huns or the goths.

4 this isnt a chatroom. so you can continue your little chat in pm

5 this list is by the proven facts that one person gives for their chosen civilization not the whole history as in dachs post on the greco baktrans, theres facts that back the civ up. its not just a list. its sort of a competition

 

[TheLastOne36]

Well i'll let other people put down the likes of India, Romans etc. i'll come up with good idea's to fill in the other 80 or so civs.
--------------
Here's one, the Garamantes,. The Garamantes were only found fairly recently. They were a Berber speaking people who lived in the middle of the Sahara desert in Libya. They were probably there as a nomadic tribe since 1000 BC. From 200 BC unlike all other Saharan people, they made the transition to city life. They settled down and made towns, raised goat and farmed. All in the middle of the desert.

Wondering how? Well the Garamantes were also very skilled architects and engineers, and this trait is what gave them their success. They build elaborate underground tunnels to take the water deep beneath the sahara desert and bring it to the surface. It is a mystery how they could do such a thing with their technology.

The Garamante everyday life involved growing crops, harvesting, and trading. Raids to egypt and south of the sahara were frequent for the needs of slaves to maintain the underground tunnels. They later on went to the berber mountains and mined for Amazonite and other materials for trade. There was a big military clash in northern africa between the Romans and Garamantes. After heavy losses from the Roman side, they sent a large force to take control of 15 villages. The Garamantes were later force to established trade connections with the Romans. They traded Wheat, Salt, and slaves to the Romans for olive oil, oil lamps, wine and other things. There religious beliefs originated from a mixture of ancient egyptian beliefs and regional beliefs. Mummy's have been found in the Garamantes lands, the famous one being the "black mummy". They later on converted to christanity and were one of the last christian ethnic groups to inhabit the Sahara desert.

The end of the Garamantes was there success. The water from deep underground was drying up, and the Garamantes lands were growing in prosperity and population. Soon supply surpassed demend. As you can imagine, such a big nation with no water is a dangerious combination. In 569 BC the Garamantes made an allies with the Byzantines and they in return promised to give them aid, which they never delivered. There were also other problems, the growing frequency of arabic and egyptian raiding from the east and water problems let to the demise of this great society.

In 668 the arabs kidnapped the king of the Garamantes, and in the following years, raided, stole, and selled the Garamante people as slaves to mostly Europe and arabs in North Africa who used them to help build the Umayyad Caliphate in Northern Africa. The Area by 700 AD was tooken into the Muslim sphere of influence.

RIP Garamantes
1000 or 500 BC to 700 AD.
---------------

 

[Arwon]

Andalusia, just because I am reading about it right now.

By Andalusia I mean the multi-religious and multi-ethnic civilisation under Muslim rule, centred around Cordoba from the 8th century onwards. Fractured into the Taifa system from around 1030, was then subjugated by first the North African Almoravids and Almohads and then conquered by Castillian Christians. But even after the end of political control, the cultural legacy continued and even amplified.

1. Cultural significance and endurance. The pluralistic, Arab-speaking culture of Andalusia, centred in Cordoba was arguably the centre of world learning for a century or so around 900 or 1000 when the Emir there had the political, cultural and dynastic clout to realistically declare himself Caliph (Emir is like a provincial governor, Caliph means claiming leadership of the whole of Islam).

Long after the Umayyid Caliphate fell, the culture created there continued existing, even under Christian rule... Alfonso, King of Castille and conqueror of Toledo, was a profoundly Arabised leader, the loss of Muslim political control didn't mean an end to Andalusian culture simply because it was "civilised" and vibrant enough to continue exercising lure and influence. Perhaps from our perspective, the most important legacy of Andalusia was as a hugely significant conduit for the transmission of Greek thought into Latin Christendom, particularly when the now Christian city of Toledo became a similarly important centre of learning around 1100. You can see the continued Arab-speaking Andalusian influence even later on, when Seville became the most favoured centre of Castillian monarchs and art and architecture continued to be heavily Andalusian in style.

2. Scientific advancement - Again, the work of transmitting Greek and Arabic learning into Latin wasn't just as some automatic translation process, but also involved understanding the concepts behind them and, possibly most importantly, laying the theoretical groundwork for understanding how pagan thought and reason and science could be integrated with rigid, uncompromising monotheism. People like Aquinas owe quite a bit to the Andalusian scholarly and intellectual traditions of this period.

3. Religious tolerance, including both thoroughly Arabised Christians and easily the most secure and prosperous Jewish population in the world until 19th century Germany. Under the Umayyid dynasty and their taifa successor states (including Mozarab Christian ones), Andalusian civilisation bought about a resurgence and golden age of Jewish culture, too.

 

[Sharwood]

How can you possibly choose a "top" civilisation or civilsations? many have good points and bad points. I remember a long, detailed thread arguing about which empire was better, Han China or Imperial Rome. People can pick their favourites, but not which was 'the best.'

 

[Dachs]

How can you possibly choose a "top" civilisation or civilsations? many have good points and bad points. I remember a long, detailed thread arguing about which empire was better, Han China or Imperial Rome. People can pick their favourites, but not which was 'the best.'

It may have been while you were gone, but there was an epic(ally bad) "Rome or Greece" thread/argument/spamfest/celebration of suck here.

 

[Sharwood]

It may have been while you were gone, but there was an epic(ally bad) "Rome or Greece" thread/argument/spamfest/celebration of suck here.

Should have known Ralph would start something like that. And yep, while I was gone. I missed out on some good stuff.

I think I should vote for Greece to make it an even 50-50, but I don't know if it will bump it, and we certainly don't need more arguments.

EDIT: Never mind, the damn thing's closed, and I should have known that as soon as I saw the poll numbers.

 

[Gogf]

I believe the Chokwals should be the number one civilization.

Here is my reasoning:

1. Technological mastery. First-year anthropology students the world over learn about the amazing advances made by Chokwal scholars millenia before similar advances were made by European tribes. Electro-plated coins have been discovered through Chokwal archaeological sites, and the "Veni Vase" that was used in that process is a remarkable artifact that was not mimicked in Europe until the industrial era. Even more amazing was the Chokwal mastery of ink. It's unfortunate that the Chokwal ink was organically-based and thus deteriorated centuries ago; who knows what lost knowledge we might have gleaned from it?

2. Military supremacy. We know from the stone carvings found in the Templede Dek Inwet that the Chokwal empire grew 50 fold within a span of one Hurram. Historians aren't yet confident how long a Hurram is, but evidence points to a span of less than a decade. This kind of rapid military advancement is really unparalleled anywhere else in history, and it seems that it was fueled by the use of the flaming javelin. Chokwa warriors would use atl-atl-like devices to hurl hundreds of flaming javelins into enemy forces, not only devastating them but scaring any survivors into retreat, where they would be slaughtered.

3. Agricultural command. It is said in the writings of Herok Dek Sindos that enough food was produced by the Chokwa farmers in one year that, upon discovering it could feed all of his people for more than two hurrams, Rahik Pujahamanarushakudora ordered all farmers to give up their craft and become military-men. This may have ultimately led to the fledgling army being large enough to actually hold territories captured by new military technologies. Of course, the farmers ultimately went back to work, but their advancements led the way for an empire in the time before the pig was domesticated in Europe.

4. Modern parallels. As we all know, the Chokwas ultimately met with destruction when they mined out the side of Mount Hellert, causing pent-up lava to explode through the Hurh valley, destroying their industrial and agricultural base and plunging them into a period of deep unrest. This is the ultimate statement of Chokwa supremacy: no force of man could destroy them; instead, it took tragically poor planning and the will of nature to wipe this formidable force from the earth.

With that in mind, not listing the Chokwas as the top civilians would be a grave injustice historically and a factual error of the highest degree.

 

[North King]

6) They friggin' conquered India. Alexandros couldn't even do that.

If by "India", you mean "part of the Gangetic Plain for a few decades", then yah. Otherwise... lol. India's vastly larger than the two river valleys.


Huayna Capac357:

Latvia over Lithuania? Seriously... No.

 

[Dachs]

If by "India", you mean "part of the Gangetic Plain for a few decades", then yah. Otherwise... lol. India's vastly larger than the two river valleys.

Comments: Better than Harsha p), more than just a few decades, problem with the definition of India back then, controlled the three key cities of the Mauryan Empire (the rest was just window dressing...yes, I'm only half serious there). Besides, if Demetrios Aniketos' story is good enough to have come down to Chaucer ("Emetreus, kyng of Inde") then it is GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.

 

[North King]

Comments: Better than Harsha p), more than just a few decades, problem with the definition of India back then, controlled the three key cities of the Mauryan Empire (the rest was just window dressing...yes, I'm only half serious there).

So basically, they didn't conquer India. 'Nuff said.

 

[Dachs]

So basically, they didn't conquer India. 'Nuff said.

Heh. Only the British have actually conquered all of India.