What 5 Civilizations Should Always Be In Civ?

[kryszcztov]

In alphabetical order :

Babylonians
Chinese
Greeks
Indians
Romans

Reasons : Too few civs to choose them from all the parts of the world, so America (continent) out. Must pick civs according to where the great spheres of civilization started. Here come the Chinese for the Far East, and the Indians for the Indian sub-continent. The 2 other regions are the Middle-East and Egypt, but we also need a civ to represent the West, and that will be the Romans. The Babylonians stand as a good reprentation of the Middle-East. And then I have to choose between the Egyptians and the Greeks, but I choose the latter, because the Greeks are just too good to be forgotten, and the Egyptians are too restricted in their legacy (a very peculiar culture).

In the end, one of those regions was let down (the Nile Valley), and replaced with 2 civs representing the West. Also, all those civs are from the Ancient Era, and are still connected to our times (same people or cultural legacy). It is to be noted that Babylon is missing in Civ4...

 

[Gargantutron]

Rome
Greece
Babylon
Egypt
China

 

[Dearmad]

America has the longest lasting continuous government in the history of the world.

Bar none.

It is the oldest Nation, if partially defined by continuous governance (not merely the name of the system, but the social system *itself*), to have ever existed in the history of the world.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

1. Greece
2. China
3. Egypt
4. Rome
5. Persia

In that order, though thank god this will never be necessary as to leave Russia, England, Germany, France, Japan or India out is too much to contemplate.

 

[bman003]

Dearmad, it's just a simple preferance for me. I never play with America, that's why I think there should be civil war/revolutions so America could apear. Along with other countries.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

I voted for Greece, Babylon, Egypt, Incans and Indians-because IMO they represent the 'progenitor' civilizations from each of their respective regions-especially Egypt, India and Babylon, who are all considered to be 'Cradles of Civilization'.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Willem]

I think the Sumerians should be on that list since they were the first. They missed the boat until Civ 3, but it shouldn't happen again.

 

[Ozymandous]

China
Egypt
Greece
England
America

China = Obvious choice as one of the few civilizations to have existed and been a power at one time or another for the past few thousand years.

Egypt = One of the 'ancient' super powers. Assyria, Babylon, etc would be others that could take Egypt's place.

Greece = Rome and all western civilizations developed off ideas first expounded in Greece. I'd wager that without Greece a large portion of the Roman civilization wouldn't have developed nearly as well. See mythology of Rome vs. Greek, art and sculpture, building techniques, etc.

England = Became a world super power and did as much to "connect the world" as any other nation in human history. Under English rule a truly world spawning empire "where the sun never set" was developed and brought civilization to parts of the world that might not have developed it on thier own nearly as fast.

America = No other country (IMHO) has grown as fast into real world prominence, influence and impact world wide as the US in the past 230 years. All you folks in Europe can curl your lips and sneer down your noses but think WW1, WW2 and the cold war. If the US hadn't had the ability, might and been willing to help where would we all be now?

*shrugs* Looking as sphere's of influence in pivitol points in history it's a bit easier to pick out, IMHO.

 

[HourlyDaily]

Sounds like too much intelligent thought to me Aussie. You could have just pushed the barrow for your personal favourites like almost everyone else.

I voted in the latter fashion:

Greece
Egypt
England
China
Japan

I would pick Other, for the Celts. Not sure why I didn't

I don't think anyone will catch the Romans in this poll. Partly because the Romans have a good PR machine. But I will be interested to see who finishes last.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Hate to 'rain on your parade' Dearmad, but England and Switzerland can both lay claim to having older 'continuous' systems of government and nation-status than America.
Switerland is the OLDEST 'modern' democratic state in the world, ever since it achieved its Independance from the Hapsburg Empire (around the 14th-15th centuries, unless I am mistaken). It is also the most stable nation-state in the modern world, having had no civil wars, revolutions or major border alterations since its independance-which is more than can be said for the US, which has endured all 3 since its inception as the 13 Colonies of England.

England, too, has had a functioning parliamentary democracy since the time of Oliver Cromwell (around the 17th Century) and-since that time-has also been an incredibly stable nation-state, unless you count the loss of its numerous colonies.
I fear, Dearmad, that you are arguing your case through the prism of a strong Pro-American bias-rather than through historical facts. Personally, if it wasn't for the need to sell the game to a large US audience, I would say that America has the LEAST claim for being in the game-but that is just my humble opinion .

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[CrazyMrLeo]

America has the longest lasting continuous government in the history of the world.

Bar none.

I'm sorry, say what? How on earth do you define a continuous government? What makes the Byzantine Empire or the Kingdom of England not continuous?

 

[Willem]

America = No other country (IMHO) has grown as fast into real world prominence, influence and impact world wide as the US in the past 230 years. All you folks in Europe can curl your lips and sneer down your noses but think WW1, WW2 and the cold war. If the US hadn't had the ability, might and been willing to help where would we all be now?

Well thinking along those lines then, Russia should be included as well. They went from being a primarily agricultural society when all the European nations were industrializing, to being one of the world's superpowers. And the first nation into space. All in a period of about 50-60 years.

 

[Willem]

America has the longest lasting continuous government in the history of the world.

Bar none.

It is the oldest Nation, if partially defined by continuous governance (not merely the name of the system, but the social system *itself*), to have ever existed in the history of the world.

What a load of crap! There have been many governments and social systems throughout history that have lasted longer than the US has been around. The Chinese dynasties for example, a form of monarchy, were essentially the same for over a thousand years, just a change of face once in awhile. Same with the Persians and Egyptians. The US system is just a young buck compared to how long those cultures existed, virtually unchanged in the way their societies were governed. Even Rome lasted for close to 1000 years!

In fact, if it weren't for the Romans, there might still be someone named Pharoah ruling Egypt today, and they were one of the oldest civilizations known to man. The Pharoahs had a monarchial form of government for over 4000 years. Democracy has a very long way to go before it beats that record! I'd say it's a toss up between the Egyptians and the Chinese as to who has the longest lasting continuous government in history. You should learn a few historical facts before you shoot your mouth off and start waving your puny little flag!

 

[Sark6354201]

Just curious... whoever voted for civs like Mali, or the Aztecs, what reasons did you people have?

 

[DBear]

Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, India.

 

[Vietcong]

rome
greece
china
egypt
babilonia

 

[JBearIt]

To all of you America doubters out there:

The claim about America being the longest continuous government system in the world is an exaggeration but it certainly is one of the longest continuous CURRENT systems around. Furthermore, as much as you may hate to admit it, there can be no debate that America has had more influence over the rest of the world over the past century than any other nation/civilization over the same time frame.

Some may say - its just a country not a "civilization." I disagree. While the USA may have been founded and settled (mainly) by Europeans, it has produced its own unique culture, inventions, products, and ideas that have spread throughout the world. Coca-Cola, Blue jeans, McDonalds, the internet, Hollywood movies, government style have been consumed, used, watched, emulated by people all over the world. While some may doubt the quality of such things, there's no denying America's reach. It belongs as one of the great civilizations in the history of the world.

To those who say it hasn't been around long enough - I would respond a) the reach of its influence is so vast, it offsets the couple hundred years its been around, and b) while some civs have been around for thousands of years, I think you'd be hard pressed to say that all of them have remained a power civ for all of those years (Egypt & Greece are still around and while they were very impt in the past, they can't be said to be in the upper tier of power civs these days). Note that I'm not saying Egypt & Greece don't belong, I'm just using it to illustrate my point that length of existence can be a misleading criterium.

In any event, I voted for America, Greece, Rome, China, and England.

 

[Mrdie]

England, Russia, France, Germany, and Rome

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Actually, JBearIt, even in terms of CURRENT civilizations, it is not the oldest. As I have shown in my previous post, modern England and Switzerland are not politically or geographically different from the way they were over 400-700 years ago, which beats the US by a VERY long way. If you want to get really nit-picky, then the modern US nation has only been around-in a geographical sense-since the mid to late 19th century, which makes it not much older than around half a dozen other European nations.

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Phoenix_56721]

My picks
Rome
Greece
China
Spain
England

But lets not forget that if it wasn't for America that we wouldn't even have this great game, and wouldn't be here in this forum discussing it. I didn't pick it though as one of my five because, I made my picks based on which Civs. are the most FUN to play, not on historical basis (>after all<) ITS ONLY A GAME!!!