What 5 Civilizations Should Always Be In Civ?

Pick Five Civilizations that you think should always be in Civ

  • Rome

    Votes: 822 83.4%
  • Greece

    Votes: 519 52.6%
  • Persia

    Votes: 161 16.3%
  • Egypt

    Votes: 594 60.2%
  • Babylon

    Votes: 190 19.3%
  • Ottoman Empire

    Votes: 57 5.8%
  • Mali

    Votes: 22 2.2%
  • Russia

    Votes: 179 18.2%
  • Germany

    Votes: 199 20.2%
  • France

    Votes: 174 17.6%
  • Spain

    Votes: 57 5.8%
  • England

    Votes: 482 48.9%
  • America

    Votes: 204 20.7%
  • Aztecs

    Votes: 98 9.9%
  • Incas

    Votes: 53 5.4%
  • Indians

    Votes: 226 22.9%
  • Chinese

    Votes: 680 69.0%
  • Japanese

    Votes: 85 8.6%
  • Mongols

    Votes: 96 9.7%
  • Other (Please post if you have other)

    Votes: 47 4.8%

  • Total voters
    986
england- puny pathetic island, conquered a quarter of the world.....gave the world america, canada, australia...changed the culture of south africa and india....
not bad for a tiny island off the shore of a peninsula.....england itself, is under half the size of france
England is not an island...
 
Quite. England is only half of that "puny pathetic island"... :D
 
What 5 civs should always be in the civilization, never to be taken out? Here's my list.
1. Rome
2. Egypt
3. India
4. China
5. Germany
With the Ottoman turks and England close behind.

I would put England in instead of India which shouldnt be in that list and i thought America just bet China
 
Nations and civilizations are not the same thing. You surely don't think North and South Korea represent different civilizations? At the very least, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, and most of Latin America should be considered Roman. They speak latin-based languages and follow the official religion of the late Roman Empire, among other cultural ties. Personally, I'd be inclined to call all of Europe one Greco-Roman civilization; hell, you could throw in most of the Middle East and North Africa, though there's a heavy Mesopotamian/Persian influence there, too. But even Persia was Hellenized to a fair degree.

Anyway, China hasn't been independent continuously--remember the Mongols?

Greece
Egypt
Babylon (would prefer Sumer, but Mesopotamian civilization predates Persia and influenced had it heavily)
India
China

Essentially, I opted for the four cradles of civilization where writing probably arose independently (unsure about India) + Greece because of its profound influence on western civilization. I decided to view Rome as an aspect of Greek civilization. Egypt and
 
Technically only England meets your criteria then, and maybe just barely. And even China has been dominated.

How do you contend that the Romans have continued to today? China is the only civilization that has been an independent nation continuously since what? 3000BC? I forget what year exactly...
Anyway, here's my list
1. China
2. Rome
3. Greece
4. Egypt
5. England
 
Anyone who vooted Mali is probably from Mali. It's not big or old and doesn't have anything important in history. i don't mean to offend anyone but its history goes like this
Year (1300-1600 AD): Got conquered, probably by portugese
Year (1945-1980 AD) Got independant
 
I read through this entire thread, which I found searching for information on a research paper I'm writing... most likely the insanity of me registering and then posting a reply on the subject in question poorly reflects on me however. ^_-

This is post is in regard to the United States being a civilization or not.

Historians and social scientists have criteria for defining what is a civilization and what is not. These criteria, much like anything else, vary from person to person and institution to institution. The specific nuances aside, the United States IS considered a civilization by those who are experts in the matter, as it meets all basic criteria - and in many exceeds: as do many modern nations. I suggest reading the works of Vere Gordon Childe and Jared Diamond as a start if one is interested in deeper information.

What many of you are confusing "civilization" with, is "cultural identity" as defined by an individual named Spengler (forgive me; I cannot recall his given name from memory). However Spengler's works are considered more philosophical than ordinary: I have been told by several university professors that he's archaic.

So that my random ranting isn't off topic, I'll vote. My selection was based off a personal opinion of major influences in how the world was shaped and/or being shaped. That said:

Rome for it's rise and fall on the influence of Europe, as well as the direct and indirect spread of the Christian religion.

The Mongols for their impact on the power balance and progression of societies throughout the Eurasian continent.

England for the British Empire. The first global superpower in retrospective terminology.

Germany for both World Wars. Though they were not the only factor, I'm selecting it for symbolic reasoning as well.

America for the time periods following the World Wars. Russia also plays a major factor, but the U.S. has left a greater impact on global affairs and contributions (economically and technological)... as well as remaining a superpower.
 
Well, I wonder why Japan is so "unpopular"?

I do agree on:

China
Mongols
Rome
England

The fifth is more open in my mind.
I would love to have the Vikings in there, being a Norwegian and all, but must admitt that they are not top five material. But if you do take the population in for count, I'll bet they made the biggest impact per person!?

If i do have to pick one last civ, I'll go for Germany!
 
Spain in the XVIth century ?

A fantastic counter argument: one I have encountered many times. However, I have many reasons against electing Spain as such. It would go totally off topic of this thread however.

If you'd like to go "offline" with the discussion, I'd be happy to. :)
 
(1) Greece
(2) China
(3) Egypt
(4) India
(5) Persia

Rome is also necessary, but if I had to choose 5, they'd be your five.

Why Greece over Rome? Because if Greece were Cheers, Rome would be Frasier. OK OK OK.. Not the greatest analogy, sorry. Greece was the original, and it was nearly if not as glorious in it's heyday. Rome was a direct result of seeing what Greece did right, and Greece did wrong. While both are impressive, Greece to me deserved that slot. Plus, when you think of countries today, who's left, Greece or Rome?
 
Ok.

So, well, the Norman were French, and they are at the origin of England, so France should take all credit for England's accomplishment, so France outshine England as the latter is part of the former.

Thanks for defeating your own argument :)


I'm not really sure where you're going with this.... The origins of the English are with settlers and warriors of scandinavian origin who having lived in what is now Germany and Holland for hundreds of years migrated to Britain in the period 450-750AD.
The Norman French didn't show up for several hundred years, and even they were the descendants of yet more scandinavians who had settled in normandy (normandy means land of the norsemen in old french).
Basically, your historical case doesn't hold water.
 
Anyone who vooted Mali is probably from Mali. It's not big or old and doesn't have anything important in history. i don't mean to offend anyone but its history goes like this
Year (1300-1600 AD): Got conquered, probably by portugese
Year (1945-1980 AD) Got independant

Nah it's more along the line of

Year 1200 - 1400 AD: Start one of the first urban cultures in Africa and become military superpower whose ruler is so rich he gave away so much gold in Egypt to cause an inflation there, while building arguably the important centers of scholarship ever to exist anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa.
Year 1400 - 1600 AD: Got throne usurped by a vassal, who expanded the empire to its greatest extent. Sankore probably the most important university in Africa.
Year 1600 - 1800 AD: Got conquered, by the Moroccans of all people. Spent the next few centuries divided among various warring dynasties.
Year 1800 - 1870 AD: JIHAD!!!
Year 1870 - 1900 AD: Got conquered by the French, who finally imposed colonial rule after spending a couple of decades chasing the early pioneers of guerrila warfare around the Sahel.
Year 1960 - 2000 AD: Got independence. Its current status acts as a cautionary tale of environmental degradation, overpopulation and crap administration subjecting an otherwise richly cultured and proud people to abject poverty.
 
Egypt
Rome
Greece
England
Babylon

Ofcourse, there is more mandatory civs. But i could not even imagine a Civ without these 5.
(And yes, i was surprised when Civ 4 was launched without the Babylonians from scratch)
 
Conquering is one of civilization traits, but you can't say that civilization owes to conquering. Mongols - horseman - conquering, while what can you tell other else about Mongols in old days, what can you tell about today's Mongols?
All know that Mongols conquerred Chinese, few knows Mongol was a vassal of Chinese in the most time of the history. And without the help of Soviet, Today's Mogol will still be a province of China.
 
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