which had a greater impact on the world around it

[pawpaw]

fall of rome led to 500 years of dark ages
death of genghis khan stops the unstopable mongols short of europe columbus dicovers america and a whole new world opens up the refromation, dives europe for 200 years with religious wars death of archduke ferdinand leads to ww 1 and the fall of the german, austrian, turkish and russian empires bombing of nagaski and hiroshima leads to atomic age spunik jump starts space and arms race between u.s.a. and ussr

 

[JJP]

Columbus finding America.

 

[Benderino]

Either Columbus finding America or the Reformation.

 

[andrewgprv]

If Columbus didn't find America I wouldn't be surprised if someone else did shortly after.

I believe the reformation is extremely important as it leads to the secular states we have today.

Also the fall of Rome was a biggy.

 

[Sayounara]

america, the bomb, and spunik

 

[Ribannah]

The meteor that killed the Dinosaurs.

 

[Evie]

The Big Bang.

 

[Evie]

Sorry, double-post.

 

[Panda]

Out of those you listed, I voted for the Reformation.

But then again, you could argue that the rise of Christianity in the first place had a greater impact.

 

[Evie]

Or the rise of Judaism before that. Or the birth of a strangely deformed monkey eons ago that was able to do a good job of standing upright for long periods of time, and to gain a physical advantage from this...

 

[Stefan Haertel]

The death of Genghis Khan didn't have that much an impact. It didn't stop the Mongols from storming Europre. Some of the Mongol's greatest conquests were made under his successor, Ogadai.
Now his death did have impact. When Ogadai died in 1241, Mongol troops had already defeated a combined Germany army in Silesia, they had plundered Pest and were on their way to destroy the Byzantine empire. They withdrew, however, after hearing of Ogadais death, keeping only the conquered territories in Russia.
Now, hadn't he died...

 

[pawpaw]

thought of putting the rise of islam on the list too

 

[allhailIndia]

The Atomic Bomb, by a long shot. It meant that super-powers will no longer try to use war as a means of solving disputes between each other and large, bloody conventional wars can be avoided with the threat of a nuclear annihilation

 

[Evie]

Even then. It only brings thing to a situation of "balance of powers" - nations that don'T dare go to war with each others because the results of the war have too high chances of being negatives. It's nothing all that new.

 

[Julien]

Fall of Rome : It was already crumbling. I guess Europe could have progressed quicker if Rome had lasted.

Death of genghis khan : He had to die one day. His children succeeded him well. Not important.

Columbus finds America : Very important for the later colonisation and assertion of Europe as a world power.

Reformation : Big political influence. It shaped most European wars between the 16 and 18th cent. and lead to the American 13 colonies and their independance. Countries wouldn't be the same without it.

Death of archiduke Ferdinand : Started WWI, but the tension was already high and it would have happened anyway (it was just a pretext)

Bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima : Just mark the end of WWII between Japan and the US. It would have stopped without it anyway.

Sputnik : no real effect on daily life for most people, except for satelite tv and phones, but that's not the sputnik itself

 

[pandora]

in fact around 1400 we ( christian europeans) where a pack of warmongering apes compared to the extremely advanced asian and muslim civilizations. in fact islam ruled the world in point of domination,trade and science, while we where some militaristic idiots on a cold little subcontinent on the northwestern rim.

i believe the most important milestones of european success where the 3 great disillusions of chistianity:
-copernicus,galilei,kepler - showing that earth is not the centre of the universe.
-darwin showing that mankind is made by ape sperms and not gods boredom.
-freud showing that a thing like a soul does not neccessarily has to exist ,and if , can be touched and changed by human action and is not formed by gods will but by social influence and the wish to copulate.

the things in the poll above would have happened anyway and would be without any use if we would still believe that we float through space on a huge disc and the heart is the home of our souls while the brain is an installation to cool the blood

 

[Dr. Dr. Doktor]

The invention of female contraceptives, the pill and so on, is probably the event that set the most people free in the history of the world.

Of the ones mentioned probably the Sputnik since from when it was launched western schoolchildren have been forced to learn math on the same level as in Russia. A huge loss of individual freedom.

 

[Aramazd]

Death of Genghis Khan causing the lagest empire to be broken up

 

[Alone]

Originally posted by Julien
Fall of Rome : It was already crumbling. I guess Europe could have progressed quicker if Rome had lasted.

Agree. Ether that or Discover/Colonisation of America.
But will vote for Romans falls, to bad that's happened.

 

[puglover]

Birth of Jesus
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Reformation