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Very cool! I had heard of the Varangian Guard before, and in fact, it appears to be something of a common theme in the East, having Northern Europeans as body guards.
Even the Ptolemaic Egyptians had the Galatian Guard, made up of Galatians, who were a Celtic tribe who had migrated to south-east Europe.
But my understanding was that the Varangian Guard were not cataphracts -- or were they?
If not, what makes cataphracts so cool?
The Byzantine Empire (a.k.a. the Roman Empire's rotten stump of a rump state) was certainly long lived, and reasonably powerful in it's heyday.
However, ultimately, they run into the same problems as the Chinese. They could be a real mess at times, and they didn't really accomplish much of anything. They were mostly only interested in preserving the status quo, and failed rather spectacularly in this goal at that.
lulz.................Empires confiscate, America liberates.
What?!
Hawaii was taken over by force in 1893.
Hawaii - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Puerto Rico was taken from Spain in the Spanish-American War.
Spanish
So.. What on Earth are you talking about?!
Your picture exemplifies precisely what I don't like about Americanization. The Walmart, microwave culture. I much prefer the cobblestone streets of Europe with its locally owned cafe's and charm.
I think the legacy America will leave on the world, what it will be most remembered for, is it's enterprising nature. Americans are distinctively commercial-minded, enterprising, entrepreneurial, and innovative.
Americans create, package, sell, and profit better than anyone in the history of the world; and that is both our biggest strength as well as our biggest weakness.
Well, Wikipedia seems to disagree with you.
Wikipedia seems to think that, as Kahn and Cerf both directly say, they had a part in its creation, but it wasn't their invention -- in fact, it was many peoples', because it's not something that can actually BE invented.
However, networked computers CAN be invented, and a Briton did it -- Donald Davies..
The modern format of the Internet, the ubiquitous and universal World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee, another Briton.
"The Hawaii electorate voted 94.3% "yes for statehood" to 5.7% "no".[75] The choices were to accept the Act or to remain a territory, without the option of independence"
America did not take Puerto Rico from Spain, we liberated it from Spain.
Who happens to sit at MIT and not Oxford. :mrgreen:
Absolutely. And Bill Clinton went to Oxford, go figure.
Doesn't change that Berners-Lee is British.
I think it could be equally (and more convincingly) argued that America is 'British' fundamentally in its culture and institutional history. Obviously not what you're wanting to hear, but I have to admit I think that America's global power is A) Significantly less than Britain's at its height and B) Fundamentally not dissimilar to British ideas of how the world should be. America is a product of Britain, directly, and 'Americanization' appears to me to have all the hallmarks of Britain's 'civilising' quest.
Plus, the British Empire was totally global, too.
You know I emailed him once, told him I appreciated his work? He actually responded with a thank you.
The American Empire is the greatest in history. It's the only one that has ever truly been global.
The entire world is more or less "Americanized" today.
The Roman Empire. No doubt in my mind.
I would argue that the Byzantine Empire is legitimately the Roman Empire. The Byzantines certainly saw themselves as Roman - even if they were Hellenistic - and the land itself was part of the empire. Rome existed for something close to 1800 years and was the dominant polity for at least half that time. Add to that the fact that even today we - and much of the western world - still feel their influence it's hard to argue against them as the greatest empire.
The Bible says that the greatest empire in history will be the beast, so for that reason, I hope another nation beats America out for the title.
Of the choices, I'm going to say the British Empire because it brought more civilization to more parts of the world than any other in the list. The "American" empire is not listed, and would be grouped by itself in my view because its real power (beyond the current borders) hasn't been used to conquer and hold land, but has transformed more of the world through its ideals. No doubt we could go on all month about the American empire, because I would expect a lot of disagreement. No empire has been built without significant change and some level of brutality for a period. There's always good and bad.
That's not quite fair. Americans were Britishized first. Some could even claim that the English were Romanized before that.
Is the world truly Americanized? or is it Britishized? Or is it possibly Romanized? I think a fair argument could be made in either direction. American civilization is less authoritative and less invasive than the extensive colonization efforts of the English Empire.
Maybe America does have a little bit of our own flavor and is not so dependent upon the English. The question is: Why am I arguing with myself?
There's one option curiously missing from the choices we can select from.
I think it could be equally (and more convincingly) argued that America is 'British' fundamentally in its culture and institutional history. Obviously not what you're wanting to hear, but I have to admit I think that America's global power is A) Significantly less than Britain's at its height and B) Fundamentally not dissimilar to British ideas of how the world should be. America is a product of Britain, directly, and 'Americanization' appears to me to have all the hallmarks of Britain's 'civilising' quest.
Plus, the British Empire was totally global, too.
America hasn't been very British for at least a century, if not longer. I'd say that even the Britain of today is so radically different from the British Empire in its heyday as to be practically a different creature.... thus the above assertions are not, IMO, very accurate.
Many Americans may be Brit-by-blood more or less, but our culture developed amid a very different atmosphere and circumstances. There are fundamental differences that cannot be swept under the rug.
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