[-] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

The core reason is you have many small to medium sized states in constant competition. Geography is a factor but its not the entire picture. They militarized first, then they colonized. But they did not militarized for the sake of opening markets. They opened markets so they could continue militarizing.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

True but they couldn't scale on-demand as steam can. Still can't, but energy storage is the solution now.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

You said there were no crops for massive scale farming yet we do massive scale farming with american crops. Also corn was grown at some scale all along the Mississippi and the deep south, thats how you get Cahokia. It wasnt just limited to Mexico.

The fact that those crops weren't used at such large scale as the Europeans is due to the societal structures of the Americans not the lack of capable plants. Europeans enclosed the commons and privatized land ownership, the Americans didn't. It has nothing to do with the lack of correct plants.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

China would have to be in a permanent waring states period for centuries to develop the debt systems necessary to start capitalism. It had all the resources but none of the motivation. The Mongol Empire had little to do with that, unless you meant "returning China to dynastic rule". Honestly that theory just sounds like chinese nationalist cope.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

Also constant war necessitating more and more complicated systems of debt that both necessitate more war to pay of that debt but also allow financing large naval expeditions to loot not just the new world but the entire Indian ocean. Even after all this they are still in constant conflict with each other so the exploitation of the rest of the world accelerates to keep up.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Corn and potatoes are notoriously great for large scale farming. Or are you talking about African yams?

[-] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Because its literally illegal to support Palestine in Germany. It got written in law decades ago so now every political party must support Israel. Who is going to articulate to them the reality? Online foreigners? Thats just people who never had to face their antisemitism.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Western and northern Europe had been flooded with German nomads so kingdoms were constantly being carved out and borders were in constant flux. Also in the western roman empire, the pope ruled over Caesar, unlike in the east where it was Ceasar over the pope. This meant these new German kings were constantly jostling for the title of holy roman emperor and back stabbing whoever got it.

Baltic sea ship building (viking) mixing with Mediterranean ship building led to caravel built ships. The Arabs were just as capable seafaring merchants as the Europeans. But they didn't have systems to finance expeditions around Africa to fuck with Christians like the Portuguese would with them.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

This is not the reason but a key reason: Baltic rough sea ship building tech met Mediterranean large scale ship building tech via the vikings. Outcome is caravel hulls. Strap cannons on and now your ship is the naval equivalent of a nomadic horse archer army. You can hit anything with cannons and just retreat to blue waters before anyone could hit back.

Mediterranean ship building was built for scale but mostly joined large blocks of light wood together using mortoise and tenons. This meant ships could be large but were also brittle. Rough seas would snap the boat. But there were still large enough that people could put cannons on them as soon as small cannons were a thing.

In the Baltic, the seas are always rough. So shipbuilders used thin overlapping strips of heavy wood, which were nailed together, called "Clinker built". These thin strips of wood could twist and flex in rough seas so your ship wouldn't break. But you could only build ships so big in this style. Viking long ships could never fit a cannon.

Were viking traders first met Mediterranean shipping would've been around the Iberian peninsula. So its little wonder that the Spanish and Portuguese were the first intercontinental European empires. The Portuguese were considered the "first" though. And were far more Naval based than the Spanish. Once they got into the Indian ocean they became sea Mongols because they could strike anyone with impunity, claiming dominion over the entire indian ocean. Check out Afonso De Albuquerque for Portuguese exploits in the Indian ocean.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

Steam power is insane outside of boating. Before all the work in your society must come from potential energy stored in food. After steam you could get free work out of rocks.

[-] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

The americas had jack shit for work animals but thats sort of a guns germs and steel explanation. China had all the same materials and Europe and didn't go off to pillage the world.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Thats assuming Yemen is capable of stopping all israeli traffic through the red sea. Best they can do is make it risky, which is effective, but not total. Pretty sure the US has bases in Djbouti for this exact reason.

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