*typo, the title should have been, "most important historical event" This thread is about the most important historical event in the last 1,000 years. Here are the rules: 1.) this is events, not inventions, don't post things like the nuclear bomb, that wasnt an event that was an invention. 2.) No whining or bitching about "how no one can grasp it and anyone who tries to is full of shit- pjdude" etc. 3.) Nothing religious, nothing having to do with the inquisition or church events (although anything relating to the crusades is allowed because it was more of a war than anything) 4.) The event can take place only over a maximum of 100 years, anything over that really cannot be considered a singular event, and 100 years is stretching it. 5.) NOTHING BEFORE 1000 YEARS AGO. What to post: When the event happened (mandatory) How it happened why it happened What effects it has Who benefitted most from it/ who lost the most from it Wether it is good or bad.
The "event" is the current rise of China's power (and the decline of the US's power). “China gives all the signs of being the winner less than 100 years from now.” was first posted here: http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2236995&postcount=40 I historically expanded that two post later at: http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2237609&postcount=42 Probably post 42 belongs here more than there, so take a look, if interested.
He was not the first, and fact that the spanish who followed found gold is probably more important. If they had been no gold in the new world, the original discovers might still be hunting buffalo in America. BTW that discovery of gold caused terrible inflation, first in Spain and later more generally. Run-a-Way inflation comes when the money supply increase much more rapidly than the supply of goods. In this case that happen when gold coins were circulating money and fiat money was not yet invented.
The printed word for without the printed word nothing could be conveyed from one generation to the next accurately. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
That either started before year 1000 or is the invention by Guttenberg. In either case, not compatible with the OP's rules.
May the force be with you. - You are going to need it as this is ridicules. (Why not star wars, space odyssey 2001, lost in space, or a dozen others?)
I am inclined to agree. The fact that the Welsh (etc) had discovered it earlier is of little account. The events set in train by Colon's failed expedition to Japan, and the historical context in which the voyage took place, probably represent the biggest single historical turning point in the last 1000 years. There's also an argument to be made for the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 which, blocking off the trade route between Europa and Asia, led to the Portuguese exploration of the African coast (de Gama, etc), to which Colon's west-bound adventure was a natural sequel.
That (about the discovery of new African and Asian lands) sort of confirms my objection to the discovery of the new world being less important than the Spanish discovery that it held huge quantities of already extracted gold - just waiting there for the taking from the Incas, who did not have guns. I.e. many new worlds were found, but they lacked gold, so these discovery were not much followed up. The same would have been true of Columbus's discovery if there had been no gold, adorning the bodies of common Inca warriors Summary: this event (Columbus discovery of a new land), is like dozens of others made at about the same time - is not important in itself. To think it is, only reflects the considerable egotism of those who live there now - but what else is new about Americans? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! It was the discovery of large quanties of gold, not one more new land, that made American lands unique. Thus, the correct claim should be for that, not the finding of any particular one of more than a dozen new lands found in that era. Cortex, I think it was, not Columbus, made the history changing discovery. - So much gold that many ships needed to come for more than decade just to haul it back to Spain. Note also, in further proof, that South America, where the gold was, was developed >100 years before North America. Even the pope was needed to settle the dispute between the Portuguese and the Spanish over the division of the valuable new lands and no one gave a tinker's dam about that usless land to the north.
Although Guttenberg took his place in history the Chinese actually made a "movable press" long before him and they started it using etched stones with paper they made. Guttenberg only made this idea his own because no one would give credit to the Chinese for starting it first.
The effective closing-off of China from the outside world in the late 1400's-early 1500's. They failed to follow up the early explorations of Admiral Zheng He, who led a fleet of treasure-junks around the rim of the Indian Ocean in the early 1400's. Had they done so, they would have stolen a march on the Portugese and Spanish, and possibly kept the western powers from entering the Indian Ocean or the Pacific. Those two oceans could've become Mare Sinensis. Imagine the potential impact of Chinese control of those two oceans, and Chinese colonies all around the coasts of South Asia, East Africa, Australasia and the Pacific coasts of North and South America by 1500 AD...
Thanks, but I knew that and that they invented paper, which they soon were printing on but citing Gutenberg, a definite inventor, made my point more easily.
Since the farther back you go - the more effect an event has, and the limit of 1000 years: I will go to the Battle of Hastings 1066AD.
just because its old doesn't necessarily make it the most important event. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_conquest_of_England#Significance doesn't seem like a big impact, their cultures wouldn't have been very different. if the normans had lost, perhaps french-english relations would have been better. might that have faciltated more french and english expansion, in the time they wasted fighting each other?
the telephone... so you could call into work sick... when you're not Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Discovery of electicity and the ability to use it, computers, radios, advanced flight, and so many other things are impossible without it.
