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Originally Posted by Robert Tulip
These are absolutely nitpicky complaints.
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Indeed they are, they remind me of those math teachers that insist that you are wrong just because you wrote 2+2=5 on the blackboard, nitpickers...
Seriously now, you do realize that to show that U.S. is the national reincarnation of Rome or something like it you will need to be able to come up with some very,very strong parallels between both nations?
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In this example I have divided time into periods where the basic shape of events was the same in ancient and modern times, so of course there are specific differences. The fact the frontier was “considered” closed does not mean that in actual historical fact it was closed, in terms of a broader understanding of frontier than the narrow legal definition. As well, in this period there wasa broader global frontier process underway with the Scramble for Africa and the settlement of Australia where the frontier was very much alive.
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Wait a minute, the U.S. didn't colonize Africa and Australia. Shouldn't you be looking at the Spanish-American war? I admit that I don't know if it mirrors any events in Roman history, but at least it is something in which your "New Rome" was involved.
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And your comments that after Versailles ‘there was no reason to assume there would be another war’ completely misses the point and confuses perceptions with reality. My point is that there are underlying causal drivers of events which occur despite prevailing knowledge and belief. In the period between the Punic Wars (ie roughly analogous to the 1920s) Rome may well have believed it could live at peace with Carthage, but war exploded again in 218BC because the underlying material and cultural drivers of the competition to dominate the Mediterranean were so strong. The same argument can apply to the rise of Hitler, and perhaps Japan and Italy.
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Ok, World War 1 mirrors the 1st Punic War with Germany taking the role of Carthage. I'm sorry but that doesn't work very well.
Here's a few objections that I can think of, I'm sure that someone with time and a greater knowledge of history will be able to come up with more of them:
1 - World War 1 is just too short, it lasted 4 years against 23 for the 1st Punic War
2 - The U.S. joined the allies in late in the war, Rome was in the 1st Punic War from the start
3 - The U.S.(Rome) was not the main adversary of Germany(Carthage), the Triple Entente (U.K. - France - Russia) was
4 - World War 1 saw the end of tsarist Russia, where's the Punic equivalent of that event?