I agree the egyptians and chinese were important in some respect. The Indus Valley civilization as well. But in my view, these great nations did not spread their influence much beyond their borders. Of course, as you state and I noted in the OP, it does reflect my cultural bias.

-V

If you want to include the Chinese,
the decision of the Chinese emperor (in the mid-1400s) not to engage in further exploration and expansion by sea,
is probably one of the most consequential decisions of the last millennium.

Admiral Zheng He's fleet was so huge and technologically superior at the time,
that they would have won any conflict with European powers hands-down.

Thats what I was also trying to say about their "incredibly large ships" on my post, but I was too lazy to back it up with names and dates.

__________________
This whole internet thing is probably not a passing fad.-Ronald Brak
While speech might be free, consequences cost.-Doodler

I must be dyslexic or something. I looked at your post several times before deciding that you, indeed, had stated 3000 - 2500 BCE. But no. Sorry.

In any case, the book I'm reading places Sumerian phonetic writing (cuneiform) somewhere around 2300 BCE (which I thought you were referring to) and the Phoenician alphabet at around 1000 BCE, give or take a couple of centuries (as you noted). Although I'd put the Sumerian's advance higher up on the list, that would definitely be outside our time criteria here.

Never mind.

Those are great. I had the series, or had it. I loaned a volume out and never got it back. It really ticks me off when that happens. I did find a great modern replacement for it. Can't remember the author, but it is by Penguin and is the entire history of humankind in one 1200 page Bible-print volume. Great book.

__________________
Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Wasn't their early version of democracy quite limited though? Available (or controlled) only to certain "classes."

Kind of like Rome, where the people called citizens were only a portion of the population.

__________________
Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Agreed. European hegemony from about the 1300's on was to a degree and on a scale that the world had never seen. Not even close. Made everything before it look like a squabble over a backyard fence. Even the Romans never went all that far from the Mediteranean Basin.

__________________
Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

I would like to add another very important date to this thread: The year 324, in which The Emperor Constantine took control of the Roman Empire until his death in the year 337. Constantine was the man most responsible for Christianity becoming the world's largest religion. Before he became the first Christian Emperor, Christians were a small and persecuted group. During his time as Emperor, Constantine gave the Christians a greal deal of power and influence. He also brought together the various competing Christian groups, in state sanctioned councils, to sort out which writings(from the hundreds of different ones in use at the time), would be the official accepted Christian theology. The results were the basic tenets of Christianity and the Bible as we now know it today.

For some groups, anyway.

__________________
The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

1988 AD - Swift's first date with the future Mrs. Swift

__________________
At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009

I don't want to get into a serious religious discussion, as that can get rather complicated, but under Constantine's orders, the basic Roman Catholic Bible that we know it today was put together. Later, the Protestants did omit a few of the Old Testament Apocryha books, but the four New Testament Gospels and Letters are the ones in use today by most Christians. Also the Idea of the Trinity and the divine nature of Jesus was established. There are some differences between the various Christian groups today, but the most basic tenets of Christian Theology were made official back then.

Not arguing. Jews find some of the later additions apocryphal...

1800 (approx): the invention of a process to mass-produce paper from wood pulp.

__________________
The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

I would tend to agree with that one. If Greece hadn't retained its independence then, its vast cultural legacy might have been more easily lost.

Don't you mean the start of the French domination of England?

Absolutely agreed.

But I would add Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo. In a way, their contribution to the development of science was greater, because it met with greater opposition than Newton's. And, given the time span, I might add Hipparchus and Ptolemy as well.

Agreed. The start of mankind's second shot at democracy.

Yes. Amazing how long it took us to come up with that very simple idea!

It changed science.

Symbolic dates, but fair enough. We are in an astronomy forum, after all.

Now, now, if you're going to mention the failures of communism, you should be balanced, and add the Great Depression to your list.

__________________
"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

Sure, modern democracies were just like that when they began, too. You have to crawl before you can walk.

Why not just say "the invention of the alphabet"?

__________________
"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

That's a good one. I was going to bring that up, but you did a better job than I could've.

If you ask me, ol'Constantine is a bit overrated.

__________________
"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

I'd be willing to bet that without him, there wouldn't be a Chistian Church on every block!

I wouldn't bet on such a thing. Christianity had been slowly becoming popular all around the Mediterranean for a few centuries. Why do you think that he and his successors got away with bestowing so many privileges on the Christian Church? It must have already had significant popular support by then. The triumph of Christianity (in more or less the form in which it triumphed) was a matter of when, not if.

__________________
"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire