Is great influence on human history required...

[H Tower]

Tied!

21-21 tie

[Staszek]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by Ribannah


This is taken from the Herelad & Review of July 29, 1999

well, it's not. But still I'm glad that you agree

[Roman]

I voted yes and IMO every civilization included should have urban centres and writing.

Originally posted by orange
Ukraine prospers now as an independent nation. Russia suffers

Hmm, as far as I know Ukraine suffers even more than Russia. BTW: Both are now rather weak states and IMO there is never going to be a Russian revival that some in the West seem worried about. Despite what the Soviet Communists have done to my country, I feel pity for Russia, there seems to be only gloom and doom ahead of them.

[Fidel]

i would not be SO sure. china looked like shi! two decades ago....

[Dinner]

I just wanted you all to know that my vote put the "yeses" over the top. Cheers.

[Spathi]

I voted YES. Here's why:
I think a civilization should be included if, at a time in its history, it exerted special control FOR THE TIME, making a significant impact on an area large FOR THE REGION AND TIME. Thus, I would like the Aztecs (who conquered a very large area of Central America), the Americans (who exerted - and continue to exert - global power from the world wars on) and Mali (who had an enormous impact on Middle-Ages Africa), but not such stupid civs as the Canadians, Jamaicans, or modern-day Poles (I don't know enough about Polish history to say if they should be included under this criterion - the only think I know is that they had a patently idiotic system of government in the decades before they got conquered). Yes, impact on history should be required, but you have to put it in perspective. I mean, think about it - was there that much difference between the Hebrew kingdoms of Judea, the Babylonian Empire, the Khmer, and the civilization of Great Zimbabwe? Just because some of them were mostly forgotten while some have snuck into our Eurocentric history books doesn't mean that they weren't pretty similar in regional power.