The Roman empire existed in some form or another for the better part of 1000 years. Much like the United States, the reason Rome became so big and powerful is because it accepted everyone. Eventually through war, technology and culture it spread to cover most of the known world.
In some ways the Romans were barbaric, such as slavery and blood sport. But in most other ways they were pretty advanced. They developed some of the first long lasting concrete and paved roads that spread for miles and miles. They build aqua ducts that brought water into the city and sewer systems. As a result they had running water, bath houses and fountains. They considered cleanliness and proper grooming a necessity.
In a nutshell, they did a lot of things that were very technological and progressive.
After the Roman Empire fell, the known world went into the dark ages. It would take us nearly 1000 years later before the known world began to rediscover these things the Romans had been doing.
It’s really been within the last 300-500 years that we’ve been heavily advancing. The last 150 years that things have really really taken off and now we’ve got ourselves moving in good stride.
So what changed? Why is it that the Roman empire that was around for roughly 1000 years never got to the technological level that we currently possess?
They started from almost ground zero. When Rome started they had an ultra advanced militarily because they had leather armor and iron weapons. And they had figured out some basic engineering. Enough to build bridged, ramps and other means of invading places that had once been impregnable. So they lasted long enough to make real advancements. We started out with most of what they spent 1000 years learning.
Look at a lighter they only cost $1. Look at it and try to imagine the difficulty of engineer such a thing if you had never seen anytime like it before. Our knowledge builds on itself, you can build a butane lighter because you have seen everything in it before.They had just not been put together before. It was the written word and well defended borders that made it all possible. The knowledge of past generations stopped dying with every wave of barbarians. With our knowledge now building one generation to another, with little to nothing being lost. It started to grow exponentially instead of rising a falling with every great empires rise and fall
I think the Roman empire and indeed the global technological level had to reach a critical mass (including certain economic stages, like the Industrial Revolution, as well as intellectual advances like Enlightenment) before it could begin the great leap forward we’ve been enjoying in the past century or so.
This is actually not historically accurate. Technological advancement continued after the Roman empire fell. While some large scale projects became impossible in the absence of an organized, centralized (and oppressive) government, Europeans continued to learn new things and apply what they learned. Had the Roman army come through time and attacked the Europe of the Middle Ages, they would have been routed by the superior military technology of knights and pikemen. And the Romans lacked the know-how to build anything like the Gothic cathedrals.
Well, you know THEM ITALIANS. They’re always too busy with pussy and booze.