WI: Marco Polo brings back the Art of War

IchBinDieKaiser

IchBinDieKaiser

What if while Marco Polo was in China, he gets ahold of a copy of The Art of War, managed to get it translated in a European language, and takes it back with him to Europe? What would be the political and military impact that an earlier introduction of this book to the west?
 

Tyr

Not much.
Culturally it could have some nice little effects but...there's not really much in there generals can't figure out anyway. A lot of it is really really basic stuff.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
While reading it, Machiavelli tumesces so violently that he has a stroke and dies with a smile on his face.

So we don't get The Prince :(


:p
 

06294086

Knowledge will be useless unless those who read it know how to put it to practice.

Europeans have their share of stupid generals too :cool:
 

Gimple

Asian philosophy styles would be too alien to Europeans. The Military types of Europe would be more up to reading Julius Caesar. I doubt even Marco polo would be keen enough to understand the nuances of the books either.
 

SJK

You need someone to win a battle with one of Tzu's ideas as a factor in the outcome by a big and decisive margin. However... I'm not keen on those chances either.
 
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