Challenge: Retard science and technology

Charles II didn't convert to Roman Catholicism till he was on his deathbed, he'd have been out of a job had he even remotely showed an interest in that part of Christianity during his reign. Check up what happened to his succesor who did dabble with Roman Catholicism.

Yeah I looked it up and you were right, in my defence I am an American and to me all Stuarts are Catholic until proven otherwise.:D

Thinking about it, if you go back a little further the Black Death had more to do with the sort of questioning attitudes that brought about the Enlightenment than the Reformation. So really, cutting off the Silk Road trade with a natural disaster or a war would have a much more profound effect as the plague-ridden rats wouldn't have had such an easy time getting to Europe. The relative stasis of the feudal system holds several hundred more years, and by 2008 steam is "exciting new technology."

I think the best way to stop technological change is to take away the incentive to develop in such a way. I think that cutting off the Silk Road earlier might encourage earlier attempts to finding another way to China, like across the Atlantic. I think that the Black Death did upset Feudalism, but if instead there was no fall of the roman empire and there was so much stability and resources could be gathered from all over europe, there would be very little reason to change the system.

I don't understand why often people think that a surviving roman empire means more advanced technology. They were very innovative compared to their earlier adversaries but if there were no external threats to the empire they would not have a reason to continue to develop technologically. Like the Chinese, who after being very inventive essentially kept to their ways in the face of European advancements.
 
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