What if over several centuries Rome never fell and they ended up conquering the whole world or most of it.how do you think they could do this?.
What if over several centuries Rome never fell and they ended up conquering the whole world or most of it.how do you think they could do this?.
Of course. But fairly early PODs that could butterfly those issues can exist. Obviously,saving a post third Century Roman Empire is impossible and would require Magic or Zeus blessing. But there can be plenty of PODs before that for saving the Roman Empire for a World domination.Rome had too many inherent issues to take over the world that without magic or Zeus's explicit blessing it simply isn't going to happen.
Gunpowder won't make the romans immune to structural weaknesses in the empire, though. What rome needed was something to stabilize their economy and political system, not a military advantage - they definitely already had that.What about early development of gunpowder, with the Roman organizational ability they would be unstoppable.
First of all, you will never get anything close to 'hard' world-conquest unless you fundamentally change the nature of states. empires fluctuate and even the strongest can't last forever. However, there are some things you could do to achieve 'soft' world-conquest with the roman empire, by which I mean an almost complete domination of essentially everywhere.What if over several centuries Rome never fell and they ended up conquering the whole world or most of it.how do you think they could do this?.
Of course. But fairly early PODs that could butterfly those issues can exist. Obviously,saving a post third Century Roman Empire is impossible and would require Magic or Zeus blessing. But there can be plenty of PODs before that for saving the Roman Empire for a World domination.
Gunpowder won't make the romans immune to structural weaknesses in the empire, though. What rome needed was something to stabilize their economy and political system, not a military advantage - they definitely already had that..
If I am not wrong,you are talking about Umayyad Caliphate and the Chinese Empire. Umayyad was an indirect product of the Antiquity including Rome's and Europe's and rose as a result of Rome's demise. Chinese Empire didn't have the advantages in terms of Geography that Rome did. So Rome gets the edge.No, there cannot be. Do you know why? There are other civilizations of mankind outside of Europe who rivaled and even surpassed Rome's zenith.
If I am not wrong,you are talking about Umayyad Caliphate and the Chinese Empire. Umayyad was an indirect product of the Antiquity including Rome's and Europe's and rose as a result of Rome's demise. Chinese Empire didn't have the advantages in terms of Geography that Rome did. So Rome gets the edge.
If Rome did go through the PODs I talked about,the Umayyad Arabs and North Africans would be some good legions or Citizens of Rome or maybe even Pontifex Maximus of Rome.
Chinese Empire didn't have the advantages in terms of Geography that Rome did.
Rome was in the excellent Mediterranean region. It had good lands with rivers,sunny climate,less Geographical barriers to expand,more contact with other Advanced civilizations due to closer Geographical connection and stuff like that.I'm pretty sure the Yangtze and Yellow River watersheds combined outsize the rivers of most of the Roman Empire combined. And what advantages are you talking about? China wasn't conquered by an external polity with a few noted exceptions. Not to mention that even as dynasties rose and fell, many of the later dynasties managed to reconquer and even surpass their forebears in terms of land area.
snip
That's an interesting approach. If I may ask, how different was Maurice's exarchate system different from previous provincial governments systems of the Empire? They combined the military and administrative function of the Duces and the Praetorian Prefects installed by Constantine, is that the main feature?
At the risk of venturing too far into ASB, I believe that a highly populous & prosperous empire could innovate faster than its OTL counterparts of europe and the middle east, and so a good equivalent to 15th century technology could be placed somewhere in the 11th century at the earliest. At this point, African-Roman sailors/explorers are highly likely to stumble upon either brazil, or the island chain leading to the carribbean.