Quote:
Originally posted by Mouse:
Hierophant, you are obviously thinking very deeply on this subject. At the moment I'm at work and don't really have time to answer. However, just consider where we would be without the dynamic of social change that conquest/imperialism brings. Surely the result would be an increase in social and cultural stagnation ?
I don't consider that all examples of the subjugation and assimilation of the weak by the strong are to be applauded. However, and even with my Western/liberal upbringing I can see how this process can bring positive benefits.
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Trade and immigration can bring the same benefits Mouse. In fact, under an empire it's the trade and immigration that brings the dynamic social changes. When bronze working swept through Europe there was no Empire. When the prinitng press radically altered human societies, it was not confined to one empire but crossed borders. So too the information revolution, and the industrial revolution (though Britain exploited a head start
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Italy gets it's pasta from China. Something definitively Italian, yet the result of trade with a behemoth of a nation on the other side of the landmass.