• axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    Yeah that whole theory of how Europe took control of the world always sounds so bogus to me. It’s bogus because up until Europe started taking slaves from Africa and America, they weren’t the most technologically or scientifically advanced or whatever. The middle east and India had already lapped Europe in terms of math, astronomy, medicine, etc.

    The middle east in particular was so much more advanced that the Renaissance in part occurred because of Latin translations of Arabic texts from literally 400 years beforehand.

    • zed_proclaimer [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      10 months ago

      The arabic world was decimated by the Mongol invasions though, and the Islamic Golden Age was put to the sword. The reason they were reading 400 year old texts and not modern contemporary ones is because of this.

      Honestly, the mountain ranges that held the mongols back from taking Europe and kept them relatively safe are a large part of the reason why Europe was able to catch back up.

      By the way, it’s also a myth that Mongols were technologically backwards. They were at the very, very start before they took over chunks of China and incorporated their technology. The mongols were extremely adaptable, and by the end of their conquests they were using the most advanced siege weaponry on Earth.