Worlds Greatest Ever Civilisation

it woudl beat sittin in an office all friggin day!

Now that I agree with.

Encyclopedia definition of a civilisation:
What makes a civilization? In the technical sense, a civilization is a complex society. It is distinguished from simpler societies but is not considered superior to them. Everyone lives in a society and a culture, but not everyone lives in a civilization. In general, civilizations share the following traits:
Intensive agricultural techniques
A significant portion of the population that does not devote most of its time to producing food
The gathering of these non-food producers into permanent settlements
A social hierarchy
The establishment of complex, formal social institutions such as organized religion and education
Development of complex forms of economic exchange
The accumulation of more material possessions than in simpler societies
Development of new technologies by people who are not busy producing food
Advanced development of the arts by those who don't have to farm for a living. This can include writing.

The Holy Roman Empire, the Brits, the US, the Australians, etc are all part of "Western Civilisation" which was formed from the Christian-believing, Latin speaking portion of the Greco-Roman civilisation.

Aztecs and Inca are not really civilisations but are groups of people within the Mesoamerican and Andean civilisations, but that's being a bit pedantic.

reference:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Civilisation

Maybe I should have clarified the question.

The greatest bunch of people who got together over an extended period of time and did amazing ****?

Why doesn't the British Empire get a guernsey in this poll? It has to have a stronger claim than the Incas, whose only achievements were in Peru. The British Empire ensured that English became the premier world language that it is today. It also ensured that numerous countries, including Australia, became, or at least aspired to be, democracies. Although imperialism is unfashionable these days, there is a strong argument that British imperialism brought considerable benefits to the peoples who were colonised. The benefits were more questionable with some other imperial powers, like the Dutch in Indonesia, the Belgians in the Congo, or the Portuguese in East Timor.

I suppose some Australians may resent the fact that their ancestors were transported here for minor offences. But at least British imperialism gave them the opportunity to live in this great country, and to play cricket against Asian and African countries.

Rocker

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Originally Posted by namtrak

Maybe I should have clarified the question.

The greatest bunch of people who got together over an extended period of time and did amazing ****?

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The Liberal Party :D :D :D

Monty Python

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Originally Posted by Rocker

Why doesn't the British Empire get a guernsey in this poll? It has to have a stronger claim than the Incas, whose only achievements were in Peru. The British Empire ensured that English became the premier world language that it is today. It also ensured that numerous countries, including Australia, became, or at least aspired to ....
Rocker

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My fault entirely, I thought I did - I'm not sure I can go back and add them in, anyway I suppose the poms are used to being an afterthought anyway - just ask Tony Blair..

:)

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Originally Posted by Crazy Nutter

The Liberal Party

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:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by silentC

Monty Python

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"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

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Originally Posted by silentC

They also invented the bagpipes and that one feat alone obliterates any brownie points they might have accrued throughout history, including their general belligerence towards the English ;).

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Actually silentC they stole the bagpipes from the Irish. God knows why.

The bagpipes go a lot further back than that, the Egyptians and Greeks used them along with other races.

[QUOTE=Zed] they had raiding parties to get wives and horses etc QUOTE]

They didn't go raiding for horses until after the white man came. They didn't have any to raid until then. The only method of locomation they had was either walking or skateboards

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Originally Posted by namtrak

Maybe I should have clarified the question.

The greatest bunch of people who got together over an extended period of time and did amazing ****?

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The Australian Cricket Team ;)

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Originally Posted by Iain

The bagpipes go a lot further back than that, the Egyptians and Greeks used them along with other races.

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Again....... WHY?????????????????? What is it with these people??????????

Actually, I have to come out and confess that I find a pipe band quite stirring. I wouldn't go out and buy a recording of them or anything but the few times I have seen a live pipe band playing, it has made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. They could be standing up to leave I suppose - but that would only make the few left on my head even more lonely.

Hark when the noot is falling,
Hear, hear, the poops are calling,
Ludely and prudely calling,
Doon thro' the glen.

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Originally Posted by simon c

"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

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the aquaduct ?

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Originally Posted by Wongo

The Chinese without a doubt

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I am with "brother" Wongo (I found out 4 years ago I am from good chinese stock :) )

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Originally Posted by simon c

"All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

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ORGIES :D :D :D :) :)

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Originally Posted by silentC

Actually, I have to come out and confess that I find a pipe band quite stirring. I wouldn't go out and buy a recording of them or anything but the few times I have seen a live pipe band playing, it has made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. They could be standing up to leave I suppose - but that would only make the few left on my head even more lonely.

Hark when the noot is falling,
Hear, hear, the poops are calling,
Ludely and prudely calling,
Doon thro' the glen.

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Mate, you need a holiday! :D :D :D

And not a Roman holiday, either!

Well, my Granny was a MacKay....

:o

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The British Empire ensured that English became the premier world language that it is today.

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This isn't actually true. Up until WWII the Lingua Franca was French. The good old U.S. of A. is responsible for English being the most widely spoken language in the world. Most of the younger people in Europe speak English as a second language not because of England but because the U.S. represents a quarter of the worlds economy.

As far as having an effect on the greatest percentage of the worlds population, I'd say that the U.S. wins hands down. Culturally, the U.S. influence is massive. Movies, TV, Music, Speech, Dress etc. are visible in even the most backwater countries.

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Originally Posted by silentC

And not a Roman holiday, either!

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So you don't want to zip around Rome on a Vespa with Audrey Hepburn on the back ?

Actually, you do have a certain resemblance to Gregory Peck now that I think about it :eek:

:D

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Originally Posted by Grunt

As far as having an effect on the greatest percentage of the worlds population, I'd say that the U.S. wins hands down. Culturally, the U.S. influence is massive. Movies, TV, Music, Speech, Dress etc. are visible in even the most backwater countries.

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But there's a Chinese Restaurant in every town in the civilised world, which has got to score China big points!!

Cheers,

P

:D

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Most of the younger people in Europe speak English as a second language not because of England but because the U.S. represents a quarter of the worlds economy.

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That may be true today but English was pretty common around the globe long before WWII. During that sort of expansive period when Spain, Portugal, France and England were running around putting dibs on the rest of the world, their respective languages were spread with them. For example, most of South America speaks a Spanish or Portuguese derivative and there are the islands that speak French. The poms spread the love on the Sub Continent and in Africa amongst other places. And don't forget that the Yanks speak English (or their version of it) because of the English.

I guess I've seen and read about another side of the North American Indians that you haven't - they weren't what I would call civilized or environmentally friendly. They were and are just like everyone else no better no worse.

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Originally Posted by Zed

I would like to take a serious tack here (for once).

In my opinion the greatest civilization was that of the American native Indians, over 200 diff tribes living in relative harmony! they had equality between the sexes, inter tribal govts, respect for th elder, little or no diseases, healthy lifestyles, no obesity or fast food, no expansion policy or "savage land stealing policys", a sustainable environmental policy that did not destroy any land or denude any part of the place to the point where the env. was damaged and only fought minor skirmishes amongst eachother, even to the point where only the participants of the skirmishes were the only ones killed. of course they had raiding parties to get wives and horses etc but none of this compared to any of white/yellow/arab mans 'civilized god/cultural fearing actions'

then along came some white f*ck along with his colds, flus, rats, guns, alcohol and greed and screwed the whole joint up in less than 200 yrs. god bless america.
say goodbye to the passenger pigeon, the buffalo and the puma and god knows what else - look at the joint now - dontcha love the atomic bomb ? eh ? toxic waste - delicious!, oil - love it! etc etc...

the indians even coined a phrase that went something like this : "Only after the last tree has been felled, the last buffalo has been eaten and the last river has been drained will the white man realise that you cannot eat money!"

they even had a gunja pipe!!!

I vote for them.

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In fact there is plenty of DNA evidence to suggest that a number of American Indians are descendents of..

The Chinese!!!

For more information read "1421" ... a great thesis, tracking the voyages of the Chinese Treasure fleets of the Ming Dynasty.

Some of the bits of evidence tendered apart from the DNA stuff, include the "fact" that elderly Navajo Indians can understand Mandarin, and the names of the Wyoming and Lyoming tribes are a dead set giveaway.

Cheers,

P (Anyone for Sweet and Sour Bison?)

I wonder why the Indians (not the North American ones) haven't had a mention in this thread yet?

Their civilisation is at least as old as the Chinese.

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Originally Posted by craigb

I wonder why the Indians (not the North American ones) haven't had a mention in this thread yet?

Their civilisation is at least as old as the Chinese.

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Simple, their spinners are chuckers......... :D :D :D :D

But the curries are good ;)
Gungadin the Apache :D :D (and as I saw in a backwoods US newspaper 'here are some pictures of the Tajma Hall')

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Originally Posted by Grunt

As far as having an effect on the greatest percentage of the worlds population, I'd say that the U.S. wins hands down. Culturally, the U.S. influence is massive. Movies, TV, Music, Speech, Dress etc. are visible in even the most backwater countries.

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That would have to be the chinese as 25% of the world are chinese.

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Originally Posted by craigb

I wonder why the Indians (not the North American ones) haven't had a mention in this thread yet?

Their civilisation is at least as old as the Chinese.

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Good point:
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionar...s+civilization

Grunt,

I can't agree with you about the respective influence of the Brits and Americans in spreading English around the world. The American influence is relatively recent, since the advent of film and TV in the mid-20th Century. The British were spreading English around the world, especially in North America, India and Africa, and the Commonwealth countries, throughout the 17th to 20th Centuries. The American influence is mainly felt by people who learned English originally through the British influence, and who were therefore an audience for American films and TV. Before WWII, the Americans generally stayed in America, apart from a few imperial forays into places like the Phillipines, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa, and their culture had little effect on the rest of the world.

Rocker

And .... The official national language of India is ..................English

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Originally Posted by Rocker

and their culture had little effect on the rest of the world.

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Let's face it, there's more culture in a tub of yoghurt!!

Cheers,

P (who usually uses that line to describe Melbourne.)
:D :D :D

But that has to be attributed to Peter Sellersbirdie num num :p

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Originally Posted by bitingmidge

(who usually uses that line to describe Melbourne.)

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Mmmm, think I'd miss the opera and consorts in Qld, not to mention the restaurants and ski-ing (snow, the proper one).
And I forgot the 2 hour sunsets :rolleyes: fly fishing for trout 2 minutes from home etc etc.

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Originally Posted by simon c

That would have to be the chinese as 25% of the world are chinese.

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and they form 100% of the people who write instruction manuals. :eek:

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Originally Posted by Iain

fly fishing for trout 2 minutes from home etc etc.

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You have to HUNT for food???? :eek: :eek: :eek:

We have shops the same distance from home!!!

P (This thread was going nowhere anyway!!)
:D :D :D

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Originally Posted by Gumby

and they form 100% of the people who write instruction manuals. :eek:

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Oh, you're the one who reads unstruction manuals! ;)

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Grunt,

I can't agree with you about the respective influence of the Brits and Americans in spreading English around the world. The American influence is relatively recent, since the advent of film and TV in the mid-20th Century. The British were spreading English around the world, especially in North America, India and Africa, and the Commonwealth countries, throughout the 17th to 20th Centuries. The American influence is mainly felt by people who learned English originally through the British influence, and who were therefore an audience for American films and TV. Before WWII, the Americans generally stayed in America, apart from a few imperial forays into places like the Phillipines, Puerto Rico, and American Samoa, and their culture had little effect on the rest of the world.

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Yes, all the influence has been since WWII. The Brits certainly did spread English to the commonwealth countries but no further. China, Japan, Indonesia and the rest of Asia, Russia, All the European Countries, Latin America, the Middle East etc. now have large populations that speak English to some degree. Had the Pilgrams been the Dutch instead of the Poms the world would have Dutch as the second language not English.