Biggest event in History
Discuss issues related to past events, people, places, or old empires and civilisations.
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryThere is no source backing your view that a defeat and possibly Arminius' death would have resulted in a permanent occupation and romanisation of the Germans. Ancient Germany was not densely populated, it proofed to be almost economically worthless and the Romans would have suffered hard times pacifying it and consolidating their control.(Original post by Arbolus)
So for that reason I'd go for Varus' defeat at the Teutoburg Forest. If he'd won there then the empire could have ultimately conquered and Romanised the Germans. That's exactly what Julius Caesar did to the Gauls, and after he'd defeated Vercingetorix they presented no threat to the Roman way of life. Then, if the Germans had been defeated, Rome could ultimately have continued on to Sarmatia, including the lands where the Huns and Slavs would one day have risen. With such a large buffer area, the Western Empire would not have faced any external threats for centuries.
The defeat at the Teutoburger Wald put an ende to Roman ambitions of conquering Germany but the lost legions have been substituted immediatly and the Roman military presence at the Rhine soon reached its pre-war strength.
Then again the main reason for the babarian invasion was the pressure by the huns. Had they not forced the eastern German tribes to migrate towards the west and south and attack the Roman empire, they would have done it themselves (and German tribes couldn't have assisted the Romans to defeat the huns). Many Germanic tribes lived in areas which today are eastern European antions (Poland etc.) and it questionable whether Romans would ever have felt the desire to conquer those areas, even if they'd defeated Arminius. -
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryAncient - Not Christianity? :P I mean Caesar had many important effects on the world but hey, Jesus/the Bible/God still affects many people today.(Original post by Martyn*)
Modern: Jewish holocaust.
Ancient: Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon.
Pre-Historic: Mass extinction.
Before I get negged, I'm not religious in any way -
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryClearly the moment the earth was created(Original post by StevenKnott)
Hi all,
Straight to the point, what do you think has been the biggest event in history? -
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryRoman operations in Germania were more than mere raids - the region had already been conquered and pacified by Tiberius and Germanicus several years before, and most of the tribes had sworn allegiance to Rome. In fact, the Roman position was considered secure enough that Varus was appointed as a provincial governor rather than the general of the occupying forces. It seems that the Romans at that time had every intention of staying.(Original post by Sir Fox)
There is no source backing your view that a defeat and possibly Arminius' death would have resulted in a permanent occupation and romanisation of the Germans. Ancient Germany was not densely populated, it proofed to be almost economically worthless and the Romans would have suffered hard times pacifying it and consolidating their control.
The defeat at the Teutoburger Wald put an ende to Roman ambitions of conquering Germany but the lost legions have been substituted immediatly and the Roman military presence at the Rhine soon reached its pre-war strength.
Then again the main reason for the babarian invasion was the pressure by the huns. Had they not forced the eastern German tribes to migrate towards the west and south and attack the Roman empire, they would have done it themselves (and German tribes couldn't have assisted the Romans to defeat the huns). Many Germanic tribes lived in areas which today are eastern European antions (Poland etc.) and it questionable whether Romans would ever have felt the desire to conquer those areas, even if they'd defeated Arminius.
The situation was very similar to Caesar's conquest of Gaul. By 53 BC he had conquered every tribe to stand in his way and gained tribute and oaths of allegiance from the survivors. A civilian administration was being put in place and everything seemed to be running smoothly. Then Vercingetorix formed a coalition of Celtic tribes and revolted against Roman rule. If he'd won and Caesar was killed at Alesia then the remaining legions would have had no choice but to withdraw, and the lack of political will would have prevented anyone from trying again for a long time. Instead the revolt was crushed, and over the following centuries the Gauls became almost completely Romanised.
In fact, just about every part of the empire in the West became Romanised eventually. The only exception was Britain to some degree. Germania, being much closer to Italy and more sparsely populated than Britain, would almost certainly have received plenty of immigrants and retired legionaries who would have helped to spread their culture. I don't know if the Romans ever would have conquered Eastern Europe, but there's no reason why they couldn't have tried if they held Germania.
Later, when the Huns arrived, they had just as many Germanic allies as the Romans did. Peoples such as the Gepids, Ostrogoths, Heruli and Scirii were all defeated by and then incorporated into the Hunnic empire. If they were on the Roman side instead then the latter, with a shorter frontier and higher population than in reality, may well have been able to defeat the Huns before they threatened the richer provinces of the Mediterranean. -
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryI presumed this was a question to allow for personal opinions? As a matter of fact, yes, I do find 9/11 more significant that the atomic bomb attacks, for my own personal reasons and viewpoints. I would thank you not to put down my opinion whilst enforcing yours.(Original post by Mister Dead)
Whatever it is, it clearly isn't September the 11th. Unless you consider it more significant than over 100 000 deaths in the blink of an eye on the mornings of August 6 and 9th 1945.
Such rudeness. -
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryRoman invasion of Britain, WW1 and 2, The Holocaust, Industrial Revolution, Russian Revolution.
The moment when Herodotus thought "I really should be writing this all down"Last edited by NapoleonDynamite; 02-05-2012 at 20:45. -
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryNo I don't, I realised everyone misinterpreted my statement, well I didn't make it clear that my list was what I thought people that don't know much about history and rely on the tabloid media would say. I have studied history and if I came out of that subject thinking that those events were the biggest events ever I would seriously allow you all to shoot me(Original post by Calanon)
Please tell me that you're not serious about the Titanic being a big event in history. Yes a lot of people died, but compared to other things such as WWI and WWII the Titanic is nothing. Yes, it is interesting but it is of very little importance aside from films.
I personally feel that it's very hard to define what the biggest events in history are, there are too many things that could be argued so I'll just say the dawn of civilisation.
Yeah it is hard to label the biggest event because history is always being made, all around the world. But I do find some events more intriguing than others but I will save that for another thread
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryAnd what brings you to that conclusion?(Original post by C_G)
The most important point in History is easily, unarguably the point at which the Americas were discovered. -
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryAside from the obvious political, economic and social upheavel on a scale never seen before, across the entire globe that bought great civilizations to destruction and caused famine and chaos in other parts of the globe? It was also the point at which two ecological systems colided and formed the world that we know today, after all, what would Italy be without tomatoes?(Original post by SirMasterKey)
And what brings you to that conclusion? -
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Re: Biggest event in HistoryThe Neolithic Revolution. By allowing reliable surplusses of produce, it led to the creation of sophisticated heirarchical societies, writing, high-density settlements, science, philosophy, and all the other essential ingredients of civilisation as we know it.
