Why did indigenous civilization fail to develop in sub-Saharan Africa and North America?
This is a bit of an ignorant question, they did develop. The Mayans and Zapotecs developed writing, not to mention their calendar. Mesoamerica was home to MANY advanced civilizations. Tenochtitlan was far cleaner and more populated than most cities in Europe. The Mayans were KNOWN for their advanced astronomy and their math was more developed than Europes. Mesoamerica had hundreds of major urban centers throughout its history, many were independent city-states with the population in the tens of thousands, Tenochtitlan was believed to be in the hundreds of thousands. There were trade routes and many political entities. Cities were being built by the Mayans centuries before christ, Teotihuacan was built during the Roman Empire and the Olmecs are believed to be the first civilization in North America in 1500 b.c. Civilizations also developed in the Mississippi/Alabama area. A lot of the history of North America was lost due to colonization and the history being re-written by Europeans, that may be why we know so little and what we do know is usually marred by Eurocentrism. Believe it or not, but it was actually Europe that didn't advance independently. A lot of their inventions, knowledge and technology actually came from the Middle East, the Far East and to a less extent Egypt. The only civilizations known to develop independently are Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Mesoamerica, and the Andes in South America and probably India. None in Europe. As for Africa, civilization developed their too. The reason Europe may have developed before was due to trade with more advanced civilizations from the Middle East and Far East, because Europe for a fact did not develop indigenously. Well, Central America & Mexico are actually part of North America :/ As for the Mississippians, they did urbanize, develop mathematics and astronomy, but they did not develop writing or an alphabet.
Is modern civilization failing?
Peter said ”Define failing”. Failure is not hard to define. Civilization is a hard to define term. From spiritual point of view, is, civilization (Western one) it is. The cause for so many people enrolling into fundamentalists movements ( I do not mean just Muslim ones; there are others, like extreme left, ecologist, transhumanist, and so forth….)Maybe Bible looks like an obsolete book for some, but it is right on one point - man cannot live only with bread. Man needs higher ideals, and Communism failed to provide them - it simply provided bread, and for a hefty social price. So the Western civilization is decaying - since no more higher ideals can be found in it.
How and why do civilizations succeed, fail, and evolve? Is the United States succeeding, failing, or evolve?
I am doing a paper in my history and english class. We have to do it on a civilization of our choice. I picked the arabic civilization. In order to do my paper we need to answer the above question. “How and why do civilizations succeed, fail, and evolve?”, We also need to explain where the united states stands in this positon. “Is the United States succeeding, failing, or evolving?”
Will future climate change cause human civilization to collapse?
That is am interesting link, isn’t it Dana? I used it the other day to answer one of Starbuck’s questions: “The world is in a serious financial condition. Is it wise to add further economic hazards now?” http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind... Of course the misguided little fellow thought it was an appropriate time to call me a “socialist tree hugger from Canada” as if that is somehow supposed to be a slur. I answered another question the other day this way -I know that humans are smarter than bacteria, but collectively, not much smarter. -An environment will not perpetually support a population that never stops growing. -Bacteria are incapable of understanding this and will continually increase their numbers until they deplete the resources that keep them alive. - Humans are capable of understanding this and will continually increase their numbers until they deplete the resources that keep them alive. -Whenever humans have realized the environment that supports them is on the precipice of collapse, humans usually give it that final shove over the edge destroying that environment along with their own civilizations. -The only difference between our civilization and past failed civilizations is, we operate on global and not regional scales. -Our behaviour is no different than past civilizations. -Past civilizations that were lucky enough to be able to migrate did so whenever their environment was depleted. -I know due to greenhouse gases we are on a path of self destruction and we will likely not act in time pushing our environment over the edge. This time we are unable to migrate and will likely take out the global human civilization within the next two hundred years. http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind... Which means I do believe that with our past track record as a species, even when we are given the means and offered advantages to succeed, we likely will not.
No great civilization lasts forever...what is the shelf life for the United States?
ya, thats about my guess too...after we try desperately to change it, only for it to get worse. but you never know, we may be surprised.