28:06 "Western man, believing he was guided by god towards greater and greater glory, slunk back into depression in his lonely apartment and hated that he ever tried in the first place, hating only those who still had the courage to try even more"-Whatifalthist I came to this channel for some alternate history scenarios and found one of the best quotes in history.
Its a great line. People have realized that our existence is our own greatest detriment since our existence drives extreme consumption of resources that simply won't exist in a few decades. And now the west is fighting itself over whether its easier to consume less or if we should just consume till there is no more.
@@MrCrunch808 Space has a ton of resources. But the elites don't want surplus resources. They will hold back space exploration until they need it. Just like they are trying to hold back Nuclear Power and Fracking. Even now, we are constantly developing new technologies to allow us to access more resources. In medieval times, oil was just poisonous sludge. In ancient times, coal was just crappy rock. In modern times, sea water is worthless, until we develop a cost effective way of desalinization. Global Warming is a problem until we build enough solar satellites to absorb or reflect excess sunlight. (Or just put enough particles in the atmosphere to block out the right amount of sun.) I agree that we should be forward thinking, but that includes innovation and progress. We are seeing innovations in our time that are changing the equation, but you won't see that on the news. Doom and gloom, pessimism, everyone loves sucking down the Doomsday Kool-Aid. Existence is not a bad thing. Existence is a good thing. Without Mankind, there is no morality, so how can you have morality without man?
"if carthage colonized Brazil and used all the people settled there to beat the romans and conquer the mediterranean" as a brazilian i demand one video on this subject now!
What a wonderful breath of fresh air/truth, western civilization is so typically auto-flagellant and media is often so critical of ourselves when others do much worse, that's it's nice to finally have a take reminding us of the overwhelming positives of Western culture/civilisation.
@@rohankishibe8259 That certainly is an unfortunate outgrowth of Corporatism, but in no way defines Western Civilization. Maybe MSNBC or CNN would be more to your liking.
To live and do so is noble.. I used to be (and still am to a small human degree) affected by not being talented enough to achieve fame and glory, but to receive that from ur family and friends in doing as good as u can, keeps the wheel of humanity greased, I’ve learnt that this specific noble outlook will always be the most important and rewarding
@@DonRoyalX "affected by not being talented enough to achieve fame and glory" who isn't? Most people will get their 15 minutes of fame doing something or another, what we do after that really tells us who we are. But whatever, keep greasing that wheel.
Existing and Doing Good. 1. You need and want things in order to exist. 2. Morality and Laws are good. 3. Someone else needs and wants things in order to exist. 4. Laws are compulsory and entail force. 5. Force is always bad unless legally permitted and morally justified. 6. Should you ever act immoral to survive? 7. Should morality be above your survival? 8. If it is impossible to be immoral than what choices was there to begin with? 9. If it is impossible to survive than what good is morality to you? Person A: I want that land, give me it all. Person B: I want it, let me have it all. Person A: I was here first, first come first serve. person B: I actually made better use of it, I improved it's quality. Group A: Don't back down, it will show weakness, that will encourage him. Group B: Don't be too aggressive it will start conflict, try and share the land, morally. Person A: I can't back down now, I will not move from here. Person B: Do you want to share the land? Let's settle this peacefully. Person A: I have far greater force, and I can't afford to show weakness. Person B: I think morality should decide who gets it, is it moral to use force or reasoning? Person A: The greater force always wins? hm... I must always be the greater force else... The end and they lived happily ever after.
The redpill-per-sentence ratio in this video is staggering. I feel like I've been machine gunned with hot takes and hard truths that are obvious in hindsight. This needs x0.5 speed lmao
I am pretty far left myself, but I agree.I think self-criticism is one of the best values that the west posses, but there is a difference between self-criticism and self harm.
@@ReaXTutorials as a more conservative right wing person, I feel as no matter what values and morals you have this channel will pull everyone right or left more towards the center, and that’s a good thing.
@@carlrodalegrado4104 as a fellow centrist, it's because the right and the far left can only think about things in political context. Political stance runs their existence
not so fast. the west can find a new believe and everything can change. also everyone on earth will go the way of the west, so the challenge is not only for us but all humankind.
@@MK-rw1on my hopes are in india and america remaining capitalistic and hoping india can climb out of poverty rapidly. i think the strength of our economic and military alliance with india will determine the course of this century perhaps more than any other single nation
@@immaculatesquid capitalism isnt the solution but the problem. the reason for so many people losing faith in the west is because capitalism makes everyone but a product and consumer, nothing more. (and no socialism isnt the solution eithee but socialism never had the faith problem that the West has right now; maybe we need to copy that from socialism?)
@@MK-rw1on the word you're looking for is hedonism, not capitalism. I'll say "Free market oriented" for semantics because its got the word free in there.
@@immaculatesquid so you tell me the reason for people losing hope in their future is because they arent behaving right? you dont know reality, the reason is that everyones standard of living isnt increasing even though the economy is growing and people are tired of that.
Over thinking can hurt, Learning too much too quick can hurt, moderation is key. It also seems that growing too much or success too fast too quick has down sides.
I do appreciate this type of videos but I'm gonna be honest there's a lot of bias on many points. It's not really a problem but it does bother me on how things are presented. Will be waiting for the islamic world history with....interest
As a Chinese person who now call Australia my new home and consider myself as being more Australian than Chinese, I would like to say that there are a lot to like about in the West. Western society is one of the most if not the most respectful towards people’s free will. Yes, the West did such horrible things to other cultures; however, so did almost all other civilisations and they don’t feel much guilt toward that, but we do. 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇪🇺🇨🇦🇦🇺🇳🇿
I think it will be the migrants and a few westerners who defend the west. Migrants know how much worse things can be. You only really see that as a westerner if you live in other non western countries for a while. When I lived in Taiwan for 2 years I came to understand just how hard things can be. Not that Taiwan is a bad country at all, just that the fighter jets flying overhead every week either to ward off Chinese jets, or for war preparations always remind you that it could all be over in an instant. Welcome to Australia my friend! I’m in Melbourne 😊
@@operandexpanse Thank you mate! From my experiences, many migrants are pretty patriotic toward the country that they migrated to. However, especially among East Asian migrants, we usually don’t tend to speck out loud our perspective. Cultures in East Asia often don’t encourage people to show opinions in front of others. I wonder in a time when the left and right-wing are so divided in the West (especially in the USA), what common grounds do we still have as Australians? If we cannot find common grounds ourselves, then god/universe will show that to us! When god wants to teach us something, usually that would be through hardship, war, massive social decline and more, but we don’t have to go that way! By the way, I live in Brisbane. 🌺
@@WoodenInari thats what the arab said in the height of their civilization in 830 when they were sending mechanical marvels to european kings to troll them... in 1250 it fell and starting taking step backward, your civilization didnt become better or should i say dominant than others until the protistant reformation which was around 1520 now we are 2020 500 years of civilaztion like islam from 750-1250 if you keep the same pride that you will never fall like the arabs did you will fall
I think westerns trashing themselves is a product of a new moral system that values being oppressed. You can see this in every new movement taking place there where people try to find something to convince the society they are the true victims. As a result, people stop believing that west has a fair share of the good thing that happened in history because they weren't blessed with being oppressed.
No no. Everyone thinks that they are the good guys. Over time, concepts change. In the west the stability caused more tolerance, Deeming others as equal, also largely due to converting people to western civilisation. Furthermore , the west believes in making the world a better place, as long as the best place is in the west. And it is no lie that being dominant comes at the expense of others(psychologically more than anything). Throughout history, other civilisations were the same. I believe it doesn't change who is the dominant world power, as with stability comes tolerance
@@taejo4975 you can't do everything and be everywhere. Also those places aren't considered the west so the west leaving them to 'rot' or what you would like to call it, isn't something the west would really care about.
@@WiseOwl_1408 What I meant is how they (Specifically Britian) literally took down entire Kingdom and Dynasty of Burma and forcefully remove the King and also merged other neighboring states who weren't part of the Kingdom into Burma creating internal chaos among the ethinicities who weren't willing to stay as one. Burma's problem today is caused by Westerners century ago, not this century
@@WiseOwl_1408 I'll just say, they simply started the problem and leave it with even more problems, they wouldn't even be needed to help today it weren't for Imperialism of Old West.
This blows my mind. In school we were taught that all that we in the west hold dear is the result of a bunch of peaceful secular Italians during the renaissance taking an interest in ancient roman and greek civilization. You just showed that the west was created by the violent destroyers of Rome and the catholic church. Why isn't this taught in school?
True. Although the renaissance remains the most important factor in the creation of modern west,the role of Catholic Church and the Germanist barbarian law system are critical factors that allowed the scularist renaissance to become as succesful as it was in the west instead of dying off like it did in Orthodox and Islamic world
Because he’s making an argument and supporting it with evidence. History is less what’s “right” versus “wrong” than it is making interpretations based on evidence, and academics gravitating towards some ideas versus others. I’m not a professional historian, but your school sounds like it was teaching Western civilization in a traditional manner. This RU-vidr is making a different case. If his ideas makes sense to you or make you think, you should consider it and look more into the literature with his ideas in mind. His narrative might make more sense to you, or less, as you learn more. That’s practicing critical thinking, and is what the Humanities are all about. Though I will note that you shouldn’t end your education at school. Public schools are heavily limited in resources and are inflexible thanks to being controlled by democratic institutions. If you feel like your science class has a creationist bias or slavery wasn’t that bad in American history, that’s probably thanks to elderly retired folks, religious evangelicals, and patriotic rednecks who use their political power to influence school boards or state education departments to promote certain curriculums while voting against increased taxes for school funding and might not even have kids anymore. That’s the nature of democracy, though.
Moral of the story: the west isn't perfect but westerners shouldn't give up and destroy the society just try and improve it bit by bit. As will work for your personal life too.
@@KateeAngel in America yes I'd partly agree however the democrats would be seen as a centre/slightly right leaning party where I'm from. I also don't think hating "the other" is doing any good even if they are trumpist conspiracy theorist nut jobs. Maybe the conservatives are reminicing of a time where there was more unity in the west something this video touches on how that provided many good things but they are kinda off target why the good old times were so good.
"Yes, the West did horrible things, but they're the only civilization which felt guilty and has tried to change" is such an interesting truth. Edit: Reading this back 6 months later and it's misleading. No other civilization has done anything close to the scale of the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism. They should feel guilty. There is no excuse or special treatment here. As a matter of fact, the West has been very ignorant of change for the longest time and are still yet to apologise for slavery in some cases. It's a fallacy to make nationalists feel good about themselves and their history. Edit 2: Alright, I see some people saying that "The Arab slave trade was just as bad" which is not really factual, but fuck it. Let's say it is. What does that matter? As if we don't condemn Arab countries enough in modern times. Did you all just forget about the entire 21st century so far? It doesn't fucking matter. You're merely shifting the blame to make yourself feel better. The fact that governments with no change in the constitution that have existed since before the abolishment of slavery haven't even apologised for it is bullshit.
@@Luca-nu2zg indeed. People in the west think we hate you because you were so cruel. No. We hate you out of envy for why we weren't the people on top. And trust me. Soon the west will decline or collapse, then a ruthless civilisation will take its place which will lead to brutal stuff, and if they are in power long enough, they will feel shitty about themselves(lose face) and try to change themselves. An endless and beautiful cycle.
Not quite there is a exception turks it is not horrible (excep some events) Neither colinize or colinized balkans hate but balkans is a clusterfuck as defult state and West does a Hard propaganda on turks like there was a terrorist a drug dealer turks arrest him for that and he Got away they called him kurd and the same Guy does same shit in germany Got arrestet and punished and he became turk hipocrosy of chatolic chuch is on the blood of West know that
Well, for nations trying to resist Western hegemony, past civilizations and governments resisting the West becomes something to rally around, making criticism of those past civilizations and governments much more difficult You can see that in less native nations who were formerly oppressed or hated the Incas, becoming nostalgic for Incan rule after the Spanish takeover, and now much of Inca culture has become a symbol for people through much of Latin America as symbols of indigenous pride, and resistance against the West and colonialism, when their distant ancestors might have been oppressed by the Incas or despised the Incas.
R3GARnator Ah hah knew some of this sounded familiar. Alt-hist Got his own good insights on culture though, lack of unified belief isn’t really talked about by the geopolitical crowd
I liked how you used the term Anglo-American. Going forward I think the history books will look at the worldwide dominance by the British Empire and the USA as being one and the same and not as just as two different nations.
I've been saying this for a lot time. The fall of the British empire wasn't that consequential, it just moved the Anglo empire's capital from London to Washington.
I ve also thought this way for a long time. Our society norms and structure is British. Add the salt of representation or no taxation, a obsession for freedom and westward expansion, boom modern America. Basically the Brits are our annoying set-in-thier-ways, great grandparents.
A middle income trap future video maybe? With Africa growing, Latin America developing and Eastern Europe finishing developing would make 4 a relevant subject
@S E P thought the same but for East Europe since I live in the Balkans we have a long time but if we are talking about Catholic East Europe then ok but the Orthodox part has long way to go
Latin American cannot developed with an elite who is a client of the US (and the US being the guard of this corrupt elite) +bad educational institutions + an elite who comes from old Spanish nobility. + Bad geography (or the good places being to far away of the global financial and industrial centers)
A beautifully detailed and fascinating video. 30 minutes in length, yet feel like only a few minutes, thanks to your immersive and easily comprehensive direction. Genuinely impressive, considering I have the attention deficit of an elderly pug. Simple and enlightening, really. Your content is certainly worth paying for, it’s an absolute pity, all we can get out of tvs and most streaming services, is nonsense. I would’ve loved to watch something like this as a kid. Brilliant work, it’s commendable and fair. Can’t wait to see what you’ll produce next.
Damn, what a comment. I agree, ever since I’ve found this guy, I’ve been absorbed by his utter outlay of information and knowledge.. When listening to any of his videos I often say out loud to myself “god, this guy GETS it!” Such unbiased and pure information, untouched by post-modern ideals or traditional-centrism, just pure knowledge...I wish I could be half as intelligent as Althis. What a legend
One reason why Tang China was so unique, successful, and dynamic was that it was perhaps the only dynasty that had a mixed ruling class. Between the Three Kingdoms Period and the Tang Dynasty, the constant war and chaos meant that the military had supremacy, but then the creation of the imperial examination system during the Sui allowed the creation of a bureaucratic class that shared power with the military during the Tang. However, this started to break down after the An Lushan rebellion, after which regional militaries started to gain increasing amounts of regional power over the central government, which in turn caused warlordism, the collapse of the Tang, and the destruction of the bureaucracy. Thus, after the formation of the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination system was reintroduced with renewed vigour, while the military aristocracy faded into nonexistence, after which the military was suppressed, which created the monolithic bureaucratic ruling class Whatifalthist speaks of in the video. Subsequent attempts to reestablish a military ruling class in China, like the Song Dynasty during the wars against the Jurchens, the rule of the Yongle Emperor during the Ming, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the warlordism of the 1920s, also failed to achieve long-term stability and fell apart, or were crushed by the bureaucrats.
So what do you think the Tang could have done to continue in this success and mitigate people like An Lushan or at the very least a succeeding dynasty continuing like the Tang.
i think dynastic change was good in its own right specifically for 'china'. government should have been more centralized. song should have allied with an islamic kingdom/empire. qing was too centralized.
The Tang dynasty's ruling class was a blend of Sino-Turkic elements, thus giving the empire the benefits of a nomadic ruling class together with the institutions of a settled society. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your persepective) it may have indirectly caused the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire because the Tang dynasty shook the beehive of nomadic tribes (looking at you, Kara-Khanids)
@@sinoroman Qing was fine. They could have enacted some reforms but Taiping took too long. And Cixi was a dumbass b_tch. Oh no, the crown prince has mysteriously disappeared! Did she really think people would fall for that shit?
A couple of key takeaways I have from this video: 1. The Western world could be stable with another strong global actor: As I've understood, Western civilization seems to be stable when there's competition on a high enough level for people to essentially buy-in to their society. The US has been a standalone power since WW2, without competition it's left us in a hiatus long enough for people to be self-hating towards the society in which they live in. The only competition we can receive globally are from actors that can match our influence. In this case, the potential primary competitor could be China. In a sense, if Western civilization sees China as competition it might be able to get people to buy-in to their society. This should not result in xenophobic feelings towards China, it comes down to a perceived competition that can come from any large enough actor, Russia has seemed to fail in being adequate competition to the Western world. This also doesn't require there to be war, the benefit of modern life is the lack of war on a macro level. I do believe that there are opportunities for a society to thrive without going to war, and even without having to subjugate other parts of the world into perceived competition. In all honesty, it would be my last resort into the stability of Western society to even go this far as to see other global actors as competition, because it can be misconstrued into unhealthy feelings between humans (racism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, etc.) and the outcomes would be horrendous. 2. Neoliberalism is destroying the Western world: Mentioned in the video, neoliberalism has been a way to severely undercut and put a society into shambles. Judging from it, it seems that the lack of competition within the United States has opened up a power vacuum that hasn't been opposed. A system of neoliberalism has been setup as a fundamental power grab. In this case, the relationship between the US government and large corporations is undeniable. Through neoliberalism, politicians and corporations have been able to provide economic benefits to themselves while the rest of society is set into struggles. The rising inequality from this scenario ties into civil dismay that becomes attributed to systems that aren't always the culprit. This ends up pitting people against each other so that they can't rise together against the neoliberal system holding them hostage. Now, I'm not saying this is what the video expressed, but it's what I believe in as it seems to be the case. When there's civil dismay at the level it's been in American society, people begin to question the efficacy of the society in which they live in. This creates a self-hating populace against their society, in this sense Western society.
As a Latin American it feels weird to be excluded from the West. Like being the illegitimate child of a deadbeat father. It is a good reminder of how the West looks at us, even though we inherited a big part of our culture and all of the institutions from its southern countries.
Its probably mostly because people who preach about the greatness of "western civilization" dont actually care about its history but just use western civilization as a proxy for white people.
I think the best way to think about it is a phenotype type tree with different branches so I guess Latin American is just a little divergent off the "west". I don't know this pretty is arbitrary and stupid. I'll try to create a "Western" root tree. Sumerian or proto-Sumerian and Egyptian -> Minoian-> Mycenean + a little Hittite -> Classical civilization group (Hellenistic -> Latin + a little Cannanite) -> Germanic civilization group -> Latin Catholicism-> Anglo/American "West". I guess Latin America diverges right before major Anglo influence. Again this is pretty stupid and their are hundreds of little influences that are a part of the makeup of every culture/civilization as our cultures didn't live in timeless, isolated snow globes.
So Italy, England, Spain and Portugal are part of the West, and the United States and Canada are part of the West, but none of Latin America is part of the West?….. that logic is really just perfect man, just fucking perfect 👌👌
@Frigidlava Are you stupid or are you just ignorant? Cuz I know more about these countries than you two yet you insist in the most basic and and shallow and ignorant assumptions about life and culture and heritage and identity in all of the region
The creator of this video is arrogant enough as he is btw, I think one can imply that just from the tone of his voice and his choice of words, it was hard for me to swallow
I think a video about what effects space colonization will have in our future would be interesting. A collaboration with Scott Manley or Issac Arthur would be very interesting since both know lots about space.
Space Colonization? Probably should ask about *Ocean* Colonization first, deep ocean Aquaculture and mining are much closer to economic feasibility, and the economic, technological, and societal baseline for it already exists (oil industry, aquaculture industry, tourism/cruise ship industry.)
lol we are never going to colonize space for a long time, def not in our lifetimes or century for sure. That is if modern society doesn't collapse into a 2nd Dark Ages/kill it self via climate change or nuclear war.
@@quinnjohnson9750 I think you might be mistaken. I'm almost certain we will return to the Moon and go to Mars before the decade is over. However we will definitely have to wait further into this century to see meaningful growth in space colonization tho. I think this could have profound impacts obviously on current superpowers along with many other things that are almost impossible to predict but nevertheless fun.
@@jackhutchison9021 I personally think that the obsession with mars is doing more harm than good because it is making us ignore the easiest place to colonize in the solar system - venus's atmosphere. The gravity is almost the same, if the Settlement will be filled with air (which of course it will be) it will float like a helium balloon does on earth at a height where temperature is very manageable and atmospheric pressure wont be a problem in such a settlement.
To say that Rome and Greece aren’t part of Western Civilization is a bit silly. Without Greece, the whole intellectual culture of the West, including those of the Germanic countries, would be completely different. Western Science, Philosophy, and High Art all find their roots in Ancient Greece. Without Rome, many major Germanic cities, including London and Aachen, wouldn’t exist. The Holy Roman Empire even saw itself, beginning with Charlemagne, as a continuation of the Roman Empire. Almost all Germanic languages use the Latin Alphabet. There are many more examples, so I just find your remark very strange. But you can define “western civilization” however you want.
i dont remember which video (might have been "what if rome never fell") but he went over a lot of cultural concepts and analogs that exist between rome/the east, but not between rome/the west
Once a civilization realizes it got to the top merely due Darwinian selection favoring it, it can go down two possible paths: either the one described in this video or decide to unapologetically do everything in its power to remain in first place because it knows falling from the podium could kill it.
I think it's incredible to hear something positive about western civilization which has done so much to improve the human condition. I also like the fact that you give the middle ages and the early Catholic Chuch a break. Showing how they help forge the western culture we have today.
@@RyanRediger66 it may be gross, but 3rd cousins are the ones that most species find the most attractive. it is also far enough that you probably do not know who your 3rd cousins are. do you even know who your great great grandmother is? that is who you are both related to
When its majority population is not ethnically European . were capitalism , consumerism and individualism has destroyed every fabric of society and replaced it with hedonistic degeneracy
I think it will stagnate rather than collapse. The internal competition between distinct classes that led to its rapid growth has an apparent victor called the managerial class (these being the people who rotate between corporate boards and government advisory committees like clockwork), who will probably rule like the Chinese bureaucrats of medieval times once the effective homogenisation of large corporations and government is complete. I blame the dispersal of ownership among shareholders (many of which are pension funds & the like) and state meddling in the economy which tends to benefit the companies which lobby them. The former makes the job of executives more like that of bureaucrats, because they answer to a large community of stakeholders rather than to a single owner, and the latter makes it necessary to be intimately involved with actual bureaucracy. Much of modern leftism is just the corporate idea of stakeholder appeasement applied to relations between people groups.
@@ingold1470 That implies that modern leftism continues dominant. Which seems kind of unlikely- not really want to be a Trumpet here, but 2020 was only barely won by having the entire elite class and populist left unite against the least popular president in decades (at least on paper). Which is not a stable alliance, which is why there is almost desperation to implement the policies to ensure they stay in power as soon as possible (HR-1, Multi-Billion dollar stimuluses with flimsy justifications, etc.) The ‘Merkelite’ EU is only lasting as long as Merkel remains in power. Without her, the EU in its current state is doomed. Mainly because no one can really replace her. The current ‘West’ basically doesn’t have a leader anymore, or really a stable dominant ideological faction. The most likely scenario is a brutal ideological civil war a la Spain 1938.
Latin America should be considered part of Western Civilization on your map. It is majority Christian, speaks Romance languages (descendants of Latin, the language of Rome, the co-cradle of the West), and it has republican governments modeled on enlightenment ideas (at least in theory). Every Western country and sub-region is different.
@@AP3x6917 Well, the US, especially the American South, has African influence too. Argentina and Uruguay are 80-90-% white, more whiter than Anglo-America. Latin America may have a combination of Native, European, and African cultures, but their governmental and legal systems, and religion, are all Western. Why should fellow Romance-speaking traditionally Catholic countries be excluded from the West?
@@AP3x6917 estados unidos también, y Australia, y aún así los considera occidente. Y no Todos los países de América latina son iguales pero la forma de ver el mundo, su filosofía, las leyes y sus instituciones son más occidentales.
Jared Diamond actually covers that: the reason why Europe never united into a single country which became highly beurocratic and corrupt was because its geography has loads of mountains and peninsulas that form natural countries. As such he argues that the reason why the west has such good systems is because of its geography.
Yeah, to explain why the west was sometimes a poor backwater compared to other civilisations despite still having the same geography, I think it is because they did not develop the systems that take advantage of this geography induced conflict, something that supports this argument is that after the west developed these systems they never became backwater again.
@Rob Joe The greatest periods of European development were not during the Roman or Carolingian Empires even though they both promoted literacy and stability till they collapsed. India for example had a priestly class that didn't need to interact with the Kingdoms, this stifled the social change and development
@Rob Joe Not that they didn't but their own power was significantly more stable than that of the kingdoms, though, considering that Hinduism is nowhere near as centralised as catholocism one could come to the conclusion that in the middle ages Europe's priestly class was probably similarly powerful but less capable of defending themselves and therefore more reliant on the kingdoms. Also i said the priests didn't need to interact with the kingdoms which is probably not entirely correct, but the less reliant you are on the people you share power with, by proportion the more powerful you are, assuming they are somewhat reliant on you.
Rob Joe You should have read my comment as well, the system that the video mentions which incentivises competition only developed after antiquity ended, after antiquity, no empire controlled a large part of Europe without having this system which calls for innovation, no other non western civilisation had this system, corruption has nothing to do with this.
In North America, Western Europe, Australia and NZ, Western Civilisation means regions that: 1) Have a Majority White Population; 2) Are Traditionally Catholic or Protestant; 3) Have Rule of Law, Democracy, Secularism & Industrialised High Income Economies. Therefore, Latin America is not a part of the West. Edit: that's what's broadly regarded as the West, not my opinion, fellow Latin Americans. My definition of "western civilisation" groups together The West Proper, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Orthodox Europe as sister civilisations, under the umbrella term "Greater West".
I don't say this to belittle you but you guys are not a part of western civ, you just speak spanish. Ypu're institutions were created by the spanish crown for making subservient colonies, and while you seceded from spain, all of you have inherited those same instituions and maintain them to some degree to this day.
brits are actually 45% French and a quarter German but yeah the people that went to live in the colonies were a majority of poor peasants a bit inbred which is opposed to French or German people descent
@@noahbpeters Not very they are indistinguable from one another as the Haplogroup of France and Germany for DNA research is called Franco/German Haplogroup the modern border of France and Germany are very recent and during a long time they were in the same country
I don't think its many of those theories listed. Proto-Indo-European ancestors came 6000 years ago, and they are only really around pretty superficially when it comes to actual culture. While many aspects of their culture are still around, I think the real reason peasants were more warlike in Europe was because of the collapse of the Roman Empire, which resulted in constant infighting among European states, resulting in a political and military competition which meant that every single peasant would need to defend his or her land. Also on the issue of Western countries not exploiting their colonies, we can see that Western industrial colonisation actually did benefit from the intake of raw materials during their industrial revolutions, and in the first wave of colonisation, they used mercentalism to gain money from their colonies. The idea that Western countries willingly ate losses to keep their colonies is a bit stupid. India was used to promote British textile trading and tea trade, while other nations such as Belgium had the Congo which Leopold II famously used for his rubber trade, making him extremely wealthy. None of these nations held colonies and subjugated their populations without any gain on their end. Spain and Portugal were some of the most famous empires early in Western colonialisation because they were able to extract gold from their colonies, and the reason nations such as Germany were rich without colonialisation was because they actually were industrialised and had a massive population base. And by the way, Germany did want colonies so they wouldn't have to import goods from other nations' colonies.
@@Zeerich-yx9po Agreed, he ignores the changes in culture, and morality in regions outside of the Anglosphere, and treats them as unchanging. The Anglosphere is not morally exceptional; as you pointed out perceptions of gender relations, multiculturalism, homosexuality, slavery, and other things evolved throughout history. In some periods/regions certain aspects can be considered to be "progressive" and in other periods/regions "regressive" by modern liberal standards. The Anglo-Americans did however, possess extraordinary military/economic means and lucky circumstances that allowed them to force their moral system on others on a global scale. That is what really makes them unparalleled in human history.
@@anoncrazynonevilgooddecent7631 true, they had some for a bit I think, prior to WWI. Togoland was a colony, and the German Empire had some possessions in Tanzania and Namibia as well as northern Papua New Guinea, but after losing WWI they lost much of their already small group of colonies as well.
The fact we can realize and complain about about our past mistakes is the proof we got something right. And the fact I'm not the only one who realized that is, well, a big relief. Hands down the most amazing youtube video I've ever seen. This channel is pure gold. Let's just make the world a better place, that's what history is for.
I kind of agree with the conclusion. Since the end of the Cold War, nobody in Europe really seems to have any plan what society should strive for to improve itself. More green energy and keeping the far right in check are the only items of the agenda, but those are very nebulous goals and only aims to contain damage rather than being constructive. More equality is a commonly proclaimed goal, but we don't really see that making any impact in elections.
I watch, read quite a bit and think heavily on the past and future. Very rarely do I find new information or a presentation so well done, I watch it over again immediately. This was a missing piece of my past history knowledge...you have made me fuller and very satisfied listening over the last hour. Thank you!
well said, hitting all the important points of western civilization in under 30 minutes is very impressive, looking forward to the next civilizational analysis
Most of Canada's land is only slightly more habitable than the Amazon. The majority of the population lives less than 2 hours from the US border if I'm not mistaken
@@marinuswillett6147 Canada also never subsidized the colonization of the less habitable parts of the country as much as say, Russia, as well. Also, there’s not enough people to colonize those areas. The Peace River region is relatively habitable (farming is barely possible, resources are abundant, temperatures are cold but not too extreme), but is practically empty.
Have you been up into the Shield? Beautiful scenery, but scattered patches of thin soil over granite is useless for farming, and with lakes, rivers, ridgelines, and cliffs every 500m, building infrastructure is a massive headache. Build whatever communities you need to utilize available resources (whether mineral, timber, hydroelectricity, or even tourism), then ship them to someplace that can support civilization. Turn the rest into parkland. The Shield is arguably worse than the Amazon, because you can, with effort, clear a patch of the Amazon, de-acidify the soil, and be left with useful farmland. Cut down the trees and drain the lakes in the Shield, and all you are left with is barren stone.
This channel shows how real development takes place. Starting from what would happen if Hitler died as a kid to answering real questions people need to know about so they can think, decide, and live better.
I am SO geeked about the civ series you're working on. Your videos give me the peace of mind of feeling like I can look ahead using some lessons from the past.
I think you might be the smartest person on RU-vid. This video just brought together at least a dozen different vectors of insight I’ve been following the trail of for about a decade, backed them up with historical info and hard data, and weaves them together into a meaningful narrative. Bravo.
Here's the thing though, Widow burnings in India were not really common in the early and high middle ages at all. The Rajput noble families were the only ones really doing that. And the practice became a lot more common after the Timurid sack of Delhi. In most of South India for Instance, Women held practically the same social position as men
And I am an Indian native to the southern part of the country namely in telangana state . The story of why women are quite a bit empowered in South is quiet interesting. U see the staple diet of South has always been rice . The cultivation of rice requires a lot of care and free time. And women are usually involved in it . Men reared sheep and cows . The women came out of there houses ,into the farm to cultivate . This made women the crucial backbone of the economy . The kids growing up were also taken care by women , who saw women work from a young age , making it normal for them to see women working . Where as wheat, staple of North doesn't require intensive care .
@@liselottehildegarde5367 Really love ignoring witch hunting, witch burning eh? Your witches were cool people who used herbs to create medicine but the western men hated it under influence of Christianity
@@ryoukwjdbwopqmqpzl73819 to be fair, witch hunting only become mainstream during the Renaissance and enlightenment era in the protestant countries, where the west get exposed to writings of ancient greeks and romans. And just as we know, the romans and the greeks weren't that kind towards women. At that time, the worst offenders were the Germans especially in protestant held countries, while the least offenders were the Spanish and other Catholic countries.
@@liselottehildegarde5367 This channel won't tell you how British Protestant missionaries created atrocity literature to create false, scandalous narratives about "exotic lands". Look up Herbert Hope Risley and see what him and his men did in India. Far more women were burnt in Europe as part of witch hunts than in India. Widows in India in the north actually took up a life of sages, as noted by Jesuit missionaries' accounts before the protestants' propaganda.
There was a question on Quora once, going something like: "Why is Europe so abundant with medieval castles, towers, forts, temples and other structures, while China has so few?" Europe had capitalism before it even knew it. Capitalism was discovered, and then embraced, it was not created. It's a system of evolution through natural selection. A system of COMPETITION. When you have a 100 small kingdoms competing in every way, like corporations do, and within them different governments, churches and classes competing as well. There's far more progress than in a centralized empire. Every historian knows that the Roman empire was technologically stagnant for most of its history, while the middle ages were a constant progress. Capitalism is the main reason for western greatness. It's not debatable, what's debatable is whether capitalism is a symptom of something else about western Europeans. I don't know. Like, why were they so divided and competitive? Why did kings have to make agreements with every peasant and his mom, instead of just oppressing them? Why so much egalitarian confidence among the peasants, to rebel against the God- chosen kings?
22:14 correction* Spanish as a native language is more widely spoken than English and portuguese is well above russian. I understand your bias regarding the "anglophone sphere" and I actually agree in Britain being decisive in the development of the western society, but not all the wealth of the west comes from the Germanic areas of Europe. I have watched almost all of your videos and I find them quite interesting. You have good reasoning and most of the alternative scenarios seem feasible. However, I feel sometimes you are heavily influenced by your roots (which is understandable). American success is, in part, due to the lack of preexisting civilizations (advanced ones) found in that part of North America. Basically, after having killed a bunch of tribes (I'm not blaming anyone but that's just facts) there was almost nothing left that prevented british culture and civilization from expanding. The same happened in all of the successful ex-british colonies. Only the ones with a large european majority thrived. And obviously that doesn't mean that the system wasn't favorable for growth, or that effort wasn't put into development. But it's important to notice that no british colony without a large european majority is now rich (maybe Singapore? or Hong Kong ? but they had a special status and they are tiny). As I said It's normal to be proud of your culture and roots but I think you should try to avoid prejudices. Anyways great video, as always. Keep up the good work!
You are correct, he is like well west came to India and Africa just for fun or philanthropy not for money, as they were already rich.... duh...... kuch bhi
It says "In the West and Europe", so the Spanish and Portuguese speaking South Americans aren't included. It's debatable whether Russian should be included either, but it's not my video :) Although without checking, I do suspect that if you include natively Spanish-speaking Americans with the population of Spain, Spanish would definitely be fairly high on that list.
@@fanbuoy9234 you got a point. But if he's talking about native speakers only in western countries, as you said, russian shouldn't be included because for him russia is a part of the "orthodox world". (Just for you to know, native Spanish speakers are 450 million worldwide)
I would argue that it’s a bit more complicated than that. In Mesosmerica and South America, the Spanish came in and decapitated (sometimes literally) the local elites, and then installed themselves at the top of existing hierarchies (turning Tenochitlan and Cusco into administrative centers of the empire, for example), and used vast amounts of indigenous labor in an extractive economic model built on peonship, caste and aristocratic nepotism. By contrast, the English landed in North America and didn’t have any existing civilizations to decapitate and take over. Indeed, compared to an encomienda down in Latin America, settling North America sucked. Just look at Jamestown. English and French colonists frequently ran off to join the Indians (this is probably what happened to Roanoke), so the societies in North America had to incentivize people to not do that and have an investment in their colonial societies. Things like property rights, derived from Anglo-Germanic tradition, were pretty nifty at accomplishing this. In lieu of just putting Indians to work, co-opting local hierarchies and using local infrastructure, the English had to pay people to work, establish competent governments and build from scratch, spurring innovation. I would also argue that the reason Alta California filled with Americans instead of Spaniards had everything to do with property rights. People raced out west to homestead, were able to carry firearms, and generally speaking were better able to act independently, dynamically on the frontier. Spain, meanwhile, scarcely cared about much beyond Mexico’s Central Valley. Spanish settlers heading north were less well-armed against the local horse nomads (who, unlike the Aztecs, weren’t a sedentary people that the Spanish could reliably decapitate), and more dependent on Spanish troops, which made settling the area expensive. By the time New Spain became Mexico, the Spanish had permitted so little of substance to happen there that there was no way the Mexicans could have held Alta California. Spanish America was a Roman Empire, whereas English America was more similar to the Germanic chiefdoms. Spain played on easy mode, England played on hard mode.
The auto-flagellation is probably western society’s greatest curse and greatest blessing. Without self-reflection, moral and social growth can’t occur, but with too much guilt, stagnation is bound to happen. I’m a very left-leaning person, and I’m white, but the concept of “white guilt” is hysterical to me. None of the folks in my generation were alive when slavery, colonization or even segregation were around, so it’s nonsense to feel ashamed of what you yourself had no hand in. Furthermore, feeling “guilt” or “shame” accomplishes nothing; you’re not making any strides towards economic parity, or advancing socioeconomic mobility, by feeling guilty. The ancestors of slaves or indigenous peoples can’t trade your guilt in for gold. It’s almost another form of self-centeredness, another example of people making a topic they have no personal involvement to about themselves, because it affects “how they feel.” It also boggles my mind how some of these Twitter brained hyperleftists blind themselves into recognizing only Western Imperialism or despotism, while applauding the same behavior in Eastern societies (Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or China’s 1B1R initiative). It’s important to be honest about one’s history and one’s society, but we can only control our own small slice of the present, in hopes of making a better future. Look to the past for knowledge of how to be better in the future, not how to feel worse about the past.
Historical Contingency is also a concept I think that get's overlooked in West vs The Rest studies. You touched on it a lot, and your commentary on Guns, Germs, and Steel I think was spot on. There are a lot of factors which are simply too random or unpanned that shaped world civilization as well.
Honestly my favourite so far. I like that whatifalthist can unapologetically look at the factors that made Western civilisation so dominant for the last 400 years or so without engaging in the self-flagellating of many contemporary historians. I'm here to learn, and I like to learn from sources that don't get shoved through the hegemonic meat grinder of postcolonialism as well.
This is a question i’ve wondered for a long time and I always felt the guns, germs, and steel explanation was weak. Really painted a great picture of what you were explaining in this video. Favorite history channel by far with a straightforward explanation without ignoring questions that viewers would likely have.
"The US is a strange and reluctant empire, commonly altering from blowing up it's opponents to forgetting they exist..." As an American, "wtf is Grenada? You sure it's not spelled grenade?"
It would never work in film format. Everyone would need their own pause button in order to read the cards of tangential hypotheses/information/speculation. 😏
I agree when you say the Roman's and Greeks were not "western" civilization. If they were around today we would see those countries the same way many westerners see current south Korean or Japanese societies: they have many western elements but the core is distinct.
Your entire culture is based on greco roman culture even your english flag comes from italy british national anthem comes from france most of classical style buildings are greco roman you have no food culture or anyhting without greco roman culture
@@samschlossberg476 lol, like people from celtic or germanic have no brain. The whole iron work that the roman are known for comes from hellstat (austria) and the germans had gothic art and nobilities of ALL Europe that existed from prehistory To Xx century, or even today for some. There has been more technological and art progress during Ancient Regime than Antiquity
@@samschlossberg476 You are correct that western civilization is influenced by Greco-Roman traditions, but you seem to forget that civilizations evolve over time and sometimes that changes a civilation so much that to call it "Greco-Roman" would be incorrect. If anything (and forgive me if this does sound racist or whatever) western civilation is a product of Germanic tribes hijacking and reconstructing the old Greco-Roman civilizations under a Germanic cultural lens. For example, Calculus was invented by two Germanic folks, Leibniz and Newton, independent of each other (mostly, but that's another topic) at the same time. Though many concepts of calculus existed in some form before those two mathematics was roughly stagnant since the days of the islamic golden era. The Normans who invaded England were themselves germanic immigrants from the North, hence the name "Norman". The most successful countries in Europe today (in terms of GDP, innovation, and crime) are generally the ones with the least Latin influence. Ireland, Denmark, and Finland are testaments to that. If anything, Latin influence holds countries back. Compare the state of Italian colonies (Somalia, Libya) to Dutch colonies (South Africa, Indonesia). It becomes apparent that Roman influence is not all that its cracked up to be.
Honestly, I think that your channel is the best that is available on RU-vid, along with my other favourite channel, Perun. Your content is fast-paced and research based, intelligent and intuitive, logical and widely encompassing, whilst being willing to admit error and seemingly open to adjustment and change if a better argument comes along. High praise to you man.
Having something that tells us to be more than what we think we are, faith to be better and moral and good actors on a world stage, is the defining feature of the west.
@@praisethesun.praisedeussol6051 because what he says is a very particular narrative that does absolutely nothing to challenge any preconceptions of Western supremacy. There is literally no ambiguity in this video, he is treating the world, it's meaning and all in between as a game of Civilization. That's not how the real world worked out. One example, he says that the West's nation-state parliamentary system was copied by other nations. Simply LOL. 1) It was copied that same way that developing nations copy capitalist practices: via competition. When you have a group of people who have created a value-form that can create the socio-economic ideology for a global economy, you don't really have a choice it's either extract your own country or theyll come do it to you. 2) "Copying" in many cases was done specifically to remain within the boundaries of the colonial/imperial power - it's easier to become independent if you mimic the colonial power structure that way you don't have to create a new society from the ground up AND the colonial/imperial power can be 'interwoven" in particular ways that make decolonization possible 3) Again competition: You have to be a nation-state to survive in regional and global geopolitical government dominated by nation-states. Japan, and many other Asian countries, had to have like DIRECT civil war's/aristocratic disputes about this; do we resist the West with their tools or do we become like China? And this is not even TOUCHING the ideas about Germanic council democracy that are straight up white supremacist propaganda. Also the idea that the west won in a video in 2021 is a joke. How is "two catatrophic global wars, impending climate doom, hugely exploitative global economy that has rapidly turned the entire planet into a fucking social and economic hellscape and most depressed people on the planet" = an unbridled victory? It isn't. This video makes almost all its arguments not in it's content nor evidence but in how it frames those videos. Very few professional historians would certify any part of this knowledge. That's okay since "truth" is a very nebulous thing and many cultures in the world have ideas, scientific and historical, that are not "accurate" under certain views. So to judge the framing its best to ask, not if this is truth, but what is this "truth" trying to accomplish? It's very clearly trying to accomplish what Western historiography until 1940-60's was; the re substantiation of the West as an inherently superior civilizational mode based on economic reductionism. Again, this is not to attack the author in an undue manner, I would gladly sit and talk with the author on any and all points without preparation. I just think that if most people in society who are "history" people come and watch these videos, they are getting basically the narrative from 50-80 years ago - not what historians have been innovating for decades namely in the history of science, technology, global history, transnational history etc. Their "rise" of the West is a much more interesting story than the one told here.
To be honest I do 100% agree that competition is what grew Western Society to its strength. Capitalism coming from this is definitely a big help. And what you said about Western Society guilt and how much it hates itself is very true and I especially liked what you said about western society having to keep its faith to continue is so true. I love the video! Yes
I don't know, man. Feels like a super windy road to try and tie white civilisations together under a single banner. There's so much political, ethical and historical diversity between the people you describe that any overarching definition is very after-the-fact classification. For most of history, these nations have been at war and seen each other as entirely separate. I guess "the west" could be used to describe neo-liberal capitalist nations that sided with the US in the Cold War, but even that feels like an over-generalisation
Hes got some weird back and forth with his views of history being on the mark and seeming to be going way off. I could say the west is related to a collection of civilizational ideas from the cradles of civilization that then went on to encompass various pagan faiths and Christianity, greek philosophy, and the cultural beliefs of many tribes which surrounded the Mediterranean societies. It feels like a real mess to figure out at times.
This is an amazing documentary. There are so many parts where you can pause the video, read the caption, and just think about it all piecing together. Keep up the good work
Makes sense, now that we’ve reached such a high point, internal competition is gone, external threats are minimal, and so western civilization declines relative to the rest of the world. Great video
I don't think that's true, thanks to the Wests existence, we know maintaining a civilization past 200 years is possible, there's no reason to assume the west can fall. Most likely everyone else has a figurehead to reach up to and compete with now. This probably means our next bout of real territorial, intellectual and financial competition will start when space travel is feasible
To be honest, while some of my favorite timelines have such settings, I think it's pretty overdone. Just have a look at r/AlternateHistory to see yet another dozen of mitteleuropan über-kaiserreich (+colonies).
IRL they called it the Uluğ Ulus, or Greate State-with two wings, the Blue Horde (Gök Ordu) and White Horde (Aq Ordu) Funnily enough it was a Turkic state that ruled Russia for about 2 centuries, but they tolerated their Orthodox religion and allowed for the disparate duchies to unite.
@@cursedwanderer1753 They did not allow that, and even though they didn't completely ban Orthodox Christianity, they still brutally burnt all the churches every other time they invaded the Slavic lands. As most huge emrpires, the Golden Horde was becoming less cautious with time, and so around the end of the 1300's the Great Prince of Moscow Dmitry Donskoy started the process of uniting the Russian principalities into one and openly opposing the Horde. It wasn't a quick process but eventually a single Russian state formed and was strong enough to defeat the Horde, which by that point was a mess of an empire.
I'm fairly new to the channel but I must say it's incredibly impressive. I'm just finishing my undergraduate degree in modern history and International Relations, and videos like these feel like four years of teaching blitzed into a half hour lecture (in a good way!). Keep it up, whatif
9:42 I’m surprised that the Korean Peninsula is considered individualistic. From what I alway read Korea is collectivist and even East Asia is much more individualist than I expected compared to let’s says the Middle East or the Caribbean. Must be a wealth thing.
I don't understand why the north of Colombia is in red, making it as if it were similar to Jamaica and Haiti where voodoo prevails, while the Colombian Caribbean is practically identical to Venezuela in everything. 😅😅😅
@@diegovilla9773 Update: Rudyard is a Psedo-lntellectual who doesn't read a book published past 1968 because it's "Woke" and believes in a zodaic vision of history. Why did i ever like this channel other than for alternate history.
One could argue the southern cone of South America, particularly Chile, Uruguay, and Sao Paulo are just as "western" as any other "western" nation. The same could be argued for Israel, if you're including the Cape region of South Africa you should probably include Israel. Also, even though you can't get much further east than this, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are all decidedly more "western" oriented than their other east asian counterparts in their use of democracy and civil liberties.
@@yko_7313 in Japan’s case, we literally burnt their civilization down in atomic hellfire and MacArthur rewrote their legal system based on the American constitution. That’s why japan is often considered western and their civilization becomes more and more aligned with the west every day.
@@artruisjoew5473 Plus they industrialized and became a colonial nation which subjected their colonies to brutality on par with and sometimes exceeding the most brutal European colonial powers. Lingering resentment from their neighbours after that also ties them to the west
@@yko_7313 well, so are most of the world’s countries. Do you think there is some ancient way of government or culture that permeated into modern day Nicaragua (I don’t know? Just example) , more so than in the US?
I feel like an essay like this has been overdue for a LONG time. Thank you so much for this extra insight, and I hope we can see deeper analyses in the future, not just from this channel but from others too.
I think the geography was really important because the mountains of Europe lead to various nation states and free cities that lead to diverse ideas and most places had sea access too
Well, most civilizations expanded through brutal conquests. We are just one of the first that feels really bad about it as a culture, which others do their best to take advantage of.
@@Plainsburner ye know come to think of it, i wonder if that sense of Self Guilt, prevalent in current Western civilizations, permeates to other cultures/civilization aswell, since the advent globalization, technology,the "West" being the world hegemon for quite a while, etc.
@@oaples8790 You can see other cultures adopting it to varying degrees, though it hasn't infected through like it has for us, they have a lot more social unity to combat it. You do see other cultures purposefully taking advantage of it however, the biggest offenders being the Islamic world and the Chinese communist party.
Well, he made several videos where this was a consequence of the scenario (such as what if Persia conquered Greece), there is a too much long timescale and possibilities for it to be a video on its own, or if he made such a video, it'd be a really vague one with no real events but rather a general description like his video about the survival of the Roman Empire...
@@concept5631 Almost all horses in North America are descended from a handful of horses that the Spanish brought. If the Carthaginians conquered Rome, Europe could be filled with elephants.
Whatifalthist, You are amazing! I don't know where you get all of the Unique Perspective on the world, but it's Great! You had basically become my own (mentor?) Of sorts, i was searching for someone like you for a long time. I cannot even express in words how much im thankful for all your work and that you decided to share your thoughts through this RU-vid channel. Keep up the work on this level and you earned yourself a lifetime loyal follower. -A Guy From Poland
