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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Author: knighttof3   😊 😞
Number: of 84353 
Subject: Re: Well. I'm *still* going to Canada
Date: 03/29/25 5:12 PM
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Having too many languages, too many different customs, too many citizens isolated from other demographics of citizens is what leads to things that allowed European Empires to divide, bribe, and defeat civilizations in Asia and arabia.

That is an interesting take on something that never happened.

First, every large successful empire was always multi ethnic, multilingual, multicultural. Roman, several Persian ones, Mongol, Moghul in India.

More than division and bribes, Europeans' ability to fight a high technology war is what defeated the Asians. Muslims may have started the "gunpowder empires" but post-renaissance, Europeans took warfare to entirely new heights. Division and bribes came later, to manage the populations they needed to loot and exploit effectively. That is definitely not a European invention. Chanakya predated Machiavelli by 2000 years and advocated the same tactics to keep unruly satraps in check. I am sure so did the Romans and Persians. If anything it lengthened the longevity of their empires.
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This community has written 84,309 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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