One thought on “Links I found interesting for 02-08-2014”

1. It barely scratches the surface of the differences a land bridge might make. For example he speculates about Julius Caesar’s invasion being more successful (possible, though presumably it’s also possible that the Gauls could get assistance from Britain and Julius never gets that far), but doesn’t consider that both Britain and Gaul are more defensible as part of the same empire (so the events of the 5th century could be very different). Indeed, the situation in Germania might have developed very differently, earlier on, perhaps without a Teutoburg massacre, so the border may have been much further east. Holding the western empire might have been feasible for someone like Constantine III. Germanic migration to Britain would probably have been much less, and presumably the later Normans would not have got to Normandy, let alone any further around Europe. The map of Europe might look very different. As to transatlantic exploration, one of the drivers for that was the Ottoman Empire gaining enough territory to monopolise the overland spice trade – would that still have happened? Would the crusades have happened? It only needs the Roman Empire to survive in a slightly stronger form than it did in order for it to hold on to much of the levant, surely?

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