The 10 Greatest Countries in the History of the World

http://www.ideagrove.com/blog/2006/06/10-greatest-countries-in-history-of.html


The 10 Greatest Countries in the History of the World

Yeah, we're childish. But these are exactly the kinds of questions that pop into our head all the time -- especially as Cathy is forcing us to watch Extra or somesuch.

So we decided to put this list together and welcome your input. Here are the ground rules:

1. By "countries," we mean current countries based on current boundaries.

2. Any past accomplishments are credited to the current country; modern Iraq, for example, gets credit for Mesopotamia.

3. Seminal achievements score the biggest points; however, some points are deducted for long periods of backwardness.

4. For our descriptions, our own commentary is mixed with direct pulls from Wikipedia in most cases; we didn't demarcate which was which so it would be easier to read. Just assume it's all borrowed if you'd like.

OK, here we go -- the Top 10, starting with the greatest country in the history of the world:

1. Italy. What can we say? Ancient Rome created what we now call "Western society" -- including our laws, our culture and our religion. After Rome fell and Europe spent 1,000 years in darkness, Italy reclaimed it with the Renaissance. To create a civilization is achievement enough -- but to save it 10 centuries later is truly remarkable.

2. United Kingdom. The dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, the United Kingdom is often credited with being the nation that "created the modern world", by playing a leading role in developing Western ideas of property, capitalism, and parliamentary democracy as well as making significant contributions to literature, the arts, and science and technology. At its zenith, the British Empire stretched over one-quarter of the Earth's surface and encompassed a third of its population.

3. United States. The U.S. is, by any measure, the wealthiest, most powerful and most influential country in the history of the world. Only its brief lifespan keeps it from topping the list. Buoyed by victories in World War I and World War II as the only major power not devastated, and especially after the collapse of the Soviet Union following the Cold War, the U.S. has emerged as the world's sole superpower.

4. China. The once and future superpower. China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. It has one of the world's longest periods of mostly uninterrupted civilization and one of the world's longest continuously used written language systems. Today, it is the likely successor to the United States as the most powerful country in the world.

5. Greece. Regarded as the cradle of western civilization and being the birthplace of modern democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, Western Literature, Political Science and drama, including both tragedy and comedy, Greece has a very long and remarkably rich history during which its culture has proven to be especially influential in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. Today, Greece is a developed nation, member of the European Union since 1981 and a member of the Eurozone since 2001.

6. Egypt. The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom was founded circa 3200 BC by King Narmer, and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last native dynasty, known as the Thirtieth Dynasty, fell to the Persians in 343 BC who dug the predecessor of the Suez canal and connected the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Later, Egypt fell to the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Muslim Arabs who introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the seventh century to the Egyptians, who gradually adopted both. Unfortunately, it's been pretty much downhill since then.

7. Iraq. The Republic of Iraq sits on land that is historically known as Mesopotamia, which was home to some of the world's first civilizations, including the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian. These civilizations produced some of the first writing, science, mathematics, law and philosophy in the world, making the region the center of what is commonly called the "Cradle of Civilization". Downhill since then.

8. India. The first known permanent settlements appeared over 9,000 years ago, and gradually developed into the Indus Valley Civilisation, a centre of important trade routes and vast empires. India has long played a major role in human history. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Ayyavazhi, and Sikhism -- all have their origins in India.

9. Iran. Iran (formerly Persia) has been inhabited by human beings since pre-historic times, centuries before the earliest civilizations arose in nearby Mesopotamia. Following the Islamic conquest of Persia, the country was at the heart of the Islamic Golden Age, especially during the 9th to 11th centuries.

10. Chad.Michel Brunet's 2002 discovery places the origins of humanity here, about six million years ago. Where in Africa life began remains a mystery -- until Brunet, Kenya and Ethiopia were the best theories -- but we'll give Chad credit for being our best guess at the moment.

By our measure, Russia, Japan, France, Germany and a few others just missed out. OK -- who did we miss?

 

I would base my rankings mainly on how countries have influenced the history of mankind. With that said I'll just narrow it down to top three:

1)Italy
2)USA
3)Greece

 

I've thought about that but let's be honest here, by using any reasonable test to judge what "great" means - science, influence, art, culture, innovation, religion - I'd still rank Western countries at the top. Iraq/Mesopotamia would be close to crack the top three but based on the importance of influence towards the world I'd still leave my top three the same.

 

I'd say you include both into your decision but I'd say the latter is more influential than the former because nations rise and fall but some cultures - like the Romans or Western ideals- are everlasting.

Never in the history of mankind has there ever been one lone superpower. I'd say that's pretty influential even if it is for a short span of time.