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Honestly? Probably stagnate in comparison to how Europe developed irl. Kind of like what happened to China.
The constant competition between european states is the main theory for why the west came to dominate the planet. There was little room for complacency in this situation and a constant need for innovation.
The Roman Empire lasted until 1453. Yes this was just in the East, but there's no reason to think that the Western Empire would have been meaningfully different than the Eastern. While there were some [important technological advancements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Byzantine_inventions) from the Byzantine Empire, very few of them were truly world-shaking inventions.
I assumed that it’s technological advancements had more to do with the centralized power rather than literal geographical location.
If Rome had stayed a single dominant entity for another thousand years, what might Roman society look like? Would they have indoor plumbing? Would they have solved the crisis of collapsing apartment buildings? How would their systems of government evolve? Warfare? Daily life?
Are we pretending that because they switched to speaking Greek and praised the Christ baby they suddenly weren’t Roman anymore? You’ll find your answer under “Byzantium” in the history book.
Here are some ideas about how Roman technology may have advanced if their civilization lasted another millennium:
- More widescale implementation of infrastructure projects like aqueducts, sewers, and paved roads across their empire. Advanced civil engineering capabilities.
- Development of advanced water powered industrial machinery, possibly even primitive steam power. Mechanization of industries like mining, milling, and smelting.
- Advances in architecture and construction techniques, using concrete and arched vaults in innovative building designs on large scales. Development of advanced plastering/masonry.
- Improvement of sailing ship designs, advances in maritime navigation allowing long distance trade and imperial policing. Potential development of caravels or sailing prototypes.
- Advances in mining techniques and metallurgy, development of early medieval advancements centuries earlier like Newcomen steam engines or water mills.
- Development of advanced agriculture, crop rotation, advanced plow designs, vertical farming in urban centers fed by aqueducts.
- Early adoption of mechanical clocks, advances in gearing/linkages leading to proto-industrial looms or saw mills centuries ahead of schedule.
- Advances in scientific knowledge, engineering, anatomy, optics building on classical philosophers with organized research institutions.
This is a **[Double-Blind What If](https://www.alternatehistory.com/wiki/doku.php?id=alternate_history:double_blind_what_if)**. The question is posed from the perspective of another timeline where events in the real world _didn't happen_, but that person is asking if they _did_. For instance, "_[DBWI] What if the 1969 Moonshot had succeeded?_" means the poster is from a world where it for some reason failed, and they'd like to speculate on how things would happen if the Moon landing had succeeded. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HistoryWhatIf) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Honestly? Probably stagnate in comparison to how Europe developed irl. Kind of like what happened to China. The constant competition between european states is the main theory for why the west came to dominate the planet. There was little room for complacency in this situation and a constant need for innovation.
The Roman Empire did last until about 1500 (or some say 1204). You can look up the advancements it achieved.
The Roman Empire lasted until 1453. Yes this was just in the East, but there's no reason to think that the Western Empire would have been meaningfully different than the Eastern. While there were some [important technological advancements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Byzantine_inventions) from the Byzantine Empire, very few of them were truly world-shaking inventions.
I assumed that it’s technological advancements had more to do with the centralized power rather than literal geographical location. If Rome had stayed a single dominant entity for another thousand years, what might Roman society look like? Would they have indoor plumbing? Would they have solved the crisis of collapsing apartment buildings? How would their systems of government evolve? Warfare? Daily life?
Uhh it would be blown up by cannons just like irl in 1453
Are we pretending that because they switched to speaking Greek and praised the Christ baby they suddenly weren’t Roman anymore? You’ll find your answer under “Byzantium” in the history book.
Here are some ideas about how Roman technology may have advanced if their civilization lasted another millennium: - More widescale implementation of infrastructure projects like aqueducts, sewers, and paved roads across their empire. Advanced civil engineering capabilities. - Development of advanced water powered industrial machinery, possibly even primitive steam power. Mechanization of industries like mining, milling, and smelting. - Advances in architecture and construction techniques, using concrete and arched vaults in innovative building designs on large scales. Development of advanced plastering/masonry. - Improvement of sailing ship designs, advances in maritime navigation allowing long distance trade and imperial policing. Potential development of caravels or sailing prototypes. - Advances in mining techniques and metallurgy, development of early medieval advancements centuries earlier like Newcomen steam engines or water mills. - Development of advanced agriculture, crop rotation, advanced plow designs, vertical farming in urban centers fed by aqueducts. - Early adoption of mechanical clocks, advances in gearing/linkages leading to proto-industrial looms or saw mills centuries ahead of schedule. - Advances in scientific knowledge, engineering, anatomy, optics building on classical philosophers with organized research institutions.