how did rome explode from a relatively small Italian state to a European empire in such a short amount of time?
It was full of privilaged white people that just randomly invaded people.
>>313718
i'm guessing the pic is a troll?
>>313718
Because the Greeks were once the hegemons.... Until they took an arrow in the knee
>>313718
Well but it didn't really. It took Rome a few centuries to conquer/federate Italy, and by the time the did that they were about as big and powerful as anyone else in the med, and with probably a bigger population than any of them. Italy was after all the second most fertile part of the med after Egypt.
Advantageously playing against the multiplolar anarchy on the peninsula at first. Honestly they just happened to play their cards right amongst a patchwork of different tribal states
>>313718
They managed to win the 2nd Punic War when they should have lost. Vaguely like how the US became a preeminent world power after WW2.
>>314945
There was no reason the US should have lost WWII though. They fought a naval war against a power that knew it couldn't win on one side and largely sold supplies to its allies on the other until it felt the need to actually get involved and sent in hordes of fresh troops to wipe out what was left of the Germans who weren't off fighting Russia. And even if that had gone badly, they'd still be in control of a massive continent with oceans protecting them from attack/invasion anyways.
>>313718
My favorite part about your picture is that it attaches Africans to the Earth Nation, and the KKK believe that Africans are mud people.
At face value, I want to believe its unintentional, but on the other hand, this could be some subtle trolling. Like trolling within trolling.
>>313718
> such a short time
> conquest of Italy took 300 years
>>313718
Why is it that the Asians in the pic related have the least Asian-looking writing in the background?