>What if Rome had industrialized?
An empire built on slavery cannot industrialize. It could never have happened.
Depends on the type of slavery.
>>866462
How so? Do you mean wage slavery?
>tfw no industrialized Roman communist revolution
>>866451
Slavery is pants-on-head stupid if you're an industrial country
>>866471
If all the slaves occupy service jobs that aren't directly related to production, i don't see why the industrial revolution could not have happened. But of course this is not the case with Rome.
>>866481
Industrialization is toga-on-head stupid if you have a slave based economy.
>>866492
Why would you use slaves for service jobs and not as field hands and miners and all the jobs humans don't ever want to do?
>>866451
Just have the empire survive a few hundred more years and it'll industrialize along with all the other European powers.
>>866644
Not so long as there was slavery. England only industrialized because it had high wages.
>>866451
>An empire built on slavery cannot industrialize. It could never have happened.
You never heard of Soviet Union?
>>867584
>communists
>slaves of the bourgeoisie
Choose one.
>>867600
>soviet union
>communists
Choose one
>>867650
Go away, Mao.
>>866500
If there only a few slaves and they wwre seen more as fine tools than work animals
>>867813
If there is an insignificant number of slaves then yes, there is an insignificant number of slaves.
>send the poor landowners off to fight wars
>wars acquire slaves
>slaves go to aristocrats
>aristocrats reposes poor landowners land when they are away fighting wars
>use slaves to work stolen land
>soldiers come back to nothing and ore forced to live in the heart of the Rome as sweatshop workers
>95% of Roman citizens were below the poverty line
Holy fuck, I think I want to become a communist.
>>871034
>Workers of Rome unite
>>871034
>Communist Rome
What a world that would be
>>866451
Even if Rome didn't have slavery it wouldn't have industrialized
inb4
>but m-muh Aeolipile
No. Rome wasn't even a proto-industrial society.
>>871046
Why not?
>>871034
>>871040
>Karl Marx time travels Rome around the year 250 CE
>the plebeians rise up against the patricians
>Rome is united by a national identity again
>a second greater Pax Romana is achieved
>Rome never falls
I have such a hardon right now.
>>867650
So sick of this meme.
If an ideology fails the same way, everytime people try to establish it, one can very well say that this is the true face of the ideology itself.
>>871046
The Ottoman Empire was semi industrialized tho
There's your answer OP
>>871126
You're not wrong
But of all the examples of failed communism, they didn't all fail the same way
Think of all the different democracies that fell into despotism.
>>871133
Industrialization only makes sense if wages are high. It's cheaper to feed some slaves off the free corn provided by the state than to buy a steam engine and fuel it with coal, let alone the development cost. Industrial innovations only come when there is a shortage of labor.
>>871158
> Industrialization only makes sense if wages are high.
Yea man, it's easy to forget all the high wages that happen at the start of the Industrial revolution. Paid so good to work in the coalmines they'd send kids there because why sent them to private schools when they can earn so much more in a coalmine?
Daily reminder that on top of that, the Roman Empire was an economic catastrophe that massively decreased the wealth of Europe. Greece did not reach it's pre-roman level of income until 1930.
Romans already were Ancient Soviets, destroying cultures, and leaving nothing of note behind other than giant concrete monuments.
>>871166
That was before the state decided to jump in and impose minimum wages on the libertarian paradise.
>>866451
The Empire was never very keen on technological progress anyways, and reform was one of the things that got you killed by the Praetorian Guard so that was out of the question
>Rome conquers all of the British Isles.
>When the Western Empire collapses and withdraws the legions from Britain the picts and other celts are Romanised and don't attack
>Roman-Britons don't need to call Angles and Saxons over for help
>Present strong united front to any attempted invaders
>Most Germanic tribes pushing west don't try cross the ocean anyway
>Britain survives as the last Bastion of western Roman culture
>It's united, with no Scottish, English, Welsh, Irish split
>Fast forward to Industrial era
>Roman British Empire
If one had a child as Roman slave, would that child become a slave?
>>871188
>thing I make uo
>>872651
No, according to ROMAN law both mother and child becomes free
>>872694
>What even happened to the lands Rome conquered?
Taxes were imposed and they had to muster troops for the Roman army. The shit about slaughtering and selling "millions" [lel] into slavery rarely happened. The city Carthage for example has around 500.000 inhabitants in the first century AD. And even colonies in Germany like the Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium had populations of 10s of 1000s of.
So yeah, you are making shit up.
>>871295
>not reconquering the rest of the western roman empire
not true pax romana/10
>>872709
>So yeah, you are making shit up.
I don't even know what you are getting defensive about. I literally was just asking questions.
>>872883
Ah I thought those were rhetorical questions. Sorry.
>>872928
np
>>866451
>Rome industrializing 1000 years before the Scientific Revolution
wew lad
>>872960
Presumably natural science would progress as well in an alternate history where Rome didn't collapse.
I don't know, did Rome even have many notable philosophers trying to figure out how the world worked?
>>872955
To add to what I said. Until like the 3rd century AD Romans were eager to import their urban culture. It brought more taxes, living standard and was easier to control since you tended to have the local elites in one place. So no, mass killings and stuff were the exception.
>>872976
>did Rome even have many notable philosophers trying to figure out how the world worked?
Not really. And the ones who even speculated upon it just accepted Aristotelian naturalism as far as I know, such as the Stoics.
>>872960
James Watt was an instrument maker, not a scientist. Thomas Newcomen was an iron monger.
In the 19th century is was doubtful whether scientists or engineers would produce better results.
>>872976
Theon of Alexandria
I want the Christian Dark Ages Defense Force to leave.
http://historum.com/ancient-history/43434-rise-fall-ancient-economy.html
>>872697
So how were there any female slaves?
