Based on the earlier “Who’s the most influential person in history” game thread from (gulp!) 5 years ago, this thread game is a similar attempt to determine the most influential event in human history by a process of elimination. Given how smart we like to think we are, I think this is a game well-suited for this board.
The rules are simple:
There will be 19 rounds (if I’m doing my math correctly).
I have broken history into 10 separate “eras”, each era with 10 events. The eras will be numbered from 1-10. You need to reference these #'s in your voting, separating the # from the event with a period “.”
Given that this is an elimination game, in each round, you vote for the least influential event of each era, for a total of 10 votes per round (1 vote per era).
For example, here are the first two eras and how the voting should look:
Your votes should look like:
(… and so on for all 10.)
Remember, the proper format for a vote is “#. <event>” For any comments, place them underneath the block of votes, not within the votes themselves. Votes that look like the following will be disallowed and you will be asked to recast them in the proper format:
… or…
The votes need to look like this:
YOU define what is important or influential. There are no objective criteria here, so don’t bother asking “what do you mean by ‘influential’?” If you care, here are my thoughts, but those are only my thoughts, not the criteria that you must apply.
If you don’t like the events chosen, or think that this is too Western-centric, or want to argue “Some of these are not ‘events’ per se but processes!”, the thread to discuss that has been up for about a week - you should’ve made your objections then. You can still make those objections in the linked thread… but not in this one. Thanks!
When the events from each era have been chosen, we’ll group the 10 winners together and repeat the process, knocking off 1 event until we have a clear winner.
We will have at least 24 hours to vote and all votes will count up to the time I tabulate them. I cannot guarantee that each round will last an equal amount of time - I have a wife, kid, and job and will try to be as regular as possible, but sometimes that won’t be possible. Or it may be. Hell, I won’t know until it happens, right?
Pre-History, Pre 3500 BCE
Invention of Agriculture
Domestication of Animals
Invention of Alphabet
Discovery (and control) of fire
Creation of Pottery
Crossing of the Bering Strait
Invention of the Wheel
Invention of the Plow
Invention of Language
Invention of Metallurgy
Bronze and Iron Ages, 3500 BCE-1000 BCE
Hammurabi’s Code
Egyptian Empires
Founding of Ur (first city)
Coalescing of Jewish Culture
Sumerian Cuniform
Emergence of Mayan Civilization
Minoan Civilization
Alphabetic Writing Invented
Xia Dynasty in China
First use of Papyrus
Early Classical Antiquity, 1000 BCE - 200 BCE
Democracy established in Athens
Alexander the Great conquers the known world
Buddism founded
Rise of Persian Empire
Unification of China under Qin Shi Huang
Babylonian Captivity of Jewish People
Greek Philosophy and Mathematics at peak
Confucianism
Battle of Marathon
Invention of number “0” and Binary Systems
Late Classical Antiquity, 200 BCE - 476 AD
Expansion of Roman Empire (Punic Wars, expansion into Gaul, etc)
Death of Caesar
Augustinian Empire
Life of Jesus
Three Kingdoms Period in China
Split of Roman Empire into E/W by Diocletian
Constantine Promulgates Edict of Milan
Christianity becomes official religion of Rome
St. Augustine publishes “City of God”
Collapse of Rome
Early Middle Ages, 477 AD - 1250 AD
Vision of Mohammed and the Rise of Islam
Development of Arabic Numerals
Battle of Tours
Crowing of Charlemagne
Kievan Rus’ Founded
Battle of Hastings
University of Bologna (first university) founded
Crusades
Magna Carta
Genghis Khan conquers much of Asia
Late Middle Ages, 1251 AD - 1453 AD
Ottoman Empire Founded
Double-Entry Accounting
Great Schism Begins (ends 1417)
Hundred Years War Begins
Black Death Begins
Chaucer Writes “Cantebury Tales”
Zheng He naval expeditions
Prince Henry the Navigator
Invention of Printing Press
Fall of Constantinople
Early Modern Era, 1454 AD - 1648 AD
Renaissance in Italy
Columbus “Discovers” America
Protestant Reformation
Peak of Ottoman Empire/Siege of Vienna won by Austrians
Copernican Revolution
Development of Logarithms
Establishment of Dutch-East India company (First global corporation)
Elizabethan Age in England
Spanish Dominance of Middle/South America
Thirty Years War
Middle Modern Era, 1649 AD - 1788 AD
Scientific Revolution
Slave Trade
French Dominance of Europe
The Enlightenment
Rapid development of mathematics
Invention of Vaccination
Russian Expansion at peak (Peter the Great)
Publication of “Wealth of Nations”
Start of Industrial Revolution
Founding of the US
19th Century, 1789 AD - 1900 AD
French Revolution and Napoleon
Pasteurization
Development of Motorized Mass Transportation (Trains, Ships)
Implementation of Modern Sanitation
British Empire
End of Slavery
Beginning of the Oil Age
Formation of Germany
Germ Theory of Disease developed
Electrification Begins
20th Century and Beyond, 1901 AD - 2014 AD
WW1
WW2
The Rise of Mass Culture
Invention of the Computer/Internet
Apollo Moon Landing
Rise and Collapse of Communist States
End of the European Age and Rise of Asia
Green Revolution
Development of Powered Flight
Nuclear Weapons
[ol]
[li]Crossing of the Bering Strait[/li][li]Emergence of Mayan Civilization[/li][li]Buddism founded[/li][li]St. Augustine publishes “City of God”[/li][li]University of Bologna (first university) founded[/li][li]Zheng He naval expeditions[/li][li]Development of Logarithms[/li][li]Russian Expansion at peak (Peter the Great)[/li][li]Pasteurization[/li][li]Apollo Moon Landing[/li][/ol]
1 Crossing of the Bering Strait - The only unanimous vote.
2 Coalescing of Jewish Culture
3 Buddhism founded
4 St Augustine publishes “City of God” - Glad this one is gone so early as the “.” after “St” messed up my spreadsheet.
5 Crowning of Charlemagne - This was in a five way tie with 1 vote each. I used a random number generator to determine the loser.
6 Zheng He naval expeditions
7 Development of Logarithms
8 Russian Expansion at peak (Peter the Great)
9 Formation of Germany
10 Rise and Collapse of Communist States
Really, not a lot of surprises in the outcome, though I expected the “Jewish Cultures” one to last a round or three longer than it did.
I’m actually surprised that the “Green Revolution” got a vote - you’d think a revolutionary means of food production would get more respect than failed ideologies, but I guess you can’t please everybody.
Pre-History, Pre 3500 BCE
Invention of Agriculture
Domestication of Animals
Invention of Alphabet
Discovery (and control) of fire
Creation of Pottery
Invention of the Wheel
Invention of the Plow
Invention of Language
Invention of Metallurgy
Bronze and Iron Ages, 3500 BCE-1000 BCE
Hammurabi’s Code
Egyptian Empires
Founding of Ur (first city)
Sumerian Cuniform
Emergence of Mayan Civilization
Minoan Civilization
Alphabetic Writing Invented
Xia Dynasty in China
First use of Papyrus
Early Classical Antiquity, 1000 BCE - 200 BCE
Democracy established in Athens
Alexander the Great conquers the known world
Rise of Persian Empire
Unification of China under Qin Shi Huang
Babylonian Captivity of Jewish People
Greek Philosophy and Mathematics at peak
Confucianism
Battle of Marathon
Invention of number “0” and Binary Systems
Late Classical Antiquity, 200 BCE - 476 AD
Expansion of Roman Empire (Punic Wars, expansion into Gaul, etc)
Death of Caesar
Augustinian Empire
Life of Jesus
Three Kingdoms Period in China
Split of Roman Empire into E/W by Diocletian
Constantine Promulgates Edict of Milan
Christianity becomes official religion of Rome
Collapse of Rome
Early Middle Ages, 477 AD - 1250 AD
Vision of Mohammed and the Rise of Islam
Development of Arabic Numerals
Battle of Tours
Kievan Rus’ Founded
Battle of Hastings
University of Bologna (first university) founded
Crusades
Magna Carta
Genghis Khan conquers much of Asia
Late Middle Ages, 1251 AD - 1453 AD
Ottoman Empire Founded
Double-Entry Accounting
Great Schism Begins (ends 1417)
Hundred Years War Begins
Black Death Begins
Chaucer Writes “Cantebury Tales”
Prince Henry the Navigator
Invention of Printing Press
Fall of Constantinople
Early Modern Era, 1454 AD - 1648 AD
Renaissance in Italy
Columbus “Discovers” America
Protestant Reformation
Peak of Ottoman Empire/Siege of Vienna won by Austrians
Copernican Revolution
Establishment of Dutch-East India company (First global corporation)
Elizabethan Age in England
Spanish Dominance of Middle/South America
Thirty Years War
Middle Modern Era, 1649 AD - 1788 AD
Scientific Revolution
Slave Trade
French Dominance of Europe
The Enlightenment
Rapid development of mathematics
Invention of Vaccination
Publication of “Wealth of Nations”
Start of Industrial Revolution
Founding of the US
19th Century, 1789 AD - 1900 AD
French Revolution and Napoleon
Pasteurization
Development of Motorized Mass Transportation (Trains, Ships)
Implementation of Modern Sanitation
British Empire
End of Slavery
Beginning of the Oil Age
Germ Theory of Disease developed
Electrification Begins
20th Century and Beyond, 1901 AD - 2014 AD
WW1
WW2
The Rise of Mass Culture
Invention of the Computer/Internet
Apollo Moon Landing
End of the European Age and Rise of Asia
Green Revolution
Development of Powered Flight
Nuclear Weapons
