# What three things have influenced history the most? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 7, 2002, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852 "2002-08-07T21:56:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/21 "2002-08-08T06:10:23Z")
1. Belief (in something you can’t see) 2. Fear (of what you don’t know) 3. Hatred (of what you are not) ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/22 "2002-08-08T19:37:03Z")
Air conditioning, the wheel, and surplus farming. Yes, air conditioning. You think a couple million people would live in the South without it? ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/23 "2002-08-08T19:44:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Number Six \* > \*\* > {snip}… > Mathematics or Writing as each having been a greater agent of progress. {snip}, in this order: > > A. Language > 2. Agriculture > D. Writing \*\* Irony can be so ironic 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/24 "2002-08-08T19:59:47Z")
I would guess Agriculture, War, and Religion. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/25 "2002-08-08T20:07:41Z")
Since we live as a part of history, rather than separate from it, those three factors should be just as evident in everyday life as they are when we examine our past. So let’s just take a typical, hypothetical day in my life and see what happens? Say I’m walking down the street and see a beautiful young woman whom I desperately want to enlist in perpetuating the human race. I walk up to her and say, _“nice day, eh?”_ Nobody can resist that line. After a little bit of small talk about the weather, I then introduce myself and ask the inevitable second question. _“So, where’re you from?”_ Since no woman in the world has ever figured out how to evade this original and always successful line of questioning, sooner or later I’m rolling up my sleeves and getting ready to start manufacturing a brood of Couch Athelings with my fellow human. That’s when the next big question comes up. _“Is there anything I should, ah, ‘know about’ before we do this?”_ And so there is your answer, all wrapped up in a nice tight ball like the sun dress at the foot of my bed: _weather, geography, and disease._ ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/26 "2002-08-08T20:33:47Z")
Gravity Time Entropy ---
**Author:** ![WavyDavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3da27b/32.png) [@WavyDavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WavyDavy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/27 "2002-08-08T20:34:17Z")
I’d say three rather specific things. #1 The life (and death) of Jesus Christ. This started a whole new religion that now covers the western world and then some. #2 The discovery of the Americas by Europeans. That discovery and the settling of the new world ended up creating the grand experiment now known as the United States. #3 World War II. The results of this war carved out the political boundries of the current world. I guess my answers just reflect my geocentric bias toward the western world. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/28 "2002-08-08T20:47:07Z")
Your History teacher thinks there is a factual answer because it was covered in your textbook. Chapter 3, 2nd paragraph. After the thing about breast augmentation. (tcburnett read it wrong) He also mentioned it in class, only the cheerleaders were practicing outside then, so you may have been distracted (by breast augmentation). You can either read the book, or attempt to distract him while you are copying the answer. (As a distraction, you may try breast augmentation) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/29 "2002-08-08T21:37:44Z")
Well, I don’t know if your teacher is looking for a factual answer, but if he is… When I was taking European History in High School, I came across a famous quote saying that the most important factors in shaping the world were 3 P’s: 1. Powder (that is, gunpowder) 2. the Printing Press 3. the Protestant Reformation It’s possible your teacher came across that same quote, and that’s what he’s looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2002, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/30 "2002-08-08T21:39:13Z")
Mel Brooks Duct tape those little plastic thingys you use to keep bread bags closed ---
**Author:** ![JFMichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@JFMichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFMichael)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/31 "2002-08-12T00:13:54Z")
**Nurse Carmen** , I checked, and the second paragraph of the third chapter in my book (how did you know which edition I have?) clearly agrees with **Sofa King**. Actually, I posted this on the SDMB because this question was asked on the first day of school, and is a bonus question not answered in the textbook. The _only_ answer to the question is: Politics Religion Economics If anyone is interested, the “oldest question in history” is “Where do we come from?” and the possible answers are: Creation Evolution Aliens ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/32 "2002-08-12T00:27:14Z")
The printing press The compass The computer ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/33 "2002-08-12T00:53:41Z")
god, guns, and guts!!! (had to say say it, just had to 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![montag01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@montag01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/montag01)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/34 "2002-08-12T03:09:08Z")
The answer, of course, is lawyers, guns and money. ---
**Author:** ![sirtonyh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@sirtonyh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sirtonyh)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/35 "2002-08-12T07:07:57Z")
Have to go with Religion, Science, Writing. If I could have a list of 5 then add pizza and Starbucks to the list. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/36 "2002-08-12T12:37:49Z")
The #1 answer, absolutely without any question whatsoever, is geography. Or, to use **Genseric’s** line, it’s location, location, and location. Nothing else matters in the long run. Geography determines EVERYTHING. It was geography that determined where the human race first developed agriculture and what kind of agriculture it developed. It was geography that determined where humans domesticated animals, and where they didn’t, and which ones they domesticated. And it’s because of thsoe things that humans in some places developed resistance to infectious diseases and some didn’t, and why cities grew in some places and not in others, and why technology grew in some places and not in others. Every other answer here - religion, the printing press, literacy, science, whatever - is subordinate to location. It’s where we lived that determined, for twenty thousand years or more, who got what. And it’s that process that shaped the entire world. It’s because of geography that Europe conquered the world, and it’s because of Europe conquering the world that the world looks the way it does today. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/37 "2002-08-12T17:14:24Z")
According to the book by the same name: [ul][li]Guns[_]Germs[_]Steel[/ul][/li] Personally I think #1 should be **DNA** ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/38 "2002-08-12T21:14:11Z")
The development of a written language. For once, ideas could be passed over a greater period than just generational. They caould even persist if the civilization was exterminated. The births of Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, etc. The development of atomic weapons. This one still has the capacity to make a greater name for itself. ---
**Author:** ![Rhum\_Runner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rhum\_Runner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhum_Runner)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/39 "2002-08-13T01:45:00Z")
Echoing the Guns Germs and Steel crowd… 1. Geography 2. Economics 3. Great Men ---
**Author:** ![ice1000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a3d4f5/32.png) [@ice1000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ice1000)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2002, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-three-things-have-influenced-history-the-most/122852/40 "2002-08-13T01:59:49Z")
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