What if the Normans don't conquer Sicily?

[minionofmidas]

The history of the Crusades would read very differently without Norman control of Sicily. And the whole cultural and economical history of Europe would read very different without the Crusades. There might not even be a white man's country in the present-day US without the Norman conquest of Sicily.

Of course, all this makes it much more likely that, if the Normans hadn't conquered Sicily when they did, they would have done it thirty years later with Crusader help...

[minionofmidas]

Why would there not be a white man's country in the US? Are you presuming no successful reconquista?

Without the crusades, I'm presuming European/Christian/Caucasian/whatever domination of the world to never happen.

[minionofmidas]

Why would there not be a white man's country in the US? Are you presuming no successful reconquista?

Without the crusades, I'm presuming European/Christian/Caucasian/whatever domination of the world to never happen.

To the contrary, European domination was pretty much ensured from the beginning due to geography. While East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East all have basically everything they might want in pre-modern society close at hand and therefore have little reason to launch amssive explorations and to conquer other parts of the world, both Europe's production capacity and production diversity are exceptionally low. This means that Europe had far more pressure to both explore and conquer than East Asia, South Asia or the Middle East.

I spent quite a bit of college researching the topic. My conclusion was that Europe's strength in the 16th and 17th centuries and dominance in the 18th and 19th centuries was due precisely to its inherent disadvantages, not advantages. Nowhere else had any compelling reason to establish world-spanning trade empires since they already had enormous production capacities and diverse native goods.

There are other parts of the world with massive disadvantages as well. It is the combination of disadvantages and advantages that matters.