07-28-2006, 04:29 AM
Quote: Had Perry sailed up the Tiber with gunships I'm damned sure the Romans would have had their own metal fleet at Ravenna within five years, by hook or by crook, and there would have been legions of riflemen ready to deploy from hot air balloons invented by Greeks
Quite so, and in fact, that is exactly what the Japanese did.
They restored the emperor to power (the Meiji Restoration of 1868) and embarked upon a crash modernization program which included such amusing bits of "logic" as having all naval officers learn to eat with knife, fork and spoon because British naval officers did so and the British had a navy worthy of emulation. The result of all this was the Japanese defeat of the Russian Pacific & Baltic fleets in 1905.
Like the Ancient Romans, the Japanese too could be practical and pragmatic to a fault when need be.
Again, this has been a most enjoyable thread.
:wink:
Narukami
David Reinke
Burbank CA
Burbank CA
