The Byzantine Empire was more Greek than Roman, to be sure, but are you going to say that Ancient Greek culture wasn't "Western"? Figure that everything from Greece to Mesopotamia (i.e. Iraq) was under Greek and later Roman rule from the days of Alexander the Great until the Arab invasions. That's about a thousand years.
in many way more similar to the muslim world than western Europe
Mainly because the Muslims borrowed from them. The Muslim world was a fusion of Arabian, Persian, and Hellenistic cultures.
Now if by Western Europe you're talking about France and England, those were backwaters even at the height of the Roman Empire. The heart of Western civilization in ancient times was the Mediterranean. Unless we're going to assert that the practices of Germanic barbarians have a stronger claim to Western culture than the ancient Greeks and Romans.
The reason Marco Polo was such a big deal was exactly that no know westerner had been to china for quite some time.
He was a big deal because he wrote a popular book on the subject.
Travel to China was rather rare, since the journey could take years.
I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.
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sjoeviln
7 years ago
What you write is true in part, but at the end of the ancient times, culture changed considerably. With the introduction of christianity as a state religion, change in roman warrior culture(from large infantry armies to cavalry) and the decline of greek philosophy and arts changed the culture considerably. After this the cultures of the east and west of Europe diverged quite considerably, and one of the reasons Byzantium fell was the chronic conflicts and lack of understanding between east and west. And I do also claim that germanic culture also had an important part in shaping the western culture. Maybe not in philosophy and art, but to a large degree societal institutions and the structure of the state.
When it comes to travel to China, the muslims actively blocked direct contact between the west and eastern Asia. This was to a large degree because they wanted to preserve their monopoly on trade between the east and west. As I stated, it was no coincidence that Marcos father got to China exactly when he did. He did when he did because the muslim conquest made direct contact between the west and parts of the mongol empire possible.
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