What’s the greatest region in history, the Middle East, China, India, or Europe? Why?

历史上最伟大的地区是中东、中国、印度还是欧洲？为什么？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

China - World Leader.

This is like saying, which is the most beautiful flower, the rose, the orchid, the tulip or the lotus.

These 4 regions have all had a great, rich and intense history.

And the immense cultural, scientific, artistic, social and religious legacy they have offered and left to our human heritage is magnificent.

这就好比非要在玫瑰、兰花、郁金香和莲花中评出哪种花最美丽。

这四个地区都有各自伟大的，丰富的和精彩的历史。

他们为我们的人类留下了极其绚烂的文化、科学、艺术、社会和宗教遗产。

In a way, it can be said that we are all a bit Middle Eastern, Chinese, Hindu and European.

Of course, a bit African too. Because that's where "Lucy", "Ardi" and "Irhoud" were born, and it was from this continent where it all began.

Sorry, we can't classify the greatness of the history of these 4 regions.

在某种程度上，可以说我们身上都带着点中东、中国人、印度人和欧洲人的影子。

当然，还有非洲。因为“露西”、“阿尔迪”和“伊鲁德”就是在非洲大陆诞生的，人类的一切都是从这个大陆开始的。

所以很抱歉，我们无法为这四个地区的历史评出优劣等级。

China - World Leader.

Oh that’s the Middle East without a doubt. (Disclaimer: I am adding Egypt and Greece to the region)

Yes, the region today is not very good. But throughout history, this region was home to some of the greatest civilizations in history. When China was still building stone fortifications, Egypt was building the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was also the most cosmopolitan area, as it served to link the Eastern civilizations with the Western ones.

哦，毫无疑问，就是中东。(免责声明：我把埃及和希腊都划入中东地区)

没错，今天的中东是不咋地。但纵观历史，中东在历史上是一些最伟大文明的发源地。当中国还在用石头建造防御工事时，埃及已经在建造吉萨大金字塔了。中东也是最国际化的地区，因为它连接着东、西方文明。

As a result, a lot of ideas and concepts merged in the Middle East, into a form that easily spread both to Europe and to China. Nearly all major religions came from the Middle East. Most science and mathematics came from the Middle East, from “The Elements” to Al-Jabr.

Yes, the region has declined since the end of the Ottomans. It is a shell of its former self. But that’s barely 100 years out of its 4700 years of advanced civilization.

因此，许多思想和理念在中东地区融合，并传播到欧洲和中国。几乎所有的主要宗教都发源于中东。大多数科学和数学知识都来自中东，从《几何原本》到《代数》。

是的，自奥斯曼帝国结束以来，中东地区逐渐衰落，如今只剩下了一个躯壳。但这也仅仅是其4700年先进文明史中的区区100年而已。

Oreste Papadopol

Related

Was Europe more advanced than the Middle East or China in the year 1400?

This is a chart of how Europe was in comparison to China in 1400

公元1400年，欧洲比中东或中国更发达吗？

这是公元1400年欧洲和中国的对比图

As you can see, Italy was the most advanced back then. Of course, Italy did not exst as a country and it basically refers to the rich northern Italian states like the Republic of Venice, Genoa, Florence and the Papal States. (I know the Papal States and Florence are in Central Italy but I consider everything above Naples as being Northern Italy) The rest of Western Europe was worse than the Italian states and were just slightly better than China and India.

如你所见，当时意大利是最发达的。当然，当时的意大利并不是作为一个国家存在的，而是意大利北部的富裕国家，如威尼斯共和国、热那亚、佛罗伦萨和教皇国（我知道教皇国和佛罗伦萨在意大利中部，但我认为那不勒斯以上地区都属于意大利北部）。西欧其他国家比意大利国家落后，比中国和印度略好一点。

Between 1100 AD and 1850 (The Victorian Age), there was a slight divergence with Europe (Western Europe of course, duuuuugh!) being just a bit more advanced than the East but after 1850, boy did the Great Divergence start with Britain followed by the other Western countries (including the USA and excluding Spain and Portugal) just skyrocketing in advancement.

在公元1100年到1850年维多利亚时代之间，欧洲，当然是西欧啦，稍微比东方先进一点，但在1850年之后，历史大分流开始了，英国紧随其后，其他西方国家，包括美国在内，但不包括西班牙和葡萄牙，的发展也突飞猛进。

Susanna Viljanen

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Why did the Industrial Revolution take place in Europe and not in the Middle East or China?

Because China and India lacked the Required Secondary Powers for the industrial revolution.

Those were a) cheap and efficient energy source b) understanding of calculus and higher mathematics c) true Capitalism and d) understanding the connection of philosophy, mathematics, science and technology.

为什么工业革命发生在欧洲，而不是中东或中国？

因为中国和印度缺乏工业革命所需的第二股力量。

它们是

a) 廉价高效的能源

b) 对微积分和高等数学的理解

c) 真正的资 本主义

d) 理解哲学、数学、科学和科技之间的联系。

China would have had a) in form of coal. Yet while China has extensive coal deposits, all the good coal would go to ironmaking - and China never invented coking process. Uncoked coal is awfully pollutive, smokes a lot and fouls flues and other things, and cannot be used in metallurgy or steam engines.

While the Chinese were excellent mathematicians, there never was a Chinese Newton or Leibniz. But had there been, that pre-requisite would have been fulfilled.

中国是有a)的，存在形式是煤。虽然中国拥有丰富的煤炭储量，但中国把优质煤炭都用于炼铁——而且中国从未发明炼焦工艺。未经过炼焦的煤污染严重，会产生大量烟雾，污染烟道等，无法用于冶金或蒸汽机。

虽然中国人是优秀的数学家，但从来没有中国人成为牛顿或莱布尼茨。如果有的话，上述先决条件就满足了。

True Capitalism was perhaps the closest to emerge in China. The Chinese are excellent tradesmen and economists. But the problem was the too great and extensive bureaucracy, lack of justice state, lack of citizen society and all power being concentrated on the Imperial Court. This prevented the evolution of the true Capitalism and emergence of the bourgeoisie class as the monetary elite.

The pre-requisite d) was perhaps the hardest to attain in China. The Chinese philosophy never really made distinction between philosophy, religion and mysticism, and they never really found the connection of philosophy, mathematics, sciences and engineering.

真正的资 本主义差一点就要在中国萌芽了。中国人是优秀的商人和经济学家，但中国古代封建王朝的机构过于庞大，缺乏正义，缺乏公民社会，所有权力都集中在古代朝廷身上。这妨碍了真正的资 本主义的发展和资 产阶级作为金融精英的出现。

先决条件d)在中国可能是最难达到的。中国哲学从未真正把哲学、宗教和神秘主义区分开来，他们也从来没有真正发现哲学、数学、科学和工程之间的联系。

Isaac Ward

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Why did it take so long for civilization to start in Europe compared to China and Middle East?

Both China and the Middle East had immense river valleys which collected silt and other river by-product which made surrounding soil incredibly fertile. When farming began it was these locations that allowed for the amount of food output to be enough to support civilization.

与中国和中东相比，为什么欧洲的文明一开始花了这么长时间？

中国和中东都有巨大的河谷，聚集了淤泥和其他河流副产品，周围的土壤因此变得肥沃。农业开始发展时，这些地区的粮食产量就足以支撑人类文明。

And when you think about it, if anyone is going to start farming and thus later on civilization it would be the people in these river valleys. They’d bee the only ones that would see the benefits of spending time and effort cultivating that plant for food since in other parts of the world it would be much harder.

想象一下，如果有人要开始耕种，进而培育文明，那么一定是这些河谷里的居民。他们是唯一能看到花费时间和精力将植物变成食物作物的好处的人。

The other big thing was that these rivers were navigable which meant that trade was far easier for any early on civilization.

These massive river systems exsted elsewhere (coincidentally in other places where civilization sprung up naturally). Namely, the Indus river Valley and the Nile.

另一件大事是，这些河流可以通航，这意味着早期文明的贸易要容易得多。

这些巨大的河流系统存在于其他地方（巧合的是，在其他文明自然兴起的地方），即印度河流域和尼罗河流域。

A final thing to take into account is that back then global temperatures were quite a bit cooler. For example, northern Africa was considered some of the most fertile breadbasket during antiquity. This also meant that Europe was quite cold.

最后一件需要考虑的事情是，当时全球气温比现在低得多。北非在历史上被认为是最肥沃的产粮区之一。这也意味着当时的欧洲非常寒冷。

Matthew Kleid

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Why did Europe take until the Late Middle Ages to develop civilization on par with China and the greater Middle East?

The migration period quashed Greco Roman culture, urban lifestyle, the humanities, and refined craftsmanship. It took about 800 years for Europe to sort itself out among the new power players of Germanic descent. Still, Europe did not have cities of comparable size to Chinese cities until about 1800.

为什么欧洲直到中世纪晚期才出现与中国和大中东地区可以相媲美的文明？

移民时期摧毁了希腊罗马文化、城市生活方式、人文和精致的工艺。

欧洲花了大约800年的时间才在日耳曼人后裔的新势力中脱颖而出。

直到1800年左右，欧洲才出现了与中国规模相当的城市。

Jack Starstruck

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What is the history of the Middle East?

中东的历史是怎样的？

The Middle East is a vague region, in the past known as the Near East as it was in reference to where it was in comparison to Europe and particularly Western Europe (as sometimes the Balkans felt into the Near East according to some). Terms like Occident and Orient were bandied about as the latter referred to the “Middle East” but eventually became applied to East Asia. In recent years, an interesting geopolitical term called Greater Middle East has come into use as it reflects a wide area with a great deal of common history, from Morocco to Pakistan and from Uzbekistan to Somalia. Turkey and the Caucasus have sometimes been included, though the latter has more often since the Soviet Union been seen as the edge of Europe.

中东是一个模糊的地区概念，过去被人们称为近东，因为和欧洲，特别是西欧相比，根据一些人的说法，巴尔干半岛有时也被称为近东，这里比较近。“西方”和“东方”这样的说法被广为流传，最初后者指的正是“中东地区”，但最后人们用“东方”特指东亚地区。近年来，一个有趣的地缘政治词语“大中东”开始被人们提及，因为它指代了一个有着大量共同历史的广阔地区，从摩洛哥到巴基斯坦，从乌兹别克斯坦到索马里。土耳其和高加索地区有时也被包括在内，不过自苏联时期以来，高加索地区常被视为欧洲的边缘地区。

Defining geography, believe it or not, helps with the history of the region. The history can be boiled down a bit. Birth of Western civilization around Mesopotamia, over 7,000 years ago. Egypt and other civilizations abound, rise and fall. Alexander and the Greeks conquer and colonize much of the region along with the various incarnations of the Persia-based empires and then the Romans, Byzantines, and Muslim Arabs create other vast empires that incorporate a lot of the area. Later, migrants include Central Asian Turks, Mongols, notably the Ottomans and Safavids. These segue into the age of European imperialism and later independence of various nation-states.

不管你信不信，对地理区域进行定义有助于了解该地区的历史。这段历史可以归纳一下。7000多年前，西方文明开始在美索不达米亚地区诞生。埃及和其他文明丰富多彩，兴衰起伏。亚历山大和希腊人征服并殖民了该地区的大部分地区，以及以波斯为基础的帝国分支，后来的罗马人，拜占庭人和阿拉伯人各自创建了庞大的帝国，吞并了该地区的大部分地区。后来，出现了中亚的突厥人，蒙古人，尤其是奥斯曼人和萨法维人等游牧民族。延续到欧洲帝国主义时代，最后各个民族国家开始独立。

During this period, the region is often the center of civilization on earth. Sometimes very advanced. It encompasses three continents and is closest to Europe and India outside its immediate environs, though it influences both the eastern parts of Asia and much of sub-Saharan Africa. In modern times, it comes to be associated with oil, revolution, and terrorism. The negative connotations have become preeminent for many outside the region, but there are spots of heavy development.

在此期间，该地区多次成为世界文明的中心。有时还非常发达，这个地区横跨三大洲，最靠近欧洲和印度，影响了亚洲东部和撒哈拉以南非洲的大部分地区。如今它与石油、革命和恐 怖主义联系在一起了。对亚洲以外的许多人来说，对该地区的负面看法更为突出了，但该地区也有一些地方发展得很不错。

If we want to boil down the history to one thing, it’s that it’s a work in progress and in many ways seeking to find a way to reconcile its rather glorious (and in recent years restive) past with modernity as if the latter can’t quite figure out how to fit in. Religion and its importance play a massive role in this and so it remains to be seen where the region will end up.

如果我们想把历史提炼成一件简单的事，那就是历史是一项进行中的事，试图找到一种方式来调和它辉煌（近年来动荡不安）的过去。宗教及其重要性在其中发挥着巨大的作用，因此该地区最终会走向何方还有待观察。