What is the single most important invention in European history?

Forums: Europe, History, Inventions, European History
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Was it the Mechanical Clock? Was it the Compass? Was it it the Printing Press? Was it the Automobile, the Computer or something else?

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Type: Question • Score: 19 • Views: 10,401 • Replies: 109

[+3] - farmerman - 06/28/2011I believe fire was discovered when our African ancestors first tried barbecue
[+3] - Setanta - 06/29/2011It was one of the greatest engineering feats of history to have brought water enough to Rome for a million people to drink and to bathe, every day if they wished. There were more than 900 public...
[+3] - Setanta - 06/30/2011[quote="Lustig Andrei"]What's the big deal about mechanical clocks? Or any clocks for that matter?[/quote] As you already noted, things get trickier at sea, and that's where accurate...
[+3] - Walter Hinteler - 07/04/2011From your source: [quote]Largely unaffected from the turbulent political events following the demise of the Western Roman Empire, the importance of watermilling continued to grow under the new...

Well, the Europeans did not invent movable type, but i do consider the printing press to have been the most important development in their history.

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It depends.

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The ships that found the America's. Without them we'd still all be living in feudal times.

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@Ceili,

You mean Bjarni Herjolfsson who "discovered" Newfoundland in 985?

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@Setanta,

Sure, he raised the possibility. Then the kings and queens knew they could get rid of the degenerate populations by shipping them west.

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@VALTUI,

Iron bloom. Or else it was the French fry

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@farmerman,

No way! It's got to be Abba!

http://tallhorsewines.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/abba.jpg

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@Ceili,

It was sheep, and the factory machinery that went with them. No more need for gobs of serfs to work the land. They kept a few for shepherds and dumped the rest - who promptly found their way to the cities.

Some of the shepherds were replaced by dogs.

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@Ceili,

Ceili wrote:

The ships that found the America's. Without them we'd still all be living in feudal times.

They weren't living in feudal times when the ships sailed.

Unless you mean Set's ships.

Europe rid itself of feudalism (mostly, Russia is one exception for instance) without influence from the Americas.

Probably the French Revolution had a more salutary effect overall on ruling classes in Europe.

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@VALTUI,

I'd go with printing press.

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@VALTUI,

steam engine.

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@kuvasz,

All that would be impossible without the discovery of iron bloom and then smelting to make plate.

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@Reyn,

Reyn wrote:

No way! It's got to be Abba!

i was gona say swedish meatballs, but this is close enough

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@VALTUI,

VALUTI wrote:

What is the single most important invention in European history?

I'm going to be a romantic and pick the French kiss.

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@farmerman,

youforgotfire

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@kuvasz,

I believe fire was discovered when our African ancestors first tried barbecue

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@farmerman,

while the event is lost in the sands of time I think that the invention of "making" fire ought to be considered year number one of human history.

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@kuvasz,

Do you allege that the "discovery" of fire was an event in European history?

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@kuvasz,

Quote:

while the event is lost in the sands of time I think that the invention of "making" fire ought to be considered year number one of human history

I agree but
fire is more a discovery than an invention. Like eating corn is a discovery but modifying corn would be an invention.

Making iron bloom was originally a dicsovery but the addition of limestone to cause the production of fayalite (iron silicate) and then to further purify by continued heating and oxidizing with charcoal was a process that makes it an invention.

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What is the single most important invention in European history?

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