Why were they unable to expand outwards when they had such a powerful base? When the Romans unified Italy, a naturally defensible land with fertile regions (po), they conquered most of the known world.
>>18626702INDIA, HISTORICALLY, HAS BEEN A LAND OF CONQUERED PEOPLE, NOT ONE OF CONQUERORS —WHY? PROBABLY SOMETHING RELATED TO RACE.
>>18626702Perhaps because they were feudally fragmented, lacking cavalry and a strong navy?Furthermore they were separated from neighboring states by the Himalayas and jungles.
>>18626711THOSE ARE SYMPTOMS, NOT CAUSES.
>>18626702>with fertile regions (po),*poo
The lands to the east were thick jungle, to the north the Himalayas, to the northwest desert and steppe. Indian merchants did sail to the Malay Archipelago in ancient times, but they formed their own independent polity the Srivijaya due to their distance from the Indo-Gangetic plain.Mongols united the steppe by use of their cavalry, which the agrarian polities of India lacked. Their heirs, the Mughals, were a "gunpowder empire" like the Ottomans and Safavids, which you might imagine benefits an agrarian people who can outproduce them in cannons and guns. However the "law of diminishing returns" applies here, their armies only needed a handful of cannons to be able to, say, take down a fortification and continue their advance. 1 good cannon can achieve the same over a week as 7 cannons in a day and it is far easier to cart around, for example.This is part of a much longer debate, suffice to say all these "gunpowder empires" utilized both cavalry and gunpowder to achieve their ends and once the Mughals were planted in India they gained whatever other advantages the Indians may have had with their empire stretching to the northwest somewhat before colliding with Persia.
>>18626702Except that is not the case.
why did romans need to keep taking lands? and why did it stop? once the Ganges plains is taken you already have one of the biggest agricultural plains in the world, the southern decan becomes a frontier to fight over increasingly less beneficial resources per extension of the border, plus the logistics need to traverse northern borders is hindered by the need to feed massive populationthe southern empires did push into the eastern oceans but it only lasted a short while, just like Rome in the Mesopotamia, Indian empires just have more natural boundaries
>>18626702>a naturally defensible land with fertile regions (po)The Po river basin wasn't properly colonized until after the Punic war and wouldn't be a major grain producing region until the middle ages.The fertile regions during Rome's rise to power would be the plains surrounding Rome and Capua, as they gained control over Mediterranean trade they would import grain.
>>18626752>as they gained control over Mediterranean trade they would import grain.If I was a senator in Rome I would be very upset about having Rome be dependant on far flung provinces on something as basic as fucking food security. What the fuck were they doing?
>>18626750>why did romans need to keep taking lands?What kind of question is that? Do you think the Roman Empire would collapse if it didn't invade Gaul and they needed Gaul to survive?
>>18626749It is astonishing how a handful of Vedic Aryan charioteers causing trouble in the Indus Valley resulted in the spread of Hinduism and Buddhism across the whole of asia. The original Hyperboreans must have been something else.
>>18626749Are seamonkes actually seajeets?
>>18626711North India used cavalry extensively
>>18626702What color is their skin? Now what color was the Romans' skin?
>>18626864Brown. Brown.
>>18626709>INDIA, HISTORICALLY, HAS BEEN A LAND OF CONQUERED PEOPLEIn what alternate timeline?
>>18626702See those mountains? Himalayas might as well be the Atlantic Ocean
>>18626749Such an empire never existed or was even close to existing.
>>18626968In the one we live in
>>18626702Unironically it’s the vegetarianism. The excessive empathy in Indian civilization, the unwillingness to take life, doomed it. Vegetarians who revere the cow versus people who ate cows, of course the latter won.
It's full of Indians.
>>18626979>See those mountains? Himalayas might as well be the Atlantic OceanDidn't stop outsiders from constantly coming and conquering India.
>>18626702People dont realise how fucking huge India is because maps use the mercator projection.That piece of land, that subcontinent, was never unified, and by the time it was unified it was mired in administrative and economic problems just like Romen at its zenith. By the time they were in the process of unfucking themselves the far more advanced European trade companies were taking control.
>>18628293>That piece of land, that subcontinent, was never unified,And this is no excuse for being the world's punching bag. Germany was not unified until the 19th century but that didn't turn it into a shit covered rapist country.
>>18626702Too busy expanding within India, which always offered richer and easier pickings than a trans-Himalayan expedition. Unless you were the Cholas, who did send fleets to Southeast Asia.I don't think it was ever fully unified until the Brits, although some of the stronger native states (Mauryas, Tughluqids, Mughals) came close.
>>18626702Short answer: You're an idiot.
>>18626755Just wait until you learn about how that works today.It's even worse!
>>18626702Too busy drinking cow piss.
