Lack of technological progress in late Roman Empire

[Theodosius the Great]

Generally speaking....

I think I see a correlation between large, stable Empires and technological stagnation or slow-down. Look at China - the Roman Empire that never fell - and observe that no or few inventions have come from there out of the last 500 years. There's also the Turkish Empire - which was always buying Western military technology up until its destruction in the twentieth century.

When Roman authority collapsed in Western Europe I believe the dynamics created an environment that stimulated the need for new inventions. It took a while for the "ball" to get rolling but I see a constant rate of increase in the amount of technological innovations from the "fall" of Rome until the present day.

So the collapse of the Empire was, in many ways, a stimulus to innovation, rather than a retardant.

Exactly, I agree with Tim.

It seems that the Romans had become so uncommercial that their rulers rejected increases in productivity. In such a world, advances in science were never going to be translated into technology.

I agree, that's really the heart of it, Peroni. The Roman Empire was very socialistic in many ways and hindered innovation - as Tarbicus quite correctly observed, IMO.




Theo