Comments by "Gorilla Disco" (@gorilladisco9108) on "Whatifalthist" channel.

  1. For some reason, Roman tax system could not support Byzantine expansion. When Julius Caesar doubled Roman territory, it didn't cause strife in Roman treasury. But when Justinian did the same, it drained the Byzantine treasury. Can somebody explain why?
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  2.  @StephensCrazyHour  I don't know man, but weren't Gallic lands just forest and boars? Not as prosperous as Italy at the time of Caesar.
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  3.  @wisdomleader85  Shang practiced what he wrote, Machiavelli criticized what he wrote. They were not the same.
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  4.  @crowe6961  Are those historians with us in this room right now?
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  5. Latin America became poor because when they became independence, they decided to preserve special rights of the feudal entities. Overtime the feudal entities were replaced by politically connected families, but the special treatments persist. This is in contrast with the United States that was established by peasantry and they decided from get go to rid themselves of any semblance of feudalism. Blaming USA is misguided and only prolong the harm of such institution. Around the time of American countries rush to independence, USA was just a third rate power. It's nothing compared to Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, .. hell, even Paraguay was stronger than USA. USA was smaller and more sparsely populated than any Latin American countries. However, the persistence of quasi-feudalism institution stagnated Latin American countries, while USA managed to advance in leaps and bounds. By 1840s, USA managed to bludgeon Mexico. By 1860s, it already a first rate power. When USA came with Monroe Doctrine in 1820s, Latin America countries were amused of the audacity of that former British peasants with their third rate power. They even joked around and cheered it. By 1920s, it's no longer joke.
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  6. Why would India invade South East Asia?
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  7. German tendency toward racism was not different from Britain and France (or Russia). Hitler came into power by riding on German dissatisfaction over the result of the war. World War 1 didn't happened on Germany lands, it happened on France land. In the view of ordinary German, they were never invaded, they were winning, so why did they suddenly declare surrender and had to pay for reparations?
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  8. US never tried to conquer North Vietnam. They just wanted North Vietnam to stop harassing South Vietnam. That's why there were never any US invasion to North Vietnam. US just bombed North Vietnam until North Vietnam surrendered at Paris Accord of 1973. Yes, contrary to Mandela Effect suffered by most people, the US won the Vietnam War. North Vietnam did invade South Vietnam again two years later, when US was busy with Nixon and his Watergate, which prevented US from helping South Vietnam. Britain didn't often get invaded because they are tricky bastards. As soon as any country posed a threat to them, they made that country a common enemy with other Europeans countries, and let the European powers dealt with the warmonger country. Indeed, the "invasions" that they did get were technically civil wars, the invading armies were just another faction of their war with themselves, not an invasion by other country.
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  9. Do you mean Aztec defeated Cortes? Because there was no way Aztec could defeated the Spanish.
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  10. Of those 12 wars, I never hear the India's ones.
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