Could things have turned out differently? Professor Garibaldi, of Padua University, argued in 1861 that the 15th century represented the culmination of two diverging trends in European history. On the one hand there were the monarchs; the kingdoms of Spain, Portugal, and Aragon, battle hardened from the centuries of reconquista; the Byzantine Empire, and its possible successor, the Ottomans, or Turks; the kings of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, in their Kalmar Union.

On the other side there were the republics. Often consisting of an aristocracy of merchants, these republics and leagues were able to form, in the 15th century, cohesive political unity. Venice led the way, smashing the Ototmans, assuring commercial hegemony in the Mediterranean, and unifying Italy. But Milan under Venetian rule was not Milan under the rule of the French; The Senate’s policy of encouraging commercial prosperity, and leaving local affairs to the city governments, assured it a loyalty unmatched. Life in Venetian Milan must have been very different indeed from Alfonso’s Naples.

The Leagues and kings were an interesting contrast. While Venice would fight wars for commercial hegemony, her mainland empire was not the result of a deliberate policy of expansion; Venice belonged to the sea. The Venetians would fight for commercial hegemony, as the 4th crusade evidentially displays; but it is hard to see them butchering the people of the city as the Frankish lords did. The Hanseatic League was rather similar; their wars were with the Danes over trading rights, not with the Emperor over the right to rule a Duchy. The differing political viewpoints culminated in the twenty years war, where the Christian Empire, launched a holy war against the Protestants. The Venetians, whose worldly, humanist tolerance must have seemed quaint, were able to smash the Christian Empire apart, liberating France.

Over the course of the 17th century, Italy’s league, and the British commonwealth, led the way in industrializing. The Savoyard dynasty of the Empire of Germany proved to find a middle road between the Emipre and the League, turning the Empire of Germany into a constitutional monarchy which embraced the Swiss and Czechs. Together, Germany, the Iberian Republics, and Italy crushed the last vestige of the monarchy, France.

The Russian and Byzantine Empires, ironically sharing so much in common, were slain by the same source. The demand for freedom and equality manifested itself in a Cossack named Pugachev, who overthrew both realms to establish the Holy Empire. Here again we saw the demand for liberty, as first the Armenians, and then the Turks, Georgians, and finally, Greeks and Russians demanded freedom. The League of Milano was formed, to defend Europe against the Russian threat, but in time becoming a federal government, after the Second Great War against France and the Holy Empire, in 1770.

After the Second Great War, in which armored motor vehicles proved their use, and Italian dirigibles rained fire on the Russian cities, the world finally entered "the post-modern age". The League of Milano transformed into he League of nations. Wars were averted through the use of economics; when the Armenian technocrats tried to invade the Persian empire, the league cut off rubber and metal supplies, destroying the Armenian economy in one swoop.

Finally, in 1865, the dream of Galileo was achieved; man went into orbit. A lunar landing occurred in 1894, and for decades, space travel stagnated By this point though, the world had reached the large population of 3.5 billion (and creeping up to this day to 4, which has caused numerous debates in the League of Nations over population control).

Finally, in 1907, the Tunguska Impact occurred. A rogue comet devastated thousands of kilometers of Siberia, and the world logged on to watch the disaster, especially to Russian economic interests. The internet nearly crashed in the aftermath, as people from Nuova Italia to Edo logged on to watch the aftermath. This, in turn, led to the development of the nuclear power plant into a space engine and explosive. Cheap means of accessing space were developed, culminating in the space elevator over Cairo on August 5, 1945.

One wonders what the Doges of Venice would have thought of where the banner of San Marco flies now.

Could history have turned out differently? It’s certainly possible. Had the Christian empire won the battle of Alexandria, the nascent republic of Italy may well have been destroyed; the dream of "The Most Serene Republic" would have been destroyed; the Spanish would probably have raped the Bride of the Sea, pillaging it before burning it. Or perhaps Pugachev had achieved his dream, or the Armenian technocrats built their world run by calculations. If you want to get into the realm of the absurd, perhaps the Muslims of Egypt and Syria would have become fanatical suicide warriors, similar to the Chinese in the early 20th century, as Spinella suggests.

Spinella’s suggestions on that matter are interesting, but ultimately irrelevant. Overall, however, his theories on the "Wealth of Cities and Peoples" was on the mark. The League will always triumph over the Empire, because the League, by its sheer chaos, encourages economic development. As a comparison to the history of Earth, for instance, look at the interstellar empire with its capital in Tau Ceti. Apparently they have been in an evolutionary stasis for millennia, with a religion centered around the worship of their empire. So far, the League has not yet decided whether or not to contact that, but if it does occur, it should ultimately be interesting. The decision must be made soon, because apparently oblivious to the interstellar communications we have developed, our probes have detected a massive armada being built around the inhabited planet. Perhaps they are planning on a visit?

Class dismissed, and please remember, there is an exam on Monday regarding the industrial revolution in Al-Andalus. "