Outside Influences

After playing the game Civilization IV for the vast majority of the semester I have realized the success of a society is based off a great deal of factors some being luck others self-determined. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond discusses many of the factors that explain why some civilizations succeed while others fail. Some of the factors that a society controls would be military strategy, budgeting of nation’s resources, and allocation of laborers. However the factors that a civilization has no control over are far more interesting to me. For example Diamond points out: east-west axis, wild species, arable land and water, as well as ability to expand as all key factors that contribute to the success of a civilization. But these seemingly obvious factors based off luck are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues that shape and determine whether a society will prosper or collapse.
The history of Civilizations has played a role in being a gatekeeper of societies helping to determine which ones are allowed to go through and prosper and which ones have to collapse. This can be explained by if there is an opening for a Civilization to break through and become the super power of the world. For example during the high point of the Roman Empire there was no way any society could overtake them and there was little room for civilizations to become great before Rome set their eyes on it and took it over. Any dominate power would never let a civilization grow to a considerable size because then it could pose a threat and challenge their power. So it does matter the timing of a society to succeed and become dominate because if a world super power is reigning their supremacy over all lands it would be extremely difficult for a society to grow and become a player as a world power. And then to show the alternative, currently no single civilization is dominating the world. The United States, UK, and various western European nations have been the super powers. But recently no single society has shown a dominate force and decided to expand and suppress the will of other nations. So China has grown drastically in the past decade largely due to globalization of production and markets. And the timing has been right no power shot them down or made an active attempt to prevent them from growing, and this has allowed China to gain vast power and use their population and growing economy to exert themselves over the world.
The game however does not account for this. Sure civilizations around you can wage war and lead to your collapse. But there is no fundamental rule or principle in this game that helps to determine or control what civilizations have the power to bring you down. When I created successful civilization that exerted their power I simply had a strong build up of resources then used I my surplus of food and soldiers as well as other resources to dominate in battle and conquer new lands. So my point is that even though the game recognizes the influence of outside threats and forces. It fails to properly address the role of time in the rise of a society and how other cultures and neighboring civilizations play a role in effecting a building civilization.