The 'kings

A thousand years ago, the galactic betting pool on which civilization would dominate the Earth would have been heavily in favor of the Chinese Empire, or possibly another Asian power. Certainly, Scandinavia would not have been in the running. Short growing season, small population, high superstition and low literacy rate ranked the vikings somewhere near the bottom. They had no concept of public health through cleanliness, but practiced Spartan-style eugenics. Although lacking in scientific knowledge, they somehow figured out how to build durable ships and navigate by the stars. It seems a nearly endless supply of cod did the rest. The vikings fished cod all the way from Russia to Newfoundland. They lived on fish in the summer and dried fish in the winter, conquering coasts as they went until their ancestors controlled Western Europe.

The British, French, and Dutch continued and improved ship building, farming (based on new-world crops), fishing, and coastal attacks using high-tech weapons. They let the warm continental states of Europe find and explore the new world, then, after the risk was lowered, they moved in and took control of North America. From that base, their decedents won two world wars and got control of almost the whole world. Meanwhile the Chinese, who had burned their massive fleet to ashes and given up on exploration (they didn't have cod), faded into a technological backwater. Wow. Who could have predicted it? The vikings' original lack of academic prowess and personal hygiene didn't seem to be an impediment to their progress.

The vikings who stayed in Scandinavia may not have conquered new lands, but have built tightly-knit modern civilizations that are the envy of the world. From Finland to the ends of the British empire, the Vikings triumphed. Did they deserve to rule the world? Hmmm. Maybe not, but someone was bound to do it sooner or later, and for some reason, the Chinese took themselves out of the running.

Today, it looks like the Chinese, backed by Asia's little dragons will move into first place among world powers within at most 60 years. Oh well. At least we vikings had our age of glory, but in the end, the Mandarins will triumph as they should have originally.