I’m talking creative achievement, not political and military achievement, which are generally destructive and add nothing to humanity.
I think Italy blows every other nation out of the water. England is not even in the same universe as Italy. Many people would answer England for this question, but that shouldn’t be the case. Unfortunately India and China don’t have as many achievements as Europe and Middle East. My personal rankings for all-time contributions to humanity: 1) Italy, 2) Arab world (mainly Iraq and Iran, also Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, etc), 3) Greece (few additions but of huge importance), 4) USA, 5) Germany, 6) France, 7) England, 
China, 9) India, 10) Japan [11) Portugal].
Best set of inventors by far: The following inventions among many others can be credited to Italians: construction: paved roads, arched bridges, aqueducts; art and music: piano, harpsichord, violin, viola, cello, bass, opera; science and technology: electric battery (Volta), telephone (Meucci), radio (Marconi), microprocessor (Faggin), MPEG format (Chiariglione), moveable type (Castaldi), loudspeaker (Marzi), sound on film (Rappazzo), thermometer (Santorio), barometer (Torricelli), speedometer (Capra), compass (Gioja), seismograph (Cecchi), telescope (Galileo), nuclear reactor (Fermi), internal combustion engine (Matteucci, Barsanti), first petrol engine (Bernardi), steam turbine (Branca), jet engine (Campini), carburetor (DeCristoforis), molecular motor (Montemagno), hydraulic motor (Ramelli), helicopter (Forlanini), hydrofoil (Forlanini), seaplane (Calderara), motor scooter (D’Ascanio), eyeglasses (Spina, D’Armate), torpedo (Luppis), revolver (Broccu); food: espresso, capucinno, pasta (not invented in China), pizza.
They had the best set of explorers (except possibly Portugal): Marco Polo, Cristoforo Colombo (Christopher Columbus), Amerigo Vespucci (America), Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), Verrazzano
Best artists and sculptors: Leonardo DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Botticelli, Ghiberti, Bartolini, Donatello, Rafael, many others
Composers: Monteverdi, Cavalli, Vivaldi, Verdi, many others
Writers, historians, and philosophers: Ovid, Livy, Lucretius, Pliny, Plutarch, Seneca, Virgil, Cicero, Boccaccio, Petrarch, Machiavelli, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Dante, Thomas Aquinas, Anselm, many others
Pretty much all of the so-called ‘finest’ physical things in life are made by Italians: the finest paintings, finest sculpture, finest foods (maybe competing with French food), finest clothes, finest cars (Bugatti #1 automaker, Lamborghini, Ferrari), finest construction and building materials. No other nation comes close to matching Italians for craftsmanship.
Anyone have any serious challengers?
**** RE: Bolivar on China; Not sure if you’re Chinese, but I think your answer is one of the reason China has so many people and pound-for-pound some of the lowest creative output. I’m not talking about worshiping accomplishments of the state, and about anthems, wars, military prowess, and flags, I’m talking about CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS. That’s what humanity is about. Italy is Italy. I’m talking about people who were born within the current borders, not the political system. China has many accomplishments, but first of all they’ve had few significant ones in at least 500 years, and most of their significant contributions were over 1000 years ago. Maybe their renaissance is coming now. I’m not saying they haven’t had many contributions, I just don’t consider gunpowder, paper and the compass to stack up against Italians’ inventions. Obviously other countries are better at specific things. I’m not saying Italians are the best at everything, just have been the best overall. Germans may have
**** RE: Bolivar on China; Not sure if you’re Chinese, but I think your answer is one of the reason China has so many people and pound-for-pound lower creative output than other countries who value the individual more. I’m not talking about worshiping accomplishments of the state, and about anthems, wars, military prowess, and flags, I’m talking about CREATIVE INDIVIDUALS. That’s what humanity is about. Italy is Italy. I’m talking about people who were born within the current borders, not the political system. China has many accomplishments, but first of all they’ve had few significant ones in at least 500 years, and most of their significant contributions were over 1000 years ago. Maybe their renaissance is coming now. I’m not saying they haven’t had many contributions, I just don’t consider gunpowder, paper and the compass to stack up against Italians’ inventions. Obviously other countries are better at specific things. I’m not saying Italians are the best at everything, just have be
For some reason posts are getting cut off. German composers are greater overall, but Italian ones were considered great too. Few nations stack up with Italian composers. Italians have been the best overall. Obviously they can’t be best at everything, but no single country has a more impressive creative output OVERALL. Germans make good middle-class cars, but an Italian invented the engine and a Frenchman the transmission. Italian cars are considered the best in an absolute sense. I seriously, seriously question Egyptian art being considered superior to Italian renaissance art.
If you say China has better inventions, then please do a side-by-side comparison with listed Italian contributions, and include name of the Chinese inventor, and let people decide for themselves which is more impressive. You can’t just say ‘China’ and provide no argument.
For the record I think nationalism is stupid, nations are artificial constructs, and individuals from all geographic regions have great achievements. I’m mainly posting this to see what people think but also to dispel notions that we owe so much to England, when really they’ve brought far less positive influence than many other countries. And to show that a country’s economy and military might is not indicative of the creative power of the individuals in its borders.
Patrick, you make a pretty good argument for Italy. But I think you’re looking narrowly at the Renaissance and modern luxury items, when there’s a whole lot more than that in history.
Don’t count out China. This is a country that has been around for nearly two centuries, for starters. In our lifetime they’ve had communism and cheap labor, but this is just a small fraction of their history.
"China don’t have as many achievements as Europe"? You are so wrong.
In many important respects the Chinese made scientific and technological inventions ahead of the legendary figures around the rest of the world. The Chinese were abreast with the Arabs when Arabs possessed all the cultural wealth of the Western world. Between the 3rd-13th century, the Chinese kept scientific knowledge at a level far above that of the western world. (Western world was ahead of them only in the renaissance, which is why it’s called "the renaissance" in western history books.)
China is responsible for early advances in sailing, early aviation, harnessing the power of the sun, invented paper, print making, the compass, animal harnessing, pottery wheel, decimal system. The list goes on and on. There is no one country anywhere else in the world that can claim so many inventions and advancements – "creative achievements" as you say – things which have had unmeasurable positive influence throughout all of humanity.
Go Ped enables riders to enjoy riding on streets or on the rough nature of country roads.
Today I will be unboxing my Inward Scooters package which has a bunch of stuff in it like Tilt Park Pegs (Blue), ODI Longnecks (Blue), and a Blunt Quad Clamp (Blue). Hope you like the video and thanks for watching!
ME PAInTING THE FARME S&S CUSTOMS
Rampworx was once again host to a scooter only session and with over 400 scooter riders attending it was an amazing day.