Most Influential List

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_Most_Influential_Books_Ever_Written_(book)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100

Chanakya -- The Indian Machiavelli

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanakya

Chānakya (Sanskrit: चाणक्य Cāṇakya Tamil: சாணக்கியன் Cāṇakiyan ) (c. 350–283 BCE) was an adviser to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupt (c. 340–293 BCE), and was the chief architect of his rise to power.

Chanakya has been considered as the pioneer of the field of economics and political science.^[2][3][4][5] In the Western world, he has been referred to as The Indian Machiavelli, although Chanakya's works predate Machiavelli's by about 1,800 years.

His works were lost near the end of the Gupta dynasty and not rediscovered until 1915.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthashastra

The Arthashastra (IAST: Arthaśāstra) is an ancient Indian treatise on statecraft, economic policy and military strategywhich identifies its author by the names Kautilya^[1] and Viṣhṇugupta,^[2] who are traditionally identified with Chāṇakya

Does history repeat itself?

All have the same question =)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_recurrence

+ Mark Twain
- "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."

+ Zosimus, 5th century,
- "empires fell through internal disunity"
- Greece and Macedonia. In the case of each empire, growth had resulted from consolidation against an external enemy
- Rome herself, in response to Hannibal's threat posed at Cannae, had risen to great-power status within a mere five decades. With Rome's world dominion, however, aristocracy had been supplanted by a monarchy, which in turn had tended to decay into tyranny; after Augustus Caesar, good laws had alternated with tyrannical ones. Subsequently the Roman Empire, in its western and eastern sectors, had become a contending ground between contestants for power, while outside powers acquired an advantage.

+ Niccolò Machiavelli
- "when states have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline. In the same manner, having been reduced by disorder and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend, and thus from good they gradually decline to evil and from evil mount up to good."
- The circle: virtù (valor and political effectiveness) => peace => idleness (ozio), idleness disorder, and disorder rovina (ruin) => order => glory and good fortune
- human nature as remarkably stable—steady enough for the formulation of rules of political behavior

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Potential books

- The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought, G.W. Trompf

- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000, Paul Kennedy

The tidy African national boundaries

I was wondering why African nations have such tidy boundaries.. where is the trace of nature?

(See the boundaries between

Italy & France, Switzerland, Austria

China & Pakistan, India, Nepal)

Then I found this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Africa#Borders

In the Scramble for Africa, national boundaries in sub-Saharan Africa were established by Europeans using latitude and longitude rather than natural borders. This separated population centres from their supplies of food and natural resources. The artificial borders of modern African states cut across cultural, tribal, linguistic and religious boundaries, creating ethnic and religious cleavages which impede national unity and induce internal violence.

Is this still sort of natural? since the tidy borders are mostly within Sahara.. -__-