I have a treat for you, please try out Carroll Quigley's works regarding civilization (and if you want major political insight, try his other works too, many of my conspiratorial leaning rants on hn come from his very academic and dry but largely unknown analysis of the world power structure).

Luckily, some have been made readily available on the internet. Here is The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis by him, which I think would be one of the best starting points for your type of historical curiosity.

http://www.carrollquigley.net/pdf/Carroll-Quigley-TheEvoluti...