Re:What if we called it the Flax Age instead of the Iron Age?
by CydeWeys on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @06:54PM
(#21589956)
If Gutenberg didn't invent the press, someone else would have soon after, and history would have played out essentially the same.
We ascribe too much meaning to exactly which person invented something first, as if it never would have happened absent that one person.
The most important forces in history are geography, demographics, and information flow, probably in that order.
I would propose that the history of the west largely hinges on the printing press. Gutenberg doesn't invent the press, Luther never gets the word out about Reformation, Enlightenment never occurs, John Smith never writes Wealth of Nations, America never splits from Britain, etc.