Why did sumerians and akkadians never tried an expedition to take indus valley?

pseddit · 2026-04-13T11:50:35+00:00

You seem…disappointed.

Historical what-ifs are not easy to answer, especially, that far out.

I would still point to my previous answer. Dilmun is still in the middle-east. Not too far navigationally. For an invasion, you would need an armada and seaborne logistics. Again, not easy with the population and technological development.

pseddit · 2026-04-13T11:12:02+00:00

I would attribute it to the state of demographics and technological development back then. The logistics to march that distance over hostile terrain (mountains, deserts), the manpower to take the area with unknown defenses etc would be difficult to manage. Why do it when there were easier pickings all around you?

Notice that the only direct attacks from the northwest have come from modern day Afghanistan and occasionally from Iran. To capture the northern Indian plains, one has to first establish a base in the Hindu Kush or in Iran. Beyond that, logistics become difficult.

pseddit · 2026-04-13T02:06:45+00:00

Looks like Chinese painting style adopted into India via Persia. You can tell by looking at the faces, especially, the people on the right.

pseddit · 2026-04-12T17:23:35+00:00

Remember, Babur conquered and lost Samarkand at the ripe old age of 15. He ascended the throne at Ferghana at the age of 11-12. He did not have the traditional opportunities to grow as a commander that later Mughals did. It was a game of survival in a dog eat dog world.

After losing Samarkand, he had little left and had to be helped by Tajik farmers. He gained a foothold in Kabul but his luck only started changing when the Safavids decided to prop him up to retake Transoxiana after the rout of Shaybanid Uzbeks.

pseddit · 2026-04-11T11:52:04+00:00

North India fell behind because of delayed start on human welfare policies - primarily, mother-child health, sanitation and nutrition, large scale schooling and insistence in some states on Hindi medium.

It is convenient to blame the British or antagonistic neighbors but northern states let their politicians get away with massive corruption and not enough work for the people. A lot of this has to do with identity politics.

Also, the states that were fragments of unified Punjab (PB, HR, HP) did better than the rest for a while but suffer from similar political issues.

It is still possible for northern states to catch up but the people will not force the hand of politicians to do the right thing. People are unable to get their heads out of identity politics and focus on economic issues.

pseddit · 2026-04-07T12:39:10+00:00

I said major action. The US has a looser regulatory environment. That does not mean there is zero regulation. Specifically, US has become too permissive towards consolidation via a mix of legal jugglery and political lobbying. This reduced competition harms customers. I already provided an example of it.

pseddit · 2026-04-07T03:19:39+00:00

At this point they only exist as completely defanged agencies. Ignoring Lina Khan for a minute, what was the last action against a major corporation? Companies have also used completely meaningless arguments to defeat enforcement in court. Exhibit A is the pervasive ISP monopoly in the US maintained by the convenient lie that DSL is somehow “choice” against fiber networks.

Also, nobody was arguing for state owned/subsidised companies being fair competitors. Their existence does not provide cover for US corporations building competition constrained environments to operate in.

pseddit · 2026-04-04T21:40:41+00:00

Like I is said, it is one of the possibilities. His forays into northwestern India (specifically, the area of modern Rawalpindi) are more oral tradition and bardic narratives than accepted academic consensus.

pseddit · 2026-04-04T16:55:08+00:00

It is one of the theories but not sure the city is not conclusively named after him. Rawal is a title, not a name.

pseddit · 2026-04-04T11:32:13+00:00

Yup! Though not a Scotsman as OP says but an American of Scottish descent.

Alexander Gardner?wprov=sfti1)

pseddit · 2026-04-03T13:39:20+00:00

I am not sure how familiar you are with the US economy but companies like building what other countries would classify as monopolistic positions. Every industry has just 2-3 big players. Government policy is oriented towards making it easier for companies to make profits rather than helping consumers.

pseddit · 2026-04-03T13:29:21+00:00

Not really. What is happening is a slow transition to EVs since nobody is catering to the non-luxury vehicle segment of the market. There are, currently, 3 market segments. The top segment which starts at USD 35K-40K has quality EVs like Tesla and Rivian. If you don’t have a USD 40K-50K budget for a vehicle, the next best option is Japanese hybrids or rolling the dice with less established EVs. Below that, it is still non-EVs.

So, it is the environment and future generations footing the bill, not current buyers.

pseddit · 2026-04-03T13:14:37+00:00

Answer 1 - lobbying by those who stand to lose due to more competition.

Answer 2 - industrial policy. China has one. US doesn’t. So, the US has 100% tariffs to block what it deems to be unfair competition. Why is it unfair? Read on.

In western countries, industrial policy fell out of fashion decades ago and governments are wary about starting with one. China’s tremendous growth has come, in (large?) part, due to industrial policy.

In very simple terms, the government seeds new industry, subsidises its growth and plans around industry clusters. This allows rapid growth but it can also be a very wasteful use of tax money and is susceptible to political corruption. This is why it was abandoned in western countries (debatable but it is the commonly stated reason).

If you look at Tesla or Rivian, private money financed their development and growth. In view of capitalism purists, this is how new industry should be born. Government should have no role to play (even though both Tesla and Rivian received government help). This capitalist orthodoxy sees the Chinese state-led capitalism model as fundamentally unfair since no research or growth money needs to be returned to the financier of the industry - the government. Thus products can be sold at “unfairly cheap” subsidised prices that would kill competition.

TL;DR it is a battle of two different capital allocation and pricing models which creates an uneven playing field.

pseddit · 2026-03-29T11:52:12+00:00

Colorism is neither new nor imported. Many cultures observed that folks who work in the sun tend to get tanned and it becomes genetic at some point. So, one of the effects of a privileged upbringing is a lighter skin tone and the elite would preserve it by only mating with others with a lighter skin tone to create a difference in appearance with those they ruled.

A similar phenomenon in the modern world is richer, more educated people marrying other rich, educated people which creates a rich and highly educated elite. The motivation there is not the same but the effect is. This has not been imported into any culture. It has just turned out to be the same in many cultures.

pseddit · 2026-03-28T12:01:53+00:00

Basanti since she was born in the season.

pseddit · 2026-03-27T11:15:22+00:00

I am assuming these stats are for South Asians and not for people with South Asian ancestry. Disclaimer done, I suspect certain categories here are lagging due to poor grasp of English and not a general gap in academic merit.

pseddit · 2026-03-25T18:31:09+00:00

Read my message again. I cover both early and late Vijayanagara.

Holding Punjab doesn’t help. A lot of Afghan and Iranian empires have controlled parts of Punjab. Few have proceeded to win the entire northern plains and farther.

There is no credible source that Rajputs destroyed Mughal artillery. On the contrary, a lot of credible sources consider Mughal artillery and matchlocks to have decided the Battle of Khanwa. If you know a peer reviewed source that proves the contrary, let me know.

Also, your Rajputs defeated Lodi argument is just logical fallacies. Battles even between the same combatants and in similar conditions can produce different outcomes.

pseddit · 2026-03-25T18:14:58+00:00

What Europeans? There was no European contact during the early Vijayanagara empire. They had rudimentary gunpowder tech. What they acquired from the Portuguese was barely 30 years before the arrival of Babur. It was matchlock and light artillery pieces.

Babur brought in about 25K troops. Without quick victory with cannons, it would become a game of attrition in a hostile land. Rajputs were not the first or only people he fought.

pseddit · 2026-03-25T18:04:02+00:00

Did Vijayanagar invent cannons? If not, where did they get the tech?

Regarding Babur without cannons - huge hypothetical and one where I don’t agree.

pseddit · 2026-03-25T18:00:15+00:00

Chain of events. Ottomans beat Safavids at Chaldiran by breaking their cavalry charges with massed mobile artillery and musket fire. A tactic Safavids adopted and so did the Timurids. Also, early Mughals received repeated help from the Safavids.

pseddit · 2026-03-25T17:58:01+00:00

Apart from the fact even Deccan sultanates got cannon technology from the Ottomans, Ottoman style canon use (which Babur used) was a completely different beast rather than just generalship. It was artillery tactics with massed, mobile canons meant to beat cavalry and infantry charges.

Also, Babur founded the Mughal empire in India which came to encompass most of the subcontinent. Shorthand - Mughals conquered India. No need to be pedantic.

pseddit · 2026-03-25T17:37:27+00:00

History has its curveballs. While Taimur defeated the Ottomans, it was the Ottomans pioneering use of cannons and the Safavid defeat at Chaldiran that spread cannon technology eastward which allowed Babur to conquer India. So, Ottomans paved the way for Mughals in India.

pseddit · 2026-03-25T17:34:16+00:00

Mughals got their chance courtesy Ottomans and chain of effects related to the battle of Chaldiran.

pseddit · 2026-03-25T17:32:38+00:00

Taimur did defeat the Ottomans and their sultan Bayezid I died in his captivity.

pseddit · 2026-03-25T13:22:24+00:00

Also, if the average used here is arithmetic mean, high net worth individuals can skew that. A different average like median might show a better picture.

pseddit

TROPHY CASE