Most Important and Influential River in Human History?

[Alleniana]

Yes, it's a bit random, but it's NSG. So, what was it? The most important and influential river to homo sapiens' history, development and everything about them. Consider all factors; environmental, scientific, war, etc. However, only consider fairly direct effects; no pulling some prehistoric river out of your ass saying without it reptiles and therefore humans would never have been, or something like that.

Here's a list of rivers which I'm fairly sure will make it to the top:

Tigris
Euphrates
Rhine
Danube
Nile
Yangtze
Yellow
Ganges
Indus

I won't be choosing one, merely discussing, by the way. Poll will be up after there's an idea of the main candidates, which I am guessing will be those 9, plus an "Other" option, because the Po or the Rhone or the Mississippi and the Amazon probably aren't quite as important.

[Forster Keys]

I'm saying Euphrates.

[L Ron Cupboard]

The Dniester, but that might just be because of the archaeology book I am reading at the moment.

[Bezombia]

Toms, clearly.

[Forster Keys]

The Dniester, but that might just be because of the archaeology book I am reading at the moment.

Indo-Europeans?

[L Ron Cupboard]

The Dniester, but that might just be because of the archaeology book I am reading at the moment.

Indo-Europeans?

Yes, The Horse, The Wheel, and Language.

[Zapato]

De Nile.

*Rimshot*

*Gunshot*
That's what punners get!

[Alleniana]

Toms, clearly.

dafuq

[San]

Cuomo. Plural, of course.

[The Serbian Empire]

I will come out of left field with the St. Lawrence River for the many locks that lift vessels up and down from the ocean to the Great Lakes. It's more of an environmental impact as the ecology of the Great Lakes has been altered greatly by shipping activity on the St. Lawrence Seaway with the likes of sea lampreys, zebra mussels, Russian perch, and Eurasian ruffe having invaded the lakes while bluegill and pumpkinseed fish from the Great Lakes have crept into freshwater river ports through the world also becoming invasive through much of Europe, South America, and Asia. For a river with such a short history of only about 400 years, the St. Lawrence has done quite a bit in changing the ecology of the world with fish species once contained only to Europe and the Great Lakes now being spread on a global scale. Not to mention the engineering works of the locks or the walls of the city of Montreal that sit on the banks of the St. Lawrence from the colonial days of New France. Cities up above the river source of Lake Ontario have grown large and significant with Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, Buffalo, and Cleveland having massive economic stakes in the works of the Welland Canal and St. Lawrence Seaway.

[Neo Prutenia]

The Rhine; meeting point of two vastly different civilisation and culture types of the same large oikumene (Catholic/Protestant ; Germanic/Romance), place of origin of any modern notions of capitalism, finances, and banking (The Netherlands happen to be located here), a major artery of communication, transportation, and exchange smack in the middle of Europe, connecting the world's largest harbour with the interior of the largest common market in the world, the highest population density in Europe, the major concentration of industry on this planet, a connector for the major cities and institutions of the EU, with sassy Straßburg sitting right there in the middle, and the wine is really good, regardless on which side of the river you happen to be.

As far as I know, wine and currency is what human history has always been about, so...

Danube would be a close second, but nowadays we have the Rhine-Main-Danube canal connecting the extreme west with the extreme east of the continent, with the Rhine being the more dominant part of this waterway.

Why not the other ones? Well, because all the other rivers are part of larger monocultures - Tigris and Euphrates (Mesopotamia, i.e. all the historic versions of what is now Iraq, inc.), Nile (Egypt only), Yangtze/Yellow (China only), Indus/Ganges (India only). Not wanting to diminish their improtance on their part of history, but they are specific to one culture and mostly one ethnolinguistic group, none of which managed to "export" their values beyond their immediate area, unlike the Rhine (and connected rivers) which bring many different values and ideas together to form a greater whole, while exporting many of the values which did originate in that area. Capitalism and those lovely World Wars proved to be quite the global fad, didn't they?

[Forster Keys]

Indo-Europeans?

Yes, The Horse, The Wheel, and Language.

Heard of that one. Must read.

[Napkiraly]

Indo-Europeans?

Yes, The Horse, The Wheel, and Language.

The Wheel was invented in a variety of different regions within a short time frame, that the debate on which civilization created it first continues. For language, the first written language we know of is cuneiform from Mesopotamia (spoken language is impossible to tell, because well, you know). If you're referring to the domestication of the horse, the oldest piece of evidence actually comes from Kazakhstan iirc.

[The Serbian Empire]

Yes, The Horse, The Wheel, and Language.

The Wheel was invented in a variety of different regions within a short time frame, that the debate on which civilization created it first continues. For language, the first written language we know of is cuneiform from Mesopotamia (spoken language is impossible to tell, because well, you know). If you're referring to the domestication of the horse, the oldest piece of evidence actually comes from Kazakhstan iirc.

Now I see ancient Borat domesticating horses.

[Forster Keys]

The Wheel was invented in a variety of different regions within a short time frame, that the debate on which civilization created it first continues. For language, the first written language we know of is cuneiform from Mesopotamia (spoken language is impossible to tell, because well, you know). If you're referring to the domestication of the horse, the oldest piece of evidence actually comes from Kazakhstan iirc.

Now I see ancient Borat domesticating horses.

Now that's an interesting mental image.

[L Ron Cupboard]

Yes, The Horse, The Wheel, and Language.

The Wheel was invented in a variety of different regions within a short time frame, that the debate on which civilization created it first continues. For language, the first written language we know of is cuneiform from Mesopotamia (spoken language is impossible to tell, because well, you know). If you're referring to the domestication of the horse, the oldest piece of evidence actually comes from Kazakhstan iirc.

I am referring to the title of the book.

[Quintium]

For Europe, it's the Rhine. For Africa, it's the Nile. For the Middle East, it's both the Tigris and the Euphrates.

[West Florida]

Jai Ganga Devi

[The Serbian Empire]

Now I see ancient Borat domesticating horses.

Now that's an interesting mental image.

Throw the foal down the well so my country can be free!

[Napkiraly]

The Wheel was invented in a variety of different regions within a short time frame, that the debate on which civilization created it first continues. For language, the first written language we know of is cuneiform from Mesopotamia (spoken language is impossible to tell, because well, you know). If you're referring to the domestication of the horse, the oldest piece of evidence actually comes from Kazakhstan iirc.

I am referring to the title of the book.

Oh, my bad. *smacks self*

[Napkiraly]

The Wheel was invented in a variety of different regions within a short time frame, that the debate on which civilization created it first continues. For language, the first written language we know of is cuneiform from Mesopotamia (spoken language is impossible to tell, because well, you know). If you're referring to the domestication of the horse, the oldest piece of evidence actually comes from Kazakhstan iirc.

Now I see ancient Borat domesticating horses.

Oh god...

[Napkiraly]

Ignore double post.

[Old Tyrannia]

The Nile. Ancient Egypt, one of the most significant civilizations in world history, existed purely becsuse of it.

[The Serbian Empire]

Now I see ancient Borat domesticating horses.

Oh god...

In my country there is problem. And that problem is a bucking horse.

[Napkiraly]

The Nile. Ancient Egypt, one of the most significant civilizations in world history, existed purely becsuse of it.

You can say the same thing about the Tigris-Euphrates river system and Mesopotamia.