What If Rome Industrialized? | Alternate History
We all know Rome is hailed as one of history’s most accomplished and advanced ancient civilizations: Be it for their sprawling infrastructure, elaborate architecture, or expansive empire, and it seems the more we uncover about this ancient power, the more impressive it manages to become, revealing to the modern world massive wooden ships whose only confirmed rivals came into existence during the 19th and 20th centuries, not to mention inventing a concrete which easily lasts over 200 times longer than modern contemporaries, only becoming stronger over time, and pioneering proto-industrial watermill factories capable of producing 4.5 tons of flour per day, a construct which quite possibly could have been the seed for complex developments in medieval France which later inspired the Industrial revolution.
In line with this proto-industrial tech also comes an early, and admittedly basic harnessing of steam power through a device known as the Aeolipile, an invention of either Hero of Alexandria, or another Greco-Egyptian before him, thus technically not a Roman invention in the purest sense, but rather Greek; the Greeks having developed or conceptualized their own impressive devices such as Archimedes Steam Cannon, and the Antikythera mechanism.
In common historical discussion, it becomes easy to stereotype the Greeks as a society of thinkers, scientists, and artists, while the Romans are relegated to merely being effective soldiers who acquired all they did only by stealing it from their more clever neighbors. Painting a picture of a culture that held little interest in experimentation and discovery, and stifled it’s own chances of revolutionary scientific achievements being made, that’s the assumption, of course, and there exists a partial truth within it, however, truly the Romans did demonstrate exceptional creative and scientific skill, especially in the engineering field, yet this still remains overshadowed by the reputation of Greeks, commonly hailed as the chief inventors and engineers of the ancient world, but while your average Greek genius invented useless steam toys that went nowhere, regular Romans were creating the building blocks of civilization. Concrete, Aqueducts, Systematic city planning, Sewers, paved roads, and for that matter, The Latin Alphabet, Roman Numerals, The Julian Calendar, all Roman inventions that built and sustained an empire for thousands of years, and that modern countries still copy to this very day.
The perfection of the Roman Mind is due to it’s pragmatism above all else, it’s inventions were useful and ever lasting, rather than briefly curious and forgotten. The Romans invented stadiums, newspapers, and lotteries to appease the masses, surgical tools to assist injured soldiers, and Bacon, ’cause its good. Everything had a purpose, and that’s not to mention the entire legal system the west and beyond is based on, and the Christian faith, which was, say, invented in the empire, if you will.
This brings us to the next factor of Slavery, automation was a subject of popular discussion among Rome’s engineers, to reduce the work load, and cut back on the demand for manpower through the use of machines which required a fraction of the work force, however, little would ever come of this. The argument tends to be that so long as Rome had a supply of free and plentiful laborers, there was no point in pursuing costly experiments which were generally expected to fail. While this is a fair point, it oversimplifies a complex issue with many caveats, perhaps foremost being that slavery wasn’t perfectly free, as costs remained for keeping slaves alive and healthy, later on slaves would be awarded many more protections under the government, and eventually, as Rome slowed it’s expansion, and ceased bringing in captured servants from other lands, whilst those present became increasingly capable of gaining freedom through one means or another, so did the slave population shrink dramatically, leaving Rome with a shortage. The jobs of high-skilled slaves like doctors and teachers were too complex to automate, and the jobs of low-skilled slaves working at farms, mills, and mines were too easy to replace, and while Rome gradually realized the weaknesses of the system, the issues were never so severe as to motivate extensive efforts at finding an alternative.
Finally in regard to the question of Rome possessing adequate resources and skills necessary for large-scale advancement to near industrial-levels, we find Rome was not lacking in great capacity. Food production and supply appears to have remained consistently stable for much of their history, extraction of metals from the earth was prosperous and efficient through use of early hydraulic mining methods, and smelting techniques were sophisticated enough to produce medium-grade hard steel, whilst harder metals remained available for purchase or trade from the near east.
In summary, while Rome may have possessed the right pieces to advance itself to a level of proto-industrialization, quite easily even, a pragmatic philosophy paired with factors which kept such revolutionary changes unnecessary, ultimately hindered any possibility of higher development…but what if that changed?
What if in an alternate timeline, Rome managed to not only achieve proto-industrialization, but in fact, fully industrialized? This is a debated subject, as there’s a wide scope of precisely where Rome stood developmentally, from a basic Agrarian economic society, under the claim the Empire’s main focus was to merely sustain it’s population, to even slightly beyond proto-industrialization based upon the discovery of early factory complexes, and clear evidence of mass-production, and standardization of pottery, building materials, and more. Rome did depend heavily upon agriculture, and did at times see crop production stagnate as a result of disincentivizing practices, but at the same time, the great wealth acquired by Rome in it’s conquests had allowed it to jump-start these ambitious projects, perhaps, ironically, creating a false perception in the eyes of Roman leadership as to the state of imperial sustainability, preventing these issues from being addressed early on.
If Rome were to reach beyond it’s then present level of development, it would need to either be faced with a clear production issue that demands reform of the economy to a system more favorable to entrepreneurship and experimentation, as well as succeed in encouraging such individuals to produce solutions to said issue, or utilize it’s war gains to directly subsidize a series of experimental projects which not only turn out successful, but also happen to be precisely the developments needed to snowball into an industrial revolution.
Either case is a bit far fetched, but the largest step to take seems to be pushing Rome to do something with these tools it already has. Perhaps during his efforts to reform not only Roman economic and judicial codes, but also Roman moral codes as well, Augustus, foreseeing a potential population drop, decline in slave labor, or economic uncertainty, attaches to his reforms and public improvements a series of financial incentives for farmers, engineers, and other craftsmen, offering generous rewards for any citizen who could develop a speedier means of transportation along the Empire’s newly constructed roads, who could develop a means to simplify necessary man-power on farms, discover a means of achieving higher heats for smelting, better methods or technologies for mining, textile production, and so on; building a culture of scientific experimentation for the benefit of Rome. For the sake of this scenario, it succeeds, and continues to succeed: Year by year the Emperor, sending out investigators to determine precisely where the Empire is lacking, puts out rewards for clever solutions to these shortcomings, and slowly but surely, new devices are brought before the emperor for exhibition, something which soon becomes an annual event as inventors from across the Empire begin to compete and showcase their devices and systems in something akin to an early World’s Fair, perhaps coinciding with the festival of the forge god, Vulcan, on the 23rd of August; inventors and the like possibly establishing a semi-prominent cult directly dedicated to Vulcan.
Initial inventions are small, and orient around technologies Rome may have already known about, but never put to practical use; creating hotter-burning forges, applying pressurized hydraulic systems to create more effective water-pumps, mechanical seeders or seed drills, as well as primitive threshers, all of which would contributing to a boost in food and water availability, production of higher quality steel at greater capacity, reduce agricultural time consumption by half, and boost total crop production by optimizing present farmland, and expanding agriculture to previously un-favored lands. This uptick in crop output would create greater demand for mill-complexes to process collected grain, and produce more bread, allowing the population to grow thanks to this resource surplus.
Citizens with more time freed up by these advancements, are able to pursue side-projects pertaining to the arts, science, or even a personal business venture of some kind, setting in motion a cycle of innovation producing more opportunity and time, opportunity and time which is then funneled into more innovation.
The military also benefits from these discoveries as weapons and armor became stronger, more reliable, and more commonplace, not merely being exclusive to the higher ranks. Rome would achieve a competitive edge in foreign trade, as it’s steel now rivaled the prized blades of India and the near east in sharpness, durability, and quality. Advancements made to seafaring capabilities later down the line, likely under emperor Caligula, would allow Rome to reach Eastern ports far more quickly, and with a greater stock of goods to trade, developing simple steam-ships through application of Greek technology to Roman rotor and paddle systems. Assuming such advancements are made during the reign of Augustus, it may delay the campaign into Germania, and leave it in the hands of his successor, or on the other hand, might provide for his soldiers a tide-turning advantage. Assuming the Teutoberg Forest ambush still occurs when it did in our world, it’s unlikely the slight advancement of somewhat harder armor and weaponry would really make a difference in the harsh, disorienting conditions of the swampy woodlands, thus, if the campaign was still carried out, it wouldn’t have seen far different results to our own world, and Germania would remain unconquered, at least for now.
Cities throughout the Roman Empire see the rise of larger factories to house glassware, pottery, and textile production, smelting plants and metal refineries arise with a familiar smoke-stack appearance, Roman laborers manipulating massive crucibles of molten metal, making use of steel-rope in grander construction projects, manufacturing goods on a mass-scale which meets beyond the Empire’s needs, and generates an abundant stream of revenue in trade.
Further developments of the steam engine see it’s application to carts in a simple experiment to test the effectiveness of such a system in propelling a stock of goods, a group of people, or even just a single courier along the Roman roads, as a speedy, energy saving alternative to walking, laying the groundwork for self-propelled vehicles, and greater inter-connectivity between the distant realms of the Empire.
By the 2nd Century AD, Roman technological developments would have likely come far enough to significantly turn the tides of otherwise close conflicts in their favor, this means Trajan’s war against Parthia in 113 AD may draw a more conclusive and lasting victory for the Roman Empire, granting it direct access to the Persia Gulf, and Caspian Sea, as well as dominance over the Black Sea. This is, of course, assuming Trajan still comes to power, which is difficult to say given that the societal changes brought about by industrialization could have shortened, extended or outright changed the reign of several emperors between him and Augustus; but for the sake of simplicity, and as Rome had a long history of warring with the Parthians, we’ll just assume Trajan is still in charge around this time, and is still succeeded by Hadrian, who, in our world, surrendered Trajan’s conquests to instead consolidate Rome’s borders for the sake of reinforcing imperial security, however, given the greater levels of communication within the empire, not to mention public satisfaction with the relative prosperity being experienced, and the speed with which Rome’s armies could move from one land to another, such defensiveness might not be necessary, and instead see focus diverted to either Germania or Britannia, either way, both domains would eventually come under total Roman control, the Romans still eyeing the Elbe river as an ideal border between itself and the uncivilized lands, now feeling more confident in their ability to take on the Germans, and tame the wild terrain of their land.
Suffice to say, if the Romans managed to industrialized, they’d eventually become an unmatchable power, perhaps even against the combined might of the Great Eastern Empires; that being said, Rome’s greatest threats from that point on would come from within, as well as from diseases picked up through greater contact with the east.
As we’ve said before, it’s difficult to pinpoint precisely which emperors would come to power in this alternate world, and how long they would reign, for that matter, so while poor leadership could become a factor in the collapse of an Industrial Rome, it’s not one we can rightly count on. The citizenry, on the other hand, is likely to have all manner of reactions to industrialization which could serve to Rome’s own decline, such as Luddite movements opposing increased reliance on industry, a decline of traditional values, and the increasing prominence of the Vulcan cult.
Perhaps labors become increasingly resentful of poor labor conditions and raise something akin to a proto-unionist or proto-socialist movement.
The rise of more meritocratic practices as a result of the Roman government rewarding inventors and entrepreneurs could drive Rome away from the traditional Imperial model, and perhaps closer to a purely Aristocratic or Republican system, especially should an Emperor be deposed or assassinated as it wouldn’t have been uncommon for the period, at least in our timeline.
Chances are that the empire would initially remain, for the most part, intact, potentially longer than in our own world, but slowly devolve into a series of rival states, resulting from the increasingly competitive culture, increased levels of self-sufficiency for various individual provinces, growing cultural divides, and with that previous point, a diminishing ability for the central government to properly meet the needs of every province.
Few major threats would exist locally to keep the rival Roman states together, but possible incursions from the East, be it by the Persians, Turks, Mongols, or Slavs, could rekindle an old brotherhood between them, and if not, well, perhaps the fall of one or two will encourage the others to take a risk, and again experiment with cooperation.
