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  • 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,930 This is an image of the Roman Empire

  • at the height of her power in the year 117 AD.

  • History was cruel to the Empire, however, and over the centuries

  • she gradually lost power and eventually disappeared

  • altogether.

  • But what would a country with the same borders

  • as the old Empire look like today in the 21st century?

  • What if all of the territory of the Roman Empire

  • suddenly united tomorrow and recreated

  • the country in a modern form?

  • Let me start by saying that this is outrageously impossible.

  • There is no way that you could possibly

  • convince Spain, England, Turkey, and Syria

  • into the same country.

  • Crimea would get a little more awkward than it already is,

  • too.

  • But let us suspend our disbelief for a moment

  • and just imagine what it would actually look like

  • and what living in it would be like.

  • So first off, this is a modern map

  • and these are what the borders of the Roman Empire

  • would look like were it to come back into existence.

  • In total, 53 different countries would

  • lose all or some of their territory

  • to the Empire, which would span over

  • six million square kilometers in size.

  • This sounds very impressive, but the Empire would actually only

  • be the seventh largest country in the world by size.

  • It would be just bigger than India,

  • but it would be smaller than Australia and Brazil.

  • And Russia, meanwhile, would be nearly three times the size

  • of the Empire.

  • But size isn't necessarily everything.

  • If we examine the population of this hypothetical empire,

  • it would be roughly 711 million people, or about 10700:01:22,700 --> 00:01:24,850 of the total global population.

  • The original Roman Empire in antiquity

  • had 10 times fewer citizens at about 70 million people.

  • But back then, that was 21% of the entire global population.

  • The modern Empire's population would

  • be enough to place it in third place in terms of population

  • size, but both India and China would

  • retain higher populations.

  • The Empire would, however, have more than double the population

  • of the United States and would boast

  • some very impressive cities.

  • If we were to speculate on a hypothetical capital

  • for this Empire, we would probably

  • come across Istanbul, which was a historic capital

  • of the Empire back when it was known as Constantinople.

  • Today, the population of Istanbul

  • is sitting around 14.6 million people,

  • making it by far the largest city in this Empire.

  • At the height of the city during the actual empire in 580,

  • the population was 450,000.

  • But even earlier in 180 AD, however, the city of Rome

  • was the very first city in the world

  • to reach a population of one million people.

  • Even though today Rome has a population of well over two

  • million, there would still be much bigger

  • cities within the borders of the Empire today,

  • like Cairo, London, Baghdad, and Alexandria.

  • At first thought, it might seem like such a huge country would

  • be an economic powerhouse.

  • And while that would be true, it wouldn't

  • be exactly what you think.

  • All of this territory combined would give the modern Roman

  • Empire a GDP of $15.99 trillion US, which

  • would mean that the empire would only be the world's

  • second largest economy.

  • Despite having a population that would be less than half

  • of the modern Empire's, the United States

  • would actually still have a larger GDP,

  • at around $18 trillion.

  • The differences in per capita income,

  • however, would be even more shocking.

  • The modern Roman Empire would have

  • territory in wealthier areas, like England, France,

  • and Germany, but also in more impoverished areas

  • like Iraq, Armenia, and Libya.

  • For this reason, the average income

  • of citizens within the empire would be at around $24,623.

  • And this is a pretty low value.

  • The Empire would be placed 52nd in the world in terms

  • of how much money the average citizen was earning, just

  • ahead of Kazakhstan but behind Latvia.

  • With a large GDP and population, however, the Empire

  • would have a very large standing army.

  • Averaging all of the active military personnel

  • in the territories within the empire, that

  • would mean the Empire's standing military

  • would be at around 2,771,000, which

  • would make the Roman military the largest standing

  • force in the world currently.

  • The final two big questions we have

  • left to examine with this country

  • are, one, what would be the dominant languages and, two,

  • what would be the dominant religions.

  • To begin, the most widely spoken language within the country

  • would certainly be Arabic, which 32% of the population

  • would be speaking.

  • French would be the second most spoken language, with about 14400:04:07,040 --> 00:04:08,640 of the population understanding it,

  • while Turkish would be third at about 9.5%,

  • followed by Italian and English to collectively form

  • the top five most spoken languages

  • within the modern Empire.

  • And finally, we need to explore what

  • the religious make-up of such a vast country would look like.

  • Basically, Muslims would be the largest religious group

  • inside the modern Empire, making up 44.6300:04:28,270 --> 00:04:29,650 of the total population.

  • 42.2% of that value would be Sunni Muslims, while just 2.4500:04:34,290 --> 00:04:35,571 would be Shia Muslims.

  • Interestingly, this would make the modern Roman Empire

  • the largest Muslim country in the world.

  • Christians would be the second largest group collectively,

  • forming 39.3% of the population.

  • Of that, Catholics would comprise

  • 25.2% of the total population, while Orthodox Christians would

  • be 8.2% and Protestants would be 5.6%.

  • Also interestingly, these numbers

  • would mean that the modern Roman Empire would also

  • be the world's largest Christian nation.

  • Jews would form only about 1% of the total population,

  • while atheists, agnostics, or non-religious would

  • form 10.5% of the country.

  • It's really fascinating to think what a country like this

  • would look like in the modern world

  • and with modern technology and with modern ideas.

  • Could it possibly ever survive and

  • what would daily life be like living within it?

  • These are questions for another time.

  • But please leave your comments.

  • If you have your own answers or questions,

  • if you'd like to stay updated with more

  • videos like this one in the future,

  • please subscribe to my channel by clicking here and liking

  • this video after you have finished watching.

  • We will be releasing our next video in a couple weeks.

  • And as always, everybody, thank you for watching.

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00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,930 This is an image of the Roman Empire

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如果今天羅馬帝國重新統一了呢? (What if the Roman Empire Reunited Today?)

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    Taka 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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