If the atomic bomb was developed in the Middle Ages...

[gh0ti]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm sensing a lot of hostility towards our esteemed medieval ancestors. Just because 99.9% of them were ignorant, fanatical, murdering psychopaths doesn't mean you should tar them all with the same brush!

Check out Frederick II of the HRE, perhaps the first ever atheist king of a European state (depending on which historian you read).

More seriously though, medieval folk were not the baby-killing, city-massacring scum they are often accused of being. Chivalry is a much maligned word, but it had some practical application in the realm of warfare. For example, a city's population was only put to the sword if they refused to surrender first.

Though having said that, if you handed them a nuke, they'd probably conveniently forget their obligations, use it to destroy their enemies and then go on a pilgrimage to assuage their guilt

 

[lazzars]

Now, can I get an ounce of whatever shit it is you've been smoking? Middle ages? No nations? What the fuck are you talking about? I think the British, the Portuguese, the Italians, and maybe even the French would have something to say about that.

You know, when, in the Middle Ages, people fought The Crusades over supposedly holy land in Jerusalem? Or did you miss hearing about that?

see nationalism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism]

by nations you have people who see themselves as "British" or "French" rather than just a subject of a kingdom. prior to the birth of nationalism (in the 18th/19th centuries) people were just subjects of their kingdom/empire. after the falls of both ancient rome and greece people just became the effectual property of the lords and kings.

also what you think of as the middle ages is undoubtedly wrong, it went all the way from roughly 450ad (fall of rome) to 1450 (fall of constantinople). in 450 there was no such thing as england or france and with the departure of the romans each area fragmented into small kingdoms. people may have been roman before but once that ended (and the middle ages began) no-one was anything anymore.

also with the invasion of england in 1066 the saxon kingdom of the british isles ended and effectively became norman, norman language and laws became common with many normans diluting the bloodlines. the english were no longer english anyway.

portugal didn't exist as an independant state until 11 hundred and something.

plus the crusades were entirely political while using religious ideals to inspire the support needed. think about it, the leaders of the expedition had to give up all their wealth at home to pay for it. if they didn't think there would be something in it for them then they wouldn't have gone. eternal salvation is a nice idea but it takes money to get people to do things.

 

[macapus]

This is a retarded thread. How the hell are people who just barely know how to throw large flaming rocks at each other suppose to just suddenly learn how to split the atom and use that to somehow create a working A-bomb? The very word "Atom" probably did not even exist back then. So yea, this is a pretty pointless thread, even for a "what if thread"

To be like lazzars(above me), the word atom came from the greek word atomus, which ment "uncuttable" This was coined aroung 500B.C. by a greek philosopher, but his theory of atoms was quickly shot down by Aristotle(yes the smart one) who said atoms couldn't exist and other crap. So a few smart people knew about atoms in 500B.C way before the middle ages. Just doing this to assert my intelligence.

They'd probably just worship it as a holy relic and think it was sent from god because it looks so different. They'd treat it like the Trojan Horse.

 

[Sewblon]

Whoever made it would rule all of Europe.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Uh . . . if there were people smart enough to make A-bombs there probably weren't people dumb enough to accuse others of witchcraft.

Does the name Joseph McCarthy ring any bells with you? Not to poke holes in your theory or anything, nice as it would be to believe.

 

[samsprinkle]

Um...let's see. I have a BOMB capable of DESTROYING EVERYTHING in a MASSIVE radius...oh WHATEVER will I do with it?

 

[Antidamacus]

I looked over most of this and didn't see it.

Would it not be more likely that the makers of the A-bomb where actually the Muslims around the Middle East?

 

[ssgt splatter]

/thread

 

[Twilight_guy]

The church would use it to baptize heathens... with fiery death!

 

[ae86gamer]

Well the crusades, would have been easier, nuclear power would be a widely used, cheap source of energy.

We have to remember that when something bad is done it almost always leads to something good. Because we bombed Hiroshima The Japanese way of life drastically and for the better. World war two in general led to an technological boom in its aftermath for the entire world. imagine taking that boom, pun not intended, and starting it in the crusades. it would be a good thing all in all i think.

WELL, unless our less intelligent ancestors ended up causing a nuclear winter.

But if they started a nuclear winter then we would all have fur coats. I don't like fur coats.....

 

[Dudemeister]

The Crusades would have probably been more like The Great Purge.

 

[Kajt]

I can imagine somebody launching it from a catapult

That made me laugh.
Just imagine some fool launching it from a catapult over a city wall...

 

[Unknower]

I think Chinese or Arabs would have been more likelier to develop the A-bomb than Europeans.

Anyway, I guess the inventors would have died from the explosion or from the radiation after trying to test one.

The very word "Atom" probably did not even exist back then.

Rule of thumb: if a name of a thing sounds even remotely foreign, it's probably of Greek or Latin origin.

Leicippus came up with word about a millennia earlier.

 

[Cheesus333]

I am going to Second Johnn Johnston's theory, as well as advance the theory that EVERYONE would have some form of cancer due to the serious but unknown and unforeseen side-effect of radiation. Congratulations, your theoretical question killed us all!

I can imagine somebody launching it from a catapult

THAT I would HAVE to see....

A Nuke in a catapult? Play Fallout 3 then.

Wait, do they have other technology in this anachronism or JUST nukes?

 

[Gaz_mcMillan]

lots of dead people because with out proper quarantine areas the radiation will speared pretty fast and what if it was around the time of the plague

 

[hippo24]

If it started back then we might have some zombies, or at least a few feral ghouls by now.

Or we might all be dead from the excessive amounts of radiation, but I opt for fiction anyway.

 

[crepesack]

lets say some divine being gave each group or tribe a single bomb and the directions on how to use it. And for humor sake just say it explodes and nothing more. So all the warring tribes and nations just decide to chuck it at their neighbor but do not realize within 300 miles or so they would get fallout, and for some tribes (more uncivilized ones) would chuck it ontop of some firewood in hopes that it will help them cook their meal faster would in turn be carbonized.

THE END

 

[stiver]

WEll the important thing about this question is giving the atomic bomb to humans who have not gone through the Enlightenment period. Human rights and such haven't been established, so I would assume that it would be used indiscriminately against nations.

 

[Flour]

Question: A fictional universe where the dark ages never happened or one where they somehow managed to get the technology to build atomic bombs?

The difference is that the former would mean we would have affordable space tourism and maybe some space colonies at this point.

The latter would mean the world we know doesn't exist because most of Europe would be destroyed.