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(In case you thought I made the name up: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlanetOfHats)

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Anonymous

I always thought tophats should come back into style. I'd totally wear the shit out of that unironically!

Anonymous

After hearing how much emphasis you put on location and geography of your hypothetic nation I have a question. What's your opinion on modern take of geographical determinism?

OSP

(Here's my historical input on the matter) Geographical determinism too often is treated as a be-all-end-all, for better and worse, where Geography determines everything about a civilization. For instance, naval empires like Athens and Venice would have had a much harder time existing were they instead based out of inland cities. Geography can have major impacts on how a civilization is able to develop and what opportunities are open to it, but that's not the only thing that can impact a society. Why is it that the Ottomans, of the many dozen splinter states that arose after the Mongol conquests, were able to spread and conquer Anatolia instead of one of their neighbors who shared basically the same geography? There's a lot to be said for political, military, social, economic, and cultural factors too. Geographical determinism, strictly speaking, doesn't cut it. Both Red and I are of the mind that geography is immensely important in the study of any civilization, but it's wrong to believe that it's the *only* important factor to consider. Hope that helps! -B