[jroehl]

The Romans of antiquity did not achieve the achievements of the industrial revolution because of slavery. It made then lazy. It killed their initiative.

[PLMerite]

Laziness is the true Mother of Invention.

[x]

Agreed. Slave labor made industrialization unlikely. It was a matter of mentalities. It was always easier to buy slaves than to invent anything new. If you were rich your focus was more on having slaves and not having to do any work than on trying to get big profits by thinking up new machines.

People are amazed that the Aztecs could have wheels on toys but never adapt the wheel to actual transportation in the adult world, but 1) they didn't have large animals to pull wagons and (more importantly) 2) in "Afroeurasia" inventions in one place made their way to other lands far away. That didn't happen in the Americas.