[eric1]

Although all these civilizations made significant contributions to western civilization, there is substantial evidence that a lot of their knowledge came from the Far East(China and India).

Without the Islamic civilization, western civilization wouldn't have had the foundations to build on.
Without the Persian civilization, the Islamic civilization wouldn't have had the foundations to build on.
And without the Egyptian and Indus valley civilizations, the Persian civilization wouldn't have had the foundations to build on.

Idea is, no one built anything solely on their own merits. All built on the shoulders of those before them and that includes Europeans.

[eric1]

A better way to go in my view is businessman Tim Draper's proposal to carve California into six states. http://www.sixcalifornias.com