Interesting. Civilizations began in river valleys, such as the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus, Yangtze, etc. I don't think the Rhine was included in that list.

As for governments, the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians (or should I say Iraqis) had a much more sophisticated governments than the Germans, from 4000 B.C. to 1400 A.D.

The earliest European civilizations were in Greece and Rome, and they were Mediterranean (not European) civilizations. If you look at the 10 biggest cities of the Roman Empire, 9 were in the Middle East/Mediterranean region. Outside of Rome, there isn't a single European city in that list. Alexandria in Egypt was the second largest Roman city.

Now, as for immigrating to Canada, which war crimes were your family escaping from?