"all empires will suffer the same fate should the lessons from history go unlearnt"

Question

"The essay delves into the reasons for the rise and fall of empires and concludes that all empires will suffer the same fate should the lessons from history go unlearnt"

The bold part of the sentence seems kinda vague and the way "should" was used here just didn't feel grammatically correct to me. I'd like to know if it feels the same for you or if not, if it's my fault not to get it right then, could you paraphrase that part for me to easliy grab?

Answer 1

In this case, read "should" as "if".

...if the lessons from history go unlearnt, then all empires will suffer the same fate.

Answer 2

It might be that you interpret should wrong.

See Merriam Webster's definition no.1:

used in auxiliary function to express condition [...]

=> Replace should with if and the meaning should get clearer:

[All empires will suffer the same fate] if [the lessons from history go unlearnt.]