In fact when I say Europe it is exaggerated because it concerns only a few European countries like Spain, France, Holland (United Province) and England.
For several centuries these countries have controlled world trade, they had the most powerful navies in the world which allowed them to be able to project their power in the world and this is what will give inter-colonial wars, and these countries will also have scientific superiority.
Yet until the middle of the 15th century European countries were far from being giants and lagged behind in many areas compared to other civilizations.
What do you think allowed Europeans to dominate the world for a few centuries?
What do you think has allowed Europe to dominate the world for several centuries?
The answer to your question is given in the 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond.
Cover of Guns, Germs, and Steel
PBS and National Geographic with Jared Diamond created a 3-part television series regarding this book and its subject matter which is, basically, the answer to your question.
Based on Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, Guns, Germs and Steel traces humanity's journey over the last 13,000 years – from the dawn of farming at the end of the last Ice Age to the realities of life in the twenty-first century.
Inspired by a question put to him on the island of Papua New Guinea more than thirty years ago, Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality.
* Why were Europeans the ones to conquer so much of our planet? * Why didn't the Chinese, or the Inca, become masters of the globe instead? * Why did cities first evolve in the Middle East? * Why did farming never emerge in Australia? * And why are the tropics now the capital of global poverty?
As he peeled back the layers of history to uncover fundamental, environmental factors shaping the destiny of humanity, Diamond found both his theories and his own endurance tested.
The three one-hour programs were filmed across four continents on High Definition digital video, and combined ambitious dramatic reconstruction with moving documentary footage and computer animation. They also include contributions from Diamond himself and a wealth of international historians, archeologists, and scientists.
Guns, Germs, and Steel is a thrilling ride through the elemental forces which have shaped our world – and which continue to shape our future. ========= Here are all 3 parts.
Who else was going to? China was more decadent than ever, Russia still hadn't assembled, most of Africa hadn't even united into countries yet, and the Americas had genetics (and later Spaniards) conspiring against them. The Koreans were WAY too complacent about Ming (the dynasty, not the Merciless, although...), the Japanese were being their overly isolationist selves, and Australia was the same mix of nomads and seminomads it'd been for the past forty thousand years.
The only other real candidate left was the nations of the Middle East- but despite all the accomplishments of the Ottomans, the region never really recovered from the damage the Mongols did. And then the Ottomans grew corrupt and decadent, and, well, you know what happened next.
The other big advantage Europe had was that it was so divided. Division leads to competition, and competition leads to innovation. Columbus decides he wants to find another route to trade with China, so he can raise enough money for another Crusade, and BAM! he finds a new hemisphere. Various Italian city-states want to show up their neighbors, but can't afford a war, so they decide to push art and science instead, and BAM! the Renaissance begins. When you have no one to compete with, you generally put in the minimum of effort, and little effort means little progress.
Have you ever read Romance of the Three Kingdoms? It's a semi-historical (well, QUITE historical, but only semi-accurate) accounting of the Chinese civil war that followed the collapse of the Han dynasty, and famously begins with "It is a general truism of this world that anything long divided will surely unite, and anything long united will surely divide."
Come to think of it, you might also want to give Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" a look; it's a very non-academic (if rather dry in places) examination of why Europe fared so well as it did generally.
Let's face it. They had a head start on everything that is good for humans. Hate to elaborate on that, it'd take a LOT of space! (Oh, and "space" is one thing they haven't dominated!)
The other thing is that when they finally ended a war, they usually took measures to stop wars. Most did. By that I mean like expansionism of the 15-17 centuries colonized the world, and for what reason? Because food was getting scarce in Europe. The land was overused, and they they realized that it was time to get shiploads of food from other lands. That in itself saved a lot of wars. When there were fewer wars, they had time to invent things that made the world better... like the clock!
Food shipment from across the seas became a thing only in the 20th century. Any food from America, Africa or Asia going to Europe would have been spoilt in the trip due to no refrigeration. Europe was never running out of food.
I think Waring amongst each other to gain power and dominate the world for centuries. Saint Francis England and Spain and the Netherlands we're going to war against each other constantly so they had to build better technology in order to crash their opponents and/or defend themselves. this is why eastern Europe fell to the ottomans. also due to the fact that places like China and Russia refused to modernize they fell behind in the desire for global domination.
china was a very dominant regional power for centuries taking over korea and vietnam for example.
of course the Native north American and south American tribes never had to deal with this struggle as much given that in south and central America you had the Aztecs Mayans and Incas dominating their respective areas and the northern tribes not under as much pressure as the western europeans
first paragraph the Romans really helps for Western Europe into the global power it is today
Portugal too. We were once a big Emprise and one of the world potencies. Why? Well at the time the oceans were unexplored and we had a large coast, sailing was out thing. We launch ourselves into the sea and mapped the world. There were no nuclear weapons at the time and even guns were not yet invented. Battles were fought with swords, cannons and catapults.
The book on the background of my profile "Homens, espadas e tomates" is a book about the battles portuguese won again all odds. A few dozens defending a fort against thousands and succeeding.
Where it all went to shit? We had a massive succession problem that made the country crash. After that was downhill fast including losing our colonies. Countries we had conquer and were the source of our power. Some countries like England knew how to capitalize the wealth they made during that time. We didn't.
you are right the domination of the seas is an absolutely essential thing in geopolitics especially at this time it was the only way to project its power
Well most of them don't even have benefit to the world, they have benefit for theirselves. Countries they invaded back in the day are shit hole right now ( most of them ) it seems if they dominate the world for more several centruies it gonna be a disaster lol.
it's just that the countries that were colonized weren't developing and they weren't powerful enough to protect themselves. unlike the countries of Western Europe which have never been colonized by other civilizations in modern times i. e. since the end of the middle ages lol
in reality only the Spain of Western Europe will undergo colonization by another civilization, all the others will never be colonized by another civilization but we have tried to invade and colonize ourselves between us🤣
Violence in action, shameless colonialism, and Narcissist Personality Disorders being the primary feature of a culture - then transposing that concept on to the relationship between countries. With one being the abuser and the other the victim.
Maybe dominate is the wrong word. Let’s just say they invaded countries and the reason why the did that was to establish trade routes around the Ottoman Empire because they controlled trade too tightly back then.
In a bigger picture I would say that the reason why Western Europe became successful is because the Ottomans had too much power and pushed Europeans to improvise. Europeans had small space and had to be more creative to improve their livelihood. This propelled them to be seafaring powers.
At one time they were the most advanced since they had the most wars, which drove technology advancemrnt. But since they more or less stagnanted in the 1600's all other nations caught up.
Technology and location. And they go hand in hand. It could have been China, but they became very isolationist about 500 years ago -- right as Europe was popping off.
@Alexandrubaschet08 I meant mostly in colonialism. But if you mentioned Mongols, I tell you why they didn't reach Europe. Their armies are not built to conquer castles nor making a siege.
It could be the case if the Europeans had dominated the world since the beginning of humanity. but the first great civilizations come from the middle east
the civilisations in the Mideast were founded by European tribes that began migrating from modern day southern Russia and the black sea after the ice age. You can read about the archeological discoveries in March of the titans.
