During this century we in the West have slowly begun to realize that there have been many other cultures that were on par, in many respects, with our own. It’s well known that Europeans were cave dwellers (more or less) when Arabs, under Islamic reign, were astounding philosophers and scientists. How is it, then, that western Europeans were able to dominate the globe? Naturally, technical breakthroughs played a leading role, but why all these breakthroughs among people from the Western Hemisphere? Note: I do not wish to raise a racial issue, rather a cultural one. Praise, by the way, to the Internet for bringing the light, i.e., Uncle Cecil, overseas. Keeping in touch with your column from the other side of the Atlantic was a bitch.
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Yeah, the Net’s OK. But as a longtime print guy I’ll never be totally comfortable with a medium you can’t fold up into paper hats. As for why the West dominated the globe so long, I know you want to keep this on an elevated plane, but one hates to pussyfoot. Let’s examine the following blunt hy-pothesis.
George Steinbrenner;
On the face of it these people don’t make an overwhelming case for white genius. So let’s try a different hypothesis:
(2) A free-market economy. Merchants and entrepreneurs made money, which kings needed to buy pikestaffs and cannonballs. They were oppressed everywhere by the ungrateful warrior class. In pluralistic Europe, however, hassled entrepreneurs could simply move to some neighboring state, which became prosperous and powerful as a result. Eventually even the stupidest European princeling realized it was in his interest to leave the business types alone. Merchants were also quick to grasp the moneymaking potential of colonial trade.
(3) Europe had been invaded repeatedly over the millennia and by 1500 consisted of numerous distinct cultural and language groups that could not be readily amalgamated and in many cases hated each other’s guts. (Hello, Bosnia!) Their main goal was dominating their neighbors. The incidental result was that they dominated the world.
