I don't know said:
- While europeans were still sitting in caves marvelling over fire, the world's first empires were being created in the middle east, Hammurabi created the world's first code of law, Cyrus the great made the first declaration of human rights, the first grand epic was written, the pyramids were buildt and so on... Then there's the "dark ages" which Europe might never have gotten out of if not for contact with Middle Eastern/North African culture.
Yes, the people living around the Mediterranean were for the most part, the fist great civilizations. Especially those living near the Nile - for obvious reasons. But what is your point?
The Church became powerful and Europe entered the Dark Ages. There was also a few plagues and a minor glacial event that screwed the place up as well. The Church lost power and Europe entered the Renaissance.
I'd say it was the removal of an imaginary sky-daddy that probably helped the Europeans pull their collective figures out.
I don't know said:
- Colonialism was a huge source of resources for European countries - and it forced structures on to and messed up the cultures of countless people.
Actually the most important of all “resources” attained by the Europeans was sugar. It was as important as oil is today.
Anyway, this doesn’t explain present day Asian and for the same reasons is not why Europeans became successful.
Just think about history. People have been conquering/colonizing other people for millennia. Start with the Egyptians. The conquest of the Nubians was a HUGE source of resources. Now progress through the conquests made by the Persians, the Greeks, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Germans, the Arabs, the Mongolians, the Chinese, etcetera.
None of these resource-garnishing-conquests gave the common person the standard of living enjoyed by our dogs. So it is not conquest and looting that creates prosperity. It’s getting rid of monarchs, banning slavery, removing religion as far from government as possible, creating governments responsive to the wishes of the people and most importantly giving people the right to own land.
If it were just conquests and resource grabbing then we would have had the standard of living enjoyed today – enjoyed by the Persians, the Greeks, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Germans, the Arabs, the Mongolians and the Chinese. Which was not the case.
