Quote:
Yef said:
As another example, the success of Western Europe, that from the "dark ages" went all the way to an almost 5 centuries long global domination, was fueled because no single power managed to unify Europe after the fall of Rome, while in every other area in the world empires raised one after another, with just relatively brief periods of political fragmentation (ie: China, Middle East, etc.)
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5 centuries of global domination? Correct me if I'm wrong, but true dominance of world trade by western european nations only began after the industrial revolution; the age of sail started only after it became necessary to find new routes towards India and China, as Portugal and Spain searched for new ways to bypass muslim states which held in their control land routes to western africa and asia; not because Portugal simply wished to outdo Spain, England, France, and others.
Also, even though politically Europe was fragmented, one could say that it was unified under christianity; not even entire states could resist the will of the church, and of the pope, until protestantism came about. Western Europe was also spared by, I would say, sheer luck; the bubonic plague hitting europe when it was having an economic slump, the moors being turned away by simple rumors concerning the non-existant massive frankish army, the turnaround by the mongolian hoard just before they reached present-day Germany, et cetera.
As for the percieved unity of China and the Arabic world, there has been many times when the dynasties of both regions fell apart and were replaced by warring states; the only difference between them and Europe being that the two worlds never fell into a dark age.