Comments on: Why Did Europe Conquer the World? https://www.isegoria.net/2015/08/why-did-europe-conquer-the-world/ From the ancient Greek for equality in freedom of speech; an eclectic mix of thoughts, large and small Thu, 14 May 2026 06:12:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.6.1 By: AAB https://www.isegoria.net/2015/08/why-did-europe-conquer-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-2364788 AAB Mon, 17 Aug 2015 17:38:55 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=38637#comment-2364788 Al Fin says:
People who read just one book or one article, or one set of in-bred books or articles, often believe they have the jist of the topic. They are almost always wrong.

I’ll second that. Polymaths and interdisciplinary studies are undervalued.

Everyone seems to be a reductionist these days. “It’s all about economics” or “It’s all about sex” or “It’s all about religion” or “It’s all about technology” and on and on..

]]> By: Felix https://www.isegoria.net/2015/08/why-did-europe-conquer-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-2364141 Felix Sun, 16 Aug 2015 22:54:01 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=38637#comment-2364141 So, remove gunpowder from the equation.

Does that cause the Chinese to pull back inside their 1400′s shell?

Does it stop Europeans from building boats and strings of forts, etc. to support a world-spanning, cooperative network?

The Euros spent several centuries building and running a new circulatory system for humans. And they got paid for doing so.

One thing seems hard to remove from the equation: Euros simple out-cooperated the locals. And out-visioned them, too – which only required the Euros to see improvements the locals refused to see. Easy to do when you see a huge variety of “locals”.

Euros have often been “locals” themselves. Consider how hard it would be to convince a (Euro) 1960′s South American oligarch that he’d be better off if the locals were all as well off as he is now.

]]> By: Al Fin https://www.isegoria.net/2015/08/why-did-europe-conquer-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-2363894 Al Fin Sun, 16 Aug 2015 15:57:28 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=38637#comment-2363894 Hoffman examines the twig and ignores the forest. Another book, Why Nations Fail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_Nations_Fail
helps to fill in some of the blanks.

Other books such as Wealth and Poverty of Nations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_and_Poverty_of_Nations

and IQ and the Wealth of Nations:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations

help to fill in some of the remaining gaps.

A Farewell to Alms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Clark_(economist)#A_Farewell_to_Alms

Civilisation and the Rest:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Ferguson#Civilization

and The European Miracle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_European_Miracle

add more historical details and speculative suggestions.

People who read just one book or one article, or one set of in-bred books or articles, often believe they have the jist of the topic. They are almost always wrong.

Blame the modern dumbing down of academics and the substitution of indoctrination for the teaching of thinking skills and natural scepticism.

]]> By: Bob Sykes https://www.isegoria.net/2015/08/why-did-europe-conquer-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-2363763 Bob Sykes Sun, 16 Aug 2015 11:34:27 +0000 http://www.isegoria.net/?p=38637#comment-2363763 Social and emotional skills have a strong genetic component and likely are resistant to change.

I note they included race. Did they indicate how important is was as a predictor?

]]>