i agree with Bruce in the following:
> From: "Bruce R. McFarling" <ecbm@cc.newcastle.edu.au>
> leveraged. Until Europe established a semi-peripheral position for itself
> post 1492, extracting precious metals to trade with the center, but at
> the same time as much as possible acting as a center with respect to the
> Americas, the spatial system permitted the development of lower quality
> substitutes for imports from the center, but by itself could not permit
> peripheral West Asia to leapfrog central East Asia.
and regard this as
1) spatial factor of geoeconomic centrality since Americas discovery and
utilization
and suggest to consider such well-known factors as:
2) expansionist initiative, competition in first discovery (between
Spain,Portugal, then Nederlands, England,France) in constellation with
caravels supplied by guns - most powerful maritime military and
transportation instruments in that period
3) fortunate union between states (monarchies), bankers, traders and
masses of conquestadors-colonists
4) missionary features of Christianity in combination with geopolitical view
of that time that all non-Christian countries can and must be captured by
Christian ones
5) demographic pressure in Europe (since 16 century?)
6) existance of some restriction (not absolute of course) for large
territorial expansion within self-Europe after 1648 Westfal consensus -
a transfer of military-geopolitical activities outside Europe (compare with 2-
7) Tremendous positive economic reinforcement of expansion-long-
trade-and-colonization policies that urged various elites and social groups
to reinvest in activities given above
it is difficult for me to argue if these factors are more pro-Blaut or pro-
Sanderson, but in any case i am sure without considering them one can
understand nothing in european success since 1500
best regards, nikolai
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Nikolai S. Rozov # Address:Dept. of Philosophy
Prof.of Philosophy # Novosibirsk State University
rozov@cnit.nsu.ru # 630090, Novosibirsk
Fax: (3832) 355237 # Pirogova 2, RUSSIA
Moderator of the mailing list PHILOFHI
(PHILosophy OF HIstory and theoretical history)
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