Dear All,
please find below 4 lists of factors - my view on reasons of European
predominance in the world since 1850
> From: Mike Shupp <ms44278@email.csun.edu>
> in which they rose to (short term) mastery if the planet,
> we have to recognize the importance of immaterial factors,
> I would think. God perhaps, or more likely superior amounts
> of will, stamina, determination, zeal, "heart", pluck on the
> part of Europeans, and sloth, laziness, inefficiency, corruption,
> fatalism, etc. on the part of the non-European natives.
>
> What qualities did Europeans themselves attribute their successes
> to during the 1500-1850 AD period? Material or immaterial?
my thesis is - it was coincidence of factors of 4 main spheres: material,
social, cultural and psychical and i present below the correspondent lists
basic material factors:
1) central geoeconomic position (between Americas and the East)
in combination with see expansion strategies
2) abundance of silver-gold in N. Centr. Americas in combination with
deficiency of these metals in the East (the same with abundance of
ill-armed Africans and deficiency of labor resources in America, etc)
3) demographical overpopulation in Europe (since
XVI?) in combination with traditional strategy of migration to colonies
basic social factors:
1) 'social resonance' - a mutually useful partnership of royal powers,
merchants, bankers, seamen, nobbles, extra-population, later industrial
bourgeoisie (each of these and other groups had own kind of profit from
transoceanic expansion)
2) high political status of bourgeoisie in Europe which helped to transform
primarily tributal logic of exploitation into market one
3) the tradition of legal defence of private property that facilitated
investment activities in industry
4) political multipolarity of Europe which facilitated predominance of
commercial strategies in colonies over primary tributal ones
basic cultural factors:
1) diversity, permanent competition between European cultures which caused
the higher level of flexibility and sensitiviness to align patterns
2) cultural patterns of long-distance marine colonization (taken from Greece,
Venecia and Genova) and commerce (taken from Arabs)
3) specifics of European science as both theoretical and experimental (at
least since Galileo), that allowed to assimilate and utilize align knowledge
(especially in geography, astronomy, mathematics, physiscs, arms
technologies, later banking and industrial economics)
4) protestantism (according Weber) as an unique religious life-strategy which
gives sacred status to making money (even in Islam commerce achieved
not more than tolerance within power-cultural space because Mohammad was
merchant, but only among Protestants making money was direct way to save the
soul)
basic psychical factors:
1) realization of Europeans of own poverty (in compariconwith Asians) in
combination with their high
self- estimation as Christians with specific world-wide territorial 'rights'
2) 'a will to expansion' as a combination of agressiveness (almost universal
in history) with the attitude to establish own patterns on new lands and
among new peoples (Arabs, Chinese, Russians had the same will to expansion,
in all cases it gave significant territorial expansion, but they lacked
other European specifics - see above)
The thesis is that even if each of these factors is not absolutely unique,
their combination and mutual enforcement (megatrend in my terms) was really
unique and should be considered as a complex reason of European predominance
in the world that became evident since circa 1830-50
comments?
best from (now rather hot and lovely) Siberia
Nikolai
P.S.
I realize that Jim Blaut, Gunder Frank and maybe some others never will
accept
these factors (to be blamed as scandalously eurocentric). I prefer in this
situation not abstract blaming but refutation of my factors point by point
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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)
http://wsrv.clas.virginia.edu/~dew7e/anthronet/subscribe
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