Europe 's Influence On Western Europe

During the period of 1492 to 1750, Europe experienced drastic changes during their Age of Discovery. As a result of contact and colonization, Western Europe’s economy, political, social, and military systems changed, but also maintained certain aspects that enabled them to build strong civilizations. Such changes include increased (international) trade routes, more centralized governments such as monarchies, decreased unifying influence of the Catholic Church, and increased interest in military conquest and expansion.

1500 A.D. is known as the Rise of Europe. Europe took Chinese inventions and developed them to their full potential. They used the new ideas for overseas expansions, in return, this triggered more technological advances and changes. This caused a transition from medieval to modern civilization. The rise of the nation-state also was an important factor in the rise of Europe. European power rose to a new level of effectiveness and for the first time it gave Europeans a clear margin of superiority over the other great world cultures. European's domination was challenged and rejected. Others felt that Europe's domination left little to individual choice and destroys life's richness and diversity. The two historical fault lines that run in Europe are significant because they stand for the lines that show where war and conflict was located.

"The growth of commerce and industry led to the technological advances, which in turn stimulated, and were stimulated by science.” (p. 403) The European scientific revolution was fueled by the blending of “liberal” and “servile” arts, in other words, science and technology. Because of the European expansion taking place throughout the world, new commerce and industries were advancing, creating the need for new technology and science. The theories and inventions that Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton provided were the fist major advances during the scientific revolution, and perhaps were the most profound.

The non-Western societies responded to the West’s power differently, during the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s.When the industrialization train rolled into other societies, they greeted it with open arms. They would try to preserve the old ways, or sought out to modernize on their own. Some were too weak to adjust on their own terms.

WHG 6.1.5 Interpreting Europe’s Increasing Global Power – Describe Europe’s increasing global power between 1500 and 1900, and evaluate the merits of the argument that this rise was caused by factors internal to Europe

The Europeans not only expanded their land and economy they were also expanding their minds with new ways of thinking such as “Enlightenment”. Major ideas of the actual 18th century "Enlightenment" had a lot to do with democratic ideals, a reduced influence of Christian Church doctrine in government, and overall "progress" of humankind. The Enlightenment was the product of a vast set of cultural and intellectual changes in Europe during the 1500s and 1600s changes that in turn produced the social values that permitted the Enlightenment to sweep through Europe in the late 1600s and 1700s. One of the most important of these changes was the

By the early 18th century, the Ottoman Empire which ruled the Middle East began to decline. While the Western European states were not necessarily superior at this point, they were transforming. Western Europeans were able to transform their society from an agricultural one to a technology and industry based one. This momentum spread from industry, to military and intellectual fields. This rapid change, known as the Great Western Transmutation, made it nearly impossible for competing nations to catch up. The Industrial Revolution gave them vast social and political power that enabled them to enforce their will on much of the world.

The rise of the west was a time in which European nations became more advanced and had an increase of power and dominance. Europe became a dominant nation in the 16th Century while two large Gunpowder empires began to decline. These European nations dominated because they had technological advancements. Some of which were gunpowder, cannons, and much more. Both the Ottoman and the Ming Empires rose to the top and then declined after the European nations began to advance. The European Miracle was when the European nations began to advance in technology, they expanded, and dominated the world.

The Great Divergence is term used to portray the gradual shift of dominance that Europe gained by establishing itself as the most powerful world civilization by the 19th century. While a case could be made that the Great Divergence occurred because of the pre-eminence of Europe and Britain, as well as their supposed superiority in invention and innovation above anywhere else in the world, this argument is flawed. A more compelling argument would be to state that it was rather through the geographical advantages that Europe obtained that lead it into eventually becoming the most powerful civilization after 1500 A.D., as this essay will strive to demonstrate.

The sound of row boats crashing into the eastern coast of what is now the American continents, can only be accredited to the Age of Expansion and a series of events that had encouraged the growth of the European nations in the 16th and 17th centuries. How did the European empires find the New World first when the Chinese were supposed to be the leading economy and political figure on the globe? Did the East fall short? Or was this “Rise of the West” a result of climatical events that happened to influence progress and growth on the European continent? The reason that the European empires reached the New World first is due to the ceasing of the Chinese exploration in the early 15th century, and to the climatical advantages in Europe provided

The fact that the European influence was largely reflected upon world’s culture and economy is indubitably true. Such an impact, that has been deeply rooted inside the world for past several decades, acknowledged part of its people to notice its clear interference that has been covertly embedded over time within world’s evolution. Blaut reveals the secret of the phenomenon also known as “Eurocentrism”¹ in his article. Blaut proposes that “Eurocentrism is quite simply the colonizer’s model of the world.”². This statement beholds the dominant evidences behind inequal history between Europeans and the non-Europeans that will correspond and clarify colonial events.

The 20th century in Europe was filled with war and revolution along with political and economical change. The destruction caused by World War II remained prominent in eastern European countries even years after the war ended in 1945. For years the Soviet Union fought for communism while NATO did everything they could to prevent it. Although communism slowly released its grip on the eastern European countries in the late 20th century, western countries still looked down upon these ex-communistic states. After reading the memoir “Café Europa: Life After Communism.” by Slavenka Drakulic, one can infer that not only were the people of Eastern Europe a bit eager to assimilate and conform to Western culture but also there was a sense of dominance

The rise of the West refers to a period of time when Western Europe rose to power due to many environmental, political, and social factors. Many historians attribute the Rise of the West to the time period of 1450 to 1850. This power surge of Western Europe has been attributed to the global dominance of Western Europe and America in the 21 century. The interesting aspect regarding the Rise of the West is how Western Europe developed so differently from other parts of the world, leading it to be the superpower of the world. Over the past 50 years, the idea of the rise of the West has been closely re-examined. Prior to the 1950s, historians believed that the rise of the West occurred because it was destined to; because Europe is the best and

Western European people had endured a series of changes during the late medieval period. Changes can be categorized into two aspects: politically and socially. On politics, Popes were not as strong as they were due to conflicts between the state and the church. Socially, people began to live a religion- dominated life, and experienced active sexism towards women. These changes, either positive or negative, have become an undivided part of European History.

Looking back at the world in the past few hundred years, it would have been difficult to imagine that one day, majority of Western Europe would come to dominate the world in global economy (Landes, European Exceptionalism: A Different Path, 1998). Frank (2001) described the process of which the western society