Why Did Europe Conquer the World? / Philip T. Hoffman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hoffman, Philip T., author.

Series:

Princeton economic history of the Western world.

The Princeton Economic History of the Western World ; 54

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Technology and state--Europe--History.

Technology and state.

Balance of power.

Europe--Military policy.

Europe.

Europe--Foreign relations--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (283 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Between 1492 and 1914, Europeans conquered 84 percent of the globe. But why did Europe establish global dominance, when for centuries the Chinese, Japanese, Ottomans, and South Asians were far more advanced? In Why Did Europe Conquer the World?, Philip Hoffman demonstrates that conventional explanations-such as geography, epidemic disease, and the Industrial Revolution-fail to provide answers. Arguing instead for the pivotal role of economic and political history, Hoffman shows that if certain variables had been different, Europe would have been eclipsed, and another power could have become master of the world. Hoffman sheds light on the two millennia of economic, political, and historical changes that set European states on a distinctive path of development, military rivalry, and war. This resulted in astonishingly rapid growth in Europe's military sector, and produced an insurmountable lead in gunpowder technology. The consequences determined which states established colonial empires or ran the slave trade, and even which economies were the first to industrialize. Debunking traditional arguments, Why Did Europe Conquer the World? reveals the startling reasons behind Europe's historic global supremacy.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. How the Tournament in Early Modern Europe Made Conquest Possible

Chapter 3. Why the Rest of Eurasia Fell Behind

Chapter 4. Ultimate Causes

Chapter 5. From the Gunpowder Technology to Private Expeditions

Chapter 6. Technological Change and Armed Peace in Nineteenth-Century Europe

Chapter 7. Conclusion

Appendix A. Model of War and Technical Change via Learning by Doing

Appendix B. Using Prices to Measure Productivity Growth in the Military Sector

Appendix C. Model of Political Learning

Appendix D. Data for Tables 4.1 and 4.2

Appendix E. Model of Armed Peace and Technical Change via Research

Acknowledgments

Bibliography

Index

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-261) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9781400865840

1400865840

OCLC:

1132224270