Western Ascendency  

The West (North America and Europe) is currently the dominate civilization in the world.  It provides the highest standard of living, Why?  The simplistic answer given my many people is the obvious superiority of the White Race.  If you believe as I do that this is nonsense, then you must have a better reason why.  I propose a 3-step outline unique to the development of West. 

1.    The Judeo-Christian world view backed by Greek rational thought.

2.    The lack of an empire in Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire.

3.    The geography of Europe with numerous mountains and rivers.

The Judeo-Christian world view is that the world made by God for man. It is good and manageable. (Genesis Chapter 1).  God made a rational world. “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the cattle and all the animals that crawl on the earth,” (Genesis 1:28).

I do not present this from a religious aspect.  What is important is how do you see the world.  It is rational and knowable. All science and technology depend on this.  The beginnings of study of science in the Middle Ages was considered a holy endeavor - trying to understand God and His creation. This a unique perspective of the world.

The Greeks developed the ideas of rational thought and logical conclusion.  There was a flourishing Golden Age of Greek thought while Greece was divided into large number of small independent competing City States.  This Golden Age ended with the conquests of Alexander The Great who unified the Greek City States and created a Greek Empire.  Empires are great at extracting wealth, but not very good a creating it. An empire requires central control.  It cannot allow the growth of competing centers of power. Witness the collapse of the Soviet Empire in today’s world.

Following the collapse of the Roman empire Europe became a large number of independent principalities/states.  This was facilitated by Europe’s many mountains, valleys, and rivers.  The mountains provide defensible isolation for independent competing principalities/states and the rivers provided accessible trade routes.  Most of the contemporary empires existed on open plains that facilitated to easy movement of large conquering armies.  If a European prince wanted wealth, he had to create it and once he created it, he had to defend it. This small size is demonstrated by modern Germany - the result of unification of 39 individual states in 1871. This small size of the European states also meant that the rulers were close to their subjects, not a lofty abstract as in the Roman Emperor.

Given these unique characteristics of Europe it is not surprising the Europe developed substantial wealth, technical expertise, and military capability.  It encouraged a positive outlook.  Tomorrow will be better. Of course, there is a lot more to the story.  I recommend How the West Won by Rodney Stark for the fascinating details.

John G Clark March 2021