Decoding European Dominance in the World History
The history of Europe’s world dominance in terms of technology has been a topic of discussion for a long time. Some people argue that the history of European dominance in technology was engineered by the European writers, while in real sense it might have been accidental or through experiences. However, although other continents were creative in terms of technology, none was more innovative than Europe, hence its subsequent success. For instance, the Portuguese exploration in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the fourteenth centuries was as a result of long term explorations in the sea. During the voyage, the Portuguese interacted with Jews and Muslims, from whom they borrowed crucial features such as calculating direction, currents and winds in the sea. Although the Chinese were well endowed in terms of technology, they failed to penetrate their target areas for colonization. Consequently, the Portuguese took a rational approach and conquered the areas.
The development of sophisticated weapons such as gun powder and guns was a calculated move by the Europeans to eliminate their enemies. In most cases, the Europeans had an obsession with innovation and advancement in technology. Europeans would use machines, however simple, to execute tasks, regardless of how simple they were. However, some advancements in technology were as a result of poor economic conditions. For instance, in the 10th century, most countries in Europe were poor and only gave their neighbours slaves in exchange for technological merchandise. They used the merchandise to develop their own technology. The Chinese were ahead of Europe as early as the 11th century and had developed better energy sources. However, the Chinese overlooked the importance of horses in transport and use of machines to spin cotton, which gave the Europeans an upper hand in the long run, accidentally.
Question 2
Contemporary history has been corrupted by its authors, who are predominantly the Europeans. The authors of the history books focused more on the superiority of Europe and the US while overlooking the strength of Africa, Latin America and Asia. As a result, the world has been conditioned to believe that Europe was a superpower all along, which is not the case. Even when a person wants to read about the culture or history of other countries, they are forced to read from books written by Westerners. More often than note, the books are written from the Western’s point of view of that particular continent, which is skewed. The Western culture sees that the rise of other continents might reveal the true history of technology, which would make their literature unfit to contemporary society.
According to history from the Europeans’ point of view, the main reason why Europe had an easy conquest during colonialization is due to its technological prowess. However, several scholars argue that the main reason why Europe succeeded is that it was not easily accessible. The close proximity of Europe to America made it easy for the former to gain power with time. After occupying the US and converting the natives into their beliefs, it became easy to rewrite the history to suit their agenda. Although other continents such as Asia made significant progress, Europe has demystified their prowess. Instead, she believes that they are the only superpower that conquered and colonized others. However, anthropologists believe that, if Europe were easily accessible, other continents would have conquered and even colonized her.