Why was Europe so successful?

Question

Why? It is not because they are more intelligent, there is another reason but what?

Answer 1

Europe had rich agricultural land, which allowed it to develop faster. If you don't have to worry too much about having enough to eat because there is plenty of it to go around, then it allows you to concentrate on other things like art, science, music, etc.

Answer 2

It's not something that is easy to answer, as there are many factors. It wasn't all of Europe either, but I know what you mean.

The Romans helped a lot, with their culture, the spread of religion via them (so everyone had a common belief, enabling cultures to relate better in Europe), as well as their technology.

Then there was the ability for people to get away from religion to be able to make scientific discoveries, such as the Earth going around the Sun, Bacteria and other medical discoveries.

There was also the industrial revolution which I think really set everything going. This would not have been possible without the previous point, but because of this you not only got huge technological advances, but it resulted in worker power, which meant that the common man (and later woman) had far more influence, as if they stopped working, there would be no one mining the coal or working the mills etc.

There is more to it than that, but this sums a lot of it up. What has set it back has been the two World Wars; up until then things were doing okay (well, for a few countries anyway).

Answer 3

The drive for commerce indeed, which pushed the merchant class to encourage new ideas for better processes and new inventions. Unhampered by restrictions put on them in other areas of the world the merchants of Europe could influence their civilisation. So while other countries had many mathematicians and searchers, Europe had many engineers. Show them powder, they made guns, show them magnetic compass and they build ships to cross oceans (and are not called back by their Emperor because exploration was not interesting). They borrowed ideas right and left and came up with their own twist instead of rejecting those ideas because they were from foreigners.

Answer 4

The short answer: Location, location, location--at least in terms of Imperialist expansion.

Now for the longer explanation: Europeans are relative newcomers to Civilization. Certainly, the Caesars regarded Gaul (France), Germania (Germany), and Albion (the Roman-name for Britain) as places filled with savages ready for conquest, and after the fall of the Roman Empire, life in Europe was "nasty, brutish, and short." However, by the time of the Renaissance, the Europeans, strategically situated on the shores of the Atlantic, were themselves ready to conquer and explore. As an earlier poster has pointed out, this is partly due to their ability to feed themselves, an event that didn't happened until the High Middle Ages with the advent of a really good iron plow as well as a dying off of the excess population during the Black Death (about 1349).

Post-modernists historians are quick to point out that life in parts of Pre-Columbia America was probably more "advanced" than if was in Europe. What's more, India, China, and the Middle East boasted much older civilizations.

Answer 5

I'm with Evie S on this one.

Europe appears to be so successful only in European histories. The civilisations of India, China and South America were, in many ways, far more advanced and "cultured" than the Europeans.

Even up to the Middle Ages, when most Europeans were living in squalor, the Arabic communities were living in comparative luxury.

I would suggest that the drive for commerce is the most significant factor in recent European history for our success. Without the stimulus of finding new resources, new trade routes and the success (unpalatable as it may be) of the slave trade, the major maritime nations of Europe (Spain, Portugal, Holland, Britain) would never have been as successful as they were.

Answer 6

Look at Jared Diamond's ideas about why Europe was successful at
www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel

He basically says that Europe had better climate, plants, and animals for the advancement of civilization...the luck of the draw.

Answer 7

The Europe because they are support with each others and no any Jules with the other one and they are dose not stop to any one ability's and they are help to present your ability's

Answer 8

you can't blame them...i mean, they started the Renaissance after all...

my teacher once said that had Renaissance never happened, Japan would still be "living in caves"...

it's just exaggeration, I know, and I meant no offense to Japanese folks, in fact, I revere those guys, oh and I have a relative who's a Japanese. it just shows how Renaissance had been a big help in worldwide advancement...

Answer 9

They've got common sense... and they live - not with the intention of being the person who owns the most... but with the intention of being happy with what they have!