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What happened to Europe? Before the middle of the last century, it was the center of everything, innovation included. How did it lose so much so fast?
by aswanson 19y ago
What happened to Europe? Before the middle of the last century, it was the center of everything, innovation included.
How did it lose so much so fast?
- pg 19y agoI think the US was ahead economically by around 1900. Scholarship tends to lag by a generation or two. Very interesting question though, and one I've thought about a lot, coming from Europe to the US as a kid. It's possible that Europe may have only lost relatively. I.e. Europe may not have fallen so much as that other places have risen. The single biggest problem with Europe may be government. There's a tradition in most northern European countries of strong central government. And the growth of technology in the 19c made it possible for a hands-on central government to be very much more hands-on. This seems to have had a disastrous effect on certain kinds of economic growth. Remember too that Europe had two huge wars go through it during the 20th century. That can't have helped.
- davidw 19y ago> Europe may not have fallen so much as that other places have risen. Right. There are tons of cool things in tech (Linux, Python, Mysql, Qt/KDE, off the top of my head) and the sciences in Europe, just that there are more in the US.