Interesting you would bring up China as it is the number one famous example of an empire stagnating for thousands of years. The Roman Empire is well known to h

Interesting you would bring up China as it is the number one famous example of an empire stagnating for thousands of years. The Roman Empire is well known to have made all of it's huge technological advancements in the beginning when they were a smaller, anti elitist, working class society with an emphasis on property rights and freedom. Later it became the gigantic, corruption ridden empire of upper class orgies that it was famous for. All the wealth of scientific progress in Europe happened in the 18 hundreds after the french revolution invented the concept of Nationalism / freedom / and international trade and competition. These values disappeared from Europe in the 20th century, but were kept alive and well in the USA over that time period. Since then just about every single advancement and scientific discovery of any value has taken place in the USA. Just about everything you own was invented in America (your mass produced vehicle, internet -- no it wasn't invented at CERN -- optical fibers, almost all of your medicine, your computer techonology, your lcd screen ...everything), meanwhile nothing gets created in Europe anymore.