> That something in the air would probably have to do with a decrepit monarchy and deeply corrupt church working together to utterly screw over the people and d

> That something in the air would probably have to do with a decrepit monarchy and deeply corrupt church working together to utterly screw over the people and deplete the country's wealth. Yes but ... That's a description of most European states since, say, Charlemagne defined the subsequent millennium of European control structures -- but pragmatically that broad description likely also applies to most parts of the world for most of the past several millennia. I suspect it's more a combination of Gutenberg tech adoption, and (in retrospect quite torpid) increases in education and state-tolerance towards humanism.