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Isn’t that period when Europe pulled ahead technologically in every way from antiquity? For example many civilizations pursued alchemy and why only in Europe di

Isn’t that period when Europe pulled ahead technologically in every way from antiquity? For example many civilizations pursued alchemy and why only in Europe did it turn into chemistry? Same with astrology into astronomy. Wind power, metallurgy, ship building, farming, stirrups (using the weight of the horse with the rider) with spears, cathedral building, the university system etc. The eastern empire thrived until the Ottomans overthrew in the 14th. It has to do with reason and progress and the systems that drove those. I think a larger part was the translation from Greek to latin between 1125-1200.

photochemsyn 4y ago
Well, Isaac Newton was also a dedicated alchemist who spent some time and energy on a search for the philosopher's stone (which in no way denigrates his other work on gravity, calculus, optics, etc.). That was pretty common thinking up through the late 18th century, when people like Lavoisier and Priestly revolutionized everything via careful quantitative measurements (and open publication, i.e. not keeping their work secret). Again, this was an area where Islamic civilization preservend and advanced on Roman-Greek knowledge during the European Dark Ages. There's also some interesting history regarding the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who apparently made a determined effort to wipe out the alchemists in the Empire because he believed they'd actually managed to make gold, and feared debasement of the currency or the funding of rebel armies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy_in_the_medieval_Islamic_world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy_in_the_medieval_Islami... I think this is a legitimate YT channel, here's a clip on the Diocletian persecution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG9Po7dlgUo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG9Po7dlgUo
qwytw 4y ago
The eastern empire was essentially destroyed by Venice in 1204. While they regained Constatinolpe, some territory in the Balkans and Anatolia, the empire never truly recovered. During the last 250 years of its existence it was a mere shadow of its former self. It never regained its status as the preeminent cultural and political power in the Christian world.
adrian_b 4y ago
Europe pulled ahead technologically in every way from antiquity only after 1500, i.e. after the introduction of the movable-type printing press (whose first effect was that most writings preserved from antiquity became easily accessible for a large number of people, constituting a base for the later scientific and technical progresses) and after the discovery of the maritime ways to Asia and America. The transition from alchemy and astrology to chemistry and astronomy and the improvements in metallurgy happened later. The improvements in ship building had begun a little earlier, but the greatest progress was mostly later. Only the progresses in cathedral building had already happened many centuries earlier and the progress in firearms a couple of centuries earlier. In my opinion, the answer to the question "Why only in Europe did alchemy turn into chemistry?" is because only in Europe the printed books were available for making known to everybody the earlier alchemical works (e.g. by translations from Arabic) and then the progresses in alchemical experiments, until the 18th century during which the modern chemistry was created by the interchange of information between Swedish, French, British, German, Spanish etc. chemists. Without such an international network of scientists who were able to read very soon the printed results of the chemical research performed by their colleagues from other countries and then they could devise improved experiments for chemical investigations, the modern chemistry could not be created. If, instead of publishing immediately the results of their experiments, the 18th century chemists would have kept them secret, like most of the early alchemists, the modern chemistry could not have appeared.
- pfdietz 4y ago
  You should read "The Invention of Science", by David Wootton, which touches on these issues (and many others). https://www.amazon.com/Invention-Science-History-Scientific-Revolution/dp/006175952X/ https://www.amazon.com/Invention-Science-History-Scientific-...
Maursault 4y ago
> stirrups (using the weight of the horse with the rider) with spears Stirrups are not a European innovation but borrowed, probably from Asian invaders, and spread across Asia to Europe from China beginning in the late 6th century AD. China and Korea had stirrups for almost a millennia by then.

photochemsyn 4y ago

Well, Isaac Newton was also a dedicated alchemist who spent some time and energy on a search for the philosopher's stone (which in no way denigrates his other work on gravity, calculus, optics, etc.). That was pretty common thinking up through the late 18th century, when people like Lavoisier and Priestly revolutionized everything via careful quantitative measurements (and open publication, i.e. not keeping their work secret). Again, this was an area where Islamic civilization preservend and advanced on Roman-Greek knowledge during the European Dark Ages. There's also some interesting history regarding the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who apparently made a determined effort to wipe out the alchemists in the Empire because he believed they'd actually managed to make gold, and feared debasement of the currency or the funding of rebel armies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy_in_the_medieval_Islamic_world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy_in_the_medieval_Islami... I think this is a legitimate YT channel, here's a clip on the Diocletian persecution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG9Po7dlgUo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG9Po7dlgUo

qwytw 4y ago

The eastern empire was essentially destroyed by Venice in 1204. While they regained Constatinolpe, some territory in the Balkans and Anatolia, the empire never truly recovered. During the last 250 years of its existence it was a mere shadow of its former self. It never regained its status as the preeminent cultural and political power in the Christian world.

adrian_b 4y ago

Europe pulled ahead technologically in every way from antiquity only after 1500, i.e. after the introduction of the movable-type printing press (whose first effect was that most writings preserved from antiquity became easily accessible for a large number of people, constituting a base for the later scientific and technical progresses) and after the discovery of the maritime ways to Asia and America. The transition from alchemy and astrology to chemistry and astronomy and the improvements in metallurgy happened later. The improvements in ship building had begun a little earlier, but the greatest progress was mostly later. Only the progresses in cathedral building had already happened many centuries earlier and the progress in firearms a couple of centuries earlier. In my opinion, the answer to the question "Why only in Europe did alchemy turn into chemistry?" is because only in Europe the printed books were available for making known to everybody the earlier alchemical works (e.g. by translations from Arabic) and then the progresses in alchemical experiments, until the 18th century during which the modern chemistry was created by the interchange of information between Swedish, French, British, German, Spanish etc. chemists. Without such an international network of scientists who were able to read very soon the printed results of the chemical research performed by their colleagues from other countries and then they could devise improved experiments for chemical investigations, the modern chemistry could not be created. If, instead of publishing immediately the results of their experiments, the 18th century chemists would have kept them secret, like most of the early alchemists, the modern chemistry could not have appeared.

pfdietz 4y ago
You should read "The Invention of Science", by David Wootton, which touches on these issues (and many others). https://www.amazon.com/Invention-Science-History-Scientific-Revolution/dp/006175952X/ https://www.amazon.com/Invention-Science-History-Scientific-...

Maursault 4y ago

> stirrups (using the weight of the horse with the rider) with spears Stirrups are not a European innovation but borrowed, probably from Asian invaders, and spread across Asia to Europe from China beginning in the late 6th century AD. China and Korea had stirrups for almost a millennia by then.