Addenda: For those wondering why I put so much emphasis on Needham when China didn't spark the IR, it's both a good bad example in that China developed one hec

Addenda: For those wondering why I put so much emphasis on Needham when China didn't spark the IR, it's both a good bad example in that China developed one heck of a lot of technology we'd consider essential (printing, papermaking, compass, gunpowder, deep drilling, natural gas distribution, just to name six), without launching a mechanical and steam-powered industrial boom, and contributed many of those technologies to the West over the years. Francis Bacon noted the Four Great Inventions specifically of the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing, see: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Inventions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Inventions>. The clear lesson is that technological capacity and determinism alone don't explain the IR. While I'm adding points: it's often been noted that Great Britain's geography, being a large island adjacent to a larger continent, afforded distinct advantages. In which case it's interesting to note similar geographies which did not similarly launch industrial societies, most notably Japan, but also, say, Madagascar, Cuba, Sri Lanka, the Indonesian archipelago, and New Zealand (at a stretch). The island of Great Britain is very close to the European mainland (~30 km / 20 miles at the narrowest point of the Channel), closer than any of the alternatives but still far enough to make an invasion highly unlikely. The geography is sedimentary / metamorphic rather than igneous, which translates to major fossil fuel deposits on and nearby (coal onland, oil and gas offshore, though the latter weren't developed until the 1970s). The situation generally leads to a stable political situation (as with Japan). The proximity and existence of capable polities and cultures on the mainland led to extensive commerce and intellectual exchange. Cuba, Madagascar, and New Zealand all lacked the latter. (I've not thought much on Sri Lanka and Indonesia though those should also give interesting insights.)