Great Divergence

The Great Divergence, a term coined by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_P.Huntington" title="Samuel P. Huntington">Samuel Huntington</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Divergence#cite_note-FOOTNOTEFrank2001-3">[3]</a> (also known as the European miracle, a term coined by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Jones%28economic_historian%29" title="Eric Jones (economic historian)">Eric Jones</a> in 1981),<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Divergence#cite_note-FOOTNOTEJones2003-4">[4]</a> referring to the process by which the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world" title="Western world">Western world</a> (i.e. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Europe" title="Western Europe">Western Europe</a> and the parts of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World" title="New World">New World</a> where its people became the dominant populations) overcame pre-modern growth constraints and emerged during the 19th century as the most powerful and wealthy world <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization" title="Civilization">civilization</a> of all time, eclipsing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qing_Dynasty" class="mw-redirect" title="Qing Dynasty">Qing China</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mughal_Empire" title="Mughal Empire">Mughal India</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_shogunate" title="Tokugawa shogunate">Tokugawa Japan</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire" title="Ottoman Empire">Ottoman Empire</a>.

The process was accompanied and reinforced by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery" title="Age of Discovery">Age of Discovery</a> and the subsequent rise of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_empires" class="mw-redirect" title="Colonial empires">colonial empires</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment" title="Age of Enlightenment">Age of Enlightenment</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Revolution" title="Commercial Revolution">Commercial Revolution</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Revolution" class="mw-redirect" title="Scientific Revolution">Scientific Revolution</a> and finally the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution" title="Industrial Revolution">Industrial Revolution</a>. Scholars have proposed a wide variety of theories to explain why the Great Divergence happened, including geography, colonialism, resources, and customary traditions.

Great Divergence

Attachments