Great Divergence

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"A second group of arguments—evident in somewhat different ways in the work of Fernand Braudel, Immanuel Wallerstein, and K. N. Chaudhuri, and in a very different way in that of Douglass North—pays less attention to levels of wealth." --The Great Divergence

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The Great Divergence is a term made popular by Kenneth Pomeranz's book by that title, (also known as the European miracle, a term coined by Eric Jones in 1981) referring to the process by which the Western world (i.e. Western Europe and the parts of the New World 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 civilization, eclipsing Medieval India, Qing China, the Islamic World, Joseon Korea, and Tokugawa Japan.

Scholars have proposed a wide variety of theories to explain why the Great Divergence happened, including geography, culture, institutions, colonialism, resources, and "accidents of history". Scholars also trace back the beginning of the Great Divergence to different periods, with many tracing it back to the Industrial Revolution in 18th-century Britain, while others trace it back to earlier periods of Western history, such as the commercial revolution and the origins of mercantilism and capitalism during the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery, the rise of the European colonial empires, proto-globalization, the Scientific Revolution, or the Age of Enlightenment. The "traditional view", sometimes described as a near-consensus view, is that the Great Divergence occurred before the Industrial Revolution, with Western European states surpassing China, Japan and the Middle East by 1750. However, the "revisionist" view of the "California School" estimates that the divergence started around 1800 during the Industrial Revolution. In the twentieth century, the Great Divergence peaked before the First World War and continued until the early 1970s, then, after two decades of indeterminate fluctuations, in the late 1980s it was replaced by the Great Convergence as the majority of Third World countries reached economic growth rates significantly higher than those in most First World countries.

Technological advances, in areas such as railroads, steamboats, mining, and agriculture, were embraced to a higher degree in the West than the East during the Great Divergence. Technology led to increased industrialization and economic complexity in the areas of agriculture, trade, fuel and resources, further separating the East and the West. Western Europe's use of coal as an energy substitute for wood in the mid-19th century gave it a major head start in modern energy production.

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+"A second group of arguments—evident in somewhat different ways in the work of [[Fernand Braudel]], [[Immanuel Wallerstein]], and [[K. N. Chaudhuri]], and in a very different way in that of [[Douglass North]]—pays less attention to ''levels'' of wealth." --''[[The Great Divergence]]''
+|}
 {{Template}}
-:''[[Industrial society ]]''
+The '''Great Divergence''' is a term made popular by [[Kenneth Pomeranz]]'s book by that title, (also known as the '''European miracle''', a term coined by [[Eric Jones (economic historian)|Eric Jones]] in 1981) referring to the process by which the [[Western world]] (i.e. [[Western Europe]] and the parts of the [[New World]] 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 [[civilization]], eclipsing [[Medieval India]], [[Qing China]], the [[Islamic World]], [[Joseon Korea]], and [[Tokugawa shogunate|Tokugawa Japan]].
-===Western transformations===
-:''[[Great Divergence]]''
-====Reason and Enlightenment====
-:''[[Enlightenment]]''
-Traditionally, the European intellectual transformation of and after the Renaissance bridged the Middle Ages and the Modern era. The [[Age of Reason]] in the Western world is generally regarded as being the start of [[modern philosophy]], and a departure from the medieval approach, especially Scholasticism. Early 17th century philosophy is often called the Age of Rationalism and is considered to succeed Renaissance philosophy and precede the Age of Enlightenment, but some consider it as the earliest part of the Enlightenment era in philosophy, extending that era to two centuries. The 18th century saw the beginning of [[secularization]] in Europe, rising to notability in the wake of the [[French Revolution]].
-The [[Age of Enlightenment]] is a term used to describe a time in [[Western philosophy]] and cultural life centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority. Developing more or less simultaneously in many parts of Europe and America. Developing during the Enlightenment era, [[Renaissance humanism]] was an intellectual movement spread across Europe. The basic training of the humanist was to speak well and write (typically, in the form of a letter). The term ''umanista'' comes from the latter part of the 15th century. The people were associated with the ''[[studia humanitatis]]'', a novel curriculum that was competing with the ''[[quadrivium]]'' and [[scholastic logic]].
-Renaissance humanism took a close study of the Latin and Greek classical texts, and was antagonistic to the values of [[scholasticism]] with its emphasis on the accumulated commentaries; and humanists were involved in the sciences, philosophies, arts and poetry of classical antiquity. They self-consciously imitated [[classical Latin]] and deprecated the use of [[medieval Latin]]. By analogy with the perceived decline of Latin, they applied the principle of ''[[ad fontes]]'', or back to the sources, across broad areas of learning.
-The [[quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns]] was a [[literature|literary]] and artistic quarrel that heated up in the early 1690s and shook the [[Académie française]]. It opposed two sides, the Ancients (''Anciens'') who constrain choice of subjects to those drawn from the literature of [[Classical antiquity|Antiquity]] and the Moderns (''Modernes''), who supported the merits of the authors of the century of [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]]. [[Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle|Fontenelle]] quickly followed with his ''Digression sur les anciens et les modernes'' (1688), in which he took the Modern side, pressing the argument that modern scholarship allowed modern man to surpass the ancients in knowledge.
-====Scientific Revolution====
-:''[[Scientific Revolution]]''
-The [[Scientific Revolution]] was a period when European ideas in [[classical physics]], [[classical astronomy|astronomy]], [[classical biology|biology]], [[classical human anatomy|human anatomy]], [[classical chemistry|chemistry]], and other [[classical science]]s were rejected and led to doctrines supplanting those that had prevailed from [[Ancient Greece]] to the Middle Ages which would lead to a transition to [[modern science]]. This period saw a fundamental transformation in scientific ideas across [[physics]], [[astronomy]], and [[biology]], in institutions supporting [[scientific investigation]], and in the more [[worldview|widely held picture of the universe]]. Individuals started to question all manners of things and it was this questioning that led to the Scientific Revolution, which in turn formed the foundations of contemporary sciences and the establishment of several modern scientific fields.
-====American wars and revolution====
-The [[French and Indian Wars]] were a series of conflicts in North America that represented the actions there that accompanied the European dynastic wars. In Quebec, the wars are generally referred to as the Intercolonial Wars. While some conflicts involved Spanish and Dutch forces, all pitted Great Britain, its colonies and American Indian allies on one side and France, its colonies and Indian allies on the other.
-The expanding French and British colonies were contending for control of the western, or interior, territories. Whenever the European countries went to war, there were actions within and by these colonies although the dates of the conflict did not necessarily exactly coincide with those of the larger conflicts.
-Beginning in the Age of Revolution, the [[American Revolution]] and the ensuing political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century saw the Thirteen Colonies of North America overthrow the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and then reject the British monarchy itself to become the sovereign United States of America. In this period the colonies first rejected the authority of the Parliament to govern them without representation, and formed self-governing independent states. The Second Continental Congress then joined together against the British to defend that self-governance in the armed conflict from 1775 to 1783 known as the American Revolutionary War (also called American War of Independence).
-The American Revolution begun with fighting at Lexington and Concord. On July 4, 1776, they issued the Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed their independence from Great Britain and their formation of a cooperative union. In June, 1776, [[Benjamin Franklin]] was appointed a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the [[Declaration of Independence]]. Although he was temporarily disabled by gout and unable to attend most meetings of the Committee, Franklin made several small changes to the draft sent to him by [[Thomas Jefferson]].
-The rebellious states defeated Great Britain in the [[American Revolutionary War]], the first successful colonial war of independence. While the states had already rejected the governance of Parliament, through the Declaration the new United States now rejected the legitimacy of the monarchy to demand allegiance. The war raged for seven years, with effective American victory, followed by formal British abandonment of any claims to the United States with the Treaty of Paris.
-The [[Philadelphia Convention]] set up the current [[United States]]; the [[United States Constitution]] ratification the following year made the states part of a single republic with a strong central government. The [[Bill of Rights]], comprising ten constitutional amendments guaranteeing many fundamental civil rights and freedoms, was ratified in 1791.
-====The French Revolutions====
-:''[[French Revolution]]''
-Toward the middle and latter stages of the Age of Revolution, the [[French Revolution|French political and social revolutions]] and radical change saw the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy transform, change to forms based on Enlightenment principles of citizenship and inalienable rights. The first revolution was the [[National Assembly]], the second was the [[Legislative Assembly (France)|Legislative Assembly]], and the third was the [[French Directory|Directory]].
-The changes were accompanied by violent turmoil which included the trial and execution of the king, vast bloodshed and repression during the Reign of Terror, and warfare involving every other major European power. Subsequent events that can be traced to the Revolution include the Napoleonic Wars, two separate restorations of the monarchy, and two additional revolutions as modern France took shape. In the following century, France would be governed at one point or another as a republic, constitutional monarchy, and two different empires.
-===== National and Legislative Assembly=====
-:''[[National Assembly (French Revolution)]]''
+Scholars have proposed a wide variety of theories to explain why the Great Divergence happened, including geography, culture, institutions, [[colonialism]], resources, and "accidents of history". Scholars also trace back the beginning of the Great Divergence to different periods, with many tracing it back to the [[Industrial Revolution]] in 18th-century Britain, while others trace it back to earlier periods of Western history, such as the [[commercial revolution]] and the origins of [[mercantilism]] and [[capitalism]] during the [[Renaissance]] and the [[Age of Discovery]], the rise of the European [[colonial empires]], [[proto-globalization]], the [[Scientific Revolution]], or the [[Age of Enlightenment]]. The "traditional view", sometimes described as a near-[[Scientific consensus|consensus]] view, is that the Great Divergence occurred before the Industrial Revolution, with Western European states surpassing China, Japan and the Middle East by 1750. However, the "revisionist" view of the "California School" estimates that the divergence started around 1800 during the Industrial Revolution. In the twentieth century, the Great Divergence peaked before the First World War and continued until the early 1970s, then, after two decades of indeterminate fluctuations, in the late 1980s it was replaced by the Great Convergence as the majority of Third World countries reached economic growth rates significantly higher than those in most First World countries.
-During the French Revolution, the [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]], which existed from June 17 to July 9 of 1789, was a transitional body between the Estates-General and the National Constituent Assembly.
-The Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from October 1, 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.
+Technological advances, in areas such as [[railroads]], [[steamboats]], [[mining]], and [[agriculture]], were embraced to a higher degree in the West than the East during the Great Divergence. Technology led to increased industrialization and economic complexity in the areas of agriculture, trade, fuel and resources, further separating the East and the West. Western Europe's use of [[coal]] as an energy substitute for wood in the mid-19th century gave it a major head start in modern energy production.
-===== The Directory and Napoleonic Era=====
+==See also==
+* [[Colonial empire]]
+* [[Western empires]]
+* [[Modern history]]
+* [[History of Western civilization]]
+* [[Textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution]]
+* [[Economic history of China (pre-1911)]]
+* [[Joseph Needham]]
+* [[Eurocentrism]]
-:''[[Napoleonic Era]]''
+===Books===
-The [[French Directory|Executive Directory]] was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate. The period of this regime (2 November 1795 until 10 November 1799), commonly known as the Directory (or Directoire) era, constitutes the second to last stage of the French Revolution.
-The Napoleonic Era is a period in the [[History of France]] and Europe. It is generally classified as the fourth stage of the French Revolution. The Napoleonic Era begins roughly with [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]]'s [[coup d'état]], overthrowing the Directory and ends at the [[Hundred Days]] and his defeat at [[Waterloo, Belgium|Waterloo]] (November 9, 1799 – June 28, 1815).  The congress of Vienna soon set out to restore Europe to pre-French revolution days.
+* ''[[A Farewell to Alms]]''
+* ''[[Roy Bin Wong#Before and Beyond Divergence|Before and Beyond Divergence]]
+* ''[[The Clash of Civilizations]]''
+* ''[[Niall Ferguson#Civilization|Civilization: The West and the Rest]]''
+* ''[[The Civilizing Process]]''
+* ''[[The European Miracle]]''
+* ''[[Leonid Grinin#Great Divergence and Great Convergence|Great Divergence and Great Convergence]]''
+* ''[[Kenneth Pomeranz#The Great divergence: China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy|The Great divergence: China, Europe, and the making of the modern world economy]]
+* ''[[Guns, Germs, and Steel]]''
+* ''[[The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers]]''
+* ''[[The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community]]''
+* ''[[The Wealth and Poverty of Nations]]''
+* ''[[Why the West Rules—For Now]]''
+* ''[[The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation]]''
-==== Italian unification====
-[[Italian unification]] was the political and social movement that annexed different states of the [[Italian peninsula]] into the single state of [[Italy]] in the 19th century. There is a lack of consensus on the exact dates for the beginning and the end of this period, but many scholars agree that the process began with the end of Napoleonic rule and the [[Congress of Vienna]] in 1815, and approximately ended with the [[Franco-Prussian War]] in 1871, though the last ''[[Italia irredenta|città irredente]]'' did not join the [[Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)|Kingdom of Italy]] until after [[World War I]].
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Great Divergence

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