Introduction

The dramatic economic rise of the European states in the last few centuries and their nearly absolute global political dominance in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has often been referred to as ‘the European miracle’ (Jones 1987). Although historical sociologists generally agree that after lagging behind for a long period of time Europe suddenly surged ahead of Asia and other continents, there is no agreement as to when, how and why this happened. There are basically two contrasting views of this development which, for the sake of simplicity, can be termed ‘Europeanist’ and ‘non-Europeanist’. Europeanists (Hall 1985; Mann 1986; Jones 1987; Gellner 1988a) argue that the fundamental breakthrough to modernity emerged only in pre-industrial Western Europe and was deeply rooted in the continent's unique geographical, demographic, ecological and geopolitical position. In contrast, non-Europeanists (Pomeranz 2000; Goldstone 2002; Hobson 2004; Darwin 2008) see this rise as occurring much later (nineteenth century) and link it primarily to the birth of the industrial revolution, the incidental availability of cheap and abundant coal reserves in Britain and the acquisition of essential resources from the New World colonies. Europeanists stress the internal sources of this transformation, such as the relatively unique multipolar system of competitive states that encouraged the growth of civil society and hence limited rulers' despotic powers. In contrast non-Europeanists attribute more importance to external causes such as the exploitative character of European imperialism and colonialism.