In the three preceding chapters, I narrated essentially a single story. It concerned the history of a single “society,” Europe. It also had two central themes: First, how do we explain European dynamism? Second, what have been the relationships between political and economic power organizations, between states and capitalism, in this dynamic process? We can now conclude our discussion of both themes.

The European dynamic

In the mid-twelfth century, Europe consisted of a multiple, acephalous federation of villages manors, and small states, bound loosely together by the normative pacification of Christendom. It was already the most agriculturally inventive civilization seen since the Iron Age had begun. Yet its dynamism was buried within intensive, local power networks. In extensive and in military and geopolitical terms it was not yet powerful, and it was not much noticed by the world outside. By 1815 the dynamism had exploded outward upon the world, and it was obvious that this particular civilization was the most powerful, both intensively and extensively, that the world had seen. The last three chapters described and attempted to explain this prolonged surge to power. They argued that the early agricultural dynamic within a framework of normative pacification became harnessed to three more extensive power networks: (1) capitalism; (2) the modern, organic state; and (3) a competitive, diplomatically regulated multistate civilization in which the state was embedded.

The dynamic, unlike the Industrial Revolution in which it culminated, was not sudden, discontinuous, or qualitative. It was a long-drawn-out, cumulative, and perhaps somewhat unsteady process, but nevertheless a process rather than an event, lasting for six, seven, or even eight centuries.