Something Went Very Wrong With Human History

The show is on Spotify! 👉https://open.spotify.com/show/7GlXSYMoOpcw41YGRCpjJB?si=cc2e479ee34d4167 A thousand years ago, almost nobody would have bet on Europe. China was richer, more advanced and more powerful. So how did a poor, divided backwater end up dominating the world? This is the strange story of Europe’s unlikely rise, and the accidental advantage that may have changed history forever... Join my Substack, where the ideas go further than YouTube lets me take them: https://michaelbutton.substack.com/ Follow the show on Spotify! 👉 https://open.spotify.com/show/7GlXSYMoOpcw41YGRCpjJB?si=cc2e479ee34d4167 Let me know what you think in the comments, and thank you for watching!! Follow me on X: https://x.com/MichaelButtonX Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelbuttonx/ Sources: http://www.fabricsilkroad.co.uk/journey/hangzhou-the-city-of-heaven-the-most-beautiful-and-magnificent-in-the-world-marco-polo-1254-1324 https://grokipedia.com/page/timeline_of_hangzhou https://www.hsm.ox.ac.uk/files/courtauldexhibitionevacontenttradeideaexchange012pdf https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20240107-the-travels-of-marco-polo-the-true-story-of-a-14th-century-bestseller https://www.livescience.com/27513-marco-polo.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_dynasty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Great_Inventions https://elon.io/learn-world-history-2/lesson/4.1.2-islamic-trade-networks https://www.sloughislamictrust.org.uk/dictionary/meaning/library-of-cordoba-history/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India#Medieval_India:~:text=The%20gross%20domestic%20product%20(GDP)%20of%20ancient%20India%20was%20estimated%20to%20be%2032%25%20and%2028%25%20of%20global%20GDP%20in%201%20AD%20and%201000%20AD%2C%20respectively https://akshonline.com/realm-of-indian-cotton-a-thread-through-history/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Verdun https://www.thecollector.com/neither-holy-roman-empire-voltaire/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_European_Miracle https://classics.stanford.edu/publications/escape-rome-failure-empire-and-road-prosperity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyages_of_Christopher_Columbus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Talavera https://herhalfofhistory.com/2025/01/16/14-4-isabella-i-sponsor-of-columbus/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He https://mingdynastyhistory.com/zheng-he-7-voyages-timeline/ https://www.thoughtco.com/the-seven-voyages-of-the-treasure-fleet-195215 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_dynasty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongol_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Gutenberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_spread_of_the_printing_press https://landmarkevents.org/francis-i-bans-the-publishing-of-books-1535/ https://www.huguenotsociety.org.uk/history.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Potsdam https://tontinecoffeehouse.com/2025/03/10/king-philip-iis-default-of-1557/ https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-european-rats-have-been-innocent-this-whole-time/ https://faculty.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/papers/wage%20-%20jpe%20-2004.pdf https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/why-england-expanded-coal-and-iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Divergence_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_East_India_Company https://ehs.org.uk/how-the-bank-of-england-assisted-in-the-formation-of-a-fiscal-military-state-in-britain/ https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-institutional-economics/article/culture-and-institutions-a-review-of-joel-mokyrs-a-culture-of-growth/7DAD8E5A84C45F8E0723D0E04AA5B32F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair https://vpostrel.substack.com/p/from-the-archives-joel-mokyr-on-the https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2017/01/stanford-historian-uncovers-grim-correlation-violence-inequality-millennia