European miracle
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The term European miracle was coined by Eric Jones in his 1981 The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia to refer to the sudden rise of Europe from comparatively backward origins during the Middle Ages. Ahead of more promising competitors from the Islamic and Chinese civilisations, Europe steadily rose since the Early Modern period to a complete domination of world trade and politics that remained unchallenged until the early 20th century. This process started with the first European contacts and subsequent colonisation of great expanses of the world. Industrialisation and the development of capitalism further reinforced it.
It is closely related to the idea of the Great divergence, which rather than on the origins of the rise of Europe during the Renaissance focusses on the culmination of the process in the 18th century and the subsequent "imperial century" of Britain.
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[edit] Eric Jones
Jones aims at providing an answer to the question of "Why did modern states and economies develop first in the peripheral and late-coming culture of Europe?" Jones attempts to argue a concatenation of various factors, in particular the interplay of natural and economic factors which have worked to Europe's advantage and to the disadvantage of its Asian competitors.
During the Middle Ages, European culture was clearly less advanced than either that of the Islamic world or that of the Chinese empire. More than half of the world's population living in urban settlements (over 10,000 people) lived in China during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The voyages of Zheng He support the claim that Chinese Junks were more advanced than European ships of the time. Cities like ancient Malacca had sea trade routes which stretched as far as North Africa. In his book The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation, author John M. Hobson asserts that Europe actually imitated the pioneering inventions made by The Middle East, Egypt, India, and China.
Jones' theories can be seen[who?] as building on the work of earlier thinkers such as Max Weber, Immanuel Wallerstein, Georg Hegel, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx. Weber's idea of the Protestant work ethic and Hegel's Spirit were certainly influential.[citation needed] Wallerstein's idea of a world-economy and world-system originating in Europe also comes through in European miracle theory.
The idea of a unique European family structure is also a central tenet of the European miracle theory.[citation needed] Purportedly, the European family was nuclear, women married late, and had few children. Europe understood how to control their population while the rest of the world, to quote Jones, "multiplied insensately." This meant that Europe was not vulnerable to Malthusian Crises and therefore able to form a progressive, capitalist society.
Urbanization is also adduced as a factor. Crucially, these cities were also semi-autonomous, especially the Italian city-states. The growth of banking, accounting and general financial infrastructure in such cities is seen as unique and vital to the rise of Europe.
[edit] Reception
Jones' 1981 study is one of the most influential books dedicated to the question of European exceptionalism. Some historians, in particular of the "California school" have felt that Jones has over-stated the degree of difference between Europe and non-European regions on the eve of the Industrial Revolution.
The attention attracted by the book has also resulted in making it "into the whipping boy of those who have resented what they viewed as historiographical triumphalism, eurocentricity, and even racism." (Joel Mokyr, The Enduring Riddle of the European Miracle 2002[1]) It has been attacked by thinkers such as James Blaut, Andre Gunder Frank, Kenneth Pomeranz, and John M. Hobson. They accuse Jones of Eurocentrism and "cultural racism" (Blaut's term[page needed]).
[edit] Editions
- Jones, Eric (1981). The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-52783-X.
- Jones, Eric (1987). The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521336703.
- Jones, Eric (2003). The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521527835.
[edit] References
- Blaut, James (2000). Eight Eurocentric Historians. ISBN 1-57230-591-6.
- Blaut, James (1993). The Colonizer's Model of the World. ISBN 0-89862-348-0.
- Farmer, Paul (2003). Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor. ISBN 0-520-23550-9.
- Frank, Andre (1998). Reorient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. ISBN 0-520-21474-9.
- Hobson, John (2004). The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521547246. http://www.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521547245.
- Pomeranz, Kenneth (2001). Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. ISBN 0-691-09010-6.
- Kennedy, Paul (1988). The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. ISBN 0-679-72019-7.
