Course Description

Instructor: Esteban Bertera

Almost 2000 years ago, the West (Europe) and the East (China) started divergent paths of economic development. This ended with a nearly total world domination by the West. It could have gone different. The question we will try to answer is “Why?�. We will trace the process in each of its stages and try to identify key bifurcation points in history where outcomes were critically different. From the Fall of the Roman Empire (and the Han Empire that did not fall) through the unique European feudalism, then the great colonial expansion of early modern times, all the way to final act, the Industrial Revolution. It could have gone the other way and lets try to see why it did not.