Andrew Marr looks at why it is that German chancellor Angela Merkel is making such a profound mark on the lives of everyone in Europe, on the eve of her visit to the UK. Europe has built up an economic union but not a defence union. Being dominated for centuries has led to lingering inequality and long-lasting effects in many formerly colonized countries, including poverty and slow economic growth. The Chinese invited the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa. Caltech's Philip Hoffman, the Rea A. and Lela G. Axline Professor of Business Economics and professor of history, has a new explanation: the advancement of gunpowder technology. And all of this describes Europe. Many theories purport to … Legal integration is increasing, and European Court verdicts have compelled member countries to change policies. Why was the pope a powerful figure in medieval Europe? Instead, European governments (and the IMF) had to organize a $925 million rescue program to try to restore market confidence, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that if the Euro fails, “then not only the currency fails…Europe will fail, and with it the idea of European unity.”[i]. Many of the conquering European kingdoms were extremely powerful and unified, and any with a lack of manpower (Portugal and the Dutch) made up for it with relative wealth. This rivalry between different countries encouraged invention. The European Union is economically 12 times larger than Russia; it is a huge potential power. [iv]  Marcus Walker, “EU Sees Dreams of Power Wane as ‘G-2’ Rises,” Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2010. I've also been interested in the development of tax systems. Instead, European governments (and the IMF) had to organize a $925 million rescue program to try to restore market confidence, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that if the Euro fails, “then not only the currency fails…Europe will fail, and with it the idea of European unity.”, Over the decades Europe has seen alternations between excessive optimism and bouts of “Euro-pessimism” such as the current period. This advantage endures even today!! If you think about it, you realize that advancements in gunpowder technology—which are important for conquest—arise where political leaders fight using that technology, where they spend huge sums on it, and where they're able to share the resulting advances in that technology. Over the years I've been interested in a number of different things, and this new work puts together a lot of bits of my research. In either case, you'll still be spending money on the military and on military research. How is your theory different? So more spending would not only mean greater odds of victory over an enemy, but more rapid change in military technology. Hoffman's work is published in a new book titled Why Did Europe Conquer the World? Although the American economy is four times larger than Germany’s, the total economy of the European Union is slightly larger than that of the U.S. in purchasing power parity, and Europe’s  population of nearly 500 million is considerably larger than America’s 300 million. And the more that the political leaders spend, the better their chances of defeating other leaders and, in the long run, of dominating the other cultures. But in an increasingly networked and interdependent world, it has become the global standard.”  [vi]  As the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations put it, “the conventional wisdom is that Europe’s hour has come and gone. How did this work? Instead, the Catholic Church began to grow in power and influence, eventually becoming the dominant power in Europe (although this was not without struggle). This season, the Premier League is fulfilling Mourinho’s words and proving just why it has a greater appeal than the other leagues. Joseph Nye is a Harvard University Distinguished Services Professor, and a former chair of the US National Intelligence Council. [vii]  Mark Leonard, Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century (London:  Fourth Estate, 2005), p. 2. The charts that show why Italy matters so much to Europe. The political dominance of western Europe was an unexpected outcome and had really big consequences, so I thought: let's explain it. There's a reason central Europe removed so many of it's mixed coniferous forests with coniferous monocultures. For that to happen, the countries have to be small and close to one another. So trade was an important incentive for the Europeans to seek colonies abroad. Medieval Europe: Europe's medieval period lasted from the fall of Rome in the 5th century to the spread of the Renaissance in the 15th century. She will go down in German and European history as a leader with a huge amount of staying power at the ve… In terms of economic power, Europe has the world’s largest market, and represents 17 per cent of world trade compared to 12 per cent for the U.S., and Europe dispenses half of the world’s foreign assistance compared to 20 per cent for the U.S. None of this is to belittle European institutions and what they have accomplished. Although the American economy is four times larger than Germany’s, the total economy of the European Union is slightly larger than that of the U.S. in purchasing power parity, and Europe’s  population of nearly 500 million is considerably larger than America’s 300 million. Speaking of … The Industrial Revolution Accelerated This Prosperity By Making Europeans & Then Americans Richer! While you think Rome is powerful, they also lost a significant number of battles. The United States spends 2.7 per cent –twice as much as Europe – on universities and R&D. Originally Answered: Why did the European countries become so powerful? The more they spent, the more chances they had to improve their military technology through trial and error while fighting wars. As The Economist noted, “talk of Europe’s relative decline seems to be everywhere just now….You may hear glum figures about Europe’s future weight and with some reason. As one journalist reported in 2010, “this year, the 27 nation European Union was supposed to come of age as an actor on the world stage, bolstered by the Lisbon Treaty, which streamlines the EU’s cumbersome institutions. Rome lost to the Pyrrhus, the Mithridates, and in the Hannibal wars. What were the politics and the political context of the economy that resulted in this ability to tax? Exploring why that may be so, ... Russia is powerful because Europe grants that power to Russia. [ii] The enlargement of the European Union to include 27 states (with more to come) means that European institutions are likely to remain sui generis, and unlikely to produce a strong federal Europe or a single state. The Chinese invented gunpowder, but Hoffman, whose work applies economic theory to historical contexts, argues that certain political and economic circumstances allowed the Europeans to advance gunpowder technology at an unprecedented rate—allowing a relatively small number of people to quickly take over much of the rest of the globe. Finally, and this is my most important point, Russia is powerful because Europe grants that power to Russia. It was the wealthiest and most military powerful empire in the Muslim world. At the cultural level, Americans and Europeans have sniped at and admired each other for more than two centuries. Another explanation, described in Jared Diamond's famous book [Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies], is disease. Many of the conquering European kingdoms were extremely powerful and unified, and any with a lack of manpower (Portugal and the Dutch) made up for it with relative wealth. The National Intelligence Council report foresees a Europe in 2050 that will be “a hobbled giant distracted by internal bickering and competing national agendas”. They were able to exploit the feuds of the Americans, Africans, Muslims and Asians in order to conduct deals, gaining them land and increasing their influence slowly. By 2060, it may account for just 6% – and almost a third of these will be more than 65 years old.”[v]  Europe does face severe demographic problems, but size of population is not highly correlated with power, and “predictions of Europe’s downfall have a long history of failing to materialize.” In the 1980s, analysts spoke of  Euro-sclerosis and a crippling malaise, but in the ensuing decades Europe showed impressive growth and institutional development. The European Union is economically 12 times larger than Russia; a huge potential power. On questions of trade and influence within the World Trade Organization, Europe is the equal of the United States and able to balance American power. The key question in assessing Europe’s resources is whether Europe will develop enough political and social-cultural cohesion to act as one on a wide range of international issues, or whether it will remain a limited grouping of countries with strongly different nationalisms and foreign policies. All Europeans (except after the Orthodox Schism) payed tithes to him and homage so he could grant them favour with God. Thus Europeans ended up with superior, more powerful navies. #1 What were the 3 reasons why the Catholic church became so powerful in medieval Europe ? In soft power, European cultures have long had a wide appeal in the rest of the world, and the sense of a Europe uniting around Brussels has had a strong attraction for its neighbors. [v]  Charlemagne, “Lessons from ‘The Leopard’”, The Economist, December 12, 2009, p. 61. Gunpowder was really important for conquering territory; it allows a small number of people to exercise a lot of influence. In soft power, European cultures have long had a wide appeal in the rest of the world, and the sense of a Europe uniting around Brussels has had a strong attraction for its neighbors. This led to the Voyages of Discovery by the Spanish Conquistadors and Portuguese explorers like Vasco de Gama and Prince Henry the Navigator. But something like the smallpox epidemic that ravaged Mexico when the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés overthrew the Aztec Empire just isn't the whole story of Cortés's victory or of Europe's successful colonization of other parts of the world. Second most powerful based on alot more than military capabilities, keep in mind this not saying second most powerful military as we all know while we would fit in the top 10 2 would be pushing it. Such enemies existed in the past—they were fighting for glory on the battlefield or victory over an enemy of the faith—and one could argue that they pose a threat today as well. [vi]  Stefan Theil, “The Modest Superpower,” Newsweek, November 16, 2009, p. 41. You can compare this with the ossified empires of China and the Ottomans, which were large and powerful and had no rivals in the age when small European states were struggling constantly against one another. That meeting and Europe’s absence was the ‘seminal image’ of 2009.”[iv]  Moreover, after the 2008 financial crisis, the fiscal problems of several EU members, particularly Greece, exposed the limits of fiscal integration in the Eurozone and  raised questions about  role of the Euro. [x]  Robert D. Blackwill, The Future of Transatlantic Relations (New York:  Council on Foreign Relations, 1999). The creation of the European Monetary Union and the launching of the Euro at the beginning of 1999 made Europe’s role in monetary affairs and the International Monetary Fund nearly equal to that of the U.S. (though the 2010 crisis over Greek debt dented confidence in the Euro.) Then you can bargain with your enemies to divvy up whatever you disagree about and you can have something like peace. On anti-trust issues, the size and attraction of the European market has meant that American firms seeking to merge have had to seek approval from the European Commission as well as the U.S. Justice Department. The Celts were a people living in large parts of Europe during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. For example, if I am fighting you and you figure out a better way to build an armed ship, I can imitate you. Most other terrains also decrease combad with, making your numerical advantage even worthless. On the other hand, legislative and executive branch integration has lagged, and while Europe has created a president and a central figure for foreign relations, the integration of foreign and defense policy is still limited. That comes down to the political costs of raising revenue and a leader's ability to tax. __________________________________________________________, The closest thing to an equal that the United States faces at the beginning of the 21st century is the European Union. Andrew Moravcsik, “Europe:  The Quiet Superpower,”, Regarding Pro Wrestling, North America will remain as a super power! Europe has built up an economic union but not a defence union. Pines and the like just shoot straight up into the sky, making them extremely easy to work with. A: When the Turks closed off the routes to India, it forced European powers to find an alternative route. One of the reasons for doing so was to fulfill economic needs. So that's not the answer—it's something else. In 1914, really only China, Japan, and the Ottoman Empire had escaped becoming European colonies. Disease can't explain, for example, the colonization of India, because people in southeast Asia had the same immunity to disease that the Europeans did. Until the Spring crisis of 2010 when fiscal problems in Greece and elsewhere created anxiety in financial markets, many economists speculated that the Euro might some day replace the dollar as the world’s primary reserve  currency. Angela Merkel is now into her third term in office, and it has a historical dimension – not just because she is at the xenith of her power, but because Konrad Adenauer is the only chancellor before her to have had such a strong standing after a similar amount of time in office. A thousand years ago, no one would have ever expected that result, for at that point western Europe was hopelessly backward. Insofar as the term retains any meaning, the world is bipolar , and is likely to remain so over the foreseeable future.” The pessimistic prognosis  is based on a 19th century realist view in which “power is linked to the relative share of aggregate global resources and countries are engaged in constant zero-sum rivalry. It is also true that American consumers can benefit from European efforts to raise standards in anti-trust actions or internet privacy. This is an exclusive excerpt from Joseph Nye’s forthcoming book, The Future of Power. It is also true that American consumers can benefit from European efforts to raise standards in anti-trust actions or internet privacy. It was the wealthiest and most military powerful empire in the Muslim world. To many Americans (for example) Europe is the ultimate travel experience. More than a third of trade occurs within transnational corporations. Nor is economic divorce likely. Some other nations in other regions were more secure at the time which made them not have to … You can think of that as being much like a baseball team that hires better players to win more games, but in this case, instead of coaches, it's political leaders and instead of games there are wars. One big factor that's important to the advancement of any defense technology is how much money a political leader can spend. 406-7. In the cyber world, the EU is setting the global standards for privacy protection. [x] Power struggles over conflicting interests are likely to remain at a more mundane level. Its lack of vision, divisions, obsession with legal frameworks, unwillingness to project military power, and sclerotic economy are contrasted with a United States more dominant even than Rome…But the problem is not Europe – it is our outdated understanding of power.”[vii]. I'd given it to him because the use of this technology is related to politics and fiscal systems and taxes, and as he was reading it, he noted that the book did not give the ultimate cause of why Europe in particular was so successful. The reason European countries wanted more colonies was that colonies helped countries accumulate wealth and … But if Europe and America remain loosely allied or even neutral, these resources could reinforce each other . Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt came close, but neither were in as strong a position as she is at such a late stage in their chancellorships. Predictions of European decline rely on an outmoded understanding of power. The political dominance of western Europe was an unexpected outcome and had really big consequences, so I thought: let's explain it. The Celts are a mysterious people who played a very important role in the history of ancient Europe. What kinds of factors are included in this model? The Catholic Church's power in the Middle Ages was primarily derived from a combination of belief, money and illiteracy. And on issues that require power with rather than over others, the Europeans have impressive capacity. It started after I gave an undergraduate here a book to read about gunpowder technology, how it was invented in China and used in Japan and Southeast Asia, and how the Europeans got very good at using it, which fed into their successful conquests. The book also reminds us that in a world where there are hostile powers, we really don't want to get rid of spending on improving military technology. These heavy, strong, canon-wielding ships were far superior in clout than anything the other powers could come up with. More than 20 years ago, Germany made a sacrifice for Europe at Maastricht when it agreed to put the deutschmark to the sword so that another currency could be born. Those improvements can help at times when wars are necessary—for instance, when we are fighting against enemies with whom we cannot negotiate. Soft power and hard power are very different, hence why the UK can beat out the US in the former. You have been on the Caltech faculty for more than 30 years. Was the Roman Empire so powerful? Countries become powerful because they have energetic people and economic and political systems that work. The Catholic Church put forth the belief that people could only get to heaven through the Church. In the very successful countries, the leaders could impose very heavy taxes and spend huge sums on war. The European Union is economically 12 times larger than Russia; a huge potential power. Moreover, while trade inevitably produces some degree of friction in the domestic politics of democracies, it is a game from which both sides can profit if there is a will to cooperate, and U.S.-European trade is more balanced than U.S. trade with Asia. I absolutely love travelling to exotic and far-flung destinations, but a few of my recent trips (Dublin and Barcelona) have reminded me how amazingly fortunate I am to live in a country that is so close to so many other countries. The pope was the most powerful man in Medieval Europe because he was ( to Europeans) the only medium between God and Man. In 1900, Europe accounted for a quarter of the world’s population. After the fall of the Roman empire in the fifth century, there was something of a power vacuum in Europe: no monarchy rose to fill the space left. The political scientist Andrew Moravcsik makes a similar argument that European nations, singly and collectively, are the only states other than the U.S. able to “exert global influence across the full spectrum from ‘hard’ to ‘soft’ power. American per capita income is higher than that of the EU, because a number of the new entrants into the European Union were poorer than the original West European core countries, but in terms of human capital, technology, and exports, Europe is very much a peer competitor for the United States. You'll still need to back up the peace with armed forces, but you won't actually fight all that much, and that's a much better outcome. For example, how did states get the ability to impose heavy taxes? The … They competed more with each other through war, which meant that they were forced to develop better technologies that helped. At the same time, Europe faces significant limits on its degree of unity. Or, that when Europeans began to travel the world, people in other countries did not have the immunity to fight off the diseases they brought with them. The BBC's Andrew Marr looks at why it is that Ms Merkel is making such a profound mark on the lives of people in Europe. The History Of European Colonization Of The Americas Sometime during the 11th century was the first of many European colonization endeavors. [viii]  Andrew Moravcsik, “Europe:  The Quiet Superpower,” French Politics 7, 3 (Sep/Dec 2009), pp. And despite the frictions between parts of Europe and the George W. Bush administration, Barack Obama became almost a cult figure in his popularity in much of Europe. European seas are stormy, dangerous waters and to survive them, the ships need to be heavy and strong - which meant they were always strong enough to carry canons. Are there any overarching themes to your work? They were able to exploit the feuds of the Americans, Africans, Muslims and Asians in order to conduct deals, gaining them land and increasing their influence slowly. I wish we did live in that world, but unfortunately it's not realistic. In brief, Europe’s political fragmentation spurred productive competition. For example, that Europe became industrialized more quickly and therefore became wealthier than the rest of the world. Instead, Europe is starting to look like the loser in a new geopolitical order dominated by the U.S. and emerging powers led by China….No Europeans were invited when U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held the make-or-break meeting on Dec. 18 that brokered the modest Copenhagen accord. I've looked at changes in technology that influence agriculture, and I've studied the development of financial markets, and in between those two, I was also studying why financial crises occur. [ii] Pippa Norris, “Global Governance and Cosmopolitan Citizens,” in Nye and Donahue, eds., Governance in a Globalizing World (Washington, D.C.:  Brookings Institution, 2000), p. 157. In the words of Lord Patten, a former member of the European Commission, “unlike the US we do not matter everywhere.”[iii]. Europe has built up an economic union but not a defence union. So it is easier to succeed. [ix] “Weathering the Storm,” The Economist, September 9, 2000, p. 23. This led to the Voyages of Discovery by the … Ruthless Colonial Exploitation & Expansion Gave Europe Prosperity! Roman Empire. [i] Ralph Atkins, “State of the union,” Financial Times, June 1, 2010. Instead, Europe is starting to look like the loser in a new geopolitical order dominated by the U.S. and emerging powers led by China….No Europeans were invited when U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held the make-or-break meeting on Dec. 18 that brokered the modest Copenhagen accord. Tens of thousands of troops have been deployed outside of home countries in Sierra Leone, Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. In this article we take in-depth look at the people of Central and Northern Europe and examine facts and history about the Celts. Why Angela Merkel is the world's most powerful woman WHEN the Berlin Wall was torn down by the East German people, Angela Merkel, a scientist who lived in … A: When the Turks closed off the routes to India, it forced European powers to find an alternative route. [viii]  Moreover, as he points out, Europe is the world’s second military power with 21 per cent of the world’s military spending compared to 5 per cent for China, three per cent for Russia,  two percent for India, and 1.5 percent for Brazil. Pines and the like just shoot straight up into the sky, making them extremely easy to work with. Saxons & Vikings & the Dutch, French and German Empires ect are all Europeans and claimed much islands and colony's to gain recourse's to build their empires from their neighbouring powerful nations. They were well organized, came from the wealthiest families and well educated. It meant that European rulers found themselves competing for the best and most productive intellectuals and artisans. It was politically weak, it was poor, and the major long-distance commerce was a slave trade led by Vikings. Although Europe represents only about 8 percent of the planet's landmass, from 1492 to 1914, Europeans conquered or colonized more than 80 percent of the entire world. Finally, and this is my most important point, Russia is powerful because Europe grants that power to Russia. The British Empire. We spoke with him recently about his research interests and what led him to study this particular topic. The political dominance of western Europe was an unexpected outcome and had really big consequences, so I thought: let's explain it. American per capita income is higher than that of the EU, because a number of the new entrants into the European Union were poorer than the original West European core countries, but in terms of human capital, technology, and exports, Europe is very much a peer competitor for the United States. I suppose an element of this is due to the fact that they are long-haul destinations for them (anywhere far away is bound to be more exciting and exotic) but the Yanks are on to something, Europe really is the most romantic continent on earth. The pope was the most powerful man in Medieval Europe because he was ( to Europeans) the only medium between God and Man. For all the complaints about Hollywood films or McDonald’s, no one forces Europeans to eat there, though millions do each year. The European Countries are powerful because they've got a strong culture and a large amount of People. A d100 is rolled and then modified by the maneuver of the leading general on each side to determine the terrain, you can be in for some nasty surpises if you attack high maneuver generals. There's a reason central Europe removed so many of it's mixed coniferous forests with coniferous monocultures. Religion: one major reason why Europe's labor unions are so powerful By The Wilson Quarterly Why do 70% of European workers have collective bargaining, while only 13% of their US counterparts do? Before 1800, Europe had already taken over at least 35 percent of the world, but Britain was just beginning to industrialize. It's just fascinating. The economic model then connected that spending to changes in military technology. In terms of relative power, if the EU endeavored to become a global challenger to the United States in a traditional realist balance of power, these assets might counter American power. In some ways, the inevitable frictions between the two continents show a closeness rather than a distance. Over the decades Europe has seen alternations between excessive optimism and bouts of “Euro-pessimism” such as the current period. What made you turn to the idea of gunpowder technology as an explanation? The technology grew to include more than just guns: armed ships, fortifications that can resist artillery, and more, and the Europeans became the best at using these things. Greek Empire. European countries engaged in imperialism for various reasons. The answer varies with different issues. Unfortunately, they seem to have a relatively short … In some ways, the inevitable frictions between the two continents show a closeness rather than a distance. And in a larger sense, Americans and Europeans share the values of democracy and human rights more with each other than with other regions of the world. Europeans grew wealthy as a result of easy access to American resources. century is the European Union. They were well organized, came from the wealthiest families and well educated. Europeans have also been important pioneers and played central roles in international institutions. Insofar as the term retains any meaning, the world is. This is the beauty of Europe, and these are endless reasons why why Europe is the best continent in the world. But even while doing so, these countries defeated powerful empires, the Aztecs of Mexico, the Moors in Southern Spain, the Mughals of India, the Ottomans of Turkey. My idea incorporates the model of a contest or a tournament where your odds of winning are higher if you spend more resources on fighting. National identities remain stronger than a common European identity, despite six decades of integration, and national interests, while subdued in comparison to the past, still matter. One lesson the book teaches is that actions involving war, foreign policy, and military spending can have big, long-lasting consequences: this is a lesson that policy makers should never forget. The economic historian Eric L Jones called this ‘the States system’. The uk does have a massive global reach far beyond its military, culture language law and more plus close ties with a wide selection on countries all over the planet. 9 May 1950: The French foreign minister Robert Schuman makes his famous declaration calling for Germany, France and other countries to jointly control their coal and steel industries. The rest of Europe at that time was really no wealthier than China, the Middle East, or South Asia. What led you to investigate the global conquests of western Europe? And in a larger sense, Americans and Europeans share the values of democracy and human rights more with each other than with other regions of the world. What are three reason why European countries needed or wanted colonies? Firstly Europe was a continent of many small competing states. That is, most people in that age strongly believed in God, heaven and hell, and the Catholic Church was the center of that belief.