Introduction
Northwest Europe has always been the more developed region, dominating countries such as the United States and China. In the three centuries before the Industrial Revolution, the factors influencing the growth of knowledge changed. During these centuries, Europeans developed worldviews and competencies that encouraged them to acquire knowledge that gave them an advantage in specific capacities.
Consequently, the inhabitants of this part of the world made huge breakthroughs in development and innovation. Firearms, metal swords, and armor were invented, and the sailing ship was perfected. This breakthrough is mainly due to geography, the high competition between the region’s countries, and industrialization.
Geographic and Historical Conditions of Innovation
The first reason for the appearance of weapons and the high development of northwestern Europe is its geographic location. Everything in human history has been predetermined by geographical factors, such as plant and animal species that could be domesticated or diseases that were endemic to some populations but not others. Because of its convenient location, the inhabitants of a given region could travel to neighboring countries without difficulty.
During the Renaissance, many artisans exchanged experiences, ideas, and inventions. After gunpowder was invented in China, this invention spread and became more widely used (Encyclopædia Britannica, n.d.). Thus, the main reason for the appearance of firearms in northwestern Europe was cooperation with eastern countries.
The Role of War, Plague, and Political Fragmentation
The next reason for the development and emergence of innovation is an epidemic that affected large populations. The Black Plague ravaged Europe in the 1300s, causing significant changes in medieval cultures (Koulesser, 2020). Because so many people died, there were not as many laborers as before, giving an advantage to peasants and serfs. The aristocracy still needed people to work their fields, but they had to pay better workers because no one could replace them if they left.
Another, more important explanation is that Western Europe is a peninsula of the larger continent of Eurasia. This indicates that northwestern Europe is far from the steppes of Central Asia and is therefore protected from invasion by steppe nomads. This allowed people to develop their craft, perfect sailing ships, and invent new weapons.
Some nomadic invasions were extremely destructive and hindered the development of the countries subjected to their invasion. The infamous Mongol invasions are a prime example of this. When the Mongol Empire fell, the Middle and Far East were ruled by conservative and isolationist dynasties, while Europe entered an era of discovery and knowledge. Other nomadic invasions include the Seljuks and the Timurids (Broers & Yemelianova, 2020). Some steppe invaders successfully established new ruling dynasties in the lands they conquered.
The next reason for creating weapons was the presence of many wars. Europeans fought with infantry; others used horses. Early gunpowder weapons were particularly effective against mass infantry formations, so the best muskets came from Europe. Cannons were effective siege weapons but ineffective against nomads with few cities to besiege. China’s economy stabilized during this period, while the population increased dramatically, giving an advantage to northwestern Europe.
A further reason for the region’s high development is the high competition between the countries. Europe was a divided continent, generating rivalries in the late Middle Ages and early Modern Age, and only the strongest and most innovative countries could survive. Other countries were not in constant competition, which slowed their development. This may be another reason for the appearance of firearms, metal swords, metal fittings, and more advanced sailing ships. The Middle East and India also had large, dominant states for most of their history.
However, other states may have been dominant at the time. In the sixteenth century, as Europeans explored and colonized, much of the Middle East was conquered by the Ottomans and India by the Mughals (Gerritsen & McFarlane, 2022). The Ottomans were constantly at war with those who bordered their great empire.
In 1707, the Mughal Empire was the world’s largest economy, and 50 years later, the empire became a visualized city-state (Osborne, 2020). There was plenty of competition, although it was less fierce than in Europe. Huge factors in Europe’s rise were its transformation into a naval and gunpowder center, the resources of the colonies, and the continent’s constant wars in the eighteenth century (Marques et al., 2022). Europe became dominant when industrialization began, while Asian dynasties such as the Song and theMoguls could have industrialized before Europe did, but they did not.
Technological Advancements in Maritime Power
There are explanations regarding the perfection of sailing ships in northwestern Europe. A type of sailing ship, the Knorr, was used for multiple means of transport between the Norman lands. This was an ordinary sailing ship of extremely simplified construction, especially regarding the hull.
The creators of the Knorr focused primarily on its carrying capacity, which required a larger hull volume than the battle checker. They made the hull lines as full or rounded as possible, turning the Knorr into a sailing ship with modest speed and maneuverability. The Norman kingdoms that emerged in Scandinavia began trading with the countries along the Baltic and North Seas. Knorr was well suited for this purpose, except for one quality of the volume, as this cargo sailing ship was initially designed to carry a small amount of cargo to the coastal waters of Scandinavia. The development of trade demanded a sharp increase in the cargo carried on a single vessel and forced merchants to build a sailing ship more adapted than the Knorr.
Thus, a purely sailing ship in northwestern Europe adapted to carry cargo for trading appeared. Because of the general weakness of medieval European states and, most importantly, the feudal fragmentation of the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, an ideal environment was created for the emergence of pirates. For this reason, each cogger was equipped with one or two fighting platforms (toothed superstructures) on the bow and stern, which, if necessary, were occupied by warriors. From these platforms, they could shoot and be used for boarding.
Consequences of Innovation and the Rise of European Dominance
The advent of weapons and other innovative inventions made northwestern Europe the dominant country. While other countries, even China and the United States, did not have such advanced craftsmanship and knowledge, Europe was at the pinnacle of its development. Other countries had to buy weapons and ships from the region to be on par with the Europeans, significantly boosting the region’s economy. Promising artisans moved here to realize their potential, making northwestern Europe even more powerful.
Conclusion
Thus, industrialization, geography, and the region’s fragmentation were significant factors in the dominance of innovation in northwestern Europe. Events such as epidemics aided and abetted the inhabitants’ path of development. These inventions occurred in this region and began to be used, making northwestern Europe a powerful region that dominated even the United States and China. Although these two countries had good potential, they used it only briefly and stalled their progress, allowing Europeans to dominate the world.
References
Broers, L., & Yemelianova, G. M. (2020). The ‘long millennium’: The Caucasus from the medieval to the early modern periods. In Routledge Handbook of the Caucasus (pp. 87-106). Routledge. Web.
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Tactics from Waterloo to the bulge. Encyclopædia Britannica. Web.
Gerritsen, A., & McFarlane, A. (2022). 21 Europe and the World, c. 1800. The European World 1500–1800: An Introduction to Early Modern History.
Koulesser, M. (2020). How the Black Death of 1347-1351 changed European perceptions of death (Publication No. 28001960) [Doctoral dissertation, Southern New Hampshire University]. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Marques, C. P. R. L. A., Moreira, A. H. V. A. I., Martins, D., & Lopes, D. M. L. (2022). Under a Cloak of Terror. Re-imagining the Teaching of European History, 149. Web.
Osborne, E. W. (2020). The Ulcer of the Mughal Empire: Mughals and Marathas, 1680-1707. Small Wars & Insurgencies, 31(5), 988-1009. Web.