One academic assignment which has stuck with me from my studies was answering the question of why Europe became the dominant power of the world. After all, looking at the year 1500, it seemed obvious that the Chinese and the Ottoman Empires were wealthier and more powerful than Europe, not least because the Europeans insisted on remaining divided rather than uniting into a single empire. The dreams of Charlemagne and Charles V thus denied, it seemed as though the princes and kings of this peninsula would continue to be outshone by the Turks and the Chinese.
