Why did Western Civilization become the dominate civilization in the modern world?

Answer 1

Answer

Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, & Steel" is a long, but thorough read, condensed below:
±20,000 years ago, The Fertile Crescent (modern day Turkey) was a particularly fertile region blessed with 1) native, easy to harvest, & highly nutritious grains and large and 2) domesticable beasts of burden (cows & horses). This food package spread east and west across the Eurasian Continent (plants can spread east-west more rapidly than north south because east-west maintains a relatively constant length of day & growing season compared to north south, i.e. Africa) allowing for the development of specialized societies fed by the agriculture booms. The specialized societies developed to guns, germs (unintentionally), and steel.

The Native populations of the Americas, Australasia, and Africa lacked access to the food package, so they did not develop specialized societies and thus no Guns, Germs, nor Steel. When the haves and have-nots met, the have-nots were militarily dominated which set the stage for foreign cultural influence of today.

The reason for Western domination of world civilization, is because of one thing, maybe two. One is a sense of cultural unity that was not as prominent in other civilizations. The other, was that Europe had NEVER dominated the world before, so they were slated for it at sometime.

In a scientific analysis, Europe is the youngest of all continents and civilizations (the smallest too). This does not bode well for domination. However, Greece and Rome are in Europe, and Greece (well Hellenistic Macedonian generals) took over the Persian empire of Cyrus the Great and Rome took over Greece in about 146 B.C.E.

Rome then came to dominate the world for, well, about 2155 years! This is not as ridiculous as it seems. Rome is essentially 6 great clans under 20 Super-Powerful Roman families (Julio-Claudian, Piso, Laterani, etc.) and these make up the wealthiest people on planet earth TODAY.

The "Roman legacy" was passed on to Germanic tribes who busted into the empire to around 400 A.D. in order to escape the Huns. The tribes later on sprawled out through most of present-day Europe and established a hegemony over the continent.

Last thing. People of Anglo-Saxon descent always have to stay busy-busy-busy, or they become frustrated. People of color tend to be relaxed and somewhat laid back (probably because of the large amounts of copper in their skin) and hence, stand pat for 1,000 years until the Dark Ages become the Age of "Exploration" (or exploitation).

Answer 2

In other words, how has half the world affected the other half of the world?