European Culture And Overseas Expansion

Why did Europe dominate the world for four centuries after
the Renaissance?
In answering one of the crucial 'Why's' of history,
Professcr Cipolla sees the simultaneous appearance and
combination of the cannon and of the sailing-ship, along
with ciocks. as providing the e8sential instruments of
European expansion. whereby world-wide trade and later
seaborne conquest were made possible, To these he
adds the growing divergencies between Eastern and
Western philosophy during the fifteenth century.
So great was the technological gap between East and
West that tor centuries European artiltery. clocks and
lenses were regarded as mere toys for the amusement of
the Chinese Emperor. And Europe was lelt unchecked.
to extend her influence overseas.
'Like alt his work it is exciting, original, intellectually alive.
and deeply researched - and the scholarship is carried with
such wit and panache that he ;s immediately readable' -
Sunday Times
'Argues his case brilliantly and undoubtedly provides the
correct answer to a fascinating historical problem*
The Times Litersry Supplement
The cover shows a detail from a portrait ^f Nikolaus
Kratzer hy Holbein, in the Louvre. Paris.
For copyright reasons this edition is not tor sale in the U.S.A.