Practice question · Sort into groups
Sort each claim by whether it belongs to the traditional account of European advantage or to the GREAT DIVERGENCE revision of it.
Groups: Traditional account · Great Divergence revision
- The gap opened chiefly in the nineteenth century
- European institutions and culture explain the lead by themselves
- Coal and colonial land relieved a constraint that bound China
- European superiority was long established by 1750
Hints
- One account puts the divergence early and internal; the other puts it late and contingent.
- Pomeranz’s comparison is with one specific Chinese region, not with China as a whole.
Show the answer
Traditional account: European superiority was long established by 1750, European institutions and culture explain the lead by themselves
Great Divergence revision: Coal and colonial land relieved a constraint that bound China, The gap opened chiefly in the nineteenth century
Why
The revision has not been simply accepted, Broadberry and others date the divergence earlier on national-accounts evidence, but it changed the burden of proof. Claims of long-standing European superiority now have to be demonstrated against a specific comparable region, rather than assumed from the outcome.
Practise The Extra-European World
The app has 4 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History II is free to start.
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