Why Was It Europeans Who Conquered the World?
Why Was It Europeans Who Conquered the World?
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DOI：
10.1017/s0022050712000319
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发表时间：
2012-08
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Philip T. Hoffman
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Philip T. Hoffman
到了18世纪，欧洲人主导了火药技术，这是令人惊讶的，因为它起源于中国，并在整个欧亚大陆被专业人员使用。为了解释他们的统治地位，历史学家援引了竞争，但这不能解释为什么他们比其他人更进一步地推动这项技术。答案在于一个简单的军事竞争锦标赛模型，允许边做边学。政治动机和军事条件解释了为什么欧亚大陆其他国家在发展火药技术方面落后于欧洲人。其后果是巨大的，从殖民主义到奴隶贸易，甚至工业革命。
By the 1700s Europeans dominated the gunpowder technology, which was surprising, because it had originated in China and been used with expertise throughout Eurasia. To account for their dominance, historians have invoked competition, but it cannot explain why they pushed this technology further than anyone else. The answer lies with a simple tournament model of military competition that allows for learning by doing. Political incentives and military conditions then explain why the rest of Eurasia fell behind Europeans in developing the gunpowder technology. The consequences were huge, from colonialism to the slave trade and even the Industrial Revolution.