No, it's effectively the reason.Originally Posted by Muddy
Sane property laws matter too, of course. The Industrial Revolution could've transpired in China first. The brain capital was there… but without individual property protections there's little reason to build & invest. So they didn't.
Also possible that the IR could've emerged in antiquity. We know the Greeks were using primitive steam technology and complex machines. But then the Roman Empire had an arresting effect on innovation (despite their tremendous practical achievements). Food for thought: http://adlows.com/2017/11/12/ancient...al-revolution/
In any event, the "colonialism made the West rich" argument is trivially easy to debunk. If anything colonization hurt the West by undercutting its own local development, and inadvertently helped the 3rd world by introducing technology and efficient institutions. And now we're on course for ecological ruin thanks to insatiable 3rd world growth—a big mistake in retrospect.
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