In the centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, Western Europe gradually pulled ahead of other world regions … explain the rise of Europe relative to regions that relied on the transmission of knowledge within extended families or clans …

Western Europe. An important factor, recognized in the literature, is that China centralized state institutions very early on …, while Europe remained politically fragmented for much longer. These initial differences, however, were amplified by the … different social organizations (clans in China, corporate structures in Europe) that spread in these two societies at the turn …