Editing Eurocentrism (section)

===European exceptionalism===
{{Further|Great Divergence|The European Miracle|Middle Ages|Age of Discovery|Colonialism|Progressivism|Western world}}

During the [[European colonialism|European colonial era]], encyclopedias often sought to give a rationale for the predominance of European rule during the [[History of colonialism|colonial period]] by referring to a special position taken by Europe compared to the other continents.

Thus [[Johann Heinrich Zedler]], in 1741, wrote that "even though Europe is the smallest of the [[Four continents|world's four continents]], it has for various reasons a position that places it before all others.... Its inhabitants have excellent customs, they are courteous and erudite in both sciences and crafts".<ref>"<nowiki>[</nowiki>{{langx|de|link=no|Obwohl Europa das kleinste unter allen 4 Teilen der Welt ist, so ist es doch um verschiedener Ursachen willen allen übrigen vorzuziehen.... Die Einwohner sind von sehr guten Sitten, höflich und sinnreich in Wissenschaften und Handwerken.}}] [http://www.zedler-lexikon.de/blaettern/zedlerband.html?bandnummer=8&seitenzahl=1127 "Europa". In: ''Zedlers Universal-Lexicon''] {{webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110911233435/http://www.zedler-lexikon.de/blaettern/zedlerband.html?bandnummer=8&seitenzahl=1127 |date= 11 September 2011 }}, Volume 8, Leipzig 1734, columns 2192–2196 (citation: column 2195).</ref>

The ''[[Brockhaus Enzyklopädie]]'' ({{lang|de|Conversations-Lexicon}}) of 1847 still expressed an ostensibly Eurocentric approach and claimed about Europe that "its geographical situation and its cultural and political significance is clearly the most important of the five continents, over which it has gained a most influential government both in material and even more so in cultural aspects".<ref>"<nowiki>[</nowiki>{{langx|de|link=no|[Europa ist seiner] terrestrischen Gliederung wie seiner kulturhistorischen und politischen Bedeutung nach unbedingt der wichtigste unter den fünf Erdtheilen, über die er in materieller, noch mehr aber in geistiger Beziehung eine höchst einflussreiche Oberherrschaft erlangt hat.}}] [https://books.google.com/books?id=fK9GAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA373 ''Das große Conversations-Lexicon für die gebildeten Stände''], 1847. Vol. 1, p. 373.</ref>

European [[exceptionalism]] thus grew out of the [[Great Divergence]] of the [[Early Modern period]], due to the combined effects of the [[Scientific Revolution]], the [[Commercial Revolution]], and the [[First European colonization wave (15th century–19th century)|rise of colonial empires]], the [[Industrial Revolution]] and a [[Second European colonization wave (19th century–20th century)|Second European colonization wave]].

The assumption of European exceptionalism is widely reflected in popular genres of literature, especially in literature for young adults (for example, [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s 1901 novel [[Kim (novel)|''Kim'']]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jordison |first1=Sam |title=Reading beyond Rudyard Kipling's imperial crimes: the complexities of Kim |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/12/reading-beyond-rudyard-kiplings-imperial-crimes-kim |website=The Guardian |date=12 January 2016}}</ref>) and in adventure-literature in general. Portrayal of European colonialism in such literature has been analysed in terms of Eurocentrism in retrospect, such as presenting idealised and often exaggeratedly masculine Western heroes, who conquered "savage" peoples in the remaining "dark spaces" of the globe.<ref>Daniel Iwerks, "Ideology and Eurocentrism in ''Tarzan of the Apes''," in: ''Investigating the Unliterary: Six Readings of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes'', ed. Richard Utz (Regensburg: Martzinek, 1995), pp. 69–90.</ref>

The [[European miracle]], a term coined by Eric Jones in 1981,<ref>{{cite book| last =Jones | first =Eric | date =2003 | title =The European Miracle: Environments, Economies and Geopolitics in the History of Europe and Asia | publisher =Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978-0-521-52783-5}}</ref> refers to the surprising rise of Europe during the Early Modern period. During the 15th to 18th centuries, a great divergence took place, comprising the European Renaissance, the European [[Age of Discovery]], the formation of European [[colonial empire]]s, the [[Age of Enlightenment|Age of Reason]], and the associated leap forward in technology and the development of [[capitalism]] and early industrialization. As a result, by the 19th century European powers dominated [[International trade|world trade]] and [[Global politics|world politics]].

In ''[[Lectures on the Philosophy of History]]'', published in 1837, [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] describes [[World history (field)|world history]] as starting in Asia but shifting to Greece and Italy, and then north of the [[Alps]] to France, Germany and England.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=de Boer|first=Karin|editor1-first= Dean |editor1-last= Moyar|date= 2017-06-06|title= Hegel's Lectures on the History of Modern Philosophy|journal= Oxford Handbooks Online|volume=1|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199355228.013.29}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=CuliwYNyvSUC&q=center+o+Europe+hegel&pg=PA8 | title=Properties of Modernity: Romantic Spain, Modern Europe, and the Legacies of Empire| isbn= 9780826515223| last1= Iarocci| first1= Michael P. | year=2006| publisher=Vanderbilt University Press}}</ref> Hegel interpreted India and China as stationary countries, lacking inner momentum. Hegel's China replaced the real historical development with a fixed, stable scenario, which made it the outsider of world history. Both India and China were waiting and anticipating a combination of certain factors from outside until they could acquire real progress in human [[civilization]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Farmer|first=Edward L.|date= 1985|title=Civilization as a Unit of World History: Eurasia and Europe's Place in It|journal=[[The History Teacher]]|volume= 18|issue= 3|pages= 345–363|doi= 10.2307/493055|jstor= 493055}}</ref> Hegel's ideas had a profound impact on western historiography and attitudes. Some scholars disagree with his ideas that the Oriental countries were outside of world history.<ref>{{Cite book |doi= 10.1057/9781137290007  |chapter=On the Origins of Modern Hospitality |title= Hospitality and World Politics |year= 2013 |isbn= 9781137290007 |last1= Baker |first1= Gideon |editor-first1=Gideon |editor-last1=Baker }}</ref>

[[Max Weber]] (1864-1920) suggested that capitalism is the speciality of Europe, because [[Orient| Oriental countries]] such as India and China do not contain the factors which would enable them to develop capitalism in a sufficient manner.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Scholarship and Partisanship : Essays on Max Weber|last1= Bendix | first1 = Reinhard|date= 1980|publisher=University of California Press| last2 =Roth | first2 = Guenther|isbn=978-0520041714|series=California Library reprint series, vol. 110|location=Berkeley | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ottM0fiTnO8C |oclc= 220409196}}</ref>{{request quotation|date=March 2022}} Weber wrote and published many treatises in which he emphasized the distinctiveness of Europe. In ''[[The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]]'' (1905), he wrote that the "rational" capitalism, manifested by its enterprises and mechanisms, only appeared in the Protestant western countries, and a series of generalised and universal cultural phenomena only appear in the west.<ref>{{Cite book|date= 2017-07-03|title= The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism|doi= 10.4324/9781912282708|isbn= 9781912282708|s2cid= 166670406}}{{page needed|date=December 2019}}</ref>

Even the state, with a written constitution and a government organised by trained administrators and constrained by rational law, only appears in the West, even though other regimes can also comprise states.<ref>
{{Cite book
 |title= The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Environmental Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century
 |last1= Marks |first1= Robert |isbn= 9781442212398 |edition= 3rd
 |location= Lanham, Maryland|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|oclc= 902726566|year = 2015
}}{{page needed|date=December 2019}}
</ref> ("Rationality" is a multi-layered term whose connotations are developed and escalated as with the social progress. Weber regarded rationality as a proprietary article for western capitalist society.)