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How did Europe become the richest part of the world?

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Resurfaced independently across 3 calendar years, with breakout response in 2 of them.

submissions
5
submitters
5
observed span
2017–2022
peak thread · 271 comments
87 pts
latest 20+ return · 2022-03-20
87 pts

Submission timeline

2007–2026

One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.

First comments on top threads

HN comment order

I think about this question a lot. I’m from a third world country (my dad was born in a village in Bangladesh). I think it’s tremendously important for academia to study what factors have allowed certain countries to develop stable, prosperous democracies. Unfortunately, I think we will see no progress in this area for political reasons. I was browsing the “racial literacy” curriculum used by my daughter’s school. Most of it is fluff, but the fourth grade unit is a…

rayiner·87-point thread·

The article overlooks a very important factor, that only Europe had colonies in the Americas, and that brought massive wealth to the continent since the XVI century. Before that, the Middle-East, India and China were , in general, more technologically and scientifically advanced than Europe.

The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.

Breakout years
2

100+ points or 50+ comments

Total points
180

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Total comments
381

reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking

Every submission

DateTitle as submittedByPointsComments
2017-02-15How Europe became the richest part of the worldjonbaer40
2017-02-16How Europe became so richccozan80
2017-02-17How did Europe become the richest part of the world?First breakoutpepys75110
2020-03-01How did Europe become the richest part of the world?gpresot60
2022-03-20How did Europe become the richest part of the world?Hall induction · Best thread · Latest 20+ point returnelorant87271