during the period of "reconquista" how far did the moors get into Europe

[thanatic]

@Tamerlane

I think the fact that they didn’t know the Americas existed pre-dated any lack of comprehension as to the mineral wealth to be had.

A highly contentious claim. I don’t think you can draw a bright line like that and if you could it would have come much earlier in the Early and maybe High Middle Ages.

Keep in mind that technology is a continuum and builds on earlier accomplishments. Even if you accept a meme of “superior Muslim technology” in say, the 10th century, that does not mean that 10th century Muslim states had 16th century naval technology handy. It just means they might have been a bit more sophisticated relative to their 10th century contemporaries in Christian Europe.

In point of fact deep sea technology was ultimately more advanced in Christian Europe than the ME/NA because of the different pressures on European bulk shipping in the Atlantic. In the rather shallow Mediterranean, where land was usually nearby, galleys generally sufficed. On the Indian Ocean, where the Monsoon currents were ridiculously regular, easily stitched together ( and thus often rather fragile structurally ) dhows did just fine. The much more extreme conditions of the Atlantic prompted advances in navigation and deep-hulled sailing ships were needed to weather the conditions. But these were gradual developments and not something that could have been pulled off so easily a few centuries earlier - the Muslim states certainly did not have access to such technologies, they hadn’t needed to develop them.

The Chinese in the 15th century were a somewhat different story, but there it was court politics that brought their little spate of adventurism to an end.

then at what point did Europe surpass ME and the rest of the world in science/technology

[Little_Nemo]

One big random advantage Europeans had was the alphabet. When books were all written by hand, it didn’t matter much is you used an alphabet like the Europeans or logograms like the Chinese. But it’s a lot easier to print books when you’re using an alphabet.

So when the printing process was invented, it worked a lot better in Europe. Which meant Europeans where able to publish more books and disseminate more information.

[ftg]

It wasn’t just one event that propelled the Europeans to global conquest.

It was all sorts of sets of seemingly unrelated lines of dominoes.

One key event was the fall of Constantinople in 1453 which disrupted trade to the East. (Which was preceded by the Byzantines failing so badly at almost everything for at least 700 years.) And on and on.

But sooner or later one culture was going to have all the right tools at the right time to just take off. Turned out to be the Europeans. Maybe I’ll write a book about it. Give it a catchy title like Guns, Germs and Steel.

[thanatic]

@ftg

It wasn’t just one event that propelled the Europeans to global conquest.

It was all sorts of sets of seemingly unrelated lines of dominoes.

One key event was the fall of Constantinople in 1453 which disrupted trade to the East. (Which was preceded by the Byzantines failing so badly at almost everything for at least 700 years.) And on and on.

But sooner or later one culture was going to have all the right tools at the right time to just take off. Turned out to be the Europeans. Maybe I’ll write a book about it. Give it a catchy title like Guns, Germs and Steel.

i heard that guns, germs and steel book was actually pretty bad,and that many historians laugh at it for having such simplistic view of history

its just what i heard