ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the ideas of economic progress and civilizational changes in the long term. The discussion begins by indicating how different parts of the world were historically fairly equal in economic terms, but since the eighteenth century, Western Europe and its offshoot countries (together with Japan from the early twentieth century) managed to achieve extraordinary economic growth and material improvements, yet restricting these benefits largely to their precincts. The discussion then goes on to considering how this may change in the future, owing to the rapid rise of China and India, the world’s two populous countries. In order to explicate their future economic potentials, four sets of factors are illustrated: collective mentality, sizeable territory, large population and future educational prospects. From this information and the broader analysis undertaken, it is deduced that China and India are engaged truly in a long-term economic dynamics that can propitiously influence the well-being of the mass of the humanity, first, by taking better care of themselves and second, through the spillover effects of their economic and technological advancement in respective regions and wider geographical areas. Despite numerous uncertainties and tensions, these long-term evolutions are real, giving a new meaning to the very notions of economic progress and civilizational changes.