ABSTRACT
The Europe that emerged in the sixteenth century armed with a technology that made continuing growth possible also sought to intensify its contacts with the wider world. The world was assumed to be virtually synonymous with Europe, although a sort of perverse cultural imperialism extended its frontiers to include Egypt and the Fertile Crescent. Some modern scholars, however, have addressed the question of why only Europe was able to achieve sustained growth. Consisting of a capitalist core centered in northwestern Europe, a rather nebulously defined semiperiphery, a periphery, and areas that were "external," this world economy formed a multiregional economic system, with each of the component parts contributing in different ways. One major deficiency of the literature, although to varying degrees there are exceptions, is the treatment of the wider world. Equally important as the growth of the wider world was its inability to maintain its momentum.
