ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the story of the continuing rise of European global predominance based on the emerging strength of capitalism in Europe and its colonies. It describes the expansion of production, urbanization, and population growth, especially in East Asia and South Asia. The effort by the Hapsburg dynasty to erect a tributary empire over the core states of Europe in the sixteenth century nearly squelched the emerging predominance of capitalist accumulation, but the rise of Dutch hegemony in the seventeenth century produced the world's first capitalist core state. The chapter examines institutionalization of the interstate system in the treaty of Westphalia, and the contention between Britain and France for global dominance in the eighteenth century. The early modern world regions of East and West saw huge changes in production, transportation, and communications technologies as well as important new departures in religion, philosophy, science, commerce, and mathematics.
