ABSTRACT
This chapter explores "power pluralism" in Western Europe, instead of the historically more usual "power centralization", gradually created a social order that called forth the entrepreneurial behavior presumed by the developmental sequence. It emphasizes the essentially political origins of Western economic development and locates those origins in Western experience during the "Dark Ages", rather than in the late medieval period. The Westerner experienced and would continue to experience a political structure comprised of royal officials with greater or lesser amounts of power and influence. The First Crusade manifested the distinctive effects of the West's consolidating social order. The Crusade was a large and successful military expedition from comparatively backward Western societies into more civilized Eastern societies. With the restoration of trade, town life, and governmental administration from about the eleventh century, Western societies began to acquire the bases for their subsequent economic productivity and military power.
