Beating History: Why Today's Rising Powers Can't Copy the West
In 2006, China Central Television aired a 12-part documentary called "Rise of the Great Powers." The great powers in question were Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, and the U.S. The pedagogical undertones did not go unnoticed in the Western media. "China, Shy Giant, Shows Signs of Shedding Its False Modesty," wrote The New York Times, noting that the state now seemed to be making its ambition explicit.
For the BRIC rising economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, and China -- what can be learned by looking at the rise of powers throughout history? Obviously it depends on which historical example you look at.
But there is one particular historical shift that, arguably more than most other factors, set the foundations for the current geopolitical order, and put the BRICs in the global back seat out of which they're now attempting to climb. The loose, catch-all term for this even is the Industrial Revolution. And it offers a potent lesson for what the BRICs can do, and what they cannot do, if they intend to fulfill the more optimistic predictions and become undisputed world leaders.
Whole books -- many of them -- have been written about why the Industrial Revolution happened in the West, why it happened in Europe, and why it happened in Britain in particular. These books have also tried to explain why it happened in Britain rather than China, or rather than India -- two of the more obvious candidates for a counterfactual.
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http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/beating-history-why-todays-rising-powers-cant-copy-the-west/253144
