Although Europeans had attempted to colonize overseas lands
in the crusades era, their attempts eventually failed. It wasn’t until the 16th century that Europeans
finally managed to conquer and dominate vast swathes of lands abroad, and
impose their economic model, as well as other cultural traits such as religion,
education, languages and political organization. In spite of the disappearance of the colonial empires in
the 20th century, this Western dominance continued unabated and
Westerners continued to enjoy much higher incomes than the rest of the world. However, the incredible rise of China at the end of the 20th
century and beginning of the 21st century challenges Western
domination. The BRICS expansion including the world’s demographic
giants as well as the biggest world energy producers very much exemplifies this
challenge. Could we be witnessing in front of our eyes, at this very
moment, the end of Western dominance? And if this were the case, could the
political model of democracy disappear and could Westerners’ prosperity finally
start to fade? In order to prepare this debate, I have selected two texts
extracted from current news, as well as the works of historian Niall Ferguson
“Civilization – Is the West history” which can be found in the book “Civilization”,
or a BBC series available for free on YouTube.