The overarching story of world history in the last 500 years,
as it seems to me, is a simple, two-part one. First, with
unprecedented new power, Europe and Europeanized powers
first explored and then colonized much of the world. Second,
the rest of the world fought back, but in part by mastering
some of those same new European powers. Although the
technological innovations in industry and the military is most
visible factor at first glance, I would argue that it was a new
kind of social mobilization that was the deeper, more powerful
force, both in the early process of extending European
control, and in the later success of the non-European
reaction to end that control.