Great Divergence

The historical widening of income and industrialization gaps between Western Europe and parts of Asia, especially China, beginning around the eighteenth century.

California School: A group of historians who emphasize early modern economic similarities between Europe and Asia and the role of global trade and resources in divergence. Its scholars challenged accounts that place Europe’s economic lead far earlier than the eighteenth century.
Industrial Revolution: The transition to mechanized production and new energy systems that began in Britain in the eighteenth century. Industrialization made sustained productivity growth increasingly distinctive in parts of Europe.
Gross domestic product per capita: A measure of a country’s economic output divided by its population. Historical estimates use it to compare average economic output across regions.
California School debate: A historical debate over whether Europe and advanced Asian regions had comparable economies before industrialization. It directly disputes narratives of a long-standing European economic advantage.
Kenneth Pomeranz: An economic historian whose book The Great Divergence compares early modern economies in Europe and China. Pomeranz argued that coal and access to New World resources helped Britain escape ecological constraints.
Steam engine: A heat engine that converts steam pressure into mechanical work. Improved steam engines widened the range of tasks powered by coal.
Purchasing power parity: A method for comparing currencies by the cost of equivalent goods and services in different places. It makes long-run income comparisons less dependent on market exchange rates.
Eurocentrism: A perspective that treats European history and experience as central or universal in interpreting the world. The divergence debate examines how Eurocentric accounts frame Europe’s rise as inevitable.
Coal in the Industrial Revolution: The expanding use of coal as an energy source in Britain’s eighteenth- and nineteenth-century industrialization. Nearby coalfields supplied concentrated energy that reduced Britain’s dependence on land-based fuels.
Spinning jenny: A hand-powered spinning machine that allowed one worker to spin multiple threads at once. Mechanized spinning raised output in Britain’s cotton textile industry.

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