In the colonization of NA, how was it that the Europeans already had muskets while the Native Americans were still using traditional weapons? I doubt it’s because theres a lack of resources?
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You’re reversing cause and effect. It’s the European nations that decided on a view of humanity and civilization where there was some sort of notion of universal progress, a race to a common goal, and that was (conveniently enough) measured in the area where they had the largest advantage – i.e. technology. So the Europeans were winning this competition that nobody else even knew they were in, and were thus were more ‘advanced’ civilization .
Those values are more Enlightenment-era though (18th-19th century) and came well after colonization started. At the time the justification was that we were superior because we were Christians and they were barbarian savages. (and throughout history ‘barbarians’ has always been defined more or less as meaning ‘not like us’)
None of this is to say technological progress isn’t a good thing. But it’s not any kind of objective measure of a society. 18th century Chinese and Japanese viewed Europeans as barbarians based on _their_ values, despite being aware of European technology.
As for how Europe got ahead technologically, that goes back to the Renaissance, the proliferation of books, the Scientific Revolution followed by the Industrial Revolution. There are many many books about this and there’s no ELI5 answer.
But perhaps the single most powerful ‘invention’ was the invention of this very notion of technological progress. Of utilizing knowledge and systematically improving technology and gaining economic benefit from it. Most technological progress for most of history was incremental (with sudden jumps like the invention of metal casting, iron working, glass working) and more down to random chance then systematic inquiry. Even the ancient Greeks, who held philosophy and natural philosophy (now known as science) in the highest regard, had little regard for the practical and empirical and did not achieve much in terms of technology. Most societies, for most of history, have lived similar lifestyles from generation to generation with only the occasional technological shift. It’s hardly a given that people see any point in trying to invent something. Again, even in European civilization that’s only been the case for a few hundred years.
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