The continent that nowadays has the highest human development indexes ever seen and the quality of life in Europe is unique, both for its security and that not purchasing power and other factors that add to that population. In 2019 alone, of the 20 countries with the highest human development indices across the globe, 16 were European countries and over ninety percent (90%) of Europe has a human development index considered very high, and in almost all of its history, it has maintained higher indices than other continents, so much so that they colonised much of the world today.

Knowing this, how and why, they have managed to get to this level they are at today.

Facts of history that made Europe rich

To be able to talk about European history we need to start talking about some intrinsic points of this place. Its geographical location extremely favoured development, since it is located between Africa and Asia, which, just like today, were always large consumer markets and found in Europe new cultures, and especially products that were not on their continents. In this factor the geographical location extremely favoured the because it was part of Europe almost a mandatory passage, no wonder that the Silk Road led exactly to the entrance of the European continent and there began its route to the centre of Europe, thus making all the technology that would be sold to small and large European kingdoms reached there, and of course, great demand for trade.

European Geography compared with other continents

But its location also had terrible points that, even though they were extremely bad for that continent, in the end only strengthened it. Europe had to move forward because it was necessary for its survival, as it is exactly located much further north than most other places.

For comparison, almost all of the United States then basically to the south. Europe compared to places like Africa Asia, where people had it relatively easy thanks to the great soil fertility and warm climate, Europeans needed fairly complex agricultural technology to use that land to produce enough food to feed everyone.

They also needed to survive the harsh European winter somehow, and when you have sunny beach and live near the sea, full of fish trees full of bananas or coconuts, you are not exactly forced despite some complicated way to make your life possible.

Farms, Steel, Expansionism and Kingdoms

Europeans needed to learn how to breed steel, look after Cattle, look after farms, make solid and cosy houses and cities to welcome everyone. But far beyond their geographical position, the Saxon and Danes or even the Iberians, and so many other peoples who populated that they territories, always had a culture of fragmentation, regardless of being Saxons of the same origin, even so they divided, bringing to Europe a culture of tribes and later, a culture of different kingdoms. Europe has always had this culture of fragmentation which was certainly one of the main points for its development, which obviously wasn’t something planned, or something that anyone at that time would think would be good for the future but rather a competition. The various kingdoms that there were in medieval Europe for example, were in fact many and therefore different developments of technology and cultures, because at that time there were dozens and dozens of war and conflicts always occurring on the continent. And for that and for a mere matter of survival to try to overcome his opponent, made more and more technologies, both military and structural were created in that period.

In today’s examples we can see that this really makes sense when comparing big technology companies, imagine if Samsung hadn’t created new technologies, it would be easily surpassed by its competitors. And exactly because of the survival factor that makes the development of new technologies doesn’t stand still in time, because if it does, that company will certainly lose many customers and therefore end up bankrupt in the end. It is exactly this factor that makes with that new technologies and benefits are created, for mere question of survival. It was what Érico L. Jones, historian, called the system of states, and as he also said: “there were costs in this political division”, as the various wars between kingdoms, but in the end, the development perpetuated above them.

Political, religious and intellectual fragmentation

Massive political and religious fragmentation did not mean small audiences for intellectual innovators. Europe offered the almost integrated marketplace of ideas, where the greatest thinkers and scholars of that continent, as the great circulation of these people really existed, while Juan Luis Vives, a great leader of humanism, studied Paris, later lived most of his life in Flanders and was a member of the Corpus Christi in Oxford, this just shows what an integrated life and mobility of intellectuals could be at that time. This made his ideas spread even faster and the development of Europe came faster too.

A history of wars: Consequences for today’s peoples

The more ideas and innovations a country has, the better and faster it will develop. In this sense, Europe’s intellectual community has enjoyed the best of both worlds, as many advantages of an integrated academic community as of a competitive state system.

Therefore, perhaps if Europe had not been located so far north of the world, if it had not had difficulties with its geography, which certainly did not favour its agriculture and population, perhaps it would never have become the reference for economic and social development that it has become, and what we take from this is that bad times and terrible situations lead to the development of something to try to overcome them.