What have the Romans ever done for us? In Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the answers included aqueducts, baths and peace. But what if the right answer is: “their empire fell”? In short, western Europe’s transformative role in world history is due to the absence of a Europe-wide empire. That created what the ancient historian Walter Scheidel calls the “competitive fragmentation” of western Europe. Competition drove the commercial, intellectual, technological, legal and political changes that led in the end to the industrial revolution. Thereupon, everything changed.
罗马人给我们留下了什么？在英国喜剧团体“巨蟒组”(Monty Python)拍摄的《布莱恩的一生》(Life of Brian)中，答案包括高架引水渠 、浴缸与和平。但如果正确的答案是“他们的帝国垮了”呢？简而言之，西欧在世界史上扮演的变革性角色，源于欧洲缺少一个统治全境的帝国。这为西欧造就了古代史学家沃尔特•沙伊德尔(Walter Scheidel)所称的“竞争性的碎片化”。竞争推动了商业、知识、科技、法律和政治层面的变革，最终导致了工业革命。于是，一切都随之发生了变化。