Niall Ferguson is a writer obsessed with money and writing about how and why the West outperformed all other continents and people. He is one of Britain's most renowned historians and has written several massive books of historical significance examining the role of money in books and videos and documentaries. In his book "Civilization" Ferguson claims there were six "killer apps" that the west had that the rest refused or couldn't adapt.
The first advantage had over China was political fragmentation which allowed intense competition which Ferguson claims leads to innovation. Whether this innovation had to do with more efficient ways to ship more slaves on ships o do the work in the new world is unknown and perhaps what Niall felt. The old dismissal and dismantling of China's shipping fleets after the voyages of Zheng He is again mentioned in another book as somehow China' not committing the evils of colonialism and slavery should be seen as a negative for commerce. Next Ferguson ranks science advancement through the Middle Ages as the second application to why the west surpassed Ottoman and Ming Empires. Europeans were able to exploit scientific knowledge that made their smaller populations more lethal in warfare and improved their ability to dominate the seas and dictate trade to other lands eventfully attempting to settle many distant lands as extensions of their own. Niall somehow feels justified that Europeans were able to do this because of their importance they put on scientific research. 
Then Niall talks about property rights and how this created the concept of representative government but of course this meant back then if your skin color was of a certain tone and you layed claim to acres of productive farmland toiled by individuals who were part of the property. medicine and the love of consumption is something else that Europeans had over the natives of other lands that were not considered as wealthy as Europe. Consumption and increasing trade eventually produced mass inequalities in Europe that were much larger than any other part of the globe resulting in tremendous revolutions and warfare that have thus wrecked the continent. This affect has been felt through generations in Europe but hey we improved medicine in these years. now more soldiers could be wounded and nearly killed and indefinite amount of times and this is another great advantage that Niall Ferguson figures we have over non-white masses. Ferguson mention to fail with the consumption application that the development of the corporate state and crucial need for resources igniting world Wars killing millions somehow should not be seen as an advantage by any culture. His last chapter is perhaps most bizarre and perplexing as the west's work ethic played a role in determine that the West would have a stronger position in the world. most of this chapter deals with work to establish religious missionaries which usually was just laying the groundwork for cultural dominations and then labor empowerment from a class that did little work themselves unless one wants to call overseeing slaves and serfs as work. If anything the colored masses did more work than any claim men like Niall Ferguson can lay claim five hundred years later and the bias of establishing churches and missions as work is laughable and show where Niall's intentions lie of his views of Euro-supremacy and the causes thinking that only Europe was capable of civilization.
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