Original citation

 feudalism began to break down and capitalism began to rise in its 
wake across Western Europe, it was this region – rather than China or 
the Islamic world – that broke free from the pack and pushed outwards 
in an extraordinary bout of expansion. Debates about the driving force 
behind the rise of the West will, no doubt, continue. Of one thing we can 
be certain: whether for cultural, religious, political or economic reasons 
(or some combination of all four), the states of Western Europe no longer 
simply waited for things to happen to them. Instead, they went out to 
make things happen to others.

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Chapter 2: Europe and the emergence of international society
33
The consequences for the world were immense. Not only did imperial 
expansion make European states rich, it also made their citizens feel 
distinctly – one might say ‘naturally’ – superior to everybody else. It 
spawned a vast commerce in African slaves that spelled disaster for 
millions and created vast fortunes for the few who lived and prospered 
from the unpaid labour of others. Like many of the historical processes 
that came before it, Europe’s expansion simultaneously created wealth, 
poverty, technological progress and moral barbarity. It fostered invention 
and innovation, revolutionised communication, gave birth to modern 
geography and cartography – in fact to much of modern science itself. Its 
consequences were certainly not neutral from the point of view of global 
relationships. In terms of the distribution of power, it reinforced existing 
global inequalities. The world was both made and then refashioned by 
the European powers, primarily for economic gain though justified on 
grounds that made European conquest sound – at least to most Europeans 
– enlightened (in terms of raising the level of the ‘natives’), religiously 
necessary (spreading Christianity) or racially preordained (with ‘inferior’ 
races being destined to be ruled by those of the supposedly ‘superior’ white 
variety). Significantly, few Europeans of the day opposed expansion and 
colonialism. Even liberals and more than a few socialists were counted 
among their supporters, arguing well into the early part of the twentieth 
century that there was something distinctively progressive about an 
economically and culturally superior Europe helping those less fortunate 
to join the modern world.