[colorado tanker]

Northern and Western Europe was your basic old-timey Third World Hell Hole from about 535 AD to the end of the 100 Years War in the 1400s.

Give the Medieval world another chance. By the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century Europe had developed a lively and vibrant culture, as seen in the explosion of Gothic architecture, learning and the universities. It ended badly with much misfortune, but hey, that coincided with the onset of the Little Ice Age. Cold is not good for humanity.

[muawiyah]

The advances were a tip of an icicle, not an iceberg ~ it's not until the end of the Reconquista and the voyages of discovery throughout the world that European productivity increases and begins to approach that of ancient Rome.

Then all hell breaks loose as civilization is forced down around what had been a straightjacketed peasant based agrarian society. (Circa 1500s)