This article is definitely missing an explanation on the non material differencies in not only philosophy but also politics government and scientific tradition Numbers divorced from their context can be very misleading For instance just to illustrate my point the Incan capital at the time of the Spanish conquest of their kingdom was reputed to be far larger than any city in Europe with an enormous and disciplined workforce However the Incas also lacked writing and basic science among other things If it was a matter of mathematics and sheer numbers regarding urbanization and possibly also agricultural output of products X and Y then the Incas would have been in a superior position to Europe and we would be justifiably dumbfounded to this day as to why Europe and not the Incas led the world into modernity Yet I don t think that anybody would seriously dispute the fact that the non material differences between the Incas and the Europeans were far more important than the material ones namely the enormous legacy that Europe had amassed in politics law philosophy and science which made possible certain dynamics in Europe that were simply unthinkable in the Incan world Certain such differences existed between Europe and China between Europe and the Islamic caliphate between China and Japan between India and China etc and they all played out in different ways and contributed into shaping the different paths many of these countries and regions have taken since some more significant and some less Not including these non material differences is tantamount to avoiding the subject that this article is supposed to be dealing with