Keeping in touch with your column from the other side of the Atlantic was a bitch. As for why the West dominated the globe so long, I know you want to keep this on an elevated plane, but one hates to pussyfoot. Let's examine the following blunt hypothesis. White people are smarter than everybody else. On the face of it these people don't make an overwhelming case for white genius.
White people are more obnoxious than anybody else.
To put it a bit more elegantly, western Europeans ruled because they were ruthless, well armed, and in your face. In contrast to the empires of the Orient, no single power dominated Europe. European states never got fat and happy but rather searched for ever more efficient ways to snuff their enemies. A free-market economy. Merchants and entrepreneurs made money, which kings needed to buy pikestaffs and cannonballs.