It credits two main factors for Europe’s sharp, British-led ascent. The first of these, he said, was the “ecological dividend,” the windfall that Europe reaped by completely taking over the Americas in an astoundingly brief period of time, effectively integrating many millions of square miles of agriculturally productive land into the European economic sphere. Pomeranz’s second factor was Europe’s expropriation of African labor on an immense scale through slavery, or what he rather delicately called “the fruits of overseas coercion.”
