As we all know, with the exception of the Rhomanian Empire, the Caliphate of Cordoba, and the Kingdom of England (and they only modernized when a group of secularist and nationalist officers broke the power of the monarchy and the clergy in a military coup), Europe has been one of the backwaters of a world where most of the technological developments have been in either Dar al-Islam, Bharat, or Zhongguo. So, how could Europe have become the center of the modern world? Have the Church be less powerful? No collapse of the "Holy Roman Empire" in the 12th century?