alternatehistory.com

Ever since the days of the Greeks, those who named Europe and Asia, the eastern Mediterranean has always been more developed than the western Mediterranean. This persisted through the days of the Roman Empire.

When the moldboard plow made the heavier, cooler soils of Sarmatia as productive as the light, warm soils of the Mediterranean, it was only a matter of time before Eastern Europe became the urbanized center of power that it became, like the Fertile Crescent or China for the birth of civilization.

Historians debate why the Slavic empires became the economic and political center of the developed world. Some argue that it was the cultural, scientific and architectural legacy of Rhomania as well as contacts with the Caliphate, Persia, and also China through the Silk Road. Others say the inclusive nature of early Slavic chiefdoms led to the quick increases in population and development of the land.

Others argue that geographic determinism played a role. The wide open spaces for farming, green lush forests providing timber, strategic trading points of the Black Sea. Not to mention the location of Eastern Europe, forming a crossroads between the mineral rich western and Central Europe, and the technologically rich East Asia.

Western Europe of course, has always been a backwater compared to Mediterranean and Eastern civilizations. The West remained tribal warring states until conquered by the Romans, and then became tribal warring states again after the fall of the West. If it weren't for the abundant natural resources of Gaul, Germania, and Britannia, they might never have industrialized, even at the slow, delayed rate they did in our world.

All that being said, how could Western Europe become economically advanced like Eastern Europe? Not just in the industrial era, but even for several centuries beforehand?
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