Throughout history many civilisations* were on the cusp of either a pseudo-enlightment or industrial revolution, but then wobbled back due to politics, warfare, plague, etc. Is there any way to get the major shift of the 18th and 19th century to not (really) happen? Would it take a second black death? Or could an earlier and more bloody French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars style event do the job?
*Well, at least China and probably India.