I've run across a theory in a dusty old book I got from a professor last semester that Europe pulled ahead of the near East not because of anything inherent to Europe, but instead because of the sheer devastation wrought by invaders in the late Middle Ages. Whereas Europe was able to recover from the commercial collapse at the end of the Roman Empire naturally after the German invasions slowed and stopped, everything east of Anatolia underwent terrible invasions, first from the Mongols but then from men like Timur. Hundreds of thousands died, entire cities disappeared, country-sides were emptied, and this didn't happen once but multiple times.
The initial lead on technological and economic development the east had was lost and Europe surged ahead. The discovery and exploitation of the Americas just exasperated a situation that already existed.
What do you think?