A Nation’s Key To Power

While reading a history book, I came across a very interesting passage:

“History as we know it came of age in tandem with the European nation-states.  As the structure of the modern university coalesced—with knowledge categorized into disciplines, and scholars categorized into academic departments—Europe’s global dominance in technology and economic power was so great that it seemed reasonable to imagine that Europeans had advanced to a higher level than peoples in other parts of the world.”

This brings interesting points, such as the fact that nations cannot become great (and enjoy power, I suppose, if they get high off of that sort of thing) unless there is a structured way of learning that encourages not only the spread of knowledge, but also of reasoning and healthy debates.

Methinks, therefore, that should any of these traits vanish, is when we start to see a country’s downfall…

Source:

The Heritage of World Civilizations: Combined Volume (9th Edition)