This is the

CBS I in the world. I'm John Bachelor with Peter Frankapan of Oxford University

Worcester College, a professor of global history. The new book is The Earth

transformed looking at climate College, Professor of Global History, the new book is The Earth Transformed,

Looking at Climate, Ecology, Pandemic, Volcanoes, all of that, and how

humankind, especially the civilizations that reach back for the last 5,000 years, have

responded.

Now we come to a debate that is ongoing, whether or not there is a way of explaining why Europe seems to accelerate in terms

of science and technology.

Over Asia, where much of the innovation of the earlier thousand or two thousand years took place.

I know that having visited Central Asia, the city states of Tejkent, of Kabul, of Samar Khan, all of those city states were well established

with science and learning and education. Thousands of years before that came to Europe. I date European universities remembering 1222

Padua. That is the period of time when universities in guilds are mixing with what is known as the

feudal revolution and the professor teaches me that that is too shorthand.

There's a lot of complication that went on in the 13th century in Europe, but in any event, Europe is said to accelerate.

Professor, the Great Divergence, is there an explanation or are we too close to it?

Well, that's a great question.

There are so many fantastic scholars to work on this question, most notably Ken Bomerance

at University of Chicago. And the question really is how was it that Europe, as you say, a relative backwater,

you know, lots of pearls and individual moments of highlights before sort of 1500 but how was it that Europe

managed to take over the world and in the case of Africa for example every single

part of Africa was colonized by our European power

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