The Colonizer's Model of the World Geographical Diffusionism and Eurocentric History

by Blaut, J. M.

• ISBN13: 9780898623499
• ISBN10: 0898623499
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-10-29
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

This influential book challenges one of the most pervasive and powerful beliefs of our time--that Europe rose to modernity and world dominance due to unique qualities of race, environment, culture, mind, or spirit, and that progress for the rest of the world resulted from the diffusion of European civilization. J. M. Blaut persuasively argues that this doctrine is not grounded in the facts of history and geography, but in the ideology of colonialism. Blaut traces the colonizer's model of the world from its 16th-century origins to its present form in theories of economic development, modernization, and new world order.

Author Biography

J. M. Blaut is Professor of Geography at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Table of Contents

History Inside Out	p. 1
The Argument	p. 1
The Tunnel of Time	p. 3
Eurocentric Diffusionism	p. 8
The Colonizer's Model	p. 17
World Models and Worldly Interests	p. 30
The Myth of the European Miracle	p. 50
Mythmakers and Critics	p. 52
The Myth	p. 59
Before 1492	p. 152
Medieval Landscapes	p. 153
Protocapitalism in Africa, Asia, and Europe	p. 165
After 1492	p. 179
Explaining 1492	p. 179
Colonialism and the Rise of Europe, 1492-1688	p. 187
The Centration of Capitalism	p. 201
Conclusion	p. 214
Bibliography	p. 217
Index	p. 237
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