Stefan MolyneuxVerified account

Well heck even more recent and clear. Look at America. Both the north and south sections started out agrarian. But the north not embracing slavery greatly needed the boost that labor saving devices offered to boost efficiency. The south didn't, cause they had slaves.

They both started in the same place and diverged simply because of slavery. The slave south stayed relatively poor, while the innovating north became rich. That's even with the north's handicap of foul weather much of the year.

It’s not at all that simple though. The north was always more reliant on trade and simple industries such as ship building in pre-industrial times. The south was dependent on cash crop exports, centered around large plantations.

Greece came close to having industrial evolution. Tinkered around with steam power but never went all in. Imagine the industrial revolution happened 2000 years ago in Greece instead of 200 years ago in England. What a different world we would be living in

nobody tell Stef about the cotton gin

Not necessarily. They were using some pretty interesting mechanical technology before the Arab invasions. Periods of depopulation could have increased the need for mechanical output if the rise of Islamic didn’t destroy the Mediterranean world and send the west into a dark age.