Chapter 16 The European Moment in World History (pg. 491-497)

I thought it was interesting that William O. Swinton wrote the book An Outline of the World's History which is a book for students that discussed the race to which we belong, the Aryan, which has always played the leading part in the drama of world progress. Other civilizations were believed to be static and unchanging. Why was this? Europeans called them "backwards" peoples and regions were headed in the European direction or doomed until distinction. Europeans arrived in the Western world where they brought something unique, special, or superior about them or their culture. This caused everyone else to struggle and overcome their inadequacy to catch up. The 19th century rule was the "European moment" when the Europeans were clearly the most powerful, most innovative, most prosperous, most expansive, and most widely imitated people on the planet. I found this very interesting. How did they come to this power? And why were they feared so much?
An explanation could have been that Europe occurred within an international context. It was the withdrawal of the Chinese naval fleet that allowed Europeans to dominate the Indian Ocean in the 16th century, while Native Americans' lack of immunity to European diseases and their own divisions and conflicts greatly assisted the European takeover.