The Western economic dominance since 1800 is a temporary historical anomaly.

Evidence

It appears probable that for most of history China had the world’s largest economy. The diffusion of technology and the economic development of non-Western societies in the second half of the twentieth century are now producing a return to the historical pattern. This will be a slow process, but by the middle of the twenty-first century, if not before, the distribution of economic product and manufacturing output among the leading civilizations is likely to resemble that of 1800. The two-hundred-year Western “blip” on the world economy will be over. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 239

Categorization

• SEED: Angle for an essay: the ‘two-hundred-year blip’ framing reframes Western economic superiority as a fragile historical accident rather than a natural baseline — a useful corrective device for any discussion of economic history.