Comment by triceratops

> The invention of the steam engine motivated creation of better machinery

https://acoup.blog/2022/08/26/collections-why-no-roman-indus... See this for why the steam engine was invented where it was.

> The invention of the steam engine motivated creation of better machinery and higher precision manufacturing that by the Victorian Era could not be matched by Chinese or Indian workshops

By the Victorian Era India, at least, had substantially de-industrialized due to colonial policy.

> The wealthy gentleman scientist and natural philosopher culture that developed the galvanic pile, the pressure cooker, astronomical telescopes, and the microscope was not something that could develop organically in these Eastern countries

Why did they have to develop them organically? Europeans didn't invent gunpowder or algebra or the counting system.