Recapping the World History Seminar “The Great Escape: How the Fall of the Roman Empire Made the Modern World Possible” conducted by Prof. Walter SCHEIDEL on 22 September 2022

Prof. Walter SCHEIDEL from the Department of Classics and History, Stanford University, was invited by the Centre for Comparative and Public History to deliver a lecture entitled “The Great Escape: How the Fall of the Roman Empire Made the Modern World Possible” on 22 September 2022. Prof. SCHEIDEL started his lecture by revisiting the long-term view of Great Divergence narrative and reconstructing the causal chain of development from antiquity to modernity. He then compared the proportion of the population in different areas (MENA region, South Asia, East Asia, and Europe) throughout the millennia to provide a solid background for the uniqueness of Roman Europe. The “First Great Divergence” between Roman and post-Roman Europe took place with eight possible critical junctures in which the Roman Empire never reappeared, whereas China, as a counterexample, had repeated restoration of universal empire in the sixth century. Such a regional disparity can be ascribed to the interaction between the determinants and outcomes regarding state formation in Europe and China during 500-1000 CE. The “Second Great Divergence”, on the other hand, rooted in fragmentation of sources of social power and durable competitive state system. The lecture concluded by reexamining the positive legacies of the Roman Empire.

World History Seminar (2022-23)

Organisers: Centre for Comparative and Public History, Department of History, CUHK
Enquiry: 3943 8541

CUHK History Day 2022

Pre-registration is required and by 31 October 2022.
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