Since the late eighteenth century, European thinkers viewed history as a story of progress toward “civilization,” in which stages of progress are defined in terms of distinct modes of production. Societies progress by moving from hunter-gatherer subsistence, to herding, to settled agriculture, to civilized states with cities, manufacturing, commerce, arts, sciences, and law. These thinkers regarded Europe as ahead of “savage,” “barbarian,” and “semi-barbarian” societies in the rest of the world. This idea of European superiority in progress was reinforced in the nineteenth century by the spectacular economic growth spurred by astonishing technological innovations in manufacturing, transportation, and communication during the Industrial Revolution. European thinkers asked: what accounted for Europe’s rapid economic and technological progress, far ahead of the rest of the world?