On Monday, we discussed the ways in which Eurocentrism presents select evidence to construct the idealized narrative of the “Rise of the West”. One of the tools Robert Marks provides to build a non-eurocentric narrative is that of contingency, identifying dependent factors in the narrative.

This tool of history is exemplified in the “European Miracle” of the discovery of the Americas. According to Marks, this event was promoted by the Islamic Empire blocking access to the manufactured Asian goods. By looking for a new trade route, Europeans happend upon a continent they weren’t aware of. This perspective gives a much more nuanced view of a network of actors which impact each other and their shared history, rather than a single european source of progress.

However, this perspective doesn’t come without hardships. For those whom eurocentrism celebrates, it might be challenging to reject what they taught to be proud of. However, I think that rejecting these narratives can bring hope. If contingency shaped the past, then it will shape the future. In this framework, we are not objects of the european subject of history, but we are agents in the complex network that shapes our own history.