Yes, it is probably my failure if I didn't get it across clearly that I see this difference as all coming down to difference in geography as Jared Diamond focuses on in Guns, Germs and Steel. I am very much in his school of thought.

To me all these things about gunpowder, naval supremacy, mills, glass and clocks is all fundamentally about geography.

European geography created the multitude or states always at war which drove gunpowder innovation. But it was also geography that meant that Europe lacked natural saltpeter like China and was thus forced to experiment more with the chemistry of saltpeter.

The mills are again down to geography. A combination of climate and conditions for wheat growing which means mills were needed, combined with a climate and geography which created a large number of rivers and creeks in Europe which could be utilized by mills.

And as mentioned with the printing press China did simply not have much metals which Germany which invented the printing press did. Thus there is a big geographical difference there which is why I think a German gold smith invented the printing press and not a Chinese gold smith. They simply didn't have many Gold smiths in China due to the rarity of gold, silver and other precious metals.

Thus I think it certainly looks chaotic on the surface all these different factors, but I think most of them can be traced back to geographic conditions. I have come to believe that Europe is in geographic terms an exceptional place unlike anywhere else on the planet.

It is very hard to find anywhere else with that much irregular coastline, mountain ranges going in different directions. Rivers in many directions and two well shielded small seas such as the Baltic sea and the Mediterranean which provided a tremendous benefit to Europe in terms of facilitating trade.