In the 1300s, Europe was in the midst of decline and turmoil, China dominated East Asia, and the Islamic empires were embarking on a 300-year long period of ascendency. Yet by the dawn of the nineteenth century (1800s), China had turned inward and stagnated, the late Islamic Empires crumbled, and European peoples and their descendants seemed poised to take over the globe. Using specific historical examples from the lectures and readings, explain the remarkable turnaround that brought this reversal.