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Nations succeed because they hold on to successful ideas. In this paper I show that the process of European expansion started just before the year 1500 may be used as a natural experiment that all but proves the importance of the right ideas.
With treatment and control groups, and random treatment we may prove this.
Treatment the transfer of European principles to some former European colonies.
Random Treatment: Treatment may be random if the deliverer of the treatment had no -or reasonably small- control over the composition of the treatment and control groups. Two historical developments support randomized treatment. First, that the purpose of the expeditions that started the process was to reach India, not to discover new lands. Then the guiding principle for both expeditions is not to find the peoples more receptive to treatment, but the best route to India. Second, that both discovered new lands. This led the Spanish to create a treated group in the New World at the same time that the Portuguese (and all Europeans by omission) created a control group in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.
The university being the European institution where ideas are taught, its own expansion reflects these differences:
Three archetypes of European conquest. the treatment
Before, European colonization was characterized in an unidimensional fashion from exploitative to protective of private rights. The historical evidence suggest that sometimes the Europeans integrated with the locals. This integration was brought about by a more constructive vision of the conquest, the purpose of sharing principles with them (the treatment).
Creative conquest: the Europeans settle on empty lands, and raise a society in all but its location European. treated
Commercial conquest: the Europeans initially establish commercial ties with foreign societies. control
Constructive conquest: the Europeans integrate to the locals, creating a mixed society, with European bases. treated
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