As we probably all know, after ancient and medieval times European countries traveled to almost every part of the Globe. Today's heritage are, among many others, Roman law and alphabet, Gregorian Calendar, English as international language, European fashion (like eg. ties), habits (see eg. my other question), science (measurements like SI, meridian 0 going through London, Latin names in biology...), etc.
It seems that in ancient times Greeks/Romans were on the same civilized level as other cultures. Then, during Medieval, which is (wrong in my opinion) called dark ages, lots of minor wars occurred, which should have led to total European destruction.
This however did not weaken European community; moreover, common enemies (like Mongols, Ottomans) led to military breakthrough.
But this does not need to be true. China is the same latitude as southern Europe. They invented gunpowder. They made first sailings and first discoveries. They had common enemies (Mongol, Japanese), they shared the same faith. They had the same resources (iron) as Europeans.
In America today's New York lies on the same latitude as Rome. Why where there no civilization? Why Inca did not invent wheel? Just bad luck?
Of course these are rhetorical questions. The main is: are there any commonly acceptable factors that were advantageous for European civilization (even if totally dispersed to hundreds of feudal states), that allowed them to take over other civilizations and rule them for a while? Or maybe these were just some good luck for Europeans?
(I have read this question but this does not fulfill the topic. It is native American-centered, and ok, there were no good resources in America. However, I think the Chinese had everything that Europe needed to advance but they did not make use of it. India also was not too advanced).
I've met an opinion, that combination of Greek philosophy, Roman law, and Jewish (or Christian) theocracy (one God) made European civilization focus on particular humans. So units were able to move the civilization further, while Eastern civilizations (religions) focused on people as a whole, so every independent thoughts were suppressed. However, this might be too broad clarification.