Chapter 4, Medicine Summary and Analysis

From the middle of the nineteenth century and a hundred years thereafter, the West actually ruled much of the Rest, as it was the age of imperialism driven by many motives, some altruistic, but most not. The British Empire was by far the largest. In 1913, eleven motherlands covering 10% of the land's surface governed more than half of the world. And this imperialism was heavily critiqued even in its day. But it is increasingly difficult to blame the poor fate of the "bottom billion," the poorest people in the world, on colonial exploitation. Part of the problem is poor institutions, causing even foreign aid to fail time and time again.

Modern medicine is what has really made the biggest difference across the world and between developed and undeveloped nations. Life expectancy at birth in 1800 was 28.5 years, and two centuries later...