Hello Joseph, Thanks for an interesting post. What are "internal factors"? Can you give an example which clearly distinguishes the internal from the external? You raise the example of Spain. But what made Spain Spain? We have to draw on the reconquista and the formation of Castile in particular as a frontier society on the shifting boundary of Christendom and Islam, and all of a sudden we're making a very international explanation, thinking about a Mediterranean economy with a North-South political/religious division. Best, Colin
