This comment was posted to reddit on Jan 01, 2018 at 6:58 pm and was deleted within 1 day, 2 hour(s) and 36 minutes.
What do you know about... Europe?
It's not really a continent. Eurasia is
China has always had superior technology (print, compass, gunpowder, etc), the Islamic world was advanced while we were brutes (number system, algebra, banking, medicine, etc), Africa and America had more resources, the ancient Mediterranean had developed know-how that it took us centuries to rediscover (writing, philosophy, etc) - but our ancesteros are the ones who combined all of that into the culture that has shaped the world we all live in
yes, they didn't do out of the goodness of their heart, but then who did? It's not as if the Aztecs or Gengis Khan or the Manchus went around villages singing merry songs and giving teddy bears to children
our biggest and best contribution to the world has to be the Enlightenment, and the ideas of democracy and science - although both seems to be under threat (thanks US and Russia!)
the worst has to be the slave trade and colonialism - hard to tell who was the evilest, but Belgium's brutality is hard to match
except for the Pax Romana and the EU, we spent most of our history fighting each other in every possible combination of alliances and coalitions (often changing them in the same war)
since the Soviet revolution we have been the battleground between Russia and the USA - I wish they both fucked off
three of the world's best cuisines are based here, with an honorable mention of Austria for their patisserie. One of them, the French, is the pinnacle of Western gastronomy (we all use bechamel, and sautè, and cut things in julienne, sometimes cook them with a bain marie and eat them with mayo, etc). But even countries that historically have been culinary wastelands are now buzzing with ideas and innovations and great chefs (looking at you, Denmark)
we look down on American food (cheese spray! yuck!) and do not allow a lot of it to be imported here (clorinated chicken! hormone fed beef!). Until Brexit, of course...
we have won football world cups in every continent. Suck it, South America!!
and we can give north america a run for their money in basketball and hockey
(but not baseball or gridiron - those are ridiculous sports, you hear me? r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s. Learn to play proper sports like rugby or cricket, then we can talk)
we invented the global language (English), only to have Yanks butcher it
we invented trade unions, thanks to whom we have holidays and do not have to work 16 hours days