The Military Revolution and the Destructiveness of War

In the 14th century, right around the world, you have a phenomenon which historians call the military revolution. And what this leads to everywhere is a sudden huge increase in the destructiveness of war. In Europe, for I think purely contingent reasons, pure historical accident, this doesn't happen. If you were an observer from the Galactic Federation in 1500 or 1520, you would have said it was pretty certain that Europe was going to go the same way as India, China, Russia.