For example, what were the major economies 2000 years ago? From our European point of view, Rome could be a credible answer. But in reality, China and India weighed much more heavily. At the time, these two countries, Europe, Turkey and Iran together represented 84% of the planetary economic power. Around 1850, Russia, Europe and the United Kingdom dominated the world, since these countries accounted for more than 50% of the global GDP. We had to wait for the First World War and the ruin of the old continent to see the United States emerge as the dominant power. And it’s been going on for a century.
The most observant, including my office neighbor, will have noted that the graph stops in 2003. It therefore misses the last two decades, but the purpose of the day was above all to remind you that the reality of the moment, the one in which we live and which constitutes our frame of reference, does not have an eternal vocation.