The Europeans received all the benefits of trade, technology transfer, and the Global Awakening without paying the cost of Mongol conquest. The Mongols had killed off the knights in Hungary and Germany, but they had not destroyed or occupied the cities.

Hm. From what I learnt at school and read later, in Hungary cities – including the one I live in now – were destroyed (it happened only West of the Danube that Mongol troops bypassed fortified positions because they were chasing the fleeing king and his remaining troops), so were villages, one third to half of the total population died, and although there was a one-year occupation period when the Mongolian army created civil administration, its main aim was collecting food supplies and it was marked by trade in women and widespread rape. While Ferguson is a racist apologist for European empires, I think the role of other empires in the spread of trade and knowledge shouldn't be used to airbrush out the brutal nature of Empire, either.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}