[gavinlit]

I would disagree with your 99% figure. In terms of the development of maths it'd be fair to say it goes roughly along these lines
Babylonia & Mesopotamia
Greece, Egypt & China
Greece Egypt, India (this is the period you're referring to with greece=alexandria)
Persia & Arabia (The dark ages in Europe - rise of christianity?)
Western Europe & India
Russia, Western Europe & India
Currently - ???

That's a broad sweep & there would have been plenty of other cultures involved but for dominant ones in mathematics I'd say that hits the mark.
This is roughly how I see it and that's from a lifetime of exposure to western european texts with all the inherent focus on similar cultures. It's fair to say that the 18th and 19th centuries were dominated by western european thought - mathematically. Since then it'd be difficult to say that any one particular culture has set the trends in the field to such a dominating extent. So if you wish to see the 18th and 19th century as the defining moment in the field it's fair to say you'd be looking at western europe. However, once you go back a bit further the field is spread quiet a bit more. Given each passing century sees a greater rate of advancement in most fields than the previous one it's not terribly surprising that the achievements of the later centuries loom large compared to the earlier ones.

My theory is that any economically advanced society will have a greater opportunity to indulge in the sciences and the arts - which should in theory further advance that society (this dosn't seem to be the trend at the moment with the US being the wealthiest country (?) but sliding in quite a few measures of mathematics and science). If you look at the advancements made in mathematics, they've historically occured in societies that were relatively wealthy on a global scale. No surprises there - it's had to do a lot of study if you're busy tilling a field all day.

Any society with greater economic or military force should be in a position to further itself by putting more resources into research & knowledge. So Alfred, I'd say you can reduce most of your argument to societal wealth and power. Any wealthy and powerful society will outpublish, outresearch and outachieve others - no big surprises there. As to why certain societies are more powerful than others in a historical sense- I'll leave that for others more qualified but it's fair to say it's got more to do than the colour of someones skin.