It seems like all answers I get to this question is some version of these two extremes. Now my question obviously makes the assumption the West is globally dominant, which probably deserves some clarification by what I mean by the West and what I mean by dominant.
The West defined as Europe, US, Canada, Australia. Dominant defined as a complication of global influence, technological and scientific contributions (as proxied by Nobel Laureates and inventions), and military power.
/u/Profrhodes wrote a really excellent answer on this topic in this thread. He gives a solid overview of three schools of thought on the issue of the origins of Western dominance. He mentions the work of Kenneth Pomeranz, and I'd agree and add that Pomeranz's The Great Divergence is a well-developed example of that authors argument.