Scholars embrace the concept of "world systems analysis," to explain the gradual shift in world economy since the 16th century. The modern world system is characterized by a single integrated global economic system, with states participating in a single market. Western European states acted as the heart of this system, bringing other regions into the world market in a subordinate role, disrupting the previously relatively more equal distribution of global wealth and power. Hence, the modern world system emerged, with a (Europe) and a (including the Middle East)