Europeans have had a phenomenal run for the past few centuries.
Other civilisations may have been leading before them, but scientific research was not a strong suit of any civilisation before them.
Ancient Europeans, Chinese, Egyptians, Indians, Arabs, everyone sucked at scientific exploration.
The modern scientific aptitude is fairly recent. We have now developed reliable methods to test our hypotheses /ideas. In older times, most inventions were based on 'chance ' and pure luck. Modern Europeans have put into place the infrastructure, financial backing and a reward system for their scientific community, industry, etc.
In non European countries, science (and indeed education) , is still not granted the prime role it should have. These countries (say India ) spend money and resources mainly on culture preservation, basic infrastructure, survival, etc. People in leadership positions in Indian universities tend to be extremely low on the scale of intelligence, skill, real achievements and honesty towards their profession.
(P. S. - we have done reasonably well in space research.)
There are some non European countries that are beginning to rise in the scientific arena, now. China being a prominent one.
Israel, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Turkey are doing well, too.
