Is this the same Europe that we are looking to for an example on how to run a society?
Since 1800? What a strange horizon.
Political instability and being on the losing side of major wars would explain most of the defaults. 1800 to 2000 is a timescale that includes the overthrow of Napoleon, the end of the Ottoman Empire, the creation of a political entity called ‘Germany’ - and the export of the very concept of sovereign debt from Britain (who got it from the Dutch)
This is just another way of saying that there were more rich countries capable of amassing sovereign debt on the European mainland in those two centuries than anywhere else.
Rather more useful would be the picture since 1945. The debt problems would still be heavily euro-centric, but the comparison would be less farcical.