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For most of history, China was the center of civilization. It had the biggest
cities, the most complex government, the highest quality manufacturing, the most
industrial capacity, the most advanced technology, the best historical records
and the largest armies. It dominated East Asia at the center of an elaborate
tribute system for a thousand years.
Western Europe was a backwater's backwater. It had few cities. Most people lived
on the countryside. Technology regressed after the fall of the Western Roman
Empire.
And yet, in recent centuries, it was Western Europe (along with Russia and the
USA) that conquered the world. When a Chinese exporter sells lead-acid batteries
to an Argentinian importer they wear European clothes, speak English and settle
accounts in USD.
Why?
GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL
In Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond divides the human-occupied world into
four regions: Eurasia (including Mediterranean North Africa), Subsaharan Africa,
America and Australia. One o
There is little consensus about the impact that the Western colonialism had on China’s economy. This column revisits a period that saw China end centuries of relative isolation and open dozens of ‘treaty ports’ to Western traders, which shifted the focus of capital markets from inland areas to the coast. Western influence also increased the number of banks, firm investment, as