Nuclear kid said:How come when the Arabs, Chineese, Aztecs, Africans, and Indians were way stronger and more advanced, all ended up being colonised by backwards, and weak Europe?
The indians indeed matched the europeans in many fields of knowledge, but they were far behind in one key field - military technology.Nanocyborgasm said:The Indians were not inferior technologically to the Europeans of their time.
Cincinnatus3 said:if you're really interested in the question, one great book to read is Germs, Guns and Steel by Jared Diamond.
here's a link to the book's homepage
i read it a year ago or so, partly because of my interest in civving probably should read it again.
You can't possibly discount the fact that europeans actually had far better weapons and tactics than the chinese, rebellion or no rebellion.Shaihulud said:While i cannot speak for India, the reason why Europe were able to dominate China was that they had just fought a devastating war called the Taiping rebellion, which wiped out more people than WW2.
Verbose said:People really seem to like "Guns, Germs and Steel"?
Shaihulud said:Power is cyclical, China was strong , but it fell several time in its history. A correct persepective is that, no nation remains strong forever. The period when Europe was strong is a short moment in history, nowadays it is arguable that the age will be an Asian one, with the rise of China, Japan, India and the various Asian "Economic Tigers". While i cannot speak for India, the reason why Europe were able to dominate China was that they had just fought a devastating war called the Taiping rebellion, which wiped out more people than WW2. The Empire was at its zenith with all that it implied, but China was not colonised by any meaning of the word.
Mongols did not conquer Maghrib or Egypt, the centre of arab and muslim civ of that time. You can't blame them, actually.
Damn! Maybe I' have to read it then?jonatas said:I think it's the bible of this forum.
naziassbandit said:Actually the center of the Muslim world was still baghdad. It had libaries, scholars, observatories, laboratories, hospitals you name it. It was burned and raided by the mongols, indeed, some accounts say that the river was black from all the ink. Agricultural production in Mesopotamia fell to 10% of what it was previously, and starvation was surely rampant. Mongol invasions were immensly destructive.
So yes you can blame the Mongols.