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Why didn't China dominate the globe?

To be frank I don't know much about Ancient China, so maybe there were factors limiting their ability to set up exploration fleets. But it seems like they invented a lot of things long before other nations, when others were still in mud huts, these guys had great Empires, before the Romans and all that.

So why is it they don't have territories in Europe, Africa, America etc? Britain, France etc seemed to go all over the world, claiming areas of land as their own. Hell we took over the whole of North America.

They had ships long before us, thousands of years. Why didn't they expand like we did and lay claim to far away nations, beat back the indigenous population as we did.

We have random little islands in the Far east, or at least did at some point, independence wars and all that. But I don't see random little islands in the West having a Chinese population.

Reply 1

rngesus

12

I don't know whether or not they had the means to expand way back when others didn't, but if they did have the means and didn't utilize them, I'm assuming that they believed in "live and let live" rather than "walk all over those worse off than you and then whine, b***h and moan when they bite back."

Reply 2

freddy2222

13

their explorers were orderd not to explore anymore. they were never a match for europe anyway.

Reply 3

Ewan

15

Traditionally less expansionistic than the European nations.

Reply 4

Liquidus Zeromus

17

China had plenty of land in the first place, and only the asiatic hordes expanded into Europe. Really, just like Russia, there were few factors which would have pushed China to expand overseas.

Reply 5

waterinabottle

They're too busy making shoes for Nike.

Reply 6

Broderss

3

It is actually all about Tea. They were content with drinking Tea, so unlike Britain who in the search for a material to keep whine and thus developed glass, they were left behind on the technology front. Along with glass for whine came things like windows, microscopes, glasses etc. which really helped us advance in technology.

It meant people could wear glasses to correct their vision when they age, so could read for a longer period of their lives than otherwise possible. This then enabled them to study longer, develop theories and technologies, pass it on and just allowed us to progress into new technologies.

If China had wanted to drink whine more than tea, they would have developed technologies themselves and by now would have taken over the world.

So, it's all down to Tea. Thank you QI :top:

Reply 7

channy

10

Genghis Khan? :dontknow:

Reply 8

username358506

20

channy

Genghis Khan? :dontknow:

Was not Chinese, he was the emperor of the Mongol Empire.

Reply 9

channy

10

Stalin

Was not Chinese, he was the emperor of the Mongol Empire.

...

What I meant was that because of the Mongols defeating and conquering them it obviously stopped them from, you know, doing anything.

And it actually seems it was their tea cups which stopped them.

Reply 10

username358506

20

channy

...

What I meant was that because of the Mongols defeating and conquering them it obviously stopped them from, you know, doing anything.

And it actually seems it was their tea cups which stopped them.

I see, I thought you were implying that China dominated most of Asia because of old Genghis. The empire only lasted 150 odd years, China could've and should've expanded before Christ was even born(and it hurts me to say that because I'm an atheist, but you know what I mean), then again they were being raided day in day out - they'll have their chance to change that though, with their ever growing economy.

Reply 11

channy

10

Stalin

I see, I thought you were implying that China dominated most of Asia because of old Genghis. The empire only lasted 150 odd years, China could've and should've expanded before Christ was even born(and it hurts me to say that because I'm an atheist, but you know what I mean), then again they were being raided day in day out - they'll have their chance to change that though, with their ever growing economy.

I'm no expert, but maybe after the civil wars between the dynasties they simply were content to be one nation. Also maybe the Himalayas stopped them geographically, or simply money!
I found a nice tidbit, no idea if it is credible though.

China had the same potential (if not more) as Europe before the 1500's to dominate the world. However China during this time had decided to destroy all of its ships thus no "age of exploration" developed. Therefore it was China's unity that stopped them from dominating the world. China had a single ruler who decided the future of the whole area whereas Europe, because of its many "natural barriers" of rivers, mountains, and landmasses, was made up of many states. Thus in China when the emperor decided to scrap all naval vessels and stop exploration, this sealed the fate of China's future. In Europe if one state decided not to explore, another state could choose to do otherwise and explore. Once these states who decided to explore began to profit and become rich from their explorations, it forced other states to follow suite or fall behind and be dominated.

Reply 12

No Future

17

joey11223

To be frank I don't know much about Ancient China, so maybe there were factors limiting their ability to set up exploration fleets. But it seems like they invented a lot of things long before other nations, when others were still in mud huts, these guys had great Empires, before the Romans and all that.

So why is it they don't have territories in Europe, Africa, America etc? Britain, France etc seemed to go all over the world, claiming areas of land as their own. Hell we took over the whole of North America.

They had ships long before us, thousands of years. Why didn't they expand like we did and lay claim to far away nations, beat back the indigenous population as we did.

We have random little islands in the Far east, or at least did at some point, independence wars and all that. But I don't see random little islands in the West having a Chinese population.

I wouldn't call HK a random little island.

China wasn't always united. It took a long time and much fighting for unification. China is/was already huge so by land area may compare to UK empire? Or no? I don't know the scale here. UK is small. China invented gunpowder but missed guns!

Reply 13

AliciaJ703

2

Look up Zheng He (Ma He) and maritime expeditions during the Ming Dynasty

Reply 14

Captain Crash

9

If you look at China's history, it follows of cycles of several small kingdoms eventually merging (by force or not) into a united china only for it to fracture into smaller kingdoms at a later stage. China never had the political stability to occupy itself with more than it's own house.

Reply 15

Don John

17

waterinabottle

They're too busy making shoes for Nike.

Rofl

Reply 16

ChaoticMaster

16

robin22391

their explorers were orderd not to explore anymore. they were never a match for europe anyway.

They were far more than a match for Europe. 100 years before the first European fleets, of 30 ships, entered Chinese seas the Chinese had fleets of over 200 ships each. There ships were larger than the European ships and if they had been maintained when the Europeans entered Chinese waters they would of been annihilated. However, as the Chinese believed their culture to be superior to all other cultures they decided there was nothing in the outside world they needed so they stopped exploring the seas and allowed there fleets to rot away. Because of this Chinese military and Naval technology fell behind European standards and allowed the European explores to establish a foothold in China and eventually affect its trading policies.

Reply 17

cubezero3

6

ChaoticMaster

They were far more than a match for Europe. 100 years before the first European fleets, of 30 ships, entered Chinese seas the Chinese had fleets of over 200 ships each. There ships were larger than the European ships and if they had been maintained when the Europeans entered Chinese waters they would of been annihilated. However, as the Chinese believed their culture to be superior to all other cultures they decided there was nothing in the outside world they needed so they stopped exploring the seas and allowed there fleets to rot away. Because of this Chinese military and Naval technology fell behind European standards and allowed the European explores to establish a foothold in China and eventually affect its trading policies.

In a word, arrogance stopped the ancient China from expanding. Growing up in this culture and being a gut who has an intense interest in it, I'd say people, in the old times, rarely had the motivition to colonise. In their minds, this country was perfect enough.. Plus, not like the Christians, they believed that if other countries were not following China's steps, it would be their loss. Then, it turned out they were wrong, as it happened in the 19th century.

Ps: I do like this reply:

They're too busy making shoes for Nike.

:yep:

Reply 18

RyanT

15

Ewan

Traditionally less expansionistic than the European nations.

I know this thread is two months old, but I do suggest you take a look at a map showing the size of China and ask yourself whether or not Chinese and ethnicity has been spread over that area since humans first move there or whether it had expanded to encompass such a vast area.

It's bigger then India and that's a sub-continent!

Take a closer look at the map and in almost all directions you will see that Chinese expansionism halted at the first significant environmental barriers. Deserts to the west, Siberia north, Himalayas etc

Reply 19

favh

Colonies and territories like that were not possible for a long time, when shipbuilding developed more. China did have a brief opportunity to join in, but their despotic government regarded shipping as a threat and largely banned it. China was simply too despotic, xenophobic and isolationist for its own good, while Europe had a lot of divided, liberal-ish governments that were much less stultifying. Of course, at the time it wasn't known there would be great trading empires, so maybe they would have acted differently if they could have seen the future.

Why didn't China dominate the globe?

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