Ming China Research Paper

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Prior to 1750, Ming China (1368 – 1644) was an economic world power, being the most populous, richest, and powerful empire in the world (Lecture, 1/13/2015). As time passed, many different powerful and influential empires rose throughout the world: the Ottomans in the Middle East, Spain and Portugal in the Americas, and Europe collectively. While China’s immense grasp on power will seemingly reach into the far future, Europe begins its rise politically, economically and militarily. By 1750, European domination of the world seems inevitable: China’s lack of a strong army and failure to capitalize on technology, European influence on Africa and its inability to unify, and Latin America’s collapse and economic conquest from the European powers …show more content…
In Europe, mercantilism allowed the rise of military bureaucracies and favored war ministries (Lecture, 1/29/15). In the long run, when in many parts of the world, large powerful armies start to rise and contest the power of the Chinese (Ottomans, England, etc.), an army unable to stand toe to toe with any of its competitors does not bode will in the future. Another reason to suspect China’s dethroning of world power at or around 1750 will be because it was unable to capitalize on its past technological achievements: despite their inventions of gunpowder, the magnetic compass, and printing (all of which profoundly revolutionized the European world), the agrarian decline and stagnation caused by the traditional Han-style market during the Song Dynasty hindered the use of these technological innovations (Smith …show more content…
At first, any attempt by the Europeans (the Portuguese in particular), at raiding the coast for slaves or making land grabs on the African continent, with large and immobile caravels, were pushed back by the smaller yet swifter African naval ships. The only successful land grab the Portuguese made was a small territory (which was only a success after the help of the Kongos). Therefore, with the Europeans unable to forcibly influence the Africans with their military, their only option was to make a treaty and benefit through trade. So why then was Africa as a whole unable to eventually exert their power and avoid European influence totally? A popular theory is that the trading of slaves, numbering in the millions over the years, displaced the populace. Then, in return of trading the Europeans with slaves, they received a mass number of guns which further fractured African society. Never being unified in the first place (due to geographical and cultural barriers), these two consequences from European influence may have possibly eliminated Africa from becoming a world power, and their interactions with the Portuguese, which was described as “with forbearance” and active “cooperation and participation of African societies” (The Atlantic World 105) only helped them gain traction in dominating the world themselves. (Lecture,
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