China
The history of China is a thorny subject. The names are strange and hard to spell, plus what was going on in China did not seem to affect Europe (although we know it did). China’s largest impact on the West was the result of Europe knowing about China andexpending a lot of energy trying toget there for trading purposes. The silks and spices of the Orient drew such good prices in Europe that it made sense for traders to get there however they could and bring back these most profitable items.
What seems odd is China was not trying to get to Europe. Chinese traders did not venture very far west or east. What did go west, with the armies of the Mongols and others, was disease and war. Of course, the wars imposed on the West from the East did not come from China proper; they came from the nomads living in the area west of China. The diseases that swept over Europe probably started in China, it is often hard to say, but this was not a purposeful export[72]
China’s impacts on Europe were actually profound. Anything that kills off about one-third of the population of an area, such as the Black Death did in Europe, is important. The area of trade involved men taking action to get to China. The great explorers sailed west to reach the east (Columbus for example), and their tales of high adventure on the seas caused a lot of attention to be cast onto them. The opening of sea routes to Asia had an enormous impact on Europe, and helped to make Europe the dominant region of the world after they had secured the sea lanes to the orient. On the way to Asia, the explorers discovered other lands and claimed them for their own. Such claimed areas often became colonies of the “mother country” and once again increased the wealth of Europe.
Thus, China, through its mere existence, had a massive impact on European history (and therefore world history) even though it is seldom mentioned in that light.
Why did China keep to herself and not venture out and try to gain knowledge and trade from the rest of the world? At one time, China did just that, reaching India and perhaps beyond; however, later emperors thought China was the center of the earth and that it had no need for exploration. Like any nation with a very long history it is not uniform from start to finish. What we have to look at is the larger trends, and China’s trend for centuries was isolation. The Chinese called themselves the middle kingdom, or the center of all the earth—or at least the part that mattered. The Chinese had everything they needed so why venture out to the barbarian world? Aggressors came from Mongolia and conquered the Chinese; however, China prevailed because the newcomers did not change China, rather, China changed the newcomers. The invaders were few compared to the Chinese, eventually adopted Chinese ways, and gradually merged into the population until China was once more China—and the former conquerors were now Chinese.
A great Chinese asset is the continuity and stability of their ancient civilization. Ancient Egypt had a solid continuity for over 2000 years, but ancient Egypt is with us no longer while China is. Chinese continuity goes back to the Shang and Chou Dynasties.[73]These two dynasties gave China the structural organization that continued for centuries. After laying these foundations, China remained basically the same until the 20th Century. A strong centralized government, the basic land divisions, and the fundamental classes of society began during the reign of the Shang and Chou. The people of the land (peasants) and the ruling class (nobles and emperors) were set up as distinct groups, becoming nearly unchanging categories of people that formed the basis of Chinese life from these early dynasties until the modern world interposed itself. Thus, Chinese society resisted change and achieved a remarkable stability for about 3,500 years.
The Chinese always thought their greatest asset was “the Chinese mind.” As they scrutinized other cultures the Chinese noticed foreigners saw life quite differently, failing to understand the qualities of thought separating them from the Chinese. For example, the first legendary Chinese Emperor, Fu Xi, was famous for establishing a connection between the individual and nature (philosophy & keen insight), unlike western leaders such as Sargon famed for slaughter and conquest (war & killing). Unlike the West, Chinese philosophers avoided arguments about definitions (epistemology) or what was real and what was not, and stuck with practical subjects. Most Chinese philosophers were concerned with how to live now, what makes a superior person, and how one could grow to be a superior person. Lao Tzu founded Taoism in 600 BC, Confucius taught morality in 549 BC, and Buddhism started to infiltrate China in 200 BC from India. These eastern philosophies avoided conflicts about the afterlife. Life here on earth was stressed, and the afterlife was something no one could know.
Taoism concentrated on telling the adherent to flow with events as water flows down a stream, and concentrate on becoming a superior man. One key to Taoism was conformity with facts found in life. To struggle against the tides of the time was not the sign of a superior person. The Tao is “the way” or the principle governing an ordered universe.[74] Confucius was an ethics teacher stressing right living, honor, and obedience. He was especially concerned with governments, and wanted governments to be operated honestly and for the benefit of all, including the peasants. During his life his impact was not great; however, after his death his philosophies became widely accepted, and the model for government officials in China. Buddhism taught that one might achieve enlightenment by living right (right work, etc.) and trying to reach out to the universal “one” into which everything must someday merge. Buddhism taught the Eightfold Path to living and enlightenment. Named for Buddha, who was rich as a boy, but as a man he quit worldly things and began to contemplate what made people miserable. One day, while sitting under a tree, he was hit with the thought that “wanting things” is what makes men miserable. If people could get rid of this desire for more, they would be happy. Buddha did not write anything down himself, but his disciples wrote down his thoughts after he died, thus starting a movement that would sweep the East with his ideas. Buddhism requires one to focus on the ability to accept what is while turning aside the cares of the world. As a person’s thoughts reach perfection, then enlightenment draws near. This enlightenment is to feel and experience oneness with the universe[75] (Nirvana). Buddhism was originally simplistic and without ritual. In India, where it arose, it remained a minority religion; however, it spread to the whole of Asia and gained a massive following in China, Japan, and the rest of the world.
China’s language was another unifying factor. The Chinese way of writing, in characters that identified an entire thought rather than an alphabet, shows another way the Chinese mind was, and is, different from the Western mind. Many of the concepts found in eastern writing (Chinese and Japanese) cannot be translated into English. As such, it is difficult to understand the thinking process since it remains hidden behind a language others cannot know unless they learn it and live it.
The Dynasties (this can get very dull)
Pottery found in China dates from 6000 BC, showing the ancient age settlers began farming the areas of the Yangtze and Huang river valleys in China. The earliest settlements were farming villages that grew into small towns. Rice farming was taken up at a very early time as well (about 6000 BC), and rice proved to be an excellent food source which facilitated the Chinese population leap. Evidence from these early eras show China’s population growing rapidly; thus, China probably gained the population edge from the start of human history. China was working iron by 500 BC and making iron casts from 400 BC—over nine hundred years before casting became available in the Western world. By 1000 BC, China was making by far the finest pottery in the world along with using extreme temperatures to fire the pottery. About 1000 BC Chinese ink painting began.
From 2500 BC, large parts of China were unified under various dynasties starting with the Yao, which lasted two hundred years. Approximately 1994 BC, the Xia clan managed to gain control of enough of China to qualify as a dynasty. Xia’s dynastic reign ended by 1600 BC with the inception of the Shang dynasty. The Shang lasted six hundred years before its overthrow by the Chou (also Zhou) in 1050 BC.
Together, the Shang and Chow dynasties established the fundamental patterns of Chinese life that would prove to be so enduring. The institutions established by the Shang and continued by the Chou would become the same institutions used by Imperial China for two thousand years. The Chouestablished a strong unified central government that was able, by using clans and the family unit, to run the nation. This strong central governmental control continues in China until this very day. The Chou divided the country intolandowning nobility and a peasant underclass. One had to be a recognized member of a clan to be a noble. The peasants could not be members of a clan; thus, welding the peasants in place as workers of the land—and nothing else.
After the fall of the Chou dynasty in 480 BC, China entered into the Warring States Period until 221 BC. During the Warring States Period, philosophy, technology, and the arts flowered. It was during this time of disarray that Sun Tzu wrote the famous Art ofWar that is still widely read today. Sun Tzu thought the greatest victories came without fighting. The goal was to bend your adversary to your will, and if accomplished without loss of life, then one had shown himself to be the greatest of generals (note the difference in the Chinese mind, very different from the west). Nevertheless, it was a period of extensive warfare and chaos failing to advance the overall society.
In 221 BC the Qin (also Chin, for which the nation was named) dynasty began after this clan was able to conquer and again reunite China under one ruler. The Qin had been fighting the nomads in the northern areas of China for years, and they put this knowledge of warfare to use in conquering the feudal states of the Warring States Period. After the conquest, the Qin dynasty started construction on The Great Wall to keep the nomads from the north out of China.[76] The Qin established a total dictatorship, created onelanguage for the entire nation, and required one system for weights and measures. Using harsh laws, the Qin oppressed the people. By murdering intellectuals with different ideas they instilled fear to maintain their rule. This harsh treatment led to discontent and rebellion.
Figure 23 Jin (North) and Song(South) Dynasties 1142 AD
In 206 BC the prosperous Han dynasty began and lasted four centuries until AD 220. The greatest ruler of the Han, Emperor Wu, started the civil service system in China wherein individuals were chosen for government jobs by testing rather than heredity. This fundamental change ensured a quality bureaucracy for China. The civil service system was part of a centralized government that was the norm in China since the Qin. The Confucius system and the civil service fit together well, as Confucius had taught that each person had his place in a great web of relationships and obligations. This web of relationships started in the home where each individual had a place with specific obligations, such as children to parents, and wives to husbands; then on to the larger world of peasants to local officials, local officials to regional officials, and so on, which then expanded out to the emperor and the entire world. As a part of this web of relationships and obligations, the civil servant had his place. The civil servant was to be an upright official and lead by example. The Confucius’ system tempered the particularly harsh legalism in China and thereby assisted in holding the nation together.
Emperor Wu expanded the empire by conquering Northern Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand in Southeast Asia. Between 9 BC to AD 25, the Han dynasty was overthrown and then restored, thus showing a great resiliency. In the year 2 AD, a census taken by the Han dynasty recorded a population of 57 million. This was a huge number for the time. China was in the population lead and never relinquished it. The West was starting to reach China during this period, and about AD 80 the great Silk Road trading route was established from Rome from China. [77] China managed to keep a complete monopoly on the riches of the East for centuries; thus, the Silk Road became a highway of wealth for European merchants if they could reach the portals of commerce in the East. Control of or access to this trade route would determine the economic viability of many empires.
In AD 220, China fell into a severe civil war that divided China into Three Kingdoms (Wei, Wu, and Shu). It was during this 300 year period (longer than the USA has been around) of war and unrest that Buddhism began to establish itself as a major religion in China. The wars continued and eventually the Sui dynasty, in AD 581, reunited China into one country. The Sui did not last long, and in AD 618 the Tang dynasty emerged. The Tang conquered territory well beyond previous Chinese borders, and they benefited from an excellent road and canal infrastructure. Trading silk—which the Chinese held a monopoly on by keeping its mode of production a secret—along the Silk Road and with the Indian Ocean trade network increased the nation’s wealth. Civil war broke out once again in AD 755 when a great Tang general, An Lushan, rebelled against the throne. His rebellion was defeated, but it cost the empire so much blood and treasure the Tang never recovered. By 907 the Tang dynasty, one of the most brilliant in Chinese history, had disintegrated. From 907 to 960 is the time of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms where multiple states rose and fell rather quickly, leaving China searching for stability.
Note how closely this follows the basic outline of European and Middle Eastern civilization. Empire after empire arose, only to be conquered by another empire. Some lasted longer than others, but the pattern is the same.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period ended in northern China when the Liao dynasty, as part of the non-Chinese Khitan Empire, gained control. The Jin conquered the Khitan in 1127 when they took over northern China. The European Marco Polo was traveling around China during the Jin period, and upon returning home told wondrous tales of the Far East, hence increasing western curiosity about Asia. Beginning in 960 and lasting until 1279 AD, the Song dynasty ruled much of southern China. Song emperors survived by retreating south, under pressure from the Jin and later the Mongols, and establishing a new capital at Hangzhou. They managed to create a competent government made up largely of the civil servants recruited from prosperous rural-area families. The Song dynasty was the first to use gunpowder weapons extensively in battles, some of them at sea. After the Mongol conquest of the Jin, the Song warred with the northern invaders for sixty-five years which considerably sapped their strength, but they managed to protect southern China from a Mongol conquest for many years.
The Mongol successors of Genghis Khan conquered northern China and the Jin by 1234. Commencing in 1231 they conquered Korea by 1236, then turned in earnest on southern China (the Song). Kublai Khan conquered the southern Song dynasty in 1279, establishing the Yang dynasty. Twice Kublai Khan tried to invade Japan only to have his fleets swept away by huge storms named Kamikaze (Divine Winds) by the Japanese. Once again weather and geography changed history.
In the early 1300’s China suffered a great population loss due to the impact of the Black Plague (bubonic plague), which later moved on to the Middle East and Europe devastating the populace there. Historians estimate the Black Death killed 30 to 40 percent of China’s inhabitants. Percentage wise, this is very close to the population losses in Europe from the plague. As a total number however, many more were lost in China. This massive population loss led to economic problems and then civil war in 1368.
In 1368, the Chinese rebelled against the Mongols and expelled them. So began the famous Ming Dynasty that reunited China. In 1420, the Ming moved their capital to Beijing and rebuilt the Great Wall. The Ming emperors also sent expeditions out to India and the coast of Africa. These expeditions concluded in 1433 because many thought the high cost was not worth the gain. It was during the Ming rule that Vietnam broke away and established an independent kingdom (again). During the Ming Dynasty China regained control of the Silk Road, linked its cities together by new canals and roads, developed additional agricultural land in southern China, produced fine pottery, and experienced a national economic and cultural resurgence placing China at the head of all oriental cultures of the era.
The Ming Dynasty lasted until 1644 when the Qing Dynasty, established by the Manchu as descendents of the Jin, overthrew the Ming. The Qing managed to conquer Mongolia then overran Korea in 1627. However, in the late stages of the Ming Empire Europeans began to arrive and establish themselves in traditional Chinese territory for trade. The Qin inherited this ominous trend. In 1683 the Qing annexed Taiwan, and in 1750 Tibet came under Manchu control. It was the emperor Kang Xi that accomplished these feats, and managed to expand Chinese influence into Central Asia. The expansion continued under Manchu Emperor Qian Long who forced Nepal, Burma, and Vietnam to acknowledge Chinese hegemony once again.
Trade with the West grew exponentially, but the Manchu limited the ports through which European trade could flow. The Manchu government also insulted Europeans with their shoddy treatment, and thus incensed the proud men who had trampled the rest of the world. Then, in a move that was boundless in audacity and malevolence, the British started importing opium from India, where it was cheap and plentiful, into China, and by 1830 Britain controlled 80 percent of the lucrative drug trade. As England made enormous wealth the Chinese population began to suffer significantly. Millions of Chinese were addicted to the drug, and it wounded the Chinese homeland deeply as enormous amounts of cash began to leave China (Compare to the drug trade in the US from Mexico in 2010). As the trade was illegal in China, the Chinese government began taking steps to stop the trade of opium. This infuriated the British, and they declared war in 1839 after the Chinese blockaded their own port city of Canton to prevent the British from using the port for opium importation. By 1842 the British had prevailed in the Opium Wars, and China ceded Hong Kong to them as part of the settlement. By now the Chinese emperors were rulers in name only as the Western powers began dividing China up among themselves. Through it all the Chinese had little interest in the outside world. The barbarians, as they called Westerners, were at the gates; but China retained its inward gaze. The Opium Wars many have been the first international drug war.
In 1911 an army revolt against the Manchu, who had refused to consider any kind of reforms, spread throughout China. By 1912 the two thousand year old imperial system was crumbling, and young revolutionary reformers set out to change traditional China. These revolts led to years of chaos and internal warfare. Because of this domestic weakness Japan was able to annex Korea in 1910, and acquire large spheres of influence in Manchuria and Shantung province in 1918. The Western World complained about the Japanese land grabs, but the League of Nations proved ineffective, and the rest of the West did nothing substantial to stop the aggression.
During all this long history China remained one unified culture. Although the transitions were not smooth, it was often the case that Chinese were conquering Chinese until the arrival of the Europeans, when Chinese history changed radically for a few years. After the communist victory in 1949that finally ended decades of civil war, China once more withdrew into itself, and for some time rejected foreign influences.[78] Today, in 2010, China is opening up and has a powerful worldwide economic, military, and political influence. One will quickly note this is unreservedly new in the history of China. China’s communist leaders may have opened China for trade to protect themselves from rebellions, because the economic situation in China after the 1976 death of the murdering dictator Mao was extremely poor. In 2010, China has established itself as a world leader in trade and manufacturing. How long this will go on is difficult to say. Perhaps China has emerged from its long, inward-looking past to become part of a world now challenged by technology, cultural upheaval, economic interdependence, and strife as never before. One wonders if the Chinese mind can solve these problems.
Japan
This is another inward-looking nation believing it was the center of the universe, and blessed by its gods as the best place on earth with a perfect people. About 300 BC, invasions by clans from Asia bringing Bronze Age culture with them overran Japan. The island shattered into several small feudal states controlled by continually feuding warlords. During this time influences from China made their way to Japan via Korea. By AD 645 Buddhism was becoming a widely held belief replacing the ancient religion of ancestor worship. The mythological first emperor of Japan was Jimmu (660 BC to 585 BC), said to be the direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu, and the sea god Ryujin. He is the claimed founder of the Yamato Dynasty. The Yamato clan united Japan under a central government in AD 400. The Imperial Throne was later seized by the Soga clan that continued the Japanese traditions of rule by heredity. Eventually, the Fujiwara clan gained control of the throne by ensuring every emperor married a Fujiwara woman. (They must have been good looking gals). By this method, the head of the Fujiwara clan was always the father-in-law of the emperor.
Figure 24 Japan, Korea area map
In 1467, Japan fell back into a feudal period of war and division. This continued until about 1600 when a Japanese general named Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated Hideyoshi’s army in the Battle of Sekigahara and established the Tokugawa shogunate. (Shogun means great general) This set up military rule in Japan until 1868. From 1543 to 1600, Japan accepted foreign influences including Christianity; however, this came to an abrupt end as the Tokugawa clan gained control of the nation. The Japanese began slaughtering Christians in 1600, and by 1638 the Tokugawa clan barred foreigners from its soil. Japan went into a period of complete isolation led by the Tokugawa. This in turn led to a blossoming of a pure Japanese culture entirely separate from Chinese, Korean, and Western influence for about two hundred years. The Tokugawa’s competitor for control of Japan was the emperor; thus, the powerful clan made it a point to maintain strict control of the imperial court. The emperor became a puppet only serving to give legitimacy to the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate.
In 1853 the American Matthew Perry forced the opening of Japan to Western trade, although this led Japan to increasing hostility toward foreigners. Because of the intrusion of Westerners and the extraction of trade agreements, the Tokugawa clan weakened and was overthrown in 1858. In 1867 the resentment of foreign influence resulted in an overthrow of the shogunate and a restoration of imperial control (the Meiji Restoration). From 1867 until 1912, Japan absorbed Western ideas of manufacturing and warfare, adapting these ideas so well that they easily beat China in an Asian area conflict in 1895. In the Russo-Japanese war Japan easily defeated Russia in 1905 becoming the first Asian nation to defeat a modern European power, and thereby expanding their territorial control of areas near Japan. From 1858 onward Japan made tremendous strides in industrialization, trade, and territorial acquisitions.
Japan tried to use the Western model of a parliament by creating a Japanese Diet in 1889; however, the experiment failed as in 1926 militarists factions gained control of the government. The militarist set the nation on the path of conquest starting with the annexation of Manchuria in 1931, quickly followed by a war with China, and the takeover of French Indochina in 1941. Japan entered World War II on the Axis side in December of 1941 with the attack on the US fleet at Pearl Harbor; thereby starting a war with China, the United States, Britain, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, and other US Allies. Japan suffered a complete defeat in August 1945 after the US dropped two atomic bombs on the island nation; one on the city of Hiroshima and the other on the city ofNagasaki (see World War II). Japan experienced occupation by US forces until September of 1951. Thereafter, Japan grew into the second most powerful economy in the world by 1980. This remarkable economic recovery, assisted massively by the Americans, displayed the resilience of the Japanese culture. In 2010, Japan continues to excel at trade and manufacturing, and she is poised to lead the way into the twenty-first century.
Through it all, Japan remained thoroughly Japanese. In spite of accepting the infusion of Western technology, and science it did not allow these influences to change Japanese culture. This is not an easy task, as normally accepting Western technological advancements leads to an idea that Western culture must be superior. The Japanese did not think this way, and rejected Western cultural ideology while accepting its technology.
Korea
Korea is the third area of the East that completes a kind of triumvirate of nations around which the fate of Asia has swung. Korea is a small peninsula jutting out of the Asian mainland near Japan. Korea managed to establish a separate identity from China and Japan, and maintained that separate identity through centuries of pressure, warfare, and conquest. About AD 313 Korea had Three Kingdoms that were indigenous to the peninsula. These independent states lasted until about AD 668. By 670, the clan of Silla managed to unite Korea with Chinese support. The Silla clan endured defeat by the Koryo in 935, allowing the Koryo to rule the Korean peninsula until 1392. The Mongols supported the Koryo (no wonder they won). In 1388 the Koryo sent an army to invade China and overthrow the Ming dynasty; however, that army turned on the Koryo and defeated them thereby establishing the Chosen Kingdom that ruled until 1910; although, from 1627 until about 1910 it was subservient to the Manchu of China. During the period of the Chosen Koreans built an observatory in Seoul, and they invented moveable metal type for printing.
Overall, Korea was always a land in the middle. Japan or China normally dominated the peninsula; nonetheless, the Korean people maintained their identity as a separate populace. Today, Korea remains separated between north and south because of the Second World War and the Korean War. (See the Korean War)
India
After years of battering at India’s frontiers, Turkish Muslim invaders finally captured the northern city of Delhi in 1206 and established the Delhi Sultanate (1206 to 1520).[79] Under Muhammad Tughlug the Sultanate managed to bring most of India under its rule by 1335. This conquest put the Muslim faith in charge of India; however, it did not manage to overcome either Hinduism or Buddhism. In 1398 Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, destroyed the city of Delhi and set the stage for the destruction of the Delhi Sultanate in 1526 by Babur, another Muslim.
Before 1500 India’s merchants helped establish the prosperous Indian Ocean trade network stretching from East Africa to Europe and Japan. This massive trading region brought affluence throughout the area. The regional trade connected the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea via trade routes across the Suez isthmus. It was this Indian Ocean trade the Portuguese began disrupting when they circumnavigated Africa on their way to India. They succeeded in reaching India in 1508 and began taking control of the sea routes in the area. Within 100 years the Portuguese began to lose out to the English, and the English Empire took control of the formerly Portuguese trading areas.
In 1526, Babur, a descendant of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan, established the Mughal Empire in India that lasted two hundred years. Akbar the Great (1556 to 1605) finished the conquest of India that his grandfather Babur started. Under Akbar, a Muslim, Hindus could hold office in the state bureaucracy, and Akbar himself married a Hindu princess. The Mughal Empire controlled most of the Indian subcontinent by 1600, going into a rather slow decline after 1700. Since Babur and his progeny were Muslim the Hindu majority were enduring the control of an outside religion. Under Islam, non-Muslims could be murdered if they refused to accept Islam or they could be left alive as second-class citizens paying extra taxes and otherwise being subservient to Muslims. Hinduism survived in spite of this oppression on the subcontinent; although, in the western regions of the Indus River, just off the subcontinent, Islam made good strides and converted many people. When India became independent in 1947 this western region, now called Pakistan, broke away and formed its own nation.
Gradually, the Mughal Empire gave way to the English Empire, mainly because of the efforts of the East India Company which was a private company chartered by the British Government. The British East India Company (East India Company) arrived in India in 1617, and began trading in the province of Bengal by way of permits issued by the Mughal rulers in 1717. The officials governing the province of Bengal objected and entered into hostilities with the East India Company. At the Battle of Plassey in 1757, an army of the East India Company led by Robert Clive, defeated the forces of Bengal. Note that a private company had the resources to defeat a sitting government. Eventually, Robert Clive became the governor of Bengal. The East India Company expanded its control until the Indian Rebellion of 1857, also called the Sepoy Mutiny or the First War of Indian Independence. This rebellion ended the Mughal dynasty and put the English crown in control of India. (The English government absorbed the Company) This English control would last until India and Pakistan gained their independence in 1947. India was the crown jewel of the English Empire, and protecting India and the sea routes to the sub-continent became a major part of English foreign policy.
The transition to independence for India and Pakistan was not smooth. After gaining independence in 1947, the partition of India from Pakistan began, and a huge movement of peoples, some 12 million, took place as individuals in the “wrong country” (Wrong religion in the wrong country actually) tried to reach the right one. Fighting began between Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims leaving about 500,000 dead. It seems freedom does not come easily to lands divided by religion and history.
Today (2010), India is one of the world’s most prosperous and populated nations. A leader in heavy industry, electronics, motion pictures, computers, and science India now thrives as a market based democracy. India has strong population growth, and itspopulation is over 1.17 billion with a median age of 24.9. India has the world’s 12th most powerful economy as of 2010. Turns out that India is also an advertisement for the power of capitalism. From 1950 through the 1980s India was a socialist nation, and its governmental system and economy experienced slow growth because of corruption coupled with socialist inefficiency. In 1991, India changed to a market based economy and has achieved a GDP growth of 5.8 percent for 20 years making it the fastest growing economy in the world. Some estimates predict India will overtake the USA in GDP by 2043 (Since the US is going socialist after 2008 election of President Obama one can understand why). Meanwhile, Pakistan, the Muslim nation to India’s west, has not fared so well. Economically stagnant for over 10 years its main economic products remain services and agriculture. Pakistan’s poverty rate is at least 23 percent. Its population is nearly 175,000,000 and growing quickly. Political turmoil haunts Pakistan because of rogue Muslim fundamentalists, such as the Taliban, battling government troops while controlling large regions of the nation. Unfortunately, both India and Pakistan have acquired nuclear weapons and first-rate missile delivery systems, adding a dangerous edge to centuries old feuds.
Let Us Learn
The East teaches us the value of steady progress, and the dangers of pride. By progressing at a steady rate, China, India, and Japan stayed well ahead of the world century after century. Their pride, and their mistreatment of the European newcomers, led to a rather rude awakening when the Europeans flexed their muscle. China, Japan, and India needed to stay in touch with the rest of the world because their isolation eventually let them fall behind the advances taking place in the land of the barbarians. We learn that keeping up with new ideas and advancing technology is critical. So, do not isolate yourself and keep learning.
Books and Resources
The New Penguin History of the World, Roberts, J, 2007, Penguin Books
Roberts divides Eastern history as follows: (all page numbers correspond to the starting page of the section in Robert’s book):
Roberts on China:
Ancient: p. 132
Classical: p. 444
Manchu Empire: p. 461
Republic and European Imperialism: p. 857
People’s Republic: p. 985
Roberts on India:
Ancient: p. 120
Medieval: 338
British Rule: p. 638
Self Government: p. 975
Roberts on Japan:
Early: p. 36
Medieval: p. 466
Modern to 1945: p. 635
Post—1945: p. 1062