hos 3
m ap of Asian Em
pires
Asian Em pires
India and China w ere the m
ost im portant Asian em
pires in the early m
odern era, they shared m any sim
ilarities: 1.
Both ruling dynasties claim ed a distant relation to Genghis Khan &
M
ongol em pire.
2. In each em
pire (Q
ing dynasty in China and the M ughal Em
pire in India), hereditary em
perors ruled over m ulti-ethnic and m
ulti- religious states. The ruling M
ughals w ere M
uslim s, of Turkic
descent. & Q
ing w ere M
anchu rather than the m ajority ethnic Han
Chinese → Rulers from
both em pires w
orried about dom estic
revolts & defense of the hom
eland from outside.
3. The governm ents traditionally focused their attention on the enorm
ous w ealth
& taxes gained from
agriculture but later both benefitted from thriving
m anufacturing sectors—
Indian cotton and indigo/ Chinese silk and porcelain. 4.
Rulers had m inim
al control over the new and rising m
erchant classes as the global econom
y brought m ore trade and w
ealth from the oceans, after the
industrial revolution. a. M
ughal Em pire
W hen European ships arm
ed w ith the latest cannons sailed into the Indian O
cean in the 16th century, they found it unguarded→
M ughal Em
pire had no navy> Europeans m
erchants quickly and easily dom inated trade in the Indian O
cean →
fall of the Asian Em pires
b. China w as the dom
inant econom ic pow
er and com m
anded a trade surplus w ith the
rest of the w orld. Chinese agriculture w
as m ore efficient than European m
ethods because of irrigation technology &
China had superior transportation projects; excellent use of canals on a scale m
uch larger than in Europe. •
Despite m any requests from
European sovereigns over the years, em perors saw
little need to engage in trade w
ith the Europeans. C h in
e s e e
m p e ro
r C h ’ie
n -lu
n g (Q
ia n lo
n g ) fa
m o u s ly
re je
c te
d K
in g G
e o rg
e o
f E
n g la
n d ’s
re q u e s t fo
r tra d e : “A
s your am bassador can see for him
self, w e possess all things. I set no
value on objects strange or ingenious, and w e have no use for your country’s m
anufactures . . . There [is] therefore no need to im
port the m anufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for
our ow n produce” (F
ra n k 2
7 3 ).
5 ,
C h in
a ’s
la c k o
f in
te re
s t in
s e a tra
d e in
p a r tic
u la
r a llo
w e d E
u ro
p e a n s to
ta k e
a d v a n ta
g e o
f a
n e
a s y s
o u rc
e o
f w
e a lth
→ naval gap betw
een Europe and the rest of Asia increasingly w
idened during the 16th and 17th centuries→ European Em
pires dom
inated trade. •
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch w ere consolidating their position in the East
Indies •
Spain rule in the Philippines
• beginning of the 20
thc, w hole of Southeast Asia, except for Siam
, w as controlled
by the British, the Dutch, the French and the Am ericans.
• During this period there w
ere tw o m
ajor upheavals in the Far East: 1. em ergence of
Japan from over 200 years of isolation from
the outside w orld, &
rise to the status of a w
orld pow er;
• collapse of the M
anchu dynasty in China, culm inating in the Revolution of 1911 and the
establishm ent of a republic →
C h in
e s e re
p u b lic
w a s w
e a k &
Ja p a n in
1 9 3 2 a
n d 1
9 3 7
o c c u p ie
d m
o s t o
f th
e h
e a r tla
n d a
s w
e ll a
s M
a n c h u ria
& in
n e r M
o n g o lia
.
• A
fte r u
n c o n d itio
n a l s
u rre
n d e r in
1 9 4 5 Ja
p a n w
ith d re
w .
Bibliography •
Baten, Joerg (ed.) (2016) A H
istory of The G lobal Econom
y-1500 To the Present, Cam bridge U
niversity Press, U K
• https://w
w w
.beltroad-initiative.com /belt-and-road/
• Foreign A
ffairs M agazine, A
utocracy N ow
Edition
• https://w
w w
.businessinsider.com /w
hat-is-belt-and-road-china-infrastructure-project-2018-1
• https://w
w w
.silkroadbriefing.com /new
s/2019/06/29/preparing-foreign-investors-procurem ent-china-belt-road-
projects/
• https://w
w w
-jstor- org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/stable/pdf/26760128.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%
3A 806e269f782675bfc55660585d4c8afb
(Strategic Studies Q uarterly)
• Understanding China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’: beyond ‘grand strategy’ to a state transform
ation analysis https://w
w w
-tandfonline-com .ezproxy.fiu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/01436597.2018.1559046
• https://m
use-jhu-edu.ezproxy.fiu.edu/article/742820?