Quote:
Originally Posted by FSL009
Mao got it right when he said "power flows from the barrel of a gun"
the most organised and determined got the gun first.
Both China and the Islamic world had firearms before Europeans. The Spanish actually began using the cannon after observing its effectiveness among "Arabic" troops.
Really, if I had to answer such a broad question (which, incidentally, is usually how I frame my "Middle Period" World History course), I'd point to a confluence of factors resulting in a type of "perfect storm."
1. The Columbian Exchange benefited Europe in a much more direct and immediate way relative to other Old World societies, and especially relative to all New World societies (mostly because of disease, vis-a-vis Diamond, see also Alfred Crosby's
Ecological Imperialism).
2. The growth, or rather regrowth of a global trade network happened to occur in concert with the Columbian Exchange and European conquests that greatly improved Europe's financial situation. With the influx of New World silver and the domination of the Indian Ocean (see 3, below), Europe could more easily trade with China, which was still more technologically advanced as late as 1700 (or even later).
3. China happened to withdraw from the Indian Ocean (and seaborne trade in general) only about 80 years before the first serious European forays into the Indian Ocean, before any other powers had an opportunity to consolidate power. The traditional Islamic world was still undergoing transformation as a result of recent conquests from Central Asian peoples (the Ottoman Turks, the Safavids, and the Mughals). China withdrew from seagoing trade largely for idiosyncratic cultural reasons (a decision by the Confucian scholars of the Ming Dynasty who won out over their eunuch rivals), but also because of pressing tactical (Mongols, Manchurians, and other "barbarian" invaders) and economic developments. Diamond points to the "unity" of the Ming political system as a potential disadvantage relative to European "competition," but this is perhaps too simplistic a view, because there was certainly a large Chinese export market and a good deal of merchant activity, much of it outside the sphere of State control (which in turn meant lost revenue for the State).
4. Europe happened to industrialize first, partly because of ecological advantages inherent to most European coal relative to Chinese coal. This is a big part of Pomeranz's argument in
The Great Divergence. Specifically, British coal was located far closer to urban centers of production and was less dangerous (relatively speaking) to mine in comparison to Chinese coal, which was located farther from urban centers in the East. How clear this advantage was was not actually clear until about the time of the Opium War, when the supremacy of European arms became apparent. Before then, China was still politically autonomous, and even most of the rest of the Old World did not fall under European political control until the 19th or 20th century (when, of course, they re-established some degree of political autonomy).