Historical Colonization Was by Countries with Smaller GDP

Next Big Future ^ | Dec 30, 2009 | Brian Wang

[decimon]

>

China and India and other nations had larger GDP but it was Spain, Portugal, France, Netherlands and Britain that were the players in colonizing the Americas.

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[decimon]

Pepper population ping.

[decimon]

I like this quote: “The Chinese court eunuchs had domestic rivals who wanted to cut them down to size...”

[Rockingham]

Europe benefited from a combination of factors that spurred its development and expansion into the world: many navigable rivers; ready access to the sea; faith that placed great stock in individual effort as the path to salvation; a tradition of experiment and innovation; and intense and competition and conflict between rival cities, kings, countries, merchants, religious denominations, and ethnic groups.

[decimon]

...competition and conflict between rival cities, kings, countries, merchants, religious denominations, and ethnic groups.

I don't think the Chinese felt such competition. Good point.

[hellbender]

I think that the fact that Europe was not already fabulously rich like India and China was a stimulus for exploration and trade. Japan, another country with few resources, was also motivated to engage in industry and trade.

[Rockingham]

Fractious Europeans were constantly looking to the outside world for advantages against rivals next door. Culturally cohesive China and Japan though deliberately closed themselves off due to fear of contamination. Japan’s isolation policy, for example, was intended to prevent the spread of Christianity and its unsettling ideas of human equality before God. Not until Perry’s visit in 1854 did Japan open up and start trading with the outside world, while China opened up only under Western military pressure.

[hellbender]

Yes, but I was thinking more about Japan after the Meiji restoration, when it embarked on a drastic program of industrialization. Eventually they behaved more like Britain than like China.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks decimon. The colonizing countries also had better weapons, effective navies, and industrial revolutions. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[wildbill]

It’s the “I want” theory of history...as in I want what you have.

The theory works for every conquered civilization that fell to another.

Right now you can see it translated as “All your stuff belong to us.”