In the 1400s Europe was still in the diseased Dark Ages while China flourished as one of the world’s leading civilizations with advanced technology and expansive naval exploration. The Ming Dynasty’s capital city of Nanjing was the largest in the world, with the world’s longest city wall, able to house 3,000 soldiers. Yet the centralized, monolithic Chinese civilization lacked the competitive decentralization of Europe. From 1500 Europe’s autonomous cities, nations, and corporations increased exploration and colonization for money and power, while at the same time China closed itself off in a fragile bubble. Chinese instability would meet Western expansionism and cave to its pressures.
Discussion: A Culture without Competition
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12.31.1348
1348 - Black Death
The Black Death pandemic rises across Europe, with the bubonic plague and related diseases killing 25 million people or 30-60% of the European population.
01.01.1399
1405 - Chinese Exploration
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Zheng He sets sail from China with 28,000 men and 62 treasure ships, some as large as 400 feet. Over the next 19 years he visits Sumatra (Indonesia), Malacca (Malaysia), Calicut (India), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Hormuz (Iran), Aden (Yemen), and elsewhere, bringing back emissaries from 36 tributaries.
01.01.1843
1842 - China Opened
After British military success, China is effectively "opened" with the Treaty of Nanking. The first in a series of unequal treaties, it is signed at Yongle's Jinghai Temple in Nanjing, built in honor of Admiral Zheng He. Britain receives millions of silver dollars, Hong Kong, and the opening of 5 ports to British trade. China is effectively subjugated, while Britain and Western powers continue to enjoy power, wealth, and global influence.
01.01.1410
1411 - Grand Canal Restoration
Restoration begins on China's Grand Canal under Emperor Yongle, linking Hongzho with Beijing 1000 miles to the North. Commercial traffic dwarfs Western ports and waterways.
03.01.1420
1420 - Forbidden City
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The Forbidden City is completed, covering 7,800,000 square feet. With a peerless palace and the largest naval fleet collecting tribute from distant lands, China is far ahead of its western counterparts.
01.01.1429
1424 - Death of Emperor Yongle
Emperor Yongle dies while pursuing a Tatar army. Zheng He's voyages are cancelled, and China begins its turn inward.
01.01.1490
1498 - Spice Race
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Early in the "spice race" that would lead competitive western expansion, Vasco Da Gama reaches Kappadu near Calicut, India, having rounded Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
01.01.1501
1500 - Power Shift
Western Europe controls only ten percent of the world's land and 16 percent of its population, but the balance of power is soon to shift. As European explorers reach the Americas and expand territory in all directions, China passes laws finding anyone building a ship with more than 2 masts liable to the death penalty. By 1913, 11 western empires would control half of the world's territory and population and 80 percent of global economic output.
01.01.1508
1506 - Portuguese Expansion
Portugal has a shipping near-monopoly on the East African coast.
01.01.1545
1548 - Continued Isolation
The Ming government passes "Haijin" laws banning all foreign trade and closing down seaports, making multi-masted ship travel itself a crime.
01.01.1560
1557 - Macau Settlement
After two decades of using Macau as a trading stop, Portuguese merchants establish a permanent trading settlement by paying tribute to China.
01.01.1602
1602 - Dutch East India Company
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The Netherlands charters the Dutch East India Company for its colonial operations in Asia. As one of the first megacorporations, it would send almost a million Europeans to work the Asian trade.
01.01.1620
1600s - British Trade
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Deptford, England's docks in the 17th century produce ocean-going ships by the dozens.
01.01.1635
1635 - British in China
The first English merchantmen arrive in Chinese waters, beginning two centuries of British penetration of Chinese isolationism.
01.01.1645
1644 - Ming Dynasty Ends
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Amid rebellious factions, expensive military campaigns, and internal economic meltdown, the last Ming emperor, Chongzhen, hangs himself.
01.01.1655
1647 - Qing Sea Ban
The Qing government issues a sea ban, not the first, and shore inhabitants are repeatedly ordered to move miles inland. While autonomous European corporations and nations compete for wealth and influence, monolithic China continues to close off the flow of commercial interactions with the outside, aside from few controlled and monopolized ports. Restricted trade with the West increases.
01.01.1748
1700s - Growth of Opium Trade
British demand for Chinese goods (tea in particular) increases, while China's highly restrictive "Canton System" takes payments in silver and enforces low demand for British goods. British and other Western merchants discover and exploit a highly lucrative market selling opium to Chinese smugglers.
01.01.1799
1799 - Qing Opium Ban
The Qing Empire reinstates a recent opium ban as the product is recognized as a major internal/social and diplomatic problem. British sales of opium into China are approximately 1,400 tons per year, which quadruples by the 1820s.
01.01.1834
1839 - First Opium War
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After the seizure and destruction of several tons of opium, tensions flare around the unrestricted drug trade and the deeper issues of refused diplomacy and limitations on access and means for legal trade.
