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how did the chinese fall behind?

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dave_the_nerd said:
Isolationism made them technologically inferior. Bureaucracy made them inefficient. The Opium Wars and Colonialism pushed them over the cliff.

Communism kept them there for a while longer than might have been necessary, but they've been Communist-In-Name-Only for a while now.
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this. started falling behind as soon as that wall went up.

isolationism/the wall also saved the chinese from the black death.
 
China wasn't unified until recently during the 20th century. Ever read of the dynasties?

Since it is/was a huge nation, it's hard to keep everyone under control as it constantly 'invaded' by different sovereignty. Mongol/barbarian invasions, Imperialism of early 1900's, Sino-japanese wars.
USSR had similar problems.

That's my understanding to one of the causes.
 
imperialist tactics made them lose speed compared to europe (which went through fast industrialization) I guess.
 
Numenorean said:
Communism.
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communism in the 3rd century?

did you even read the question?



anyway, I've always assumed that it had to do with centuries of in-fighting amongst the dynasties (China, like Italy, didn't really exist as the concept of "China" until much later in its history).

also, constantly fighting off invading hordes, no real desire to expand beyond its own cultural borders at the time?

I've wondered this myself, too. Hell, having battlefield flamethrowers and gun powder 2 thousand years before any other civilization truly makes one wonder.
 
Watched an interesting clip on wimp, that speculated that it had a lot to do with China/porcelain. It worked so well that they never bothered with developing glass. The scientific uses for various forms of glass, resulted in progress the Chinese missed out on.
 
Goodness, some of you need to go back to your history class.

Facts:
1. Mongols took over China from the Song dynasty around 1200's --> Yuan dynasty.
2. Machus took over China from the Ming dynasty around 1600's --> Quing dynasty.
3. China invented gun powder as "firecracker" and not as weapon.
4. Great Wall of China was in fact made up of several sections, the first one was build around the 5th century BC by Qin Shi Huang - the first guy that unified China from many warring states, to stop various barbarians from the North, the fearsome Mongols (see #1) did not become an awesome military force until several hundreds years later.

China considers self as "Middle Kingdom", between Heaven and Earth. Too much smuch IMO.
 
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Svnla said:
Goodness, some of you need to go back to your history class.

Facts:
1. Mongols took over China from the Song dynasty around 1200's --> Yuan dynasty.
2. Machus took over China from the Ming dynasty around 1600's --> Quing dynasty.
3. China invented gun powder as "firecracker" and not as weapon.
4. Great Wall of China was in fact made up of several sections, the first one was build around the 5th century BC by Qin Shi Huang - the first guy that unified China from many warring states, to stop various barbarians from the North, the fearsome Mongols (see #1) did not become an awesome military force until several hundreds years later.

China considers self as "Middle Kingdom", between Heaven and Earth. Too much smuch IMO.
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China invented the guns, man. They even had rockets, flamethrower, mines, biological weapons, multiple rocket launchers and canons well before the Europeans.
 
Anyone who says communism is a fucking idiot. Srsly, you are just plain retarded.

The Qing dynasty had been deteriorating for a while, until Britain came along in 1839 and kicked the shit out of them during the first opium war. The Chinese state started to whither and die until some time in the 1980's or 1990's.

Communism was a symptom of their disease, not a cause. It only took root because it provided an alternative to the chaos of warlordism that had enveloped the country. Jesus Hume Christ, the Communists were the only ones who resisted the Japanese.
 
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preslove said:
Anyone who says communism is a fucking idiot. Srsly, you are just plain retarded.

The Qing dynasty had been deteriorating for a while, until Britain came along in 1839 and kicked the shit out of them during the first opium war. The Chinese state started to whither and die until some time in the 1980's or 1990's. Communism was a symptom of their disease, not a cause.
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They're not Asian. They never read our history.
 
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