Why did China fall behind Europe in technology?

[klusener]

You are definitely wrong. Who invented '0'. You say "book", who invented the printing machine? Guttenberg stole(pardon me) it from Chineese. The art of plastic surgery was known first in India. The English stole the concept and introduced it to world. Gun powder, compass were not Uropean inventions. There are many medicine systems in India that are far better than Allopathy.
Yoga was developed not in Europe. Architectural marvels like the golconda fort where if u clap in the bottm of the hill. You can hear it in the King's Durbar.
The reason why Uropean scientists are famous is becoz, Urope ruled the world for a few centuries. So Uropean ideas are more profound and accepted.

that's right, man..

- The United States adopted ancient Indian catamaran-making technology to construct fast ships which were used with dramatic effect in the Iraq war. Among the equipment the Americans used to win the Iraq war were 100-feet catamaran ships to ferry tanks and ammunition from Qatar to Kuwait. The ships, built with technology adapted from ancient Tamil methods to make catamarans, can travel over 2,500 kms in less than 48 hours, twice the speed of the regular cargo ships, and carry enough equipment to support about 5,000 soldiers. Having a shallow draft, the boats can unload in rudimentary ports, allowing troops to land closer to the fight.

- In 1895, eight years before the Wright brothers flew their first plane, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade and his wife gave a thrilling demonstration flight on the Chowpatty beach in Mumbai. Mr. Talpade, an erudite Sanskrit scholar, constructed his aeroplane named 'Marutsakha' based on the description of Vimanas available in the Vedas.

-The theory of the Ion Engine has been credited to Robert Goddard, long recognized as the father of Liquid-fuel Rocketry. It is claimed that in 1906, long before Goddard launched his first modern rocket, his imagination had conceived the idea of an Ion rocket. However, Shivkar Bapuji Talpade used an Ion Engine to take his plane to a height of 1500 ft. in 1895, many years before Goddard.

- A glass-like material which cannot be detected by radar has been developed by Prof Dongre, a research scholar of Benaras Hindu University, based on technology found in an ancient Sanskrit text, Vaimanika Shastra. A plane coated with this unique material cannot be detected using radar.

- Indian astronomer, Brahmagupta, estimated in the 7th century that the circumference of the Earth was 5000 yojanas. A yojana is around 7.2 kms. Calculating on this basis we see that the estimate of 36,000 kms as the Earth's circumference comes quite close to the actual circumference known today.

- Indian astronomer, Aryabhatta was the first to have propounded the theory that the Earth was a sphere in the 5th century.

- Chess originated in India. It was known to Indians as Chaturnaga. It was taken to Persia in the sixth century where it came to be known as Chatrang, which according to the Arabic phonetic system became Shatranj.

- Baudhayana gave the 'Pythagoras theorem' centuries before the Greeks in 800 BC.

- USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in the world scientific community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

http://www.indpride.com/didyouknow.html

 

[Aquamarine]

But the US did face "regional" competition. At the time of independence it is very doubtful that the thirteen colonies were more powerful than Mexico. Not to mention the whole Spanish empire. And the threat from England was very real both from Canada and from the sea in the beginning. England burned Washington in 1812.

Furthermore, improved technology had made the world much smaller. The Chinese mandarins could isolate much of China partly due to the long distances. Something increasingly more difficult in nineteenth century.

The US was an imperialistic nation in competition with the other European powers long before 1900. It was the US who used military force to open Japan in 1853. A few years later it again tried to use military force against Korea. The US intervened in Argentina, Uruguay and Panama during the 1850s. After 1850 it used military force to occupy many islands in the Pacific.

But I will gladly agree that the US may have had less competition than the nations in Europe. But there was little need since the US was at that time the most capitalistic nation in the world. Competition forces the inferior solutions to adapt or disappear. As the US already had a superior social system it did not need strong regional competitors to adapt. But again, it was mainly the British who created the capitalistic system in strong competition with their neighbors. The US only imported this capitalistic system. And again, China's Confucianism administrators deliberately chose not to import capitalism and new technology since this would have removed the very reason for their power. They continued this policy for the whole nineteenth century, even after China utterly had lost several wars and the Western superiority was beyond any doubt.

Pure momentum will keep a good system running at least for a while even without competition. The great risk for the US (and Europe) is that they will stray from that path to prosperity. Competition, for example from China, would eventually force them back but the process can be long and painful. And a worldwide state would be devastating, it would remove all competition between different legal systems.
http://mwhodges.home.att.net/intl-spend.htm

Regarding Manchu contempt for commerce I see little historical evidence for it in practical politics. It was the scholarly Mandarins who administered China and they generally were good rulers in situations were their personal powers were not threatened. They generally tried to strengthen agriculture and commerce. The Chinese population tripled under the Manchus before 1820. Living standards and life expectancy were at least equal to those in Europe until 1750. And in the Yangzi delta equal to those in England during the same period. China exported manufactured goods like porcelain to Europe and in return imported raw materials like silver, signs that the Chinese economy under the Manchus for long was as advanced as Europe.
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/chinawh/web/s5/index.html

It was only were technology and capitalism threatened their own power that the Mandarins acted against the interest of China as a whole.

 

[captain_boobs]

Whats the point of talking IQ? How pointless can you get. Frankly IMHO anyone how argues around IQ shows a serious lack of IQ.


I cannot remember the reference but one explanation of the state of technology in China goes like this.

For centuries they were the cultural and knowledge center of their known world. They became accustomed to being the source of information and civilization. For them to accept input from the "outside" would have meant listening to and learning from barbarians (ie the rest of the world) This simply went against their culture. Even as the Europeans attempted to bring them technology they turned their back. An example was at some point in the late 1800s the English, without proper permission, built a railroad back into some remote resource regions. When the Chinese govnt. discovered the illegal railroad. They did not do as any "normal" European nation would have done. That is to say, "thank you for the railroad, now get out, it is ours". They destroyed it!

The Japanese on the other hand had always lived in the shadow of the Chinese, they were accustomed to accepting imported technology, for centuries it was Chinese technology, when Europeans showed up, they were open to what they had to offer.

this is true.

 

[captain_boobs]

it is foolishness to state that europeans are the only ones capable of science. where were the scientists for most of history? and who is doing the science now? hahahahaha

otoh I'm glad that some posters have their thinking straight

on the side, creativity is a rather hard thing to measure. the chinese have invented a great many things, and without formal science. They have designed and created many sexy things, and it is commonly claimed that art is more creative than science. not only art but also in engineering they have excelled. down from antiquity there've been passed tales of the boldness of the ancients and the cleverness of their strategies. I hardly think there is anything wrong with the Chinese.

Those who would be quick to suppose racism, are merely using their identity as a prop for their self-esteem. They have nothing else going for them, evidently. hahahaha

 

[captain_boobs]

btw i would argue against mere individualism for creativity

creativity stems from something innate; individualism is simply the social environment supposedly being more tolerant of individuals standing apart

growing up here in the states i don't find that the educational system we have in place is capable of churning out any mass sort of geniuses. despite our great many educated people, despite our great many educated somewhat smart people, i sense that the thoughtstyle of the truly dedicated and the true genius is not fostered. In the olden days they were the exception, and it is the same today. In the olden days, perhaps the only ones to get educated were the rich and the dedicated/talented; in a way it is the same today. Although many are educated, few can accomplish. Many think they know, but they don't know. They cannot do

 

[captain_boobs]

science came about because the societal conditions necessary for its development fell into place. geniuses are recognized because the society they are born in allows for their development and recognition. down through the ages there have been europeans; why then has there been no science, if they are supposedly special? down through the ages countless things have been invented, many by non europeans. many fundamental underpinnings of the sciences were known by the chinese, the indians, etc. what of the names of their discoverers? what of the masses of the seemingly nameless inventors? what of the uncounted numbers of geniuses, let's humor the racists and say, european geniuses, who never got the chance to excel and succeed, to discover and transmit their discovery and be recognized? and what of all the chinese inventions the europeans did not have for the time; what of chinese advancement relative to europe? if we were teleported back to that time, would you say that the chinese were inherently better? or would you then begin to claim environment?

how then can you say, that europeans are special this and that. you only betray your own loserliness; your mediocrity, your own unworthiness. Your own stupidity, for muddling up the truth. clearly, it was only society