LAWLzoR

So as you probably might be thinking in your history class "Why is our history full of old white men?" I'm going to tell you one of the greatest turning points of world history that was a big factor in shaping the world into what it is today.

So long before the Roman empire and the Greek empire under Alexander the Great the world was spinning and spinning with other people doing fantastic things. Hammurabi in the Middle East introduces written code of law. The Chinese introduce a bit of astronomy, and other useful things like the idea of a centralized government. The Phoenicians in the Mediterranean bring the basics of the alphabet to try to keep track of trade because they were very indulged in trade. India was quite possibly the first civilization that had some form of plumbing! Amazing works of architecture such as the Great Bath and their cities designed to take the winds in from the seasonal storms and make a natural AC unit. So how did the West become the dominating factor? Even during the Greek and Roman empires and for hundreds of years after the Roman empire, the empires of the East were further in technology and economics. Because of the East's non-slave dependent agriculture structure, the plow was made, exams to have people enter government jobs, and all of these great things that took the West hundreds of years to discover on their own!

Well, we'll have to skip to the Middle Ages in Europe. Europe had to get just about everything through trade that stemmed from Constantinople and later became Istanbul under the Ottomans. They got information this way, because not only goods, but culture, religion, and ideas came along from trade routes. This is something called "Cultural Diffusion". It's when the culture and ideas from one place go to another place through any means. The Europeans then get a hang of astronomy themselves, and get sea faring. Why is this critical? Because they no longer required those trade routes coming from Istanbul/Constantinople for trade.

After getting a hang of using ships extensively, the Europeans started settling along Africa's coast, and along some places of Asia. During the mid-1400s, this was primarily Portugal settling along the African coast. Not to mention that from the trade routes from Istanbul, the Europeans got one of the biggest game changers ever: Gunpowder. Now guns were made before the Europeans had their hands on gunpowder. But the difference was that because the culture of Europe was trade, and the best way to control trade was through brute force, developing better weaponry meant economic and surely political power across Europe and other continents. So the Europeans enhanced the guns and gave us muskets, and much later rifles.

But what does this have to do with Europe taking over almost all of the world? The Eastern world couldn't seem to westernize when the West was starting to develop better technology, including canons, and being able to use them on ships. Because of the East's inability to westernize, they were lagging behind the West in technology and economy. Along with a few other factors, this allowed Europe to attack Southeast Asia, India, Africa, the Americas, and eventually the embodiment of the East itself: China and Japan.

It's the 1700s now, and European civilizations control large portions of the Americas, Africa, England is heading for India, and indeed the Indonesians and other islanders down in that general area. This allowed for Europeans to dominate trade and politics, as strength at the time was also measured by how many colonies you had, and England has the biggest and most by the time of WWI.

It's now the late 1700s and England now has China by the throat with the use of opium. For those who don't know, opium is made from poppy seeds. Just a little fun fact. This affected China because opium was very addictive, and China had traded a lot for it with England. So with all of the bureaucrats addicted and not doing anything, China decided to end trade with England. This lead to what's known as the Opium Wars, which was a war between China and Britain over opium trade. Since China ended the trade, Britain forced China's trade ports open. This was important because this was one of the first examples of the West demonstrating its dominance over the East. Another fun fact: this and the US threatening basically the same thing made Japan open its trade routes and adopt westernization, which helped lead Japan into a more modern country at the time, and made them go imperial. Because if you want to be a force to be reckoned with, might as well made an empire to show it.

So, in summary: The West was lagging far behind the East. However through trade, innovation, and coffee (because coffee stimulated thought unlike alcohol, which suppressed thought) the West was able to develop strong weapons and better means of trade and militarism. It was because of the growth of technology in a short amount of time that the West was not only able to catch up, but surpass the East both technologically and economically. This basically solidified the notion that the West was going to remain dominant for a very long while (up until WWII).

Thank you for reading everyone, and please do suggest more lessons