The Portuguese began to lead the Age of Discovery in the late 15th century. Their original purpose was to find a new trade route with China and India. However, due to their spirit of exploration, they accidentally bypassed the Cape of Good Hope on the African continent and opened a new route from Europe to Asia. The Eastern world was no longer quiet, but fell into a small boil. The Opium War shattered China's thousands-year-old dream of a heavenly kingdom, causing countless Chinese to re-understand the world one after another, and had to re-evaluate the general trend of the world and China's future.
A new era in world history
World history can be divided into one era after the Age of Discovery, and another era before the Age of Discovery. But rather than saying that the Age of Discovery opened a new era of world history, it is better to say that China opened a new era of world history. Some people would say that China did not actively participate in the Age of Discovery at all. Even if there were similar navigation behaviors like Zheng He's voyages to the West in the early Ming Dynasty, the four hundred years of seclusion after that was not maritime development. Why is it said that China led the Age of Discovery and opened a new era of world history?
There have always been many theories about the Cape of Good Hope, but the most common one is that it is the accidental home of explorers from the Kingdom of Portugal. After returning to Lisbon, he reported what he saw and heard to the king. Finally, the King of Portugal believed that he could successfully reach the coveted China and India from here, so he changed the name of Cape Storm to the "Cape of Good Hope", which can bring good luck and hope. From then on, new routes to Asia were opened.
The reason why it is said that the attraction of China and India to Europe directly opened the Age of Discovery is because the trade between China and the West is a metamorphosis process. China has been self-contained and self-sufficient since ancient times. It can easily complete the internal cycle of economic life without the need for foreign trade. People can live, grow old, sick and die for a lifetime without leaving the county. But there are many things that China has that the West does not have. Chinese spices, porcelain, silk tea and other valuables are necessary for Western nobles and their bodies.
The love for silk and porcelain has always been the highlight of trade between China and the West in ancient times. The price of silk in the West is equivalent to the same weight of gold. In the past, exchanges were basically based on the overland Silk Road . Because Europe had to cross the entire Middle East and Western Regions to reach China, it was impossible to transport goods to Europe within a few years. When Chinese goods reached Europe, they were resold and resold countless times. After the establishment of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, the control of this only trade road was interrupted. Therefore, there was a heroic history of European countries seeking to purchase Chinese goods and starting the Age of Discovery.
Geography is the mother tongue of exchanges between China and the West.
In the past, when many people read the sentence that the Portuguese started the Age of Discovery and thus opened a new era of history, they just felt indifferent and frivolous. Is the suspicion really that exaggerated? It’s not that your suspicion is incorrect, but that you have never experienced that era personally, but now if you make a horizontal comparison of Chinese and foreign history over the past five hundred years, you will find that the opening of a new route of and a series of things that happened after that century are closely linked. Why do you say this? Please try to compare the five hundred years of historical exchanges between China and foreign countries.
If there had not been the opening up of new shipping routes, there would not have been the disorderly colonial expansion plans of European countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Without the colonial expansion of Europeans, there would have been no crazy primitive capital accumulation process of European countries. Without this capital, Primitive accumulation, without the money and wealth accumulated by the sweat and sweat of countless slaves in Africa and the Americas, there would be no capitalist industrial revolution in Europe. Without the European industrial revolution, there would be no society in modern history. So these are actually linked together. Thinking about it this way, do you still doubt that this was the opening of a new era in history?
Before the opening of new sea routes, China and Western countries had long had commercial exchanges. The previous relationship was because Asia and Europe originally belonged to the same continent. There is no dividing line between Asia and Europe. The so-called dividing lines are all artificially created. Commercial exchanges between China and Western countries actually depend on the needs of both parties and the will of the rulers. After the needs of China and the West are met, it also depends on the Middle East countries between China and the West. Only when these three conditions are met, can this land transportation road be unimpeded.
Strictly speaking, before the discovery of the new sea route , China and the West were self-contained and belonged to their respective national societies. The cultural systems at that time had little to do with each other. However, after the discovery of the new ocean sea route from Europe to Asia, this state of affairs was directly broken. The obstruction of the Middle East hegemonic country the Ottoman Turkish Empire has become a dispensable thing. From the 6th century to the present, the east and west sides of world history have begun to reconcile, so the author would say that the new sea route has opened a new era in history. Then why is it said that the Opium War allowed the Chinese to re-understand the world and proactively start Europeanization?
The Europeanization of China does not stop at
Since the beginning of modern history, China has been in the process of pursuing modernization. But modernization is a nice term, but it is actually the pursuit of Westernization and Europeanization, because this change in the modern world was started by Europeans, which is what we must do as adults. European countries reached the forefront of world modernization after the 5th century. From the economic, political, cultural and military aspects, after Europe became strong, it began to expand around the world. Colonialism became popular around the world, and the world seemed to have become a world where Europeans "chased power".
We can find through the path of modernization that the situation in Europe at that time was exactly the opposite of China. China was a typical continentalist country, while Europe was a typical maritimeist country. The development direction of Europe is to start from the southeast first, and then focus on the northwest. China's development direction has always been focused on the northwest, and later on the southeast. Why do you say this? In fact, we can look at it from a historical perspective.
Although Europe is now divided into many small countries, the earliest centers of European culture at that time could only be traced back to Greece and Rome. Both countries, Greece and Rome, are on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This geographical location is actually the southeastern direction of the European continent. This is basic common sense after receiving education. Therefore, after the demise of Greece and Rome, Europe gradually began to shift to the northwest to the geographical location of France and the United Kingdom.
When the countries along the Atlantic coast develop in the same direction, the history of Europeans can actually enter the maritime age. Because as the opening of new sea routes brought huge benefits to the two pioneer countries, Portugal and Spain, other European countries also became jealous and began to imitate this approach.So after that, countries became hegemons one by one. First, Spain and Portugal signed a treaty to divide the world, then the Netherlands established the East India Colonial Company, and finally the United Kingdom established an empire on which the sun never sets. So what has China in the East developed into?
The development direction of China's modern history has always been northwest first and then southeast. This is a great achievement that Chinese historians clearly recorded in the history books of the Han and Tang Dynasties. In fact, is this the orthodoxy of the Chinese nation? It doesn't seem to be the case. China's political, economic and cultural changes have already occurred since the beginning of and the Eastern Jin Dynasty . After the cause of national culture was transferred to the south, it became another development direction. This development direction can be seen as the preservation of cultural fire. Therefore, when many people knew about the rediscovery of the ocean during the Ming Dynasty, they thought this was too sudden. In fact, it was not. In fact, it was a long-term accumulation of culture.
However, the actual historical development is so unsatisfactory. If the Ming Dynasty government had not dismissed Zheng He and others from their exploration activities in the West, then Southeast Asia would have been in the hands of the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty It would not have developed into what it is now. Many of the purposes of Zheng He's voyages at that time were different from those of European navigators. The biggest purpose of navigation at that time was actually to spread China's national prestige, to re-establish China's power and flag in people's hearts, and to let everyone know that the powerful country in the past is now back.
Western Maritime Period
Before Westerners entered the Age of Discovery, no country actually developed navigation as a national undertaking. Many people actually only regarded navigation as a national undertaking. Success is a kind of adventurous behavior, most of which are games played by some nobles. Later, when the rewards brought by sailing became more and more abundant, many civilians began to participate in this process. At this time, sailing became a means for some poor Europeans to change their destiny. So what was the original purpose of early European sailing?
Judging from the situation of Europeans, many Europeans have actually come to China during the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty . The main purpose of Europeans at that time was curiosity about the Eastern world. Some Europeans who came to China The description of China by Europeans is almost the same as the place where God lives. Therefore, Europeans also felt that China was much better than Europe at that time. With this in mind, they hoped to have a better life in China. However, they found that they could not even speak the simplest official Chinese language, let alone live a good life in China.
There are two other types of Europeans who like to come to China. They are passionate about religious causes. They integrate their career in life with the cause of religious propagation. At that time, Europeans did not have a country or region to back them up. They relied on their own passionate wealth. From this, the most famous traveler among Europeans was born. Marco Polo . He came to the Yuan Dynasty in the era of Kublai Khan without receiving assistance from his own European government. He saw the prosperity of the Chinese people, and the achievements he brought about after returning to his country will be of great benefit to all countries and people.
After the passage that Marco Polo walked to China was cut off, the Portuguese actually became the pioneers of Europeans. They discovered a place called the Cape of Good Hope in the southern part of the African continent. Using this as a geographical coordinate, it was easy to reach Asia and Europe. With the injection of these maritime colonial capitals, Western European society developed rapidly, and many countries with small land areas but strong economic strength emerged, such as Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and France.
Conclusion
The history of the country is so wonderful. The Chinese people have re-understood the world after the Opium War.In order to trade with China, the Europeans inadvertently started the Age of Discovery, thus leading to a new era of 500 years in the future. The attitudes of kings and dignitaries during this historical stage also changed very quickly. At the beginning, they were extremely opposed to overseas colonization. Later, after tasting the benefits, they crazily dominated overseas colonization. In the end, overseas colonial development accumulated astronomical amounts of capital, but in turn, the ancient feudal countries in Europe have become outcasts in historical development. Capital accumulation has brought them a luxurious life and dug a grave for them to enjoy their old age.
