They isolated themselves from other countries; but after their imperialisms in the late 1800s, the countries went on different paths. China remained traditional and denied modernization and suffered because of it, while Japan emulated the imperial powers and became an imperial power themselves. Before the early 1700s and the late 1800s, China was a leading nation. China was fairly strong during earlier periods of history. It had a strong and peaceful government during the Qing Empire and imperial powers such as Britain and the U.S. were interested in Chinese goods.
During the period of 100 BCE-500CE, the Silk Roads went from prosperous and bustling to slightly decrepit and relativly unused, mostly because of the collapse of a number of empires which fueled its trade. Despite this, however, the Silk Roads continued to provide transportation of agricultural products,
Laws regulating work and production were limited. Additionally, most manufactured goods were imported, subsequently limiting the quantity and selection of available goods. In response to this industrial growth and prosperity, drastic changes in the lives of Americans took place. The population increases in cities across America were astonishing and contributed to a decline in rural population. By 1890, several cities touted populations over 1 million people and by 1900, New York City was the second largest city in the world, outranked only by London.
For thousands of years, the Native Americans were the only people to live in California. That all changed in the 1500's as Europeans began exploring North America. There were not many advantages because of the European exploration. The main one only being that Native Americans traded for cloth, iron, cookware, guns and tools. The Native Americans have been affected by disease by the Europeans, during this period European settlers brought many different technologies and their lifestyles with them, but the most harmful effect is their arrival and the spread of their diseases.
Ming and Qing Total Dominance until mid 18th Century Prior to the 15th century China lead the world in every aspect from power and control to a flourishing economic country. Europe did not have a stable government or a flourishing economy leaving them with no power or control over trade. Europe thrived to be a dominate factor like China and therefore lead to the need of exploration of new land and territories. The groundbreaking discovery changed the fortune of Europe’s power in 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. This find would change the presence of European power and trade in China and the East for years to come.
The difference is that India did not have a strong central power at all. Their central power spread thin as their territory expanded outward. With China, the government kept a strong central power even with expansion of territory. Now moving to the economics of both civilizations. They were both quite different.
The changes of the 13th and 14th century greatly affected the Chinese and changed China forever. It was the first time ever that the Chinese had been ruled, watched over, and governed by non-native Chinese people. Also, it discontinued the ‘art’ of foot binding for most of the population. The system of government created by Kublai Khan was made up of a deal made between Mongolian feudalism and the traditional Chinese autocratic-bureaucratic system. But still, socially the educated Chinese elite were in general not given the degree of esteem that they had been accorded previously under native Chinese dynasties.
In 1815, transportation methods in America were not developed at all. Our country was very depended on foreign trade for goods and America was not able to transport many goods far from where it was grown. Even being able to ship goods, it would take the boatmen an extremely long time to navigate through the dangerous rivers. Over the next couple years, transportation really took off as roads, canals, steamboats, and railroads were being made. Improvements did not start to happen until the 1816s, when the National Road was under construction again.
They perceived threats to security; this led to war and then increased the length of border. The difference between their expansions was that Imperial Rome built its army from citizen-farmers, due to the conquest Rome had many slaves. Han Chine had a military at their disposal to enlarge the empire. Han China had conquered many lands but unlike Imperial Rome, Han China did not have slaves as a result of their growing territory. In order to work in the office of Imperial Rome he had to serve 10 years as a solider; while, Han China picked the upper class through the family.
Culturally this was also the last century before the tradition of foot binding was outlawed. Opium Wars Before the imperialist treaties, foreign trade was restricted to the Guangzhou port of Canton. At this point China was still a self-sufficient agrarian society with no demand for foreign goods. England, France, Russia, Japan, and America were the Imperialist nations requesting more trade ports to be opened, however the British Empire were the most aggressive. The British owned East India Company, was already conducting illegal Opium trade across the China Indian border.