If ancient China was far more technologically advanced than Europe, how come Europeans conquered Asia?

Question

There are even features on Discovery Channel and NGC how advanced Chinese and Indian civilizations were, especially in sciences, medicine and arts. They were even large, powerful and almost unthreatened empires. But Europe was very fragmented and these smaller kingdoms constantly made war with each other. Somehow, they caught up and conquered Asia instead.

Answer 1

Mongols....Asia too had internal wars. Only the Europeans used those wars as a reason to get stronger smarter and better, and the Asians used those wars as an excuse to close down their borders. And its not hard to see how 5 countries worth of minds working on the same thing can come up with an idea and spread it faster than one country worth. Asian countries, especially China shut up the borders and did their own thing, during which time the europeans caught up

Answer 2

I believe - and there are some who state this as well - that it came down to philosophy.

The Chinese Empire was based on principles that put Order over all other considerations...and, as part of that, there was a belief that each member of that society had a permanent place in it - and that they should stay put. Social order was placed above individual wishes, needs, and (key point) advancement.

Europe (i.e., "the West") believed in Advancement over Order (with some exceptions). This can, of course, lead to Chaos...but it also means that if a technological edge was found, it was exploited - as fully as possible...

Answer 3

Actually, you hit on it in your question. Thanks to quirks of geography, Europe was very warlike. China, on the other, hand, was protected by the mountains and the sea. They built a big wall on their most vulnerable side, and they were good to go. Okay, not really, and that's very simplistic, but you get what I mean.

Anyway, European nations got into invading each other in a big way. None of them were really protected geographically, and none of the groups were able to get enough of a foothold to take everyone else over. They were just always fighting each other for more land, because you always need more land and resources as your population grows. China may have been ahead in many ways, but as far as war technology went, Europe was miles beyond them. Yes, China invented gunpowder, but Europe figured out that it could propel bits of metal very quickly through someone's body or house. They had to be adept at thinking of these things.

Colonialism happened as soon as it was technologically feasible to take their over the top expansionism to the whole world. Of course, every human is as territorial and expansionist as any other- you got to survive. It was Europe that had the right quirks of geography, resources, and climate to really take that on the road.

Answer 4

When did we "conquer" Asia? We may have made some inroads on the eastern edges, but ever did we conquer China, Japan, and the like.

Answer 5

Because of the industrial revolution

Europe just advanced much faster once they started to make machinery

Answer 6

If you watched animal planet from time to time then I think you should know this...Mostly smaller animals that are inferior or under life threatening situations...They will practically attack first...