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I'm not sure it's planned or not. Finally, Chinese are generally proud of 4 great inventions. one of compass, another one of gonpower. Despite this, I still can

I'm not sure it's planned or not. Finally, Chinese are generally proud of 4 great inventions. one of compass, another one of gonpower. Despite this, I still can't understand why they didn't think of starting geographical exploration and colonization. So I don't know what kind of agenda they have. But I do know one thing: except for China and the US, no one cares who the product comes from. If it's cheap or free, they use it, and no one cares. No one apologizes to the US for losing monopolies.

logicchains 2y ago
>Despite this, I still can't understand why they didn't think of starting geographical exploration and colonization They literally had emperors who banned all overseas travel because it represented a threat to their own power: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haijin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haijin . China is the extremely large and extremely centralised, so the rulers' primary focus has always been on maintaining their own power. Fortunately the current government still allows private firms enough freedom that one was able to invent DeepSeek, however if the recent crackdown on financial firms had happened a few years earlier then the firm behind DeepSeek wouldn't have had the money to fund its creation.
JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> can't understand why they didn't think of starting geographical exploration and colonization They did. Just as a land power. Modern China includes conquered territory of the Mongolians, Turkics and Tibeto-Burmans, among others [1]. (The proximate answer is the Ming-Qing transition [2] overlapped with the Age of Discocery [3].) > except for China and the US, no one cares who the product comes from This is breathtakingly wrong, as a simple perusal of every single country's trade restrictions would show. (Even if you're talking about the population versus policy, show me a market where no premium is paid for luxury products imported from such and such distant land.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China#/media/File:Ethnolinguistic_map_of_China_1983.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China... [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_from_Ming_to_Qing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_from_Ming_to_Qing [3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery
suraci 2y ago
> I still can't understand why they didn't think of starting geographical exploration and colonization maybe it's offtopic, but that's what I'm good at, so I'll anwser this First, ancient China was a feudal centralized dynasty that centered its interests on land and population, unlike commercial company-based regimes such as Britain and the Netherlands. This meant that, in the eyes of the Chinese imperial government, the East India Company was a threat rather than a cooperative partner. Another reason is that ancient China was a typical land-based power, surrounded by various forces. It could only maintain its sphere of influence through annexation and the tributary system, without the ability to expand further. (Genghis Khan was the only exception—he carried out invasions but never truly established effective rule.) However, ancient China did, to some extent, "colonize" certain Southeast Asian islands. But this was not institutionalized colonization; rather, it was a form of population migration. The central government had no control over these Chinese people venturing into the seas, which is why it repeatedly tried to prevent maritime expansion. btw, in case someone said about xinjiang and tibet, you'll see he don't understand history outside the west, base on what i said, you can see it was annexation but not colonization
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
manquer 2y ago
Why would they want to colonize anyone? Only european powers had the urge for colonization, no other civilization in Americas, Africa or Asia really ever want to colonize, expand perhaps but not really colonize. There was no economic need to do so, for most of last three millennium the economic center of the world has been India and China , they didn’t feel the need to go anywhere , the land is fertile with large local population and good weather to grow more than one crop with rich cultural heritage and throughput there is no payoff for undertaking risky voyages. Everyone wanted to trade with them, colonial powers bombed ports forcing trading agreements or sold opium and other narcotics to get a foothold, funded expensive expeditions for new trade routes to India and colonized another continent instead , most of era of industrial revolution have been focusing on them as the market for European products not merely resource extraction. Similarly given the people resources both regions had, there was no need for slavery that is also a european/Mediterranean thing primairly . Not saying workers were or are treated well or there was great value for human rights in India or China, just that they need to go and find slaves from far off to do the work. They could find all the resources domestically.
- paulddraper 2y ago
  > no other civilization in Americas, Africa or Asia really ever want to colonize Barley warrants a response but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_colonial_empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_colonial_empire
  - manquer 2y ago
    We are talking ancient history ? Not Japan post Meiji restoration trying to be copy and catch up to world powers after stagnating during the Tokugawa shogunate for centuries. After the sengoku jidai[1] the failed imjin wars under Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the only serious attempt to expand to China and Korea, they of course failed and Japan faced inward till Meiji period as was typical of most of their history Post Meiji restoration is hardly a fair comparison the Japanese believed that they have to be like other world (colonial) powers to be powerful. [1]Unrelated note: one of my favorite periods in history.
caycep 2y ago
zheng he
corimaith 2y ago
Have you looked at the map of China in the past? Much of the West and North was only recently conquered in the same time period as Colonialism, and the South prior to that. Xinjiang literally means "New Frontier", and the ongoing tensions can be viewed as the continuation of such colonialism in modern times.

logicchains 2y ago

>Despite this, I still can't understand why they didn't think of starting geographical exploration and colonization They literally had emperors who banned all overseas travel because it represented a threat to their own power: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haijin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haijin . China is the extremely large and extremely centralised, so the rulers' primary focus has always been on maintaining their own power. Fortunately the current government still allows private firms enough freedom that one was able to invent DeepSeek, however if the recent crackdown on financial firms had happened a few years earlier then the firm behind DeepSeek wouldn't have had the money to fund its creation.

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> can't understand why they didn't think of starting geographical exploration and colonization They did. Just as a land power. Modern China includes conquered territory of the Mongolians, Turkics and Tibeto-Burmans, among others [1]. (The proximate answer is the Ming-Qing transition [2] overlapped with the Age of Discocery [3].) > except for China and the US, no one cares who the product comes from This is breathtakingly wrong, as a simple perusal of every single country's trade restrictions would show. (Even if you're talking about the population versus policy, show me a market where no premium is paid for luxury products imported from such and such distant land.) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China#/media/File:Ethnolinguistic_map_of_China_1983.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_China... [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_from_Ming_to_Qing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_from_Ming_to_Qing [3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery

suraci 2y ago

> I still can't understand why they didn't think of starting geographical exploration and colonization maybe it's offtopic, but that's what I'm good at, so I'll anwser this First, ancient China was a feudal centralized dynasty that centered its interests on land and population, unlike commercial company-based regimes such as Britain and the Netherlands. This meant that, in the eyes of the Chinese imperial government, the East India Company was a threat rather than a cooperative partner. Another reason is that ancient China was a typical land-based power, surrounded by various forces. It could only maintain its sphere of influence through annexation and the tributary system, without the ability to expand further. (Genghis Khan was the only exception—he carried out invasions but never truly established effective rule.) However, ancient China did, to some extent, "colonize" certain Southeast Asian islands. But this was not institutionalized colonization; rather, it was a form of population migration. The central government had no control over these Chinese people venturing into the seas, which is why it repeatedly tried to prevent maritime expansion. btw, in case someone said about xinjiang and tibet, you'll see he don't understand history outside the west, base on what i said, you can see it was annexation but not colonization

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

manquer 2y ago

Why would they want to colonize anyone? Only european powers had the urge for colonization, no other civilization in Americas, Africa or Asia really ever want to colonize, expand perhaps but not really colonize. There was no economic need to do so, for most of last three millennium the economic center of the world has been India and China , they didn’t feel the need to go anywhere , the land is fertile with large local population and good weather to grow more than one crop with rich cultural heritage and throughput there is no payoff for undertaking risky voyages. Everyone wanted to trade with them, colonial powers bombed ports forcing trading agreements or sold opium and other narcotics to get a foothold, funded expensive expeditions for new trade routes to India and colonized another continent instead , most of era of industrial revolution have been focusing on them as the market for European products not merely resource extraction. Similarly given the people resources both regions had, there was no need for slavery that is also a european/Mediterranean thing primairly . Not saying workers were or are treated well or there was great value for human rights in India or China, just that they need to go and find slaves from far off to do the work. They could find all the resources domestically.

paulddraper 2y ago
> no other civilization in Americas, Africa or Asia really ever want to colonize Barley warrants a response but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_colonial_empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_colonial_empire
- manquer 2y ago
  We are talking ancient history ? Not Japan post Meiji restoration trying to be copy and catch up to world powers after stagnating during the Tokugawa shogunate for centuries. After the sengoku jidai[1] the failed imjin wars under Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the only serious attempt to expand to China and Korea, they of course failed and Japan faced inward till Meiji period as was typical of most of their history Post Meiji restoration is hardly a fair comparison the Japanese believed that they have to be like other world (colonial) powers to be powerful. [1]Unrelated note: one of my favorite periods in history.

caycep 2y ago

zheng he

corimaith 2y ago

Have you looked at the map of China in the past? Much of the West and North was only recently conquered in the same time period as Colonialism, and the South prior to that. Xinjiang literally means "New Frontier", and the ongoing tensions can be viewed as the continuation of such colonialism in modern times.