What Characteristics of European Civilization Encouraged the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment and What Factors Prevented These Developments in China?
Essay Preview: What Characteristics of European Civilization Encouraged the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment and What Factors Prevented These Developments in China?
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Looking back in history China was quite a developed country when compared to Europe. In wealth and knowledge China was well ahead of Europe.
With the expedition of Portuguese sailors such as Vasco da Gama in 1498 into the Indian ocean it changed all. This with the beginning of the use of new materials such as iron and steel, new energy sources as coal, electricity, petroleum, inventions of machinery such as spinning machines, motor vehicles and the locomotives the industrial revolution began in Europe. These machineries helped increase production with a lesser use of human energy. Factories were established where machines were systematically utilized to produce more in less time.
Where as in Asia the Chinese had power-driven spinning machines in the thirteenth century, some 500 years before England and they manufactured iron in 500 BC. Records show that the Chinese learned to use coal in blast furnaces and were producing as much 125,000 tons of iron by the later eleventh century. This was a figure not achieved by Britain until 700 years later.
China was in a position to match and surpass European achievements. But the system of governance and the way the rulers looked at their population resulted in China fall far behind Europe. China did not develop a continuing, self-sustaining process of scientific and technological advances from their early knowledge and achievements. When they encountered the Europeans in the sixteenth century they also failed to learn from them and to further develop what they already had.
Looking back, the wheelbarrow, the stirrup, the rigid horse collar (to prevent choking), the compass, paper, printing, gunpowder, porcelain was all first discovered / invented by the Chinese. The mystery lies in the failure of China to realize the potential of some of the most important of these inventions. The Europeans were born with a natural passion for technical innovation. They possessed inventive skills and preferred to perform even minor routine jobs with the aid of mechanical instruments rather than manually. They had such great passion for the use of technical instruments that they would not perform certain tasks unless the necessary instruments were at their disposal.
China was different
First, China lacked a free market and institutionalized property rights. The Chinese state was always stepping in to interfere with private enterprise, to take over certain activities, to prohibit and inhibit others, to manipulate prices. At various times the government was motivated by a desire to reserve labor to agriculture or to control important resources by an appetite for revenue. The Chinese leaders ruled the people