The year 1500 is the year chosen by historians to mark the division between modern and premodern times. And it also corresponds to the period when Europe began its rise to global hegemony.
So what was the state of the world before the rise of Europe?
Well, at the time one thing was clear – there was certainly no apparent reason to suggest that one day Europe would dominate the rest of the world. Very little indeed.
For one, its geographical situation was quite awkward. It did not do them any favors in their effort to rise in wealth, power, and prestige. It was open to invasion from the East and South, the North was covered by ice, and the ocean flanked the West.
Nor was it the most populous; even then China and India held that title. And nor did it have agricultural fertility like in other parts of the world either.
Worst of all, unlike its rivals to its East, it was divided, rather than unified. Rather than enjoying the benefits of one government overseeing a large landmass in the spirit of Ming China or even Muscovite Russia, Europe was a collection of small kingdoms and city-states, amongst other political entities. And despite it making more sense to ally with one another, especially when confronted by threats such as that of Islam in the form of the Ottomans, it would not be unusual for each to regard each other as a foe rather than a friend.
This also was due to its geographical situation. Whilst other empires controlled lands that were easily accessible, Europe was covered by natural barriers such as mountains which made it difficult for one state to unify it. For instance, even the mighty Roman Empire struggled to get past the Rhine and conquer the region of Germania.
So it seems that militarily and economically Europe was not advanced. But even in the technological or cultural spheres it did not possess any apparent leadership at this point in time. When compared to the civilizations of Asia, it was behind. In fact, much of their scientific knowledge was heavily borrowed from their Muslim neighbors to their immediate East.
In fact, what was clear by the year 1500 was that Europe’s strengths were seemingly superseded by their weaknesses, at least compared to their rivals. So before we delve into what set Europe off on its trajectory of growth, let us present an overview of the state of the wider world at this point.
So what was the state of affairs in the Muslim world, in China and Japan, and in Russia?
Ming China
At this point in time Ming China was the most advanced, the most superior civilization on the face of the earth. It was as simple as that; China was second to none.
By that point, China possessed a population of about 130 million. Now, although that is dwarfed by its present population of 1 billion+, it still was almost triple Europe’s cumulative population of around 55 million.
China was governed by its well-educated Confucian bureaucracy, giving it a sophistication that made it the envy of any foreign visitor.
It was technologically superior to any other. This technological lead was mainly due to the spread of knowledge helped by the huge libraries that existed across the land.
Interestingly, although Gutenberg is heralded as the Father of the Printing Press in the West, it was actually the Chinese who invented printing. The Europeans only invented their printing press four centuries after the ancient Chinese created their ceramic movable type in the 11th century.
Their technology was not limited to just that. Even small luxuries we take for granted such as paper or paper money were created by the Chinese.
In China, there existed an enormous iron industry producing 125,000 tons a year in North China alone. This incredible sum this took Britain a whole 7 centuries to match during the Industrial Revolution.
This iron output was mainly used for military purposes. Gunpowder was another military invention invented by the Chinese which the Ming dynasty used, along with the cannon, to rid themselves of Mongol overlordship in the form of the previous Yuan dynasty.
China at this time also possessed a huge maritime fleet consisting of both military and commercial vessels. China was trading by sea with regions as far-flung as East Africa and the Indies. Moreover, under the famous Chinese mariner, Zheng He, an expedition was sent out at this time across the world which brought never-seen-before gifts to the emperor such as a giraffe from East Africa.
What is interesting to note is that this was all done without plundering and murdering, something the Portuguese and the Dutch would later not shy away from.
But soon enough this naval enterprising would come to a halt with the resumption and intensifying of Mongol incursions into Ming China. This, and an invasion to conquer Vietnam made these expeditions and naval expansions too costly to maintain.
However, it didn’t stop at a mere reduction in maritime efforts due to financial constraints. The Chinese by then had imposed a total maritime trade ban, thus stifling entrepreneurship and the growth of the maritime economy.
You see, Ming China was led by the Han ethnic majority, but this maritime expansion was a legacy of the previous Mongol Yuan dynasty. These Mongol-led changes had incurred Han resentment whilst they were out of power, and the sheer conservatism of the Confucian bureaucracy further provided cause for China to turn its back on the oceans.
At the time, less focus was put on the navy as it was reasoned that a land force was more necessary to fight against the Mongols.
However, even here the government soon allowed the army to falter.
Where before many of China’s greatest inventions were to increase the might of their military, soon the conservative Confucian bureaucracy even came after the military just as they had with the navy.
They had started to gain a negative view of war, and this anti-war outlook soon led to the starving of the army of good equipment.
Knowledge was restricted as only a few selected texts were allowed to be printed, and entrepreneurship was further stifled.
By the time the Industrial Revolution had come about in 18th century Britain, China’s ironwork which produced such a huge amount of iron had largely been abandoned.
The Muslim World
At this period of time, the year 1500 that is, the Ottomans were Europe’s most immediate threat.
If one were to make an educated guess given the relevant context of the era, they would assume that there was a good chance that it would be the Muslim World which would dominate rather than Europe.
It was they who possessed the most rapid economic growth, the most rapid military expansion, and the most rapid advancements in the spheres of technology and culture.
Of these Muslim empires, it was the Ottomans who were the greatest and closest to Europe geographically.
But the Persians under Safavid rule were also enjoying a resurgence, Muslim khanates dotted the Silk Road, and Muslims were gaining traction in Africa with places like Sokoto and Timbuktu rising as centers of Islamic development in sub-Saharan Africa. In India, the Mughals had entered from the North and had established a fabulously wealthy empire; in the Indies, Muslims had already gained hegemony there.
Compared to the European missionaries, the Muslims were simply unmatched.
As said before, closest to Europe were the Ottomans who had by then reached Crimea, the Aegean, and the Levant, had with the use of the cannon gone up the Nile, and maintained control over the Red Sea, the Balkans, and Bulgaria.
By 1529 they were already besieging areas as far west as Vienna, and by then had already ended the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire by capturing Constantinople in 1453.
Much like their army, their navy was huge and was active in North Africa, Italy, and Spain, and had taken Cyprus.
For centuries, you see, Muslim lands were technologically ahead and were beacons of scientific progress and development. And not just there; in mathematics, industry, medicine, and in architecture they were ahead.
Yet, in the same fashion as the Chinese, they too soon turned inwards, turning their backs to the world.
For one, the Ottomans were fighting on so many fronts that they soon became overstretched, and resources ran thin. To the East they were up against the Shia Safavid Empire, they were engaged with Europeans to their West and in Africa, and in Arabia they had troubles.
But that was all manageable, especially if they had continued having the great leadership they were blessed with up until now.
But no, it wasn’t to be.
Instead, the Ottomans had a string of 13 successive moronic sultans who ruled incompetently and not only held them back, but also caused the loss of their prestige.
The issue with this is not necessarily that they had such bad leaders, but that the Ottoman system of governance was so centralized that a single incompetent ruler could bring a whole empire to a screeching halt.
And whilst it is usually the military that was the beacon of technological improvement in most places, the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire became so conservative and arrogant that it itself was the biggest barrier to Ottoman modernization and renewal. Rather than taking up the same high-class weaponry that was spreading throughout Europe such as modern guns, they refused and haughtily stuck up their noses.
Moreover, they started preying on their own peasant populations by imposing ridiculous levels of taxation which ruined trade and depopulated the Ottoman towns.
The Ottomans by 1500 were facing greater military resistance from the Europeans, but rather than learning from their mistakes, and innovating like they had before, they instead chose to revert to conservatism.
However, this conservatism was on another level in Mughal India. Whilst the elites were Muslims and partial to technological innovation, the masses were Hindu and thus constrained by the extreme taboos that prevented modernization.
Such taboos included rodents and insects being forbidden to kill which meant vast quantities of foodstuffs were destroyed to them, and other social mores around the handling of refuse and excrement meant that their towns were permanently unsanitary, and thus the perfect breeding grounds for plague and disease.
These taboos would confound the British when they arrived many years later.
But that’s not all. Mughal India possessed an imperial court that had levels of consumption which would make even the Sun King Louis XIV bulk in embarrassment. In fact, the court collected taxes at such astronomically high rates that the tax season was often called the ‘eating.’
Whilst people often blame the British for conquering India and bringing an end to Mughal India, the problems the Mughals faced were really more internal than external. Had they made the necessary changes, and the same can be said of Ming China and the Ottomans, not only would they have survived, but they could have counteracted European might.
Tokugawa Japan and Muscovite Russia
The Japanese and the Russians were certainly not as large as some of the other empires mentioned here at this point in time at least. But it is worth mentioning them since they were showing promise of growth to come in later generations and centuries.
Japan, for instance, was helped by its geographical situation due to its status as an island nation.
Much in the same way as in Britain, this offered it a multitude of benefits that other countries that are part of a continental landmass did not have. For example, it is somewhat isolated from the constant threat of invasion which its continental neighbors constantly faced.
Korea, for example, was always at the mercy of the much larger Chinese empires which sought, successfully, to make it a vassal or tributary state.
But at the same time, Japan was close enough to reap the benefits of being linked to their more financially, technologically, and culturally advanced Chinese neighbors.
Japan for a long time was ruled by a collection of warring feudal lords and had an emperor who was a mere figurehead. Even at sea warlords operated, along with pirates and traders who each saw profit to be made.
But in the 16th century, one of those feudal lords, Hideyoshi, would rise above all others to unify Japan using imported European weaponry. He ushered in a short-lived era for Japan, which then came to an end after his death.
But this resumption in fighting was short-lived this time as the powerful Tokugawa clan would soon form the Tokugawa Shogunate which would rule a Japan free from war and conflict for the next 250 years.
What was interesting here is like many of the other empires, they also stopped their seafaring activities. But it did not hurt them as much. Rather this unbroken chain of peace, and a stable government allowed for a new climate of entrepreneurship and economic growth to form.
But one thing does stand out about Japan which others failed to learn. Japan at first saw security in its island status, and for a time they were right to do so. But when the Industrial Revolution came about and the West started colonizing far-flung lands, Japan made the necessary changes to survive and adapt.
When the Perry Expedition from the United States arrived in Japan and forced Japan to open its borders to trade, Japan saw the threat and sought to combat it by technologically modernizing and catching up to the West. And this was what ultimately saved them from being colonized unlike many of their neighbors.
Russia’s geographical situation was similar yet different to that of Japan. Unlike Japan, it actually shares the same landmass as Europe. In fact, most of Russia before its eastward expansion was part of Europe. However, they were isolated from the rest of the continent as well due to poor communications which prevented Russia from being connected to the rest of Europe.
This meant that whilst it was pretty well-protected from Europe and its warring polities, it did not have the same access to technology and knowledge Europe did.
But it also was growing, like Japan.
With the arrival of the musket and cannon from Europe, it had started an eastward expansion which easily allowed them to conquer the comparatively primitive Mongol horsemen of the east. This allowed them to gain a landmass which was by far the most superior in the world.
Yet, the Russians also had many problems. They were technologically backward compared to Europe, with even the Poles occupying Moscow for 5 years in the early 17th century; they were ruled through the military absolutism of the czars, and there was also the institution of serfdom which took until the 19th century to eradicate.
Yet it had done enough to preserve itself and was showing the sort of promise that would later make it into a world power.
Footnotes & Further Reading
Kennedy, Paul M. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500-2000. London: William Collins, 2017.
