This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 19 Sep 2008, by Marcus Tay.
-
19 Sep 08
-
The essence of these events is that Europe was fragmented, so Columbus had many different chances.
-
geography. Just picture a map of China and a map of Europe. China has a smooth coastline. Europe has an indented coastline, and each big indentation is a peninsula that became an independent country, independent ethnic group, and independent experiment in building a society: notably, the Greek peninsula, Italy, the Iberian peninsula, Denmark, and Norway/Sweden. Europe had two big islands that became important independent societies, Britain and Ireland, while China had no island big enough to become an independent society until the modern emergence of Taiwan. Europe is transected by mountain ranges that split up Europe into different principalities: the Alps, the Pyrenees, Carpathians — China does not have mountain ranges that transect China. In Europe big rivers flow radially — the Rhine, the Rhone, the Danube, and the Elbe — and they don't unify Europe. In China the two big rivers flow parallel to each other, are separated by low-lying land, and were quickly connected by canals. For those geographic reasons, China was unified in 221 B.C. and has stayed unified most of the time since then, whereas for geographic reasons Europe was never unified.
-
why was China chronically unified, and why was Europe chronically disunified? Why is Europe disunified to this day?
-
Would you like to comment?
Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.