Buy essay on Trading Networks in Asia and the Americas

It’s common knowledge that the development of Western Europe has always been directed to expansion and conquest of new lands. It has been justified by historical reasons, as the native lands of Europe were not enough for its population, and thus there has always been an urgent need for new resources, new trade areas, labor force and so on. Hence it seems worthy to note that the habit to fight for each piece of land and to gain power over other people has formed not only the historical past of the Western Europeans, including first of all, the English, the Spanish and the Portuguese, The French and the Dutch, but also the very mentality of a European man, with his glorification of force, gain, and consummation. In the period of great geographic discoveries the European conquerors had to apply different methods for fulfilling their plans, but there was still much they did not take to account.
As we know, in the Americas they the Spanish, the Dutch and the British were successful enough to put up their colonies, to implant their policies, to instill their cultural norms, religion and way of life.

buy essay

To a great extent their success can be explained by the mentality of the Native Americans. They were really isolated from the rest of the world, and they did not have a habit to oppose themselves to any other nations. They had nothing to fight for, as they had enough land and resources, and thus they did not have reasons to learn any military skills. At the same time their civilization was highly developed, and they had already achieved amazing results in some particular spheres, but still they occurred to be too naïve and too open not to defend their unique heritage and to maintain their identity. The intruders from the Western Europe came to destroy their civilization, and to build their own one from the ruins.
In Asia such an approach could not work. Some of the countries, like India, China and Japan had a very old culture, and their own identity was too strong to fall under the outer forces. For example, in the fifteenth century there was a Jesuit mission to the Far East. One of the missioners, who found himself in China, was Matthew Ricci, the Italian nobleman who, in particular, had the mission to spread the knowledge of mathematics and science to the Chinese. From the notes he took we can make plentiful conclusion on how strong the resistance of the Chinese was, when it had to do with the questions of culture, religion and identity. First of all, their understanding of power was different. While the European states also had monarchies, there was much deceit, perfidy and bearing-up for gaining power against law. In China the attitude to the Emperor was much more filled with respect and dignity, though even common people could criticize him in a written form without risk of being persecuted and punished. Swearing allegiance to a usurping monarch was much force for them than to die an honorable death of an Emperor defender (Kishlansky, 1995, 270). A vassal could have only one lord he was faithful to, and at the same time the new rulers always showed maximum respect to the laws of their predecessors. Therefore the idea of worshipping the power of newcomers and strangers was absurd from the very beginning, already as an idea. What is more, the Chinese people got used to imagine their vast country as the whole world, and their ruler as the Son of Heaven, the Supreme Being. Hence they have developed a strong identity of a prevailing nation with supreme power and supreme rights; however they never had any aggressive plans. They learnt how to use the resources they possessed in a rational way, and never laid claims on aliens. To a great extent their life philosophy was grounded on the religion they had, which taught them to be obedient, deferent and hard-working and satisfied with what one possessed. At the same time their religion taught their ruler to be responsible for his own deeds and for the fate of the whole country as well. In contrast to the Europeans the Chinese people have never been so covetous and ambitious of conquest, while the Europeans are said to fail even in preserving what they ever had. Much can be explained by the fact that the lowest rank in the philosophical order would be much more pleasant and honorable for a Chinese man that the highest rank in the military.
Another indicative example is the case of Qian Long who rejected the trade request from King George III of Britain. The British King wanted China to allow their people to live and have trade within the country, but this proposal was nothing but an outrage for the Chinese ruler (Backhouse & Bland, 1914, 323). From his response we can understand how strong the awe to their traditions was. China got used to do without any assistance from abroad, and thus felt as a patron to other nations who sought cooperation.
So, the system of values and norms was so strong in the Asian civilizations that the Europeans could hardly break them as easily as in the Americas.

References
Backhouse, E. & Bland, J. O. P. (1914). Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Kishlansky, Mark A. (1995). Sources of World History, Vol. 1. New York: HarperCollins.