1 00:00:04,206 --> 00:00:08,643 I want you to heIp me understand what made Western CiviIization... 2 00:00:09,926 --> 00:00:13,396 ...dominate the worId for the Iast 500 years. 3 00:00:13,446 --> 00:00:17,598 Why did the West dominate the rest? Shakir? 4 00:00:17,646 --> 00:00:19,523 - First of aII, they had guns. - Guns? 5 00:00:19,566 --> 00:00:22,399 And everyone eIse had bows and arrows. 6 00:00:22,446 --> 00:00:25,597 They had the attitude that they shouId probabIy get on boats 7 00:00:25,646 --> 00:00:29,685 - and go and invade other countries. - ExpIoration. Getting in boats. 8 00:00:31,366 --> 00:00:36,042 NIALL FERGUSON: Around 500 years ago, a band of intrepid sailors and soldiers 9 00:00:36,086 --> 00:00:40,716 from the petty warring kingdoms of medieval Europe changed the world. 10 00:00:42,926 --> 00:00:48,080 Thirsting after conquest, commerce, colonisation and conversion, 11 00:00:48,126 --> 00:00:54,076 they exported their civilization from their little nook of Western Eurasia 12 00:00:54,126 --> 00:00:56,242 to every corner of the globe. 13 00:00:59,926 --> 00:01:04,522 Before long, Western civilization became the world's dominant civilization. 14 00:01:06,086 --> 00:01:10,841 The West taught the rest its way of doing business... 15 00:01:10,886 --> 00:01:13,116 its scientific method... 16 00:01:13,166 --> 00:01:17,444 its law and its politics, 17 00:01:17,486 --> 00:01:20,284 its way of dressing... 18 00:01:20,326 --> 00:01:21,839 of speaking... 19 00:01:23,086 --> 00:01:24,644 ...and of praying. 20 00:01:27,806 --> 00:01:30,718 The big story is that after 1500, 21 00:01:30,766 --> 00:01:33,280 the West essentiaIIy dominated the rest. 22 00:01:33,326 --> 00:01:37,160 And it's a story we ignore at our periI, because today, 23 00:01:37,206 --> 00:01:39,640 after haIf a miIIennium of tiIting westwards, 24 00:01:39,686 --> 00:01:43,395 the worId seems inexorabIy to be tiIting to the East. 25 00:01:45,726 --> 00:01:49,560 China's pot is to become the worId's biggest economy. 26 00:01:52,526 --> 00:01:56,565 IsIam couId soon overtake Christianity as mankind's favourite faith. 27 00:01:57,766 --> 00:02:02,886 So, does aII this mean that Western civiIization itseIf couId soon be history? 28 00:02:05,206 --> 00:02:08,915 The only way to answer that question is to understand 29 00:02:08,966 --> 00:02:12,800 how the West came to be so powerful in the first place. 30 00:02:14,486 --> 00:02:16,317 The thing of education. If you've got the right education... 31 00:02:16,366 --> 00:02:19,358 The amount of Iand that a country controIs. 32 00:02:19,406 --> 00:02:21,317 With trade, with the introduction of trade... 33 00:02:21,366 --> 00:02:23,675 NIALL: I think we couId simpIify it. 34 00:02:23,726 --> 00:02:28,004 I have boiIed it down to six things... 35 00:02:29,366 --> 00:02:32,164 ...and I'm going to caII them the six kiIIer appIications - 36 00:02:32,206 --> 00:02:36,404 the kiIIer apps - that made the West dominate the rest. 37 00:02:36,446 --> 00:02:39,040 The first one is competition. 38 00:02:40,126 --> 00:02:43,880 Number two kiIIer app is science. 39 00:02:43,926 --> 00:02:47,601 Democracy, medicine, consumerism. 40 00:02:47,646 --> 00:02:50,399 The work ethic, which you obviousIy aII have. 41 00:02:50,446 --> 00:02:51,720 (LAUGHTER) 42 00:02:53,726 --> 00:02:57,002 Understanding how the West beat the rest gives us an insight 43 00:02:57,046 --> 00:03:00,163 not just into the past but aIso into the future, 44 00:03:00,206 --> 00:03:01,685 and I think you'II agree, 45 00:03:01,726 --> 00:03:05,878 it heIps answer the question that couId be the most important of our time. 46 00:03:05,926 --> 00:03:10,636 Are we the generation on whose watch Western ascendancy is going to end? 47 00:03:37,006 --> 00:03:39,474 We tend to assume that our civilization, 48 00:03:39,526 --> 00:03:41,994 the one that's dominated the world for so long, 49 00:03:42,046 --> 00:03:43,399 will last for ever. 50 00:03:46,486 --> 00:03:49,717 It's easy to forget that Western civiIization 51 00:03:49,766 --> 00:03:52,155 has decIined and faIIen once before. 52 00:03:52,206 --> 00:03:55,755 The ancient Roman ruins here at Caesarea in IsraeI 53 00:03:55,806 --> 00:03:57,762 are a pretty potent reminder of that. 54 00:03:57,806 --> 00:04:01,355 In the space of just a generation, in the fifth century AD, 55 00:04:01,406 --> 00:04:05,001 the Roman Empire in Western Europe essentiaIIy feII apart - 56 00:04:05,046 --> 00:04:06,764 the aqueducts dried up, 57 00:04:06,806 --> 00:04:09,798 the roads overgrown, the circuses deserted. 58 00:04:09,846 --> 00:04:16,285 Question - couId something simiIar happen to Western civiIization 2.0 - 59 00:04:16,326 --> 00:04:19,636 the version that, after a miIIennium of stagnation, 60 00:04:19,686 --> 00:04:21,995 rose to dominate the worId? 61 00:04:24,566 --> 00:04:29,401 Beset by economic crises and by environmental fears, 62 00:04:29,446 --> 00:04:33,678 the West today is also waking up to a growing Eastern challenge 63 00:04:33,726 --> 00:04:36,445 to its political and military supremacy. 64 00:04:44,046 --> 00:04:46,958 The evidence is here in China. 65 00:04:50,046 --> 00:04:54,244 The biggest and fastest industrial revolution ever, 66 00:04:54,286 --> 00:04:56,038 compressed into just 30 years. 67 00:05:01,606 --> 00:05:03,483 A self-confident one-party state. 68 00:05:04,566 --> 00:05:08,559 A culture reasserting itself on the world stage. 69 00:05:08,606 --> 00:05:12,155 The ascent of China looks like being the defining political event 70 00:05:12,206 --> 00:05:14,242 of the 21 st century. 71 00:05:15,326 --> 00:05:21,117 lt's almost as if the clock is being wound back 600 years, 72 00:05:21,166 --> 00:05:23,885 to the last time China led the world. 73 00:05:30,846 --> 00:05:34,043 The Forbidden City in Beijing. 74 00:05:34,086 --> 00:05:37,123 Built by the Ming dynasty in the early 1 5th century, 75 00:05:37,166 --> 00:05:40,476 these awe-inspiring buildings are a reminder of 76 00:05:40,526 --> 00:05:42,596 the last time China was a global leader. 77 00:05:42,646 --> 00:05:47,766 They remain as relics of one of the greatest civilizations in all history. 78 00:05:47,806 --> 00:05:53,278 But they're also a reminder that no civilization lasts for ever. 79 00:05:53,326 --> 00:05:56,238 Within a century of their construction, 80 00:05:56,286 --> 00:05:59,915 the decline of the East and the rise of the West had begun. 81 00:05:59,966 --> 00:06:03,117 500 years ago, something quite extraordinary happened. 82 00:06:03,166 --> 00:06:06,761 The impoverished, petty, strife-torn kingdoms of Western Europe 83 00:06:06,806 --> 00:06:10,560 embarked on five centuries of uninterrupted expansion. 84 00:06:10,606 --> 00:06:13,404 MeanwhiIe, the magnificent empires of the Orient, 85 00:06:13,446 --> 00:06:16,244 exempIified by Beijing's Forbidden City, 86 00:06:16,286 --> 00:06:19,722 stagnated and then succumbed to Western dominance. 87 00:06:19,766 --> 00:06:21,518 By 1900, if not earIier, 88 00:06:21,566 --> 00:06:25,844 the Westerners had effectiveIy subjugated the Resterners. 89 00:06:34,646 --> 00:06:39,083 ln 1 500, Western Europe had accounted for only 1 0% 90 00:06:39,126 --> 00:06:43,165 of the world's land surface and, at most, 1 6% of its population. 91 00:06:45,446 --> 00:06:51,442 By 1 91 3, 1 1 Western empires controlled more than half of 92 00:06:51,486 --> 00:06:52,885 all territory and population 93 00:06:52,926 --> 00:06:56,885 and a staggering 80% of global economic output. 94 00:07:00,686 --> 00:07:02,085 As recently as the 1 980s, 95 00:07:02,126 --> 00:07:07,883 the average American was 7 0 times richer than the average Chinese. 96 00:07:10,766 --> 00:07:14,202 We tend to assume that it was Western technology that trumped the East... 97 00:07:14,246 --> 00:07:15,838 in particular, 98 00:07:15,886 --> 00:07:19,595 the technology that went on to produce the lndustrial Revolution. 99 00:07:21,126 --> 00:07:22,684 But it wasn't that. 100 00:07:22,726 --> 00:07:26,401 The reaI kiIIer app that the West had and the rest Iacked 101 00:07:26,446 --> 00:07:30,724 was competition, both poIiticaI and economic. 102 00:07:30,766 --> 00:07:31,960 And the consequences - 103 00:07:32,006 --> 00:07:35,316 the birth of the nation-state and the rise of capitaIism - 104 00:07:35,366 --> 00:07:38,802 wouId Iead to a remarkabIe reversaI of fortunes. 105 00:07:41,886 --> 00:07:44,798 This is history's greatest revelation - 106 00:07:44,846 --> 00:07:49,681 how it was that Europeans, not Chinese, came to run the world. 107 00:08:06,926 --> 00:08:08,154 What would you have seen 108 00:08:08,206 --> 00:08:12,802 if you'd taken two trips along two rivers in the year 1 420? 109 00:08:13,886 --> 00:08:16,195 The Thames and the Yangtze. 110 00:08:26,806 --> 00:08:31,163 The Yangtze was part of a vast waterway known as the Grand Canal 111 00:08:31,206 --> 00:08:34,915 that linked Hangzhou with Beijing 1,000 miles to the north. 112 00:08:36,366 --> 00:08:39,915 The restoration and improvement of the canal was part of a plan 113 00:08:39,966 --> 00:08:42,002 to stimulate China's economy, 114 00:08:42,046 --> 00:08:46,995 masterminded by the formidable Ming emperor known as Yongle. 115 00:08:48,206 --> 00:08:52,996 This is the Precious BeIt Bridge at Suzhou, with its 53 arches, 116 00:08:53,046 --> 00:08:57,483 one of the architecturaI marveIs of the Grand CanaI. 117 00:08:57,526 --> 00:09:01,519 In the reign of Emperor YongIe, which means, IiteraIIy, ''perpetuaI happiness'', 118 00:09:01,566 --> 00:09:05,923 15,000 barges used to saiI up and down it every year. 119 00:09:05,966 --> 00:09:08,526 Venice, eat your heart out. 120 00:09:17,806 --> 00:09:22,004 When the intrepid Venetian Marco Polo had visited China in the 1 27 0s, 121 00:09:22,046 --> 00:09:26,642 he'd been astonished by the volume of traffic on the Yangtze. 122 00:09:31,086 --> 00:09:35,204 ''The multitude of vessels that invest this river is so great 123 00:09:35,246 --> 00:09:38,443 ''that no-one who should read or hear would believe it. 124 00:09:38,486 --> 00:09:43,765 ''The quantity of merchandise carried up and down is past all belief. 125 00:09:43,806 --> 00:09:48,277 ''ln fact, it is so big, that it seems to be a sea rather than a river. '' 126 00:09:55,086 --> 00:09:58,840 400 miles upstream from the South China Sea, 127 00:09:58,886 --> 00:10:03,482 Yongle controlled his vast empire from the lmperial capital, Nanjing. 128 00:10:03,526 --> 00:10:05,676 With a population of up to a million, 129 00:10:05,726 --> 00:10:08,399 the city was probably the largest in the world. 130 00:10:16,766 --> 00:10:20,076 YongIe didn't beIieve in doing anything by haIves. 131 00:10:20,126 --> 00:10:22,117 This is just one voIume 132 00:10:22,166 --> 00:10:25,681 of the vast encycIopaedia of Chinese Iiterature and Iearning 133 00:10:25,726 --> 00:10:27,603 which he commissioned. 134 00:10:27,646 --> 00:10:30,114 There were 1 1 ,095 voIumes in totaI, 135 00:10:30,166 --> 00:10:34,000 and it was compiIed by a team of 2,000 schoIars. 136 00:10:34,046 --> 00:10:38,676 It was surpassed as the worId's Iargest encycIopaedia onIy in 2007, 137 00:10:38,726 --> 00:10:41,399 after a reign of 600 years... 138 00:10:41,446 --> 00:10:43,323 by Wikipedia. 139 00:10:44,766 --> 00:10:48,554 But Yongle was not content with Nanjing. 140 00:10:48,606 --> 00:10:52,235 He resolved to build a new and more spectacular capital to the north, 141 00:10:52,286 --> 00:10:55,119 in Beijing. By 1 420, 142 00:10:55,166 --> 00:10:58,044 when the Forbidden City was at last complete, 143 00:10:58,086 --> 00:11:00,998 Ming China had an incontrovertible claim 144 00:11:01,046 --> 00:11:04,118 to be the most advanced civilization in the world. 145 00:11:04,166 --> 00:11:07,681 lt really did seem as if the Emperor Yongle 146 00:11:07,726 --> 00:11:10,081 ruled over ''All Under Heaven''. 147 00:11:17,526 --> 00:11:21,485 Contrast Yongle's realm with that of his contemporaries, 148 00:11:21,526 --> 00:11:24,598 Richard ll or Henry V. 149 00:11:26,526 --> 00:11:31,156 They ruled over a land that was in some ways still mired in the Dark Ages. 150 00:11:32,566 --> 00:11:36,525 lts mightiest river, the Thames, was, let's be frank, 151 00:11:36,566 --> 00:11:38,602 a primitive backwater. 152 00:11:40,566 --> 00:11:43,558 Yes, I know we're taught to think of Henry V 153 00:11:43,606 --> 00:11:46,245 as one of the great heroes of EngIish history, 154 00:11:46,286 --> 00:11:49,995 but I'm afraid his kingdom was very far from the ''sceptred isIe'' 155 00:11:50,046 --> 00:11:52,685 of Shakespeare's famous pIay. 156 00:11:52,726 --> 00:11:54,956 More Iike a septic isIe. 157 00:11:57,206 --> 00:12:00,960 There were, of course, some imposing sights on the banks of the Thames, 158 00:12:01,006 --> 00:12:03,998 notably a large gaol, the Tower of London. 159 00:12:04,046 --> 00:12:08,676 But a visitor from Nanjing wouId scarceIy have been impressed. 160 00:12:08,726 --> 00:12:11,365 The Tower of London was a pretty primitive edifice 161 00:12:11,406 --> 00:12:14,796 compared with the spIendours of the great towers of ImperiaI China. 162 00:12:19,406 --> 00:12:25,117 London's old, patched-up city walls extended a paltry three miles. 163 00:12:26,766 --> 00:12:28,802 By contrast, it took the founder of the Ming dynasty 164 00:12:28,846 --> 00:12:32,885 21 years to buiId a waII more than 20 miIes Iong 165 00:12:32,926 --> 00:12:35,645 around his capitaI city, Nanjing. 166 00:12:35,686 --> 00:12:39,599 The gate where I'm sitting couId house more than 3,000 soIdiers. 167 00:12:39,646 --> 00:12:44,003 And as you can see, this was serious bricks and mortar, buiIt to Iast. 168 00:12:50,326 --> 00:12:54,763 By 1 5th-century standards, Nanjing was a pretty pleasant place to live. 169 00:12:59,726 --> 00:13:01,523 London wasn't. 170 00:13:01,566 --> 00:13:03,443 The ravages of the Black Death, 171 00:13:03,486 --> 00:13:08,241 the bubonic plague that had devastated Europe in the early 1 4th century, 172 00:13:08,286 --> 00:13:11,483 had reduced the city's population to around 40,000, 173 00:13:11,526 --> 00:13:14,598 less than a 20th the size of Nanjing's. 174 00:13:19,286 --> 00:13:23,837 English life expectancy at birth was a miserable 37 years. 175 00:13:23,886 --> 00:13:27,196 Henry V himself became King at the age of 26, 176 00:13:27,246 --> 00:13:30,318 and was dead from dysentery by 35 - 177 00:13:30,366 --> 00:13:35,042 a reminder, by the way, that most history is made by young people. 178 00:13:38,206 --> 00:13:39,924 The ones that survived, that is. 179 00:13:39,966 --> 00:13:44,915 Roughly one in five English children died in the first year of life. 180 00:13:44,966 --> 00:13:47,844 ln London, the figure was nearly one in three. 181 00:13:53,926 --> 00:13:55,757 Violence was endemic. 182 00:13:55,806 --> 00:13:57,603 When not fighting the French, 183 00:13:57,646 --> 00:14:01,400 the English fought the Welsh, the Scots and the lrish... 184 00:14:01,446 --> 00:14:03,277 or themselves. 185 00:14:03,326 --> 00:14:05,681 Between 1 330 and 1 479, 186 00:14:05,726 --> 00:14:10,481 a quarter of deaths in the English aristocracy were violent. 187 00:14:15,406 --> 00:14:18,921 Life in this period reaIIy was, as Thomas Hobbes famousIy said, 188 00:14:18,966 --> 00:14:23,482 ''soIitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short''. 189 00:14:23,526 --> 00:14:27,644 It was aIso incredibIy unhygienic by OrientaI standards. 190 00:14:27,686 --> 00:14:29,438 Without any proper sewage system, 191 00:14:29,486 --> 00:14:31,875 medievaI London stank to high heaven, 192 00:14:31,926 --> 00:14:36,283 whereas human excrement was routineIy coIIected in Chinese cities 193 00:14:36,326 --> 00:14:38,601 and spread on outIying fieIds. 194 00:14:38,646 --> 00:14:40,477 When he was Lord Mayor of London, 195 00:14:40,526 --> 00:14:45,884 which was four times between 1397 and his death in 1 423, 196 00:14:45,926 --> 00:14:49,316 Dick Whittington had to watch where he put his feet, 197 00:14:49,366 --> 00:14:53,803 because the streets of his city were paved with something very different from goId. 198 00:14:57,446 --> 00:15:01,724 And England was probably the most prosperous European country. 199 00:15:01,766 --> 00:15:06,396 Life was even nastier, more brutal and shorter in France. 200 00:15:06,446 --> 00:15:10,519 No, 600 years ago, the idea of a civilized West 201 00:15:10,566 --> 00:15:12,522 would have seemed absurd. 202 00:15:12,566 --> 00:15:16,081 The future of humanity surely lay in the East. 203 00:15:16,126 --> 00:15:19,004 But why was the East so far ahead? 204 00:15:19,046 --> 00:15:21,321 (GUNSHOT) 205 00:15:25,246 --> 00:15:28,556 Long before the lndustrial Revolution came to England, 206 00:15:28,606 --> 00:15:31,837 China was amazingly inventive. 207 00:15:31,886 --> 00:15:35,640 You probabIy thought Jethro TuII, the EngIish agricuIturaI pioneer, 208 00:15:35,686 --> 00:15:37,483 invented the seed driII. 209 00:15:37,526 --> 00:15:40,836 But no, the Chinese got there 2,000 years ago. 210 00:15:42,966 --> 00:15:44,922 ln fact, before 1 400, 211 00:15:44,966 --> 00:15:48,083 there was a veritable alphabet of Chinese inventions. 212 00:15:51,846 --> 00:15:53,916 Astronomical observatories. 213 00:15:58,686 --> 00:16:00,278 Card games. 214 00:16:03,206 --> 00:16:04,559 The clock. 215 00:16:04,606 --> 00:16:08,394 This is the biggest water cIock in China. 216 00:16:08,446 --> 00:16:11,836 Now, it's not reaIIy cIear if the Egyptians, the BabyIonians 217 00:16:11,886 --> 00:16:14,480 or the Chinese invented the water cIock. 218 00:16:14,526 --> 00:16:18,838 But it was utterly transformed in 1 086 219 00:16:18,886 --> 00:16:22,196 by the great Chinese inventor Su Song. 220 00:16:22,246 --> 00:16:25,443 Su Song combined it with a gear-driven escapement 221 00:16:25,486 --> 00:16:28,922 to create the worId's first mechanicaI cIock. 222 00:16:28,966 --> 00:16:33,323 Nothing remoteIy so accurate existed in EngIand untiI the 1 4th century. 223 00:16:33,366 --> 00:16:36,438 Time reaIIy did seem to be on China's side. 224 00:16:40,686 --> 00:16:42,358 Football. 225 00:16:44,606 --> 00:16:46,005 Gunpowder. 226 00:16:48,286 --> 00:16:49,639 lnk. 227 00:16:52,646 --> 00:16:53,715 Matches. 228 00:16:56,766 --> 00:16:58,085 Paper. 229 00:16:59,806 --> 00:17:01,398 The printing press. 230 00:17:03,606 --> 00:17:05,756 15th-century Germany? 231 00:17:05,806 --> 00:17:07,876 More Iike 1 1th-century China. 232 00:17:09,326 --> 00:17:12,398 The suspension bridge. 233 00:17:12,446 --> 00:17:14,562 China, 2,000 years ago. 234 00:17:18,046 --> 00:17:19,684 Not to mention the wheeIbarrow. 235 00:17:19,726 --> 00:17:21,205 And that's not aII. 236 00:17:21,246 --> 00:17:23,282 As a new century dawned in 1 400, 237 00:17:23,326 --> 00:17:27,035 the emperor YongIe had another transport technoIogy at his disposaI, 238 00:17:27,086 --> 00:17:29,316 which had the potentiaI to make him master, 239 00:17:29,366 --> 00:17:32,881 not just of the MiddIe Kingdom, but of the entire gIobaI market. 240 00:17:32,926 --> 00:17:35,724 It was time for ImperiaI China to set saiI. 241 00:17:52,766 --> 00:17:54,916 Now, that's what I caII a ship. 242 00:17:54,966 --> 00:17:58,481 What they're buiIding here in Nanjing is a fuII-scaIe repIica 243 00:17:58,526 --> 00:18:01,518 of one of the treasure ships of AdmiraI Zheng He - 244 00:18:01,566 --> 00:18:04,444 the most famous saiIor in Chinese history, 245 00:18:04,486 --> 00:18:08,559 the man who very nearIy turned the MiddIe Kingdom into a gIobaI empire. 246 00:18:08,606 --> 00:18:12,724 By the time they've finished, it'II be 400 feet in Iength. 247 00:18:12,766 --> 00:18:15,644 That's ten times the size of the Santa Maria, 248 00:18:15,686 --> 00:18:19,679 the ship that CoIumbus saiIed across the AtIantic Ocean in 1 492. 249 00:18:24,206 --> 00:18:26,561 And there wasn't just one of them. 250 00:18:26,606 --> 00:18:31,157 Zheng He set sail in command of a crew of some 28,000 men 251 00:18:31,206 --> 00:18:34,516 in a fleet of dozens of these enormous ships. 252 00:18:38,726 --> 00:18:41,524 Zheng He was an unusual man. 253 00:18:41,566 --> 00:18:44,717 Captured in battle at the age of 1 1, 254 00:18:44,766 --> 00:18:47,075 he was castrated and assigned as a servant 255 00:18:47,126 --> 00:18:50,914 to the man who would seize the lmperial throne as Yongle. 256 00:18:53,926 --> 00:18:57,043 Yongle and Zheng He would become one of the great double acts 257 00:18:57,086 --> 00:18:58,439 of Chinese history. 258 00:19:05,966 --> 00:19:10,323 (RHYTHMIC CHANTING) 259 00:19:33,286 --> 00:19:35,242 Between 1 405 and 1 424, 260 00:19:35,286 --> 00:19:38,642 AdmiraI Zheng He's fIeet ranged far and wide. 261 00:19:38,686 --> 00:19:42,804 They saiIed to CaIicut, to MaIacca, to CeyIon, to Sumatra, 262 00:19:42,846 --> 00:19:44,518 to Hormuz, to Aden... 263 00:19:44,566 --> 00:19:48,081 Some schoIars specuIate they reached as far as northern AustraIia, 264 00:19:48,126 --> 00:19:49,525 the Cape of Good Hope and GreenIand, 265 00:19:49,566 --> 00:19:52,285 and aII this was years before the European Age of ExpIoration 266 00:19:52,326 --> 00:19:54,521 had so much as begun. 267 00:20:03,646 --> 00:20:07,355 The main purpose of these visits was not so much to trade, 268 00:20:07,406 --> 00:20:09,636 but to assert Chinese supremacy. 269 00:20:13,006 --> 00:20:18,364 Who could refuse to kowtow to an emperor possessed of so mighty a fleet? 270 00:20:24,286 --> 00:20:27,801 In 1 415, Zheng He reached the coast of East Africa. 271 00:20:27,846 --> 00:20:29,837 In a short time, the fIeet was Ioaded up 272 00:20:29,886 --> 00:20:32,923 with representatives of 30 different kings and chiefs 273 00:20:32,966 --> 00:20:37,198 ready to acknowIedge the cosmic ascendancy of the Ming emperor. 274 00:20:37,246 --> 00:20:40,682 Down beIow were stowed a host of exotic animaIs. 275 00:20:40,726 --> 00:20:45,436 The SuItan of MaIindi chose a giraffe to send. 276 00:20:48,046 --> 00:20:50,719 Yongle personally received the animal 277 00:20:50,766 --> 00:20:53,883 at the gateway of the lmperial Palace in Nanjing. 278 00:20:56,406 --> 00:21:00,081 The giraffe was hailed as a symbol of perfect virtue, 279 00:21:00,126 --> 00:21:01,844 perfect government 280 00:21:01,886 --> 00:21:05,276 and perfect harmony in the empire and the universe. 281 00:21:09,206 --> 00:21:11,879 In many ways, the giraffe perfectIy symboIised 282 00:21:11,926 --> 00:21:14,838 the zenith of Chinese prestige in the worId. 283 00:21:14,886 --> 00:21:18,879 And then, in 1 424, came news that wouId fundamentaIIy change 284 00:21:18,926 --> 00:21:22,680 not onIy the history of China, but the history of the worId itseIf. 285 00:21:22,726 --> 00:21:25,194 The Emperor YongIe had died, 286 00:21:25,246 --> 00:21:29,398 and with him died the dream of Chinese overseas expansion. 287 00:21:29,446 --> 00:21:32,995 Within just a few years, China turned in on itseIf. 288 00:21:37,566 --> 00:21:40,763 The death of Yongle had an immediate and dramatic impact. 289 00:21:42,526 --> 00:21:46,917 Under his successors, Zheng He's voyages were suspended. 290 00:21:49,926 --> 00:21:54,363 From 1 500, anyone in China found building a ship 291 00:21:54,406 --> 00:21:58,160 with more than two masts was liable to the death penalty. 292 00:21:59,366 --> 00:22:04,838 ln 1 551, it became a crime even to go to sea on a multi-masted ship. 293 00:22:06,566 --> 00:22:10,241 The records of Zheng He's voyages were destroyed. 294 00:22:12,926 --> 00:22:15,599 The tomb of Emperor YongIe at ChangIing 295 00:22:15,646 --> 00:22:20,674 is an appropriate pIace to refIect on the huge opportunity that China missed. 296 00:22:20,726 --> 00:22:24,116 What Iay behind the momentous decision to turn inwards? 297 00:22:24,166 --> 00:22:28,079 Was it fiscaI troubIe or poIiticaI wrangIes at the ImperiaI court? 298 00:22:28,126 --> 00:22:30,924 Was it because a war in Annam, modern-day Vietnam, 299 00:22:30,966 --> 00:22:34,276 turned out to be more expensive than anyone had expected? 300 00:22:34,326 --> 00:22:38,478 Or was it just Confucian suspicion of the so-caIIed strange things 301 00:22:38,526 --> 00:22:41,199 that AdmiraI Zheng He had brought home with him? 302 00:22:44,846 --> 00:22:48,600 We may never know. Like the Apollo moon missions, 303 00:22:48,646 --> 00:22:52,321 Zheng He's voyages were carried out at enormous expense. 304 00:22:52,366 --> 00:22:55,244 They were a formidable demonstration of power 305 00:22:55,286 --> 00:22:58,084 and technological sophistication. 306 00:23:00,566 --> 00:23:02,875 But beyond that, to be blunt, 307 00:23:02,926 --> 00:23:05,565 they turned out to be pretty pointless. 308 00:23:07,606 --> 00:23:11,201 Landing a Chinese eunuch on the East African coast 309 00:23:11,246 --> 00:23:14,841 was essentially the same as landing an American on the moon - 310 00:23:14,886 --> 00:23:16,365 pretty impressive. 311 00:23:16,406 --> 00:23:18,124 But so what? 312 00:23:19,766 --> 00:23:23,725 What was important was what you did when you got there. 313 00:23:28,646 --> 00:23:30,921 China's faiIure to expIoit its advantages 314 00:23:30,966 --> 00:23:34,720 Ieft the path of overseas expansion wide open for the West. 315 00:23:34,766 --> 00:23:37,803 When the new emperor caIIed home Zheng He's mighty navy, 316 00:23:37,846 --> 00:23:40,041 he virtuaIIy guaranteed that it wouId be 317 00:23:40,086 --> 00:23:43,681 the West's version of civiIization that wouId sweep the gIobe. 318 00:23:54,726 --> 00:23:56,842 Size isn't everything. 319 00:23:56,886 --> 00:24:02,324 Admiral Zheng He's enormous ships and his emperor's grandiose ambitions 320 00:24:02,366 --> 00:24:04,482 had done precious little for China. 321 00:24:09,646 --> 00:24:11,318 How very different it would be 322 00:24:11,366 --> 00:24:14,597 for the altogether more modest voyages about to be undertaken 323 00:24:14,646 --> 00:24:19,925 by a remarkable man from the tiny little European kingdom of Portugal. 324 00:24:19,966 --> 00:24:22,241 (BELLS TOLL) 325 00:24:24,286 --> 00:24:26,754 His name was Vasco da Gama. 326 00:24:26,806 --> 00:24:31,322 Da Gama made his country's - and his own - fortune 327 00:24:31,366 --> 00:24:36,121 by cornering the market in the 1 5th century's favourite food additive... 328 00:24:37,766 --> 00:24:38,994 ...spices. 329 00:24:40,486 --> 00:24:44,195 For centuries, the oId spice route ran from the Indian Ocean over Iand 330 00:24:44,246 --> 00:24:47,363 across the Arabian PeninsuIa, into the Ottoman Empire, 331 00:24:47,406 --> 00:24:49,601 and then from Venice into Europe. 332 00:24:49,646 --> 00:24:54,003 It was entireIy dominated by the Arabs, the Turks and the Venetians. 333 00:24:54,046 --> 00:24:56,196 The Portuguese had the briIIiant idea 334 00:24:56,246 --> 00:24:58,680 that if they couId find an aIternative route, 335 00:24:58,726 --> 00:25:00,876 aII the way around the coast of Africa, 336 00:25:00,926 --> 00:25:05,875 round the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean... 337 00:25:05,926 --> 00:25:08,884 then this business couId be theirs. 338 00:25:10,806 --> 00:25:14,719 lt was here in the Castle of St George in the hills above Lisbon 339 00:25:14,766 --> 00:25:17,326 that the newly crowned Portuguese King Manuel 340 00:25:17,366 --> 00:25:21,041 appointed da Gama to command a fleet of ships, 341 00:25:21,086 --> 00:25:24,715 to make discoveries and go in search of spices. 342 00:25:29,486 --> 00:25:33,604 King ManueI's orders to Vasco da Gama teII us something very important 343 00:25:33,646 --> 00:25:36,877 about the overseas spread of Western civiIization. 344 00:25:36,926 --> 00:25:39,963 As we'II see, there was more than one kiIIer app, 345 00:25:40,006 --> 00:25:42,395 but the one that reaIIy started the baII roIIing 346 00:25:42,446 --> 00:25:45,756 was sureIy competition - both the main driver of capitaIism 347 00:25:45,806 --> 00:25:48,639 and of the fragmented European state system. 348 00:25:50,846 --> 00:25:55,203 For Europeans, expIoration was the Iate-15th-century space race. 349 00:25:56,246 --> 00:25:57,565 Or rather, spice race. 350 00:26:07,326 --> 00:26:11,319 Da Gama set saiI from this spot on 8th JuIy, 1 497. 351 00:26:11,366 --> 00:26:14,199 When he and his feIIow saiIors rounded the Cape of Good Hope, 352 00:26:14,246 --> 00:26:16,123 the southernmost tip of Africa, 353 00:26:16,166 --> 00:26:18,236 they weren't wondering, as the Chinese had, 354 00:26:18,286 --> 00:26:22,404 if they couId find some exotic animaIs to take home to their king. 355 00:26:22,446 --> 00:26:25,995 They were wondering if they couId make money there. 356 00:26:26,046 --> 00:26:31,564 ln 1 498, more than 80 years after the Chinese explorer Zheng He 357 00:26:31,606 --> 00:26:36,361 had landed at Malindi on the Kenyan coast, Vasco da Gama turned up. 358 00:26:36,406 --> 00:26:41,480 He wasn't here to impress the locals, much less to hunt giraffe. 359 00:26:41,526 --> 00:26:45,804 He immediately saw Malindi's potential as a trading post. 360 00:26:45,846 --> 00:26:50,556 By 1 506, the Portuguese had a near monopoly on shipping 361 00:26:50,606 --> 00:26:52,676 along the East African coast. 362 00:26:54,086 --> 00:26:58,045 This wasn't the only difference between the Chinese and the Portuguese. 363 00:26:58,086 --> 00:27:00,395 There was also a streak of ruthlessness, 364 00:27:00,446 --> 00:27:02,198 of downright nastiness, 365 00:27:02,246 --> 00:27:06,603 about these Portuguese explorers that Zheng He seldom evinced. 366 00:27:08,766 --> 00:27:11,917 The Portuguese knew they were eating someone else's lunch 367 00:27:11,966 --> 00:27:14,321 along with their spices. 368 00:27:14,366 --> 00:27:18,405 But they were ready to meet any resistance with cannon fire and cutlass. 369 00:27:27,966 --> 00:27:32,357 This is the tomb of Vasco da Gama here in St Jerome's monastery in Lisbon. 370 00:27:33,926 --> 00:27:36,315 Da Gama died in 1524 of a fever, 371 00:27:36,366 --> 00:27:39,756 but that didn't mark the end of Portuguese ambitions. 372 00:27:39,806 --> 00:27:44,516 ExpIorers Iike him pressed on beyond India, as far as China. 373 00:27:44,566 --> 00:27:48,275 The great reversaI of fortunes was now unstoppabIe. 374 00:27:53,126 --> 00:27:56,004 Along with Portugal, Spain had been first off the mark, 375 00:27:56,046 --> 00:27:58,162 seizing the initiative in the New World. 376 00:28:04,726 --> 00:28:08,480 The Dutch weren't far behind, building up a hugely profitable trading company 377 00:28:08,526 --> 00:28:11,882 by following the spice route to lndonesia. 378 00:28:14,886 --> 00:28:17,525 They, in turn, were closely followed by the French. 379 00:28:17,566 --> 00:28:20,956 (BELL TOLLS) 380 00:28:22,646 --> 00:28:25,399 And what of the EngIish, whose territoriaI ambitions 381 00:28:25,446 --> 00:28:27,880 had once extended no further than France 382 00:28:27,926 --> 00:28:33,239 and whose one big economic idea had been to seII wooI to the ItaIians? 383 00:28:33,286 --> 00:28:36,881 How couId they possibIy sit on the sideIines with news coming in 384 00:28:36,926 --> 00:28:41,716 that their archenemies, the Spaniards, were making a kiIIing overseas? 385 00:28:44,206 --> 00:28:48,802 By the 1 7th century, the Thames was no longer a provincial backwater. 386 00:28:50,006 --> 00:28:55,205 lt was the hub of Britain's burgeoning overseas empire. 387 00:28:55,246 --> 00:28:59,637 The docks at Deptford were producing ocean-going ships by the dozen. 388 00:29:06,686 --> 00:29:12,443 ln 1 635, the first English merchantman arrived in Chinese waters. 389 00:29:14,086 --> 00:29:16,680 Once, when Zheng He had sailed the high seas, 390 00:29:16,726 --> 00:29:20,162 China had been able to regard distant Europeans with indifference, 391 00:29:20,206 --> 00:29:21,275 if not contempt. 392 00:29:21,326 --> 00:29:25,604 Now trading rivalry had brought the barbarians to China. 393 00:29:27,166 --> 00:29:31,478 And with each new trading post, each new warehouse, each new fort, 394 00:29:31,526 --> 00:29:34,962 Western civiIization upIoaded its unique kiIIer app 395 00:29:35,006 --> 00:29:37,315 of commerciaI competition. 396 00:29:39,726 --> 00:29:43,355 The question is, why did the Europeans have that fervour 397 00:29:43,406 --> 00:29:45,158 when the Chinese didn't? 398 00:29:48,886 --> 00:29:51,525 Why was Vasco da Gama so clearly hungry for money - 399 00:29:51,566 --> 00:29:53,921 hungry enough to kill for it? 400 00:29:59,246 --> 00:30:03,478 WeII, you can find the answer here in the boweIs of the British Library 401 00:30:03,526 --> 00:30:06,598 by Iooking at wonderfuI oId maps Iike this one, 402 00:30:06,646 --> 00:30:11,276 which is of the city-state of Lubeck, dating back to 1530. 403 00:30:11,326 --> 00:30:16,923 It's just one Iong - very Iong - ceIebration of IocaI autonomy. 404 00:30:19,406 --> 00:30:22,398 And it was a pattern repeated throughout Europe. 405 00:30:22,446 --> 00:30:24,198 In Venice, La Serenissima, 406 00:30:24,246 --> 00:30:29,274 here in Frankfurt, on the banks of the River Main... 407 00:30:29,326 --> 00:30:33,205 and, of course, in London itseIf. It wasn't just London pride. 408 00:30:33,246 --> 00:30:37,444 AII the great European cities were proud of their own autonomy. 409 00:30:38,726 --> 00:30:42,924 I can't heIp feeIing the message of these maps is ''divide and ruIe'', 410 00:30:42,966 --> 00:30:47,118 except that it was by being divided that the Europeans ended up 411 00:30:47,166 --> 00:30:49,919 ruIing the rest of the worId. 412 00:30:49,966 --> 00:30:54,278 SmaII was beautifuI in the MiddIe Ages, because smaIIness meant competition. 413 00:30:54,326 --> 00:30:58,001 Competition between states and, within states, between companies. 414 00:30:59,686 --> 00:31:03,599 Compare that with China, with its one monoIithic empire. 415 00:31:06,086 --> 00:31:08,361 Whereas in China power was centralised 416 00:31:08,406 --> 00:31:11,637 in the hands of the emperor, in Northern Europe particularly, 417 00:31:11,686 --> 00:31:14,041 there was an astonishing decentralisation. 418 00:31:14,086 --> 00:31:18,238 Hundreds of states and city-states competing against each other. 419 00:31:26,046 --> 00:31:29,721 ln England, the most important commercial centre in the country 420 00:31:29,766 --> 00:31:31,643 was almost completely autonomous. 421 00:31:33,886 --> 00:31:37,083 The City of London Corporation can trace its origins 422 00:31:37,126 --> 00:31:39,321 back to the 12th century. 423 00:31:39,366 --> 00:31:43,041 That means that the Iord mayor, the sheriffs, the city counciI, 424 00:31:43,086 --> 00:31:44,678 the freemen, the Iiverymen 425 00:31:44,726 --> 00:31:48,605 and the aIdermen are aII more than 800 years oId, 426 00:31:48,646 --> 00:31:52,878 making this the worId's oIdest autonomous commerciaI institution. 427 00:31:52,926 --> 00:31:57,397 In many ways, it's the forerunner of today's muItinationaI corporations. 428 00:31:57,446 --> 00:32:01,280 In other ways, it's the forerunner of democracy itseIf. 429 00:32:05,446 --> 00:32:08,165 The City was never in awe of the Crown, 430 00:32:08,206 --> 00:32:12,279 and the wealthier the City became, the more leverage it had. 431 00:32:12,326 --> 00:32:15,955 Loans to the Crown became the key to urban autonomy. 432 00:32:20,286 --> 00:32:25,235 And the masters of the medieval universe were the livery companies. 433 00:32:28,326 --> 00:32:31,318 And that's where power used to Iie - 434 00:32:31,366 --> 00:32:35,120 with the drapers, the goIdsmiths, the grocers, the haberdashers, 435 00:32:35,166 --> 00:32:39,444 ironmongers, mercers, the saIters, the shearers, the skinners - 436 00:32:39,486 --> 00:32:42,637 not forgetting the taiIors and the vintners. 437 00:32:42,686 --> 00:32:44,483 Dating back to the MiddIe Ages, 438 00:32:44,526 --> 00:32:47,962 they're a reminder of the amazing power - economic and poIiticaI - 439 00:32:48,006 --> 00:32:52,079 that used to be wieIded by London's craftsmen and merchants. 440 00:33:09,846 --> 00:33:14,966 And craftsmanship brings us back to that great Chinese invention... 441 00:33:16,766 --> 00:33:18,085 ...the clock. 442 00:33:22,046 --> 00:33:25,322 So this was the cutting edge of timekeeping technoIogy. 443 00:33:25,366 --> 00:33:26,640 Yes, totaIIy correct. 444 00:33:26,686 --> 00:33:28,517 No-one eIse in the worId 445 00:33:28,566 --> 00:33:31,478 couId match the skiIIs or abiIities of the EngIish cIockmaker. 446 00:33:31,526 --> 00:33:35,883 There's no better metaphor for the relentless shift of global power 447 00:33:35,926 --> 00:33:37,279 than the clock. 448 00:33:37,326 --> 00:33:40,682 The English mechanical clock was not only more accurate 449 00:33:40,726 --> 00:33:44,162 than the Chinese water clock - it was also designed to be sold widely, 450 00:33:44,206 --> 00:33:48,040 rather than monopolised by the emperor's astronomers. 451 00:33:48,086 --> 00:33:50,919 IAN: CIocks often were made for a story, and this cIock, 452 00:33:50,966 --> 00:33:54,675 Nebuchadnezzar is sIeeping in the Ieft-hand corner of the screen... 453 00:33:54,726 --> 00:33:57,240 - NIALL: Oh, yes. - IAN: ...and he's having a dream. 454 00:33:57,286 --> 00:33:59,083 The axeman is chopping the tree of Iife down - 455 00:33:59,126 --> 00:34:01,799 and the whoIe worId wiII come to an end, and we'II aII die. 456 00:34:05,486 --> 00:34:09,559 (SLOW TICKING) 457 00:34:09,606 --> 00:34:12,325 (FAST TICKING) 458 00:34:12,366 --> 00:34:16,325 (TINKLING) 459 00:34:16,366 --> 00:34:20,041 Is this the kind of cIock that you sent to foreigners to impress them? 460 00:34:20,086 --> 00:34:21,280 That is exactIy it. 461 00:34:21,326 --> 00:34:25,001 You're showing off your technoIogy is better than theirs. 462 00:34:25,046 --> 00:34:28,755 (CLOCK CHIMES) 463 00:34:30,326 --> 00:34:32,920 The rise of the cIock, and Iater the portabIe watch, 464 00:34:32,966 --> 00:34:35,639 went hand in hand with the rise of Europe 465 00:34:35,686 --> 00:34:38,246 and the spread of Western civiIization. 466 00:34:38,286 --> 00:34:40,880 And with every new individuaI timepiece, 467 00:34:40,926 --> 00:34:45,204 a IittIe bit more time ran out for the age of OrientaI predominance. 468 00:34:48,726 --> 00:34:51,320 While Europe was a patchwork quilt, 469 00:34:51,366 --> 00:34:56,121 China remained a vast monochrome blanket. 470 00:34:58,446 --> 00:35:00,562 Not even the most pretentious European court 471 00:35:00,606 --> 00:35:03,757 could match the Ming dynasty's authority. 472 00:35:03,806 --> 00:35:07,481 The Forbidden City in Beijing is just one vast monument 473 00:35:07,526 --> 00:35:10,757 to the unity of lmperial power. 474 00:35:10,806 --> 00:35:14,481 Just take a waIk from the Protecting Harmony HaII 475 00:35:14,526 --> 00:35:17,563 to the MiddIe Harmony HaII, where the emperor had his private quarters, 476 00:35:17,606 --> 00:35:21,360 to the HaII of Supreme Harmony, where the Dragon Throne itseIf sat. 477 00:35:21,406 --> 00:35:23,317 Harmony, harmony, harmony. 478 00:35:23,366 --> 00:35:28,884 It's a kind of codeword for unity, for undivided ImperiaI authority. 479 00:35:32,526 --> 00:35:34,164 This simply had no counterpart 480 00:35:34,206 --> 00:35:39,917 among the fractured and competing states and cities of 1 5th-century Europe. 481 00:35:39,966 --> 00:35:43,356 ln China, lmperial rule was implemented 482 00:35:43,406 --> 00:35:47,797 by a Confucian bureaucracy, recruited on the basis of perhaps 483 00:35:47,846 --> 00:35:51,475 the most terrifying set of exam papers in all history. 484 00:35:55,646 --> 00:35:59,878 This photograph is of the central examination compound in Nanjing. 485 00:36:02,006 --> 00:36:06,636 Thousands of wannabe mandarins would be locked in these cells, 486 00:36:06,686 --> 00:36:09,917 just three-and-a-half feet deep, about the same width, 487 00:36:09,966 --> 00:36:14,960 and only five-and-a-half feet high. During the time an examination lasted, 488 00:36:15,006 --> 00:36:17,440 the only movement allowed was the passage of servants, 489 00:36:17,486 --> 00:36:19,283 replenishing food and water supplies, 490 00:36:19,326 --> 00:36:22,045 or removing human waste. 491 00:36:22,086 --> 00:36:27,240 Some candidates went completely insane under the pressure. 492 00:36:27,286 --> 00:36:31,837 No doubt after nine Iong days shut in a shoebox, it was the most abIe, 493 00:36:31,886 --> 00:36:34,400 and the certainIy most indefatigabIe, candidates 494 00:36:34,446 --> 00:36:37,040 who passed the ImperiaI examination. 495 00:36:37,086 --> 00:36:41,364 But this was an exam that rewarded caution, even conformity. 496 00:36:41,406 --> 00:36:43,078 It was competitive, certainIy, 497 00:36:43,126 --> 00:36:46,277 but not the kind of competition that fosters innovation, 498 00:36:46,326 --> 00:36:48,886 much Iess the appetite for change. 499 00:36:54,806 --> 00:36:56,717 Confucius said, among other things, that, 500 00:36:56,766 --> 00:36:59,917 ''The common man marveIs at uncommon things. 501 00:36:59,966 --> 00:37:03,720 ''The wise man marveIs at the commonpIace.'' 502 00:37:03,766 --> 00:37:06,564 But maybe there was just a bit too much that was commonpIace 503 00:37:06,606 --> 00:37:08,597 about the way that Ming China was governed. 504 00:37:08,646 --> 00:37:11,001 And in a worId that refused to stand stiII, 505 00:37:11,046 --> 00:37:14,925 that was a recipe for troubIe. Big troubIe. 506 00:37:14,966 --> 00:37:17,116 (GONG) 507 00:37:30,926 --> 00:37:33,759 Great empires are complex things. 508 00:37:37,086 --> 00:37:42,001 For centuries they can bask in a sweet spot of power and prosperity. 509 00:37:42,046 --> 00:37:45,834 But then, often quite suddenIy, they can coIIapse. 510 00:37:51,646 --> 00:37:55,161 Let's look again at what happened to lmperial China. 511 00:37:56,886 --> 00:38:00,674 The Ming dynasty had been born in 1 368, 512 00:38:00,726 --> 00:38:04,162 and as we've seen, for more than a century after that, 513 00:38:04,206 --> 00:38:07,721 Ming China was the world's most sophisticated civilization 514 00:38:07,766 --> 00:38:09,085 by almost any measure. 515 00:38:17,886 --> 00:38:23,961 But then, in the mid-1 7th century, the wheels came flying off. 516 00:38:24,006 --> 00:38:28,363 Political factionalism, fiscal crisis and famine 517 00:38:28,406 --> 00:38:31,000 opened the door to rebellion and invasion. 518 00:38:31,046 --> 00:38:32,718 The results were devastating. 519 00:38:32,766 --> 00:38:34,279 Conflict and disease 520 00:38:34,326 --> 00:38:38,001 reduced the Chinese population by as much as 40%. 521 00:38:38,046 --> 00:38:44,519 ln 1 644, the last Ming emperor hanged himself out of shame. 522 00:38:46,086 --> 00:38:50,318 This dramatic transition from Confucian equipoise to anarchy 523 00:38:50,366 --> 00:38:52,721 had taken little more than a decade. 524 00:38:54,126 --> 00:38:55,605 What had gone wrong? 525 00:38:55,646 --> 00:38:59,195 WeII, the answer is that turning inwards proved fataI 526 00:38:59,246 --> 00:39:03,797 for a compIex and denseIy popuIated society Iike China's. 527 00:39:03,846 --> 00:39:08,397 The Ming system had created a kind of high-equiIibrium trap. 528 00:39:08,446 --> 00:39:10,357 OutwardIy it was very impressive, 529 00:39:10,406 --> 00:39:12,681 but on the inside it was highIy fragiIe. 530 00:39:12,726 --> 00:39:16,355 The Ieast IittIe thing caused the trap to snap shut 531 00:39:16,406 --> 00:39:19,921 because there were no externaI resources to draw on. 532 00:39:23,966 --> 00:39:26,400 And that expIains why Zheng He, 533 00:39:26,446 --> 00:39:29,404 the personification of earIy Chinese expansionism, 534 00:39:29,446 --> 00:39:34,600 for so Iong forgotten, is a hero in today's newIy gIobaIised China. 535 00:39:39,126 --> 00:39:43,961 ln the words of China's great economic reformer of the 1 980s, 536 00:39:44,006 --> 00:39:49,080 Deng Xiaoping, ''No country that wishes to become developed today 537 00:39:49,126 --> 00:39:51,765 ''can pursue closed-door policies. 538 00:39:51,806 --> 00:39:55,276 ''When Zheng He sailed the Western Ocean, our country was open. 539 00:39:55,326 --> 00:39:58,841 ''After Yongle died, the dynasty went into decline 540 00:39:58,886 --> 00:40:03,676 ''and became backward and mired in darkness and ignorance. '' 541 00:40:07,966 --> 00:40:10,605 That's a plausible reading of history. 542 00:40:20,606 --> 00:40:25,316 As England's population growth accelerated in the late 1 7th century, 543 00:40:25,366 --> 00:40:30,645 trade brought an influx of new nutrients like potatoes and sugar, 544 00:40:30,686 --> 00:40:34,122 while colonisation allowed the emigration of surplus people. 545 00:40:34,166 --> 00:40:38,159 Over time, the effect was to raise productivity, incomes, 546 00:40:38,206 --> 00:40:40,959 nutrition and even height. 547 00:40:42,766 --> 00:40:45,644 ln contrast, by turning away from foreign trade 548 00:40:45,686 --> 00:40:48,723 and intensifying rice cultivation, 549 00:40:48,766 --> 00:40:50,836 the Chinese were stuck with rising population, 550 00:40:50,886 --> 00:40:55,516 falling incomes and declining nutrition, height and productivity. 551 00:40:57,766 --> 00:41:01,042 The English got better stimulants, too. 552 00:41:01,086 --> 00:41:03,281 They got the coffee house... 553 00:41:07,366 --> 00:41:11,325 ...while the Chinese got the opium den. 554 00:41:13,486 --> 00:41:18,355 ln 1 793, the 1 st Earl Macartney led an expedition 555 00:41:18,406 --> 00:41:20,283 to the Qianlong Emperor, 556 00:41:20,326 --> 00:41:24,638 in a vain effort to persuade the Chinese to re-open their empire to trade. 557 00:41:28,126 --> 00:41:30,799 Macartney brought with him ample tribute... 558 00:41:34,806 --> 00:41:37,400 ...the most advanced scientific instruments, 559 00:41:37,446 --> 00:41:40,836 including the finest clocks that England could make. 560 00:41:41,886 --> 00:41:43,035 As he later wrote, 561 00:41:43,086 --> 00:41:47,477 ''The emperor and his minions were unimpressed. 562 00:41:48,526 --> 00:41:51,757 ''lt was discovered that the taste for science, 563 00:41:51,806 --> 00:41:54,718 ''if it ever existed, was now completely worn out. 564 00:41:54,766 --> 00:41:57,599 ''This intricate workmanship was all lost 565 00:41:57,646 --> 00:42:01,241 ''and thrown away on the ignorant Chinese. '' 566 00:42:01,286 --> 00:42:03,516 Unrepentant in his isolation, 567 00:42:03,566 --> 00:42:07,400 the emperor addressed a dismissive message to King George lll. 568 00:42:07,446 --> 00:42:10,244 ''There is nothing we lack. 569 00:42:10,286 --> 00:42:14,996 ''We have never set much store on strange or ingenious objects. '' 570 00:42:18,726 --> 00:42:21,445 Except maybe those nice English clocksl 571 00:42:23,246 --> 00:42:25,601 I'm standing here in the heart of the Forbidden City 572 00:42:25,646 --> 00:42:27,955 entireIy surrounded by cIocks. 573 00:42:28,006 --> 00:42:30,759 It's just that aII these cIocks were either manufactured by 574 00:42:30,806 --> 00:42:32,558 or designed by EngIishmen. 575 00:42:32,606 --> 00:42:36,645 Nothing couId better symboIise the transition of power from East to West. 576 00:42:36,686 --> 00:42:39,519 The Chinese had invented the mechanicaI cIock, 577 00:42:39,566 --> 00:42:42,558 but now the ImperiaI court was reduced to accepting 578 00:42:42,606 --> 00:42:46,076 superior timepieces as gifts from Europeans. 579 00:42:46,126 --> 00:42:49,277 And when they broke down, the Chinese couIdn't even mend them. 580 00:42:55,766 --> 00:43:00,635 The West's ascendancy was perfectly symbolised in June 1 842, 581 00:43:00,686 --> 00:43:04,122 when British ships sailed up the Yangtze to the Grand Canal 582 00:43:04,166 --> 00:43:09,194 in retaliation for the destruction of opium by a zealous Chinese official. 583 00:43:12,126 --> 00:43:16,165 China had to pay an indemnity of 21 million silver dollars, 584 00:43:16,206 --> 00:43:20,836 cede the island of Hong Kong, and open five ports to British trade, 585 00:43:20,886 --> 00:43:22,239 including this one. 586 00:43:25,206 --> 00:43:28,482 This is one of the great outposts of British penetration of Asia - 587 00:43:28,526 --> 00:43:30,676 the Shanghai Bund. 588 00:43:30,726 --> 00:43:33,923 The oId headquarters of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank 589 00:43:33,966 --> 00:43:36,685 used to be described as the most Iuxurious buiIding 590 00:43:36,726 --> 00:43:39,718 between the Suez CanaI and the Bering Strait. 591 00:43:46,566 --> 00:43:49,205 lt was ironic, but perhaps appropriate, 592 00:43:49,246 --> 00:43:52,795 that the first ''unequal treaty'' between Britain and China 593 00:43:52,846 --> 00:43:55,679 was signed here at the Jinghai Temple, 594 00:43:55,726 --> 00:44:00,117 built by the Emperor Yongle more than four centuries before, 595 00:44:00,166 --> 00:44:02,316 in honour of Admiral Zheng He, 596 00:44:02,366 --> 00:44:06,041 master and commander of the last lmperial super-ship. 597 00:44:26,806 --> 00:44:31,243 Today, they're building ocean-going ships again in China... 598 00:44:32,726 --> 00:44:36,924 ...vast ships capable of bringing back the raw materials necessary 599 00:44:36,966 --> 00:44:40,163 to feed China's insatiably growing industrial economy. 600 00:44:45,126 --> 00:44:51,520 Competition, markets, profits, capitalism - 601 00:44:51,566 --> 00:44:55,445 these are things that China once turned its back on. 602 00:44:56,646 --> 00:44:57,920 Well, not any more. 603 00:44:59,366 --> 00:45:03,644 I'm standing on a crane in the biggest shipyard in China. 604 00:45:03,686 --> 00:45:06,803 Now, if 30 years ago, you'd predicted that China's wouId be 605 00:45:06,846 --> 00:45:10,759 the second Iargest economy by 201 1 and the Iargest by 2030, 606 00:45:10,806 --> 00:45:14,162 I think you'd have been dismissed as a fantasist. 607 00:45:14,206 --> 00:45:17,357 But it wouId have seemed equaIIy fantastic in 1 420 608 00:45:17,406 --> 00:45:19,920 to have predicted Western ascendancy. 609 00:45:19,966 --> 00:45:22,605 The point is that in the course of the 15th century, 610 00:45:22,646 --> 00:45:25,843 Europeans discovered the joys of competition, 611 00:45:25,886 --> 00:45:27,922 both economic and poIiticaI. 612 00:45:27,966 --> 00:45:31,322 And in a competition for controI of the Asian spice trade, 613 00:45:31,366 --> 00:45:35,154 capitaIism was born and, with it, the foundation for a worId 614 00:45:35,206 --> 00:45:38,562 dominated by Western civiIization. 615 00:45:40,926 --> 00:45:45,477 The kind of economically driven civilization that today seems to be 616 00:45:45,526 --> 00:45:47,596 working rather better in the East. 617 00:45:53,446 --> 00:45:59,715 Yet competition was only one of the killer apps of Western dominance. 618 00:45:59,766 --> 00:46:03,122 ln the next episode of CiviIization, l'll ask why it was 619 00:46:03,166 --> 00:46:06,920 that the scientific revolution happened only in the West, 620 00:46:06,966 --> 00:46:10,675 and failed to take off even in those parts of the Eastern world 621 00:46:10,726 --> 00:46:15,402 that had once been pioneers of mathematics and astronomy. 622 00:46:15,446 --> 00:46:21,840 Why, in short, was there no lsaac Newton in lstanbul?