Asia Attributes to Rise of the West

Asia Attributes to the “Rise of the West”

With their exceptionalism as leaders of industrial development since the 14th century, Europeans assumed the moral authority to “modernize,” or rather westernize, the areas of the world where cultural “obstacles” prevented modern development indigenously.1 With European political economists like Adam Smith propagating this “‘diffusionist’ theory of how world history has unfolded,” it comes to no surprise that many would believe that Europe developed our capitalist market economy today through their sole efforts and brilliance.2 Refuting this eurocentric view of history, those who’ve studied the history of Asia would argue that Asia served as the center of the world, providing political, economic, and social conjunctures that led to the “rise of the West”; prominent conjunctures attributing to this rationale would be the Eastern development of a world maritime trade system, the global effects of silver trade, and Oriental studies educating Europeans about the unknown East.

In a Eurocentric interpretation of the world, the “inevitable rise of the West” began with the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama at the end of the 13th century.3 Although, historical evidence proves that the center of trade and economic dynamics lied in the East with “China, India, the Islamic Near and Middle East meeting [at the Indian Ocean] as major players, and Europe as a peripheral, marginal player desperately trying to gain access to the sources of the wealth generated in Asia”.3

Perhaps one of the most significant points to make about the 13th century world trading system is that it “functioned without a central controlling or dominating force”.4 The three economic powers of Asia--China, India, and the Islamic Middle East--peacefully participated in an impressive trade network, allowing the Indian Ocean to become a “crossroads for global exchange of goods, ideas, and culture”.3 Europe wasn’t able to easily monopolize this powerful market until the 1500s when the Portuguese enforced arm trading and forcefully invaded the peaceful trade in Asia.5 Thus, this not only renders false the belief that Western powers controlled the political world economy in the 13th century, but also brings to light the fact that Europeans struggled a great deal to control trade in the Indian Ocean despite their later economic prowess.

In the particular case of China, China was able to to establish a sea trade route between the East and the West in 1435 with the strongest navy on Earth and aggressively monitored much of the ongoing trade via its tribute system.6 The tribute system maintained an international order of diplomatic relations by requiring foreign rulers, including Europeans, to pay tribute to China’s emperor in exchange for access to trade in the South China Sea.7 Contrary to the western idea of Europe as the highly