Civilization: The West and the Rest

The Century of Humiliation (1839-1949) is a period in Chinese history when China was subject to European (mainly British) and Japanese colonialism.

The term “civilization” is linked to several Latin words such as “civis” (citizen) and “civitas” (state, or city-state). “Civilization” refers to the structure and state of human organization (political, social, cultural, economic, technological). The actual word “civilization” is derived from French and was “first used by the French economist Anne-Robert Jacques Turgot in 1752” (2). The author provides a broad and vague definition of the term.

“Consumption” is an old term for “tuberculosis,” a lung disease that was one of the leading causes of death until the 20th century. This consumption is not to be confused with Chapter 5, “Consumption,” which is about consumer culture.

Dialectic materialism is a theory developed by Marx to describe the historical process, based on real-world conditions, that is always changing to produce more complex forms. Marx borrowed the dialectic from Hegel and rooted it in materialism.

The Enlightenment was a period in European intellectual history between the 17th and 18th centuries. This period was characterized by an emphasis on rationality, scientific and social progress, and questioning existing institutions such as the monarchy and the Church.

Eugenics arose as a practice of selecting desirable traits in living things. In the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, eugenics became a pseudo-scientific, racial-biological pursuit in search of “improving” humanity by removing perceived defects through breeding. With new advances in genetic science, eugenics was disproven.

A eunuch is a castrated male. Historically, eunuchs were workers in imperial courts.

The Manchu are the Indigenous people of Manchuria, or Northeast China, some of whom went on to establish the Qing Dynasty of China.

Japan’s Meiji imperial restoration began in 1868 ending nearly seven centuries of feudalism and rule by the shogun military government. It was during this period that Japan opened up to the world and began to import Western objects and ideas.

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) was the dynasty that ruled China after the Mongol occupation (Yuan Dynasty). The author considers many of the developments of this period to surpass those of Europe.

The Mughal Empire (1526-1857) ruled by the Mughal Dynasty was an important regional power that came from Central Asia and controlled the Indian subcontinent.

The Opium Wars (1839-1860) were two wars between Western powers (especially Britain) and China. The result of China’s losses included unequal treaties, territorial loss, and commercial concessions. One of the catalysts for the events in 1839 was China’s attempt to stop the trafficking of opium to its people which caused addiction and hardship.

Primogeniture is a form of inheritance in different cultures, especially in Medieval Europe, which left the inheritance (land) to the first-born male child.

The Qing Dynasty (1636-1911) was the last imperial dynasty of China that was initially established by the Manchu invasion. The author argues that China declined and stagnated in this period, while the West ascended.

The Safavid Dynasty (1501-1736) was a dynasty that ruled Iran and was an important regional power of its time.

The Scientific Revolution took place between the 16th and 17^th centuries in Europe. It transformed many fields in science, including astronomy, optics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, and mathematics, and established modern scientific inquiry based on the scientific method. Modern science is one of Ferguson’s “killer apps.”

The so-called “Scramble for Africa,” or the Conquest of Africa, was part of new imperialism between the late 19th century and World War I. Several European countries divided Africa amongst themselves at the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) and colonized the territories yet to be colonized.

Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868), also known as the Edo period, is the last feudal era in Japan. Japan remained generally closed off to the outside world at this time. The author uses this example to illustrate his belief that being isolated makes countries lose competitiveness.