Many new ideas improved our control over the natural world, but some ideas were more personal and dealt with the questions that all humans have asked: Why am I here? How should I live my life? Why do people suffer? What will happen after I die? Many tried to answer these questions. In northeast India, Buddha began a religion eschewing selfishness and desire. In China, Confucius taught guides of conduct, reinforcing the mutual responsibilities of rulers and subjects. And in the Near East, Jesus Christ preached a religion founded on love. The philosophies of these three men have endured long after their deaths and millions are now inspired by their ideas.
In fourth century a.d. the Roman Empire succumbed to invading Vandals and Goths. The ideas of that civilization were lost for a time, but other empires rose in its place. Mohammed united the tribes of the Arabian peninsula and built a religion and an empire that challenged every realm from Spain to the western mountains of India. The Islamic empire preserved and extended many of the ideas of the ancient world. Algebra was one of those ideas. The number zero was another.
Secure in the middle of Asia, China produced more than its share of ideas and innovations. Books were printed in a.d. 868. and gunpowder was known by a.d. 1044. Nevertheless, the Mongols, united under Genghis Khan, managed to conquer Peking in 1215. China turned inward and tempered its curiosity about the rest of the world. In the early 1400’s China possessed the skills to build ships that could cross the Pacific. But the Middle Kingdom, then the most advanced civilization in the world, saw nothing outside itself that was of interest.
In fourth century a.d. the Roman Empire succumbed to invading Vandals and Goths. The ideas of that civilization were lost for a time, but other empires rose in its place. Mohammed united the tribes of the Arabian peninsula and built a religion and an empire that challenged every realm from Spain to the western mountains of India. The Islamic empire preserved and extended many of the ideas of the ancient world. Algebra was one of those ideas. The number zero was another.
Secure in the middle of Asia, China produced more than its share of ideas and innovations. Books were printed in a.d. 868. and gunpowder was known by a.d. 1044. Nevertheless, the Mongols, united under Genghis Khan, managed to conquer Peking in 1215. China turned inward and tempered its curiosity about the rest of the world. In the early 1400’s China possessed the skills to build ships that could cross the Pacific. But the Middle Kingdom, then the most advanced civilization in the world, saw nothing outside itself that was of interest.
The various tribes and civilizations of America were isolated from each other. The ideas of the Aztecs, for example, were not known to the Incas, and neither was able to learn from the other. In contrast, the civilizations of Europe, Asia, and Africa, all traded with each other and all learned from each other. For example, paper was invented in China in a.d. 105, but Arabs acquired the technology from captured Chinese papermakers in 751, and Europe learned it from the Arabs in the twelfth century. If an American delegation had visited Europe in 1492, they would have found European technology to be almost indistinguishable from magic. Unfortunately for the Native Americans, it was Europe which sent a delegation to America in that year.
The European powers of the sixteenth century lacked the technological sophistication of China or the Arab world. Moreover, bottled-up in Europe, they ended up fighting each other over land, religion, and power. But their competition encouraged innovation and exploration, and when the New World appeared before Columbus, it set off a race to exploit its treasures. Britain and France fought for control of North America while Spain and Portugal raced to subjugate South America. For the civilizations of the Americas, resistance was futile. The Spanish Conquistadores charged on horses (which the Americans had never seen), fought with iron (which sliced through quilted armor), and brought numerous infectious diseases (to which the Native Americans had no immunity).
Author and Credits: George Moromisato