The Eastern Empires

History is commonly examined as though it only “happened” in Europe and the Middle East. Broadly speaking, many of the most momentous developments in civilization do occur in these regions, from urbanization to writing, to the Industrial Revolution and many of the scientific breakthroughs of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, during the 1st millennium AD, Asia must definitely receive some mention.

During the Han dynasty, China became comparable and in many ways surpassed Rome and the West. Indeed, during the Dark Ages, China indisputably was leagues ahead of her European counterparts. China under the Tang and Song dynasties was more stable and better administered than any of the great empires around in Europe and the Middle East at the time. One of the things that mark China apart was the supreme inventiveness of its technological output, and the creativeness of her cultural output. By the first century AD, China could boast the invention of paper, and the resulting rise in literacy; the inventions of gunpowder, silk spinning and weaving, paper money, gunpowder and the use of printing.

India too was not left behind. As Islam and Christianity expanded throughout the Middle East., Europe and North Africa, Buddhism made its progress from India, into Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Central Asia, China and Japan. Over this period the world came to gradually be split ideologically (though not necessarily antagonistically) between the Judaic West, and the Buddhist and Hindu East.

It was unparalleled and remains so, that Eastern Asia and the Indic Civilizations would play such dominant part in history and for so long. It’s a trend that seems to be re-emerging as the 21st century dawns, as the China, India and Japan take a centre-stage role in the world once more.