Abstract
With the current interest in China (and India) proliferating within the Western Academy, this article claims that what we are witnessing today is not the rise but the “return” of China (and India). Many academics assume that the West has been the dominant civilization in the world economy in the last 500 years and that the current “rise” of China threatens to knock the West off its perch. However, this article provides an alternative take to this cherished axiom of Eurocentric world history by inverting the standard belief that the West pioneered modernity and then expanded outwards to remake the world. Thus, I argue not only that globalization preceded the rise of the West but that it was Eastern-led on the one hand and that it enabled the Western breakthrough into modernity on the other. This, in turn, rests on my claim that Chinese development stems back not to 1978 but to 960 ce as the Sung Dynasty emerged and subsequently undertook a quasi-industrial miracle. Moreover, between 1450/1492 and ca. 1830 China lay at the centre of the nascent global economy, fanning the integration process alongside other key non-Western regions such as India and West Asia/North Africa. And, while the West was the dominant player after ca. 1830 down to the turn of the third millennium, nevertheless, what we witness today is the return of China to the centre of the global economy whence it came.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abu-Lughod, J. L. (1989). Before European Hegemony. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Balasubramaniam, A. (2006). The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bayly, C. A. (2004). The Birth of the Modern World 1780–1914. Oxford: Blackwell.
Biswas, A. K. (1999). Mineral and Metals in Medieval India. In A. Rahman (Ed.), History of Indian Science, Technology and Culture, AD 1000–1800 (pp. 275–313). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Bray. F. (1984). Science and Civilisation in China, VI (2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cressey, P. (1945). Chinese Traits in European Civilization: A Study in Diffusion. American Sociological Review, 10(5), 595–604.
Deng, K. G. (2008). Miracle or Mirage? Foreign Silver, China’s Economy and Globalisation of the Sixteen to Nineteenth Centuries. Pacific Economic Review, 13(3), 320–57.
Flynn, D.O., and A. Giráldez (1994). China and the Manila Galleons. In A.J.H. Latham and H. Kawakatsu (Eds.), Japanese Industrialization and the Asian Economy (pp. 71–90). London: Routledge.
Frank, A. G. (1998). ReOrient. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Ghazanfar, S. M. (2006). Islamic Civilization. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press.
Goody, J. (2004). Islam in Europe. Cambridge: Polity.
Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D., and Perraton, J. (1999). Global Transformations. Cambridge: Polity.
Hobson, J. M. (2004). The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hodgson, M. G. S. (1993) Rethinking World History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hogg, O. F. G. (1963). English Artillery 1326–1716. London: Royal Artillery Institution.
Hourani, G. F. (1963). Arab Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times. Beirut: Khayats.
Joseph, G. (1992). The Crest of the Peacock. London: Penguin.
Kuhn, D. (1988). Science and Civilisation in China, V (9). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lach, D. F. and E. J. Van Kley (1993). Asia in the Making of Europe, III. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Landes, D.S. (1998). The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Boston: Little, Brown.
Needham, J., and Wang, L. (1965). Science and Civilisation in China, IV(2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Needham, J., Ping-Yü, H., Gwei-Djen, L., and Wang, L. (1986). Science and Civilisation in China, V(7). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pacey, A. (1991). Technology in World Civilization. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Raju, C. K. (2007). Cultural Foundations of Mathematics, X(4): History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. New Delhi: Pearson Education.
Roberts, J. M. (1985). The Triumph of the West. London: BBC Books.
Saliba, G. (1994). A History of Arabic Astronomy. London: New York University Press.
Seed, P. (1995). Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World, 1492–1640. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Temple, R. (1999). The Genius of China. London: Prion Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hobson, J.M. The Eastern Origins of the Rise of the West and the “Return” of Asia. East Asia 32, 239–255 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-015-9229-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-015-9229-3