The Expansion of Europe and China in the 15th Century

In the fifteenth century, the western and eastern sail technology was comparable. The mariners compass, so crucial to navigation out of sight of land, was developed from the Chinese magnetized needle of the 8th century, and it traveled via land route to the Mediterranean where about the 12th century the Europeans or the Arabs developed the true mariners compass (floating), scarcely China soon received the improved model. 27 So both East and tungsten had the mariners compass in the 15th century.Stern post rudders, which are a significant advantage over steering oars in steering larger ships in tumultuous seas, were utilized in China as early as the 1st century A. D. These were not developed until about the fourteenth century in Europe, but stern post rudders were available to both East and West in the 15th century. Knowledge of wind and sea currents was considerably more advanced in the West by the Portuguese and Dutch than by the Chinese in the 15th century. 8 The West also had sup erior knowledge of celestial navigation, that advantage being shared by the Arabs the Chinese were reduced to utilizing Islamic astronomers and mathematicians at the Imperial Observatory, but had not extended celestial work to the practical work of navigating as of yet. The Arab and the Portuguese cross-staff or balestilha developed in the 14th century, and the astrolabe for even better measurement of the angle of celestial objects in the early 15th century. 29 In military technology, both East and West had cannon, outfit and horses.In summary, before the 15th century, the Chinese were ahead in oceangoing ship technology, with larger compartmented ships and efficient fore-and-aft lugsails on multiple masts. In the 15th century, the Chinese and the Europeans were in rough overall parity. The Chinese were ahead in ship size and hull construction, and the Portuguese were ahead in the arts of navigation, and at that place was parity in sail technology (the Chinese with battened lugsa ils, the Portuguese with lateen sails). Neither had a distinct overall advantage.Both were technologically capable of great voyages of discovery, mercenary enterprise, and colonization. In tracing the developments, what is distinctive is that the rate of progress in nautical technology of the West was considerably faster than that of the East. By the 16th century, the West was distinctly superior in ocean-going maritime technology (especially considering the regression that occurred in China due to policy influences). During the fifteenth century, Europe began a process of nprecedented expansion that by 1650 had affected all areas of the world. This was actually part of a global tendency towards complexity among many human societies. Matching the empires of the Aztecs, the Inca, and the West Africans were rising states on the Eurasiatic fringes such as Japan or the European monarchies in England, France, Spain, and Portugal. In Eurasia, developing navigational technology, along wi th expanding trade, encouraged long sea voyages by Arabs, Japanese, Chinese, and Europeans.But besides the Europeans linked up all the continents in a new global age, when sea power, rather than land-based armies, was the main force in empire-building. Overseas expansion was ostensibly related both as cause and effect to the European transition from medievalism. The Crusades and the Renaissance stimulated European curiosity the Reformation produced thousands of zealous religious missionaries seek foreign converts and refugees seeking religious freedom and the monarchs of emerging sovereign states sought revenues, first from trade with the Orient and later by exploiting a new world.Perhaps the near permeating influence was the rise of European capitalism, with its monetary values, profit-seeking motivations, investment institutions, and constant impulse toward economic expansion. Some historians have labeled this whole economic geological fault the Commercial Revolution. Othe rs have used the phrase in a narrower sense, referring to the shift in trade routes from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Interpreted either way, the Commercial Revolution and its consequent European expansion helped usher in the modern era.