AboutClaes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. Expertise I have a long and intense interest in European and World History. This also includes Military History - especially as I have been a military physician-surgeon for 15 years. I`m also interested in the history of Science, Technology-Engineering, Medicine and Mathematics.
Experience A life long intense interest. But I'm not a professional historian - though the next best thing, an educated VERY interested amateur!
Education/Credentials I'm a Doctor of Medicine, specialist in Medical Oncology, Radiation Therapy and Radiation Protection. But that has no connection to this.
However I do answer such questions too here on AllExperts.com and have done so for a long time. For such questions click on the appropriate link:
Oncology (General Cancer),
Military History,
Brain Tumors,
Breast Cancer,
Colon Cancer
Question As a product of Western culture, I have been schooled much more thoroughly in the history of the West than that of the Eastern world. Being very much the amateur historian myself, I have long been interested in learning more about the parallel evolution of these two very different sides of the world.
Most of the information about the East has been presented in a kind of anecdotal fashion. One learns that the early Chinese invented a useful version of paper, for example, or that a Ming Dynasty vase may be greatly valued by colletors. We learn a little now and then about Eastern religions or gunpowder, silk, the travels of Marco Polo and such. What seems to be missing is a direct comparison between Eastern and Western advances in most areas of interest to an historian.
So often, we learn of the various icons of the West, like cities, armies, leaders and such being described in superlatives, e.g.; the biggest, the most beautiful, most powerful, etc. I have no interest in any competitive perspective on this matter and do not care who was the first to achieve something (outside of my usual interest in all things historical) but if a timeline were drawn that truly illustrates the concurrent progress of both East and West, just what would it look like? Such timelines often appear in various texts but seem so crude and generalized, and perhaps even biased, that I feel they do not convey what I am attempting to determine. Maybe the real reason that this intrigues me is the fact that these two cultural hemispheres seemed to have shared so little of their respective technologies, religious beliefs, governmental systems, and other practices yet evolved, in many ways, quite similar means of moving ahead.
Forgive me for asking such a generalized question but I would appreciate, if a direct answer seems unlikely, your thoughts regarding this subject or any part of it. Thank you for donating your time and expertise to help enlighten those of us who probably spend too much of our time conjuring up such impractical issues.
Answer If you by "Eastern Culture" mainly mean Chinese culture you must understand that it for so long did not influence Western Culture much (or vice versa) because they were so far apart and there were no direct contacts. All trade (mainly silk, since tea was not known in the west at all and china ware was a rather recent invention) went through a LONG line of middle men. Actually I'm not aware of ANY direct contacts (diplomatic or otherwise) until Medieval Times. The reason is of course that the geographical distance was VAST. Shipping technology was not advanced enough either. I'm not prepared either to make any direct comparison between these 2 cultures. In some areas Western Culture was more advanced (some areas of mathematics-geometry, formal logic, glass, some areas of science, the alphabet) in other the Chinese (printing, china ware, the compass, gun powder etc.) Silk (local) was not unknown in the west but the Chinese production was enormous, more advanced and beyond competition. The main reason why the West so to speak did win the competition around 500-400 years ago is probably that people in the west happened to be more open at that time to new ideas and new information. AND of course the new geographical discoveries and conquests made. The fact that it was the Europeans that conquered the Americas and some other new areas can hardly be overestimated! After these discoveries and the scientific ones made at around the same time Western Culture accelerated at such a rate that nobody else could compete for a long time. I do hope that I have been able to answer your question - at least to some extent!
