>>1122915
Consider two people, both living in city preindustry. In preindustry, man China is an old, very SENILE nobleman who is well settled, renowned within the city, has his entire family settled there, has a large family estate with thousands of years of history and almost all his business assets centred in the city. A younger man who lives near China, Japan, a new university graduate who had based his thesis off a lot of what China had told him from his own experiences, who has a modest, newly established house, no family, and little affection for anyone in the city. When invaders come and conquer the city, would the young and open-minded newly educated Japan, or the senile, established and elderly China be more receptive towards the possibilities of greater attainment?

>build the world biggest navy in history
>sail around the world to exchange goods
>say fuck it and burn down the entire fleet

was China always like this?

Tradition.

>>1122915
Western perfidy and their own sheer arrogance.

>>1122915

Too big, too centralized, no pressing need to force modernisation until the Japs got their shit together.