The history of world politics can be told as a sequence of empires, ruling over vast territories and a multiplicity of ethnic and religious groups. Until the pre-modern era, the most successful empires in terms of military technology, economic development, and knowledge accumulation could be found in Asia and the Middle East. From the 16th century, however, European rulers began to expand their realms to other continents, at first paying deferrence to Eastern empires but eventually subduing hitherto more advanced powers like the Chinese Qing dynasty, the Mughal and the Ottoman Empires by the 19th century. What explains the historic anomaly of Western dominance? Were the military and industrial revolutions decisive, or did disease and coincidence play the main roles? Against this background, we'll discuss the contemporary decline of the West and the rise of China. close