Why the West Rules—for Now

by Morris, Ian;

  397 “People spat”: as-Safadi, cited in Dols 1976, p. 80.

  397 “The souls of men”: Ibn Nubatah, as quoted by al-Maqrizi, as-Suluk li-ma‘rifat duwal al-muluk, part II, vol. 3, page 790, cited from Dols 1976, p. 174.

  397 “green-eyed Christian[s]”: Chuan Heng, Unofficial History of the Last Yuan Emperor 23a–b, cited in Dardess 1973, p. 105.

  398 “We ask God’s forgiveness”: Ibn al-Wardi, Risalat an’naba’, cited from Dols 1976, p. 114.

  398 “My mind reels”: Matteo Villani, Chronicles, 1348, translated in Kirchner and Morrison 1986, pp. 448–49.

  399 “Stripped to the waist”: Jean de Venette, Chronicle, 1349, translated in Kirchner and Morrison 1986, pp. 457–58.

  403 “the earthly heaven”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 6 (1788), chapter 68.

  404 “into such a state”: Niccolò Machiavelli, Florentine Histories (1520–25), Book 5, Chapter 1, translation from http://www.gutenberg.org.

  406 “For thirty-one years”: Hongwu, translated in Carrington-Goodrich 1976, p. 390.

  406 “I do not care”: Emperor Xuande, Xuanzong shi lu (1438) 105, cited in Levathes 1994, p. 173.

  406 “foreign ships”: Ch’oe Pu, Diary, translated in Meskill 1965, p. 135.

  406 “convert grain into cash”: Qiu Jun, Supplement to “Expositions on the Great Learning” (1487) 25.19b, cited from Brook 1998, p. 103.

  407 “to the various”: Proclamation by Yongle, 1405, quoted by Ma Huan, Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shores (1416), Foreword, translated in Mills 1970, p. 69.

  408 “corpse-head barbarian”: Ma Huan, Overall Survey, pp. 5–6, translated in Mills 1970, p. 84. Fei Xin, who accompanied the fleet from 1409 onward, told a similar story (translated in Mills and Ptak 1996, pp. 35–36).

  408 “If one’s eyes”: Fei Xin, Overall Survey of the Star Raft (1436), cited from Duyvendak 1949, p. 31. On the Ka’ba, see Mills and Ptak 1996, p. 105.

  414 “with all the men”: Gomes Eannes de Azurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea II.99, cited from Crosby 2004, p. 76.

  417 “The voyages”: Gu Qiyuan, Idle Talk with Guests (1617), p. 1, cited from Levathes 1994, pp. 179–80.

  417 “At the present”: Erasmus, Letter 522, translated in Nichols 1904, p. 506.

  417 “first-born”: Burckhardt 1958 [1860], p. 143.

  422 “If we try”: Zhu Xi, Reflections on Things at Hand (1176), cited from Hucker 1975, p. 371.

  423 “Since the time”: Xuexuan, translated in Hucker 1975, p. 373.

  424 “women’s footbinding began”: Zhang Bangji, Mozhuang manlu 8.5a–b, cited from Ko 2007, p. 111.

  424 “Little girls”: Che Ruoshui, Jiaoqi ji 1.221, cited from Ebrey 1993, p. 40.

  431, 432 “Whoever is lord” and “China is an important”: Tomé Pires, Suma Oriental, translated in Cortesão 1944, pp. lxxvii, 123.

  9. THE WEST CATCHES UP

  434 “A rising tide”: John F. Kennedy, speech at Heber Springs, Arkansas, October 3, 1963 (available at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9455).

  437 “Population has grown”: Xie Zhaozhe, Wuza zu 4.34a (1608), cited from Ho 1959, p. 262.

  437 “like mice”: Languedoc expression, cited from Le Roy Ladurie 1972, p. 53.

  437 “Every family”: Zhang Tao, Gazetteer of She County (1609) 6.10b–12a, cited from Brook 1998, pp. 1, 4.

  437 “In the past”: Heinrich Müller (1560), cited in Braudel 1981–84, vol. 1, pp. 194–95.

  439 “the stricken”: Wang Wenlu, “Letter to Master Wei of Chengsong” (1545), cited from Brook 1998, p. 106.

  439 “Rare styles”: Gazetteer of Shaowu Prefecture (1543) 2.43b, cited from Brook 1998, p. 144.

  439 “are mad for”: Gazetteer of Chongwusuo Citadel (1542), pp. 39–40, cited from Brook 1998, p. 149.

  440 “poor scholars”: Zhang Tao, Gazetteer of She County (1609) 3.9a, cited from Brook 1998, p. 258.

  440 “benefit the people”: Toyotomi Hideyoshi, “Sword Collection Edict” (1588) 2, translated in Tsunoda et al. 1964, p. 320.

  440 “crafty and cunning”: Jesuit Annual Letter (1588), cited from Perrin 1979, p. 27.

  444 “They destroyed everything”: Sergeant Iskender (1511), cited from Finkel 2005, p. 99.

  446 “It makes me shudder”: Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Letter 3 (1560), cited from Ross and McLaughlin 1953, p. 255.

  446 “was neither holy”: Voltaire, Essay on General History and on the Manners and Spirit of the Nations (1756), chapter 70.

  447 “God has been”: Mercurino Gattinara, letter to Charles V, July 12, 1519, cited from Brandi 1939, p. 112.

  447 “A single monk”: Charles V, Edict of Worms, April 19, 1521, cited from Brandi 1939, p. 132.

  449 “The only obstacle”: Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, Letter 3 (1560), cited from Ross and McLaughlin 1953, p. 255.

  450 “There will be”: Chang Ying, “Remarks on Real Estate” (published around 1697), cited from John Richards 2003, p. 119.

  450 “Stop the minor profit”: Official proclamation, seventeenth century, cited from John Richards 2003, p. 120.

  451 “Behold the great design”: Anonymous song (published 1661), cited from Wiesner-Hanks 2006, p. 409.

  451 “London was enveloped”: John Evelyn, A Character o f England (1659), cited from John Richards 2003, p. 235.

  452 “The poorest he”: Colonel Thomas Rainsborough, spoken at Putney Church, October 29, 1647, cited from Woodhouse 1938 (available at http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2183).

  452 “None comes”: Richard Rumbold, spoken at his own execution, London, 1685, cited from Hill 1984, p. 37.

  452, 453 “that mighty Leveller” and “Overturn”: Abiezer Coppe, A Fiery Flying Roll I (1649), pp. 1–5, cited from Hill 1984, p. 43.

  453 “sharpened their hoes”: cited from Elvin 1973, p. 246.

  453 “I, feeble and”: Emperor Chongzhen, suicide note (1644), cited from Paludan 1998, p. 187.

  454 “were subjected”: Liu Shangyou, A Short Record to Settle My Thoughts (1644 or 1645), translated in Struve 1993, p. 15.

  454 “the robbers and murderers” and “for so long”: Peter Thiele, Account of the Town of Beelitz in the Thirty Years’ War, cited from C. Clark 2006, pp. 32–34.

  455 “Sometimes everyone”: cited from Spence 1990, pp. 23–24.

  460 “Every day”: Felipe Guaman Poma, New Chronicle and Good Government (1614), cited from Kamen 2003, p. 117.

  460 “Every peso”: Antonio de la Calancha (1638), cited from Hemming 2004, p. 356.

  461 “Potosí lives”: cited from Kamen 2003, p. 286.

  461 “The king of China”: ibid., p. 292.

  462 “Along the whole coast”: cited from Lane 1998, p. 18.

  464 “If death came”: The saying has been attributed to several sources, but Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle said something very similar in a letter dated May 11, 1573, cited in Kamen 1999, p. 252.

  464 “naked people”: letter to Juan de Oñate (1605), cited from Kamen 2003, p. 253.

  464 “Even if you are poor”: settler’s letter home to Spain, cited from Kamen 2003, p. 131.

  468 “one-handed clocks”: Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891), Phase the First, chapter 3.

  468 “The honour and reverence” etc.: Francis Bacon, Novum Organum (1620), preface.

  469 “it is not less natural”: René Descartes, Principles of Philosophy (1644), chapter 203.

  470 “Nature, and Nature’s laws”: Alexander Pope, “Epitaph: intended for Sir Isaac Newton” (1730). A wit would later add two more lines:

  It did not last; the Devil howling “Ho!

  Let Einstein be!” restored the status quo.

  (J. C. Squire, “In Continuation of Pope on Newton” [1926])

  470 “Philosophy is written”: Galileo Galilei (1605), translated in Drake 1957, pp. 237–38.

  471 “Man hath by nature,” “The great and chief
,” and “by nature all”: John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690), chapter 7, section 87; chapter 9, section 124; and chapter 8, section 95.

  472 “Dare to know!”: Immanuel Kant, “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?” (1784) (available at http://www.english.upenn.edu/~mgamer/Etexts/kant.html).

  472 “Philosophers should be”: Frederick II, letter to Christian Wolff (1740), cited from Upton 2001, p. 307.

  472 “a despotism”: Thomas Carlyle, History of the French Revolution (1837), vol. 3, book 7, chapter 7.

  472 “One must examine”: Denis Diderot, “Encyclopedia [Philosophy]” (1751), translated by Philip Stewart at http://www.hti.umich.edu/d/did.

  473 “studying the root”: Emperor Kangxi, Kangxi’s Conversations with His Sons 71b–72 (published 1730), translated in Spence 1974, p. 72.

  474 “a certain vigor” etc.: Baron de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1748), Book 17, translated at http://www.constitution.org/cm/sol11_17.htm#002.

  475 “the more he got”: Lu Gwei-djen, cited from Winchester 2008, p. 37.

  475 “Sci. in general”: Joseph Needham (1942), cited from Winchester 2008, p. 57.

  475 “the Needham Problem”: Boulding 1976, p. 9.

  477 “Clear glass”: Kong Shangren, Trying On Glasses (c. 1690), cited from Strassberg 1997, p. 204.

  478 “Melting the material”: Xu Guangqi (1631), cited from Elman 2006, p. 30.

  479 “I realized” etc.”: Emperor Kangxi, various texts, translated in Spence 1974, pp. 72–75.

  482 O tempora, O mores!: Cicero, Against Catiline (63 BCE) 1.1.

  483 “These people seemed”: Commander John Rodgers, report to the Secretary of the Navy (1865), cited from Perrin 1979, p. 4.

  484 “We have never”: Emperor Qianlong, letter to George III of Britain (1793), cited from Cranmer-Byng 1963, p. 340.

  485 “I am the innocentest”: William Kidd (1701), cited from Herman 2004, p. 247.

  486 “Credit makes war”: Daniel Defoe, The Complete English Tradesman (1725), vol. 1, chapter 27.

  486 “France will undo us”: The Duke of Newcastle (1742), cited from P. Kennedy 1987, p. 98.

  486 “conquer America”: William Pitt the Elder (1757), cited from Herman 2004, p. 279.

  486 “Our bells are threadbare”: Horace Walpole, letter to George Montagu, October 21, 1759, cited from W. S. Lewis 1941, pp. 250–51.

  488 “Make terror”: M. Barère, speech to the National Convention, September 5, 1793, translated in Baker 1987, p. 351.

  488 “Let us be masters”: Napoleon Bonaparte, speech at Boulogne (1805), cited from J. R. Green 1879, p. 171.

  10. THE WESTERN AGE

  491 “the vastness,” etc.: James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol. 2. Entry for March 22nd, 1776. Emphasis in original.

  491 “ ’Twas in truth”: William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805), Book 9, lines 161–69. Wordsworth was speaking specifically of the French Revolution.

  494 “the vast consumption”: Mineralogia Cornubiensis (1778), cited from Landes 2003, pp. 99–100.

  494 “I had gone”: James Watt, as told to Robert Hart, 1817 (the walk took place in 1765), cited from Uglow 2002, p. 101.

  495 “rather successful”: James Watt, letter to James Watt, Sr., December 11, 1774 (James Watt Papers, Birmingham City Archives, 4/60), cited from Uglow 2002, p. 248.

  495 “If we had”: Matthew Boulton, letter to James Watt, summer 1776, cited from Uglow 2002, p. 256.

  495 “It crept into”: Daniel Defoe, Weekly Review, January 31, 1708, cited from Ferguson 2003, p. 17.

  501 “The poverty”: Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776), book 1, chapter 8.

  503 “has pitilessly torn”: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto (1848), chapter 1.

  503 “energy and perseverance”: Samuel Smiles, Industrial Biography (1863), pp. 325, 332.

  503 “Facts alone”: Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854), chapter 1.

  504 “a triumph of fact”: ibid., chapter 5.

  504 “He listened patiently”: Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England (1844), chapter 12.

  504, 505 “What the bourgeoisie” and “Let the ruling classes”: Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto, chapters 1, 4.

  506 “We consider it”: Anonymous, “The First Half of the Nineteenth Century,” The Economist 9 (1851), p. 57.

  507 “Here I am, gentlemen!”: Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days (1873), chapter 37.

  509 “white plague”: Ferguson 2003, p. 59.

  509 “have an unconquerable aversion”: Isaac Weld, Travels Through the States of North America and Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada During the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797, vol. 1 (1799), pp. 232–33, cited from Williams 2003, p. 310.

  509 “For her”: Frank Norris, The Pit (1903), p. 57.

  510 “Get a horse!”: cited from Yergin 1992, p. 79.

  510 “The development”: Marcus Samuel, letter to Admiral John Fisher, November 1911, cited from Yergin 1992, pp. 154–55.

  511 “The first”: Admiral John Fisher, letter to Winston Churchill, 1911, cited from Yergin 1992, p. 155.

  511 “propensity to truck”: Smith, Wealth of Nations (1776), chapter 2.

  512 “Constant revolutionizing”: Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto, chapter 1.

  513 “The sole end” and “Over himself”: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859), chapter 1.

  513 “The principle”: John Stuart Mill, The Subjection of Women (1869), chapter 1.

  513 “like the sorcerer”: Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto, chapter 1.

  514 “His feet lost”: Li Ruzhen, Flowers in the Mirror (published 1810s), translated in T. Lin 1965, p. 113.

  515 “are all”: Lord Macartney (1793), from Cranmer-Byng 1963, p. 153.

  516 “simply did”: paraphrase of a letter from James Matheson to J. A. Smith (September 24, 1839), cited from Fay 1997, p. 191.

  517 “as the floating property”: Bernard and Hall 1844, p. 6.

  517 “pass over these”: Governor-General Qiying (1842), cited from Spence 1990, p. 164.

  517 “castles that moved”: Japanese observers (1853), cited from Feifer 2006, p. 5.

  519 “for … the [West’s] middle”: John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), chapter 1.

  519 “The conquest”: Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1902), chapter 1.

  520 “it is the duty”: The Economist 32 (July 1874), p. 802, cited from Davis 2001, p. 37.

  520 “The horror! The horror!”: Conrad, Heart of Darkness, chapter 3.

  520 “I have seen things”: President Ulysses S. Grant (1879), cited from Feifer 2006, p. 322.

  522 “Useless beauty”: Sugimoto Etsu Inagaki, recalling a conversation from the 1870s, cited from Feifer 2006, p. 310.

  524 “to cultivate”: Kaiser Wilhelm II (1895), cited from Ferguson 2007, p. 44.

  525 “to unite”: Wilhelm II, letter to Tsar Nicholas II (September 26, 1895) (available at http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/VI_Jagdhaus_Rominten_26/IX/95).

  526 “What happened”: Commander Aleksei Nikolaevich Kuropatkin (1905), cited from Ferguson 2007, p. 53.

  529 “The financial center”: Secretary of State John Hay, cited from Frieden 2006, p. 141.

  530 “the influence of”: Keynes 1930, vol. 2, pp. 306–307.

  530 “gazing at their destiny”: George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), pp. 85–86.

  531 “I have seen”: Lincoln Steffens (1919), cited from Steffens 1938, p. 463.

  531 “It is only”: Lieutenant-Colonel Ishiwara Kanji (1932), cited from Totman 2000, p. 424.

  532 “The first cause”: Adolf Hitler to Hjalmar Schacht (1936), cited from Frieden 2006, p. 204.

  532 “The war situation”: Emperor Hirohito (August 15, 1954), cited from R. Frank 1999, p. 320.

  533 “economic, social and political”: John J. McCloy (1945), cited from Judt 2005, p. 39.

  5
34 “atomic bomb itself”: Churchill, cited from Reynolds 2000, p. 36.

  534 “create on the whole”: Internal Kremlin report (1953), cited from Holloway 1994, p. 337.