Adam Hutchison

Working The Waters

April 27, 2007

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Eurocentrism is Bullshit

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          Just as Alexandra Harmon debunked the idea that all “Indians,” at the time of the first maritime trade in the Pacific northwest, were the same, Hobson makes clear that, though European history tells us that they were the first major industrial empire, the Chinese were the true industrial pioneers.  The Chinese consistently do not get the credit they deserve for the innovations that have changed the coarse of human evolution.  Many revolutionary ideas and inventions borne in China have been regularly falsely accredited to Europeans. 

            The European dominance in maritime travel and trade that we have learned about previously in this course is merely a product of the Eurocentric values that have been propagated throughout western society.  The Chinese ships were more technologically advanced and the volume of the trade they participated in was much greater that their European counterparts. 

It is obvious that the Chinese used maritime technology to advance their society much before the Europeans did and to a much higher degree.  Even when there were barriers to trade, the Chinese used creative ways to disguise their trading.  They used cutting edge technology to create the most accurate charts of their day.