Status Updates From China's Last Empire: The Gr...

On the ‘technological lock-in’ theory of late Qing economic stagnation and administrative decay:

“The cost of maintaining the old technology was so great that the investment in new technologies was nearly impossible, and yet the social cost of *not* maintaining the old technology, in order to free up resources for innovative investment, was too great to bear.”

“Lacking gainful employment, these talented young men developed a flamboyant and provocative political style and a tendency to form factions outside normal bureaucratic channels. They centered their activities in such ‘front’ organizations as a ‘poetry club’ [] and a ‘shrine association’ []. Relentless criticism from these bitter and well organized members of the literati helped provoke the

On the global impact of the Columbian Exchange:

“Both sides of the Eurasian continent began to experience ‘modern population growth’ in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, due in part to the introduction of hardy New World crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and peanuts. These countercyclical crops served as brakes on starvation during harvest failures of the more preferred staples, rice and wheat.”

It is once again striking to note the similarities between Qing conquest and settlement of Xinjiang, Southwest China, and Taiwan, and the westward expansion of the United States. Both involved a mix of genocidal wars, reservation systems, reeducation and acculturation projects, and forceable grouping of disparate peoples into a common “savage” identity. Both were often driven by opportunistic settlers from the

“Usually an empire expands up to the point where the costs of maintaining military superiority over its neighbors along increasingly extensive borders, combined with the costs of internal administration and maintenance of stability, become unsustainably great. The economy buckles under the mounting pressure as the imperial government tries to enlarge its share of the realm’s economic product, and the society

Continued Chapter 2, Governance.

Started Chapter 2, Conquest. Interrupted.

Finished Chapter 1, Conquest

Near end of Chapter 1: Conquest

Fin Prologue/Introduction

i don't know what page im on but i can certainly tell you what straw im on (it's my last)