Epilogue

Abstract

Five hundred years ago the balance of world power lay in Asia. Three hundred years later it was the Europeans who had begun to gain dominion over the earth. By then, prompted by a sense of divine mission, and aided by a superior naval technology and improved weapons, the Europeans had even claimed the seas and the oceans as their special preserve. Except for the Chinese and the Japanese, who had decided to shut their gates against the West, European interests and European values had become paramount. For some societies the cultural shock accompanying European expansion proved fatal.