« Comment l'Occident a gagné » par Rodney Stark
« Comment l'Occident a gagné » par Rodney Stark
C’est la mentalité particulière de l’Occident qui explique son essor technologique et économique
Courte annonce : je viens de lancer Why the West, une version en anglais de Chroniques occidentales. Vous y trouverez par exemple la traduction de cet article ou de ma conversation avec l’historienne japonaise Miho Matsunuma. N’hésitez pas à la partager avec vos amis anglophones !
🇺🇸 🇮🇳 🇬🇧 Short announcement: I've launched an English version of Chroniques occidentales called Why the West. You can find, for example, the translation of this article or the translation of my conversation with Japanese historian Miho Matsunuma. Feel free to share it with your English-speaking friends!
Dans Comment l’Occident a gagné (publié en 2015, titre original: How the West won), le sociologue américain spécialiste des religions Rodney Stark tente de répondre à la grande question historique du second millénaire : pourquoi est-ce l'Europe qui a conquis le reste du monde et pas le reste du monde qui a conquis l'Europe ?
Pour les plus pressés, ci-dessous les 4 points principaux à retenir. Plus bas, vous trouverez mes notes de lecture complètes sur ce livre.
Les 4 points à retenir :
C’est la mentalité particulière de l’Occident qui explique son essor technologique et économique. Voici la thèse de l'auteur en 3 phrases : si l'Occident a conquis le monde à partir du XVIe siècle, c'est parce qu'il était technologiquement supérieur (meilleure artillerie et marine). Cette avance technologique lui vient d'une mentalité particulière, qui lui a permis d'inventer la science moderne. Cette mentalité, basée sur la liberté et la quête de la connaissance, trouve son origine dans son héritage grec et dans le christianisme.
La science moderne est née de l'idée que l'univers fonctionne selon des règles rationnelles dictées par un Dieu organisateur et pouvant être découvertes, ce qui a rendu la recherche scientifique possible et désirable. Cette croyance, qui trouve sa source dans l’héritage grec et dans la doctrine chrétienne, est une singularité occidentale.
L’auteur considère que la chute de l’empire romain et de l’empire carolingien furent des bénédictions pour l’Europe. La fragmentation politique issue de la chute de ces empires a favorisé une compétition créatrice entre les nations européennes et celle-ci fut source d’innovations dans tous les domaines (économique, militaire, technologique). Cependant l’auteur semble négliger le principal leg romain à l’héritage occidental (le droit), en faisant de Rome un simple relais d’Athènes.
Le capitalisme est né dès les Xe et XIe siècles, dans les grands monastères d’Europe occidentale et dans les cités-Etats italiennes. A l’Abbaye de Cluny apparaît un “capitalisme religieux” (spécialisation de la production, organisation du travail, développement du crédit). Dans les cités-Etats italiennes (Venise, Gênes etc), le pouvoir politique n’est plus dans les mains d’un seul souverain mais se disperse (marchands, banquiers etc..). La liberté d’entreprendre est favorisée et la propriété privée mieux garantie contre les confiscations arbitraires.
4ème de couverture :
Finally the Truth about the Rise of the West
Modernity developed only in the West—in Europe and North America. Nowhere else did science and democracy arise; nowhere else was slavery outlawed. Only Westerners invented chimneys, musical scores, telescopes, eyeglasses, pianos, electric lights, aspirin, and soap.
The question is, Why?
Unfortunately, that question has become so politically incorrect that most scholars avoid it. But acclaimed author Rodney Stark provides the answers in this sweeping new look at Western civilization.
How the West Won demonstrates the primacy of uniquely Western ideas—among them the belief in free will, the commitment to the pursuit of knowledge, the notion that the universe functions according to rational rules that can be discovered, and the emphasis on human freedom and secure property rights.
Taking readers on a thrilling journey from ancient Greece to the present, Stark challenges much of the received wisdom about Western history. Stark also debunks absurd fabrications that have flourished in the past few decades: that the Greeks stole their culture from Africa; that the West’s “discoveries” were copied from the Chinese and Muslims; that Europe became rich by plundering the non-Western world. At the same time, he reveals the woeful inadequacy of recent attempts to attribute the rise of the West to purely material causes—favorable climates, abundant natural resources, guns and steel.
How the West Won displays Rodney Stark’s gifts for lively narrative history and making the latest scholarship accessible to all readers. This bold, insightful book will force you to rethink your understanding of the West and the birth of modernity—and to recognize that Western civilization really has set itself apart from other cultures.Rodney William Stark (1934 – 2022) was an American sociologist of religion who was a longtime professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington.
Fiche de lecture
Plan du livre :
INTRO
PART I : CLASSICAL BEGINNINGS (500 BC-AD 500)
Stagnant empires and the Greek miracle
Jerusalem’s Rational God
The Roman interlude
PART II : THE NOT-SO-DARK AGES (500-1200)
The blessing of disunity
Northern lights over Christendom
Freedom and Capitalism
PART III : MEDIEVAL TRANSFORMATIONS (1200 - 1500)
Climate, Plage and social change
The pursuit of Knowledge
Industry, Trade and Technology
Discovering the World
PART IV : THE DAWN OF MODERNITY (1500-1750)
New World conquests and colonies
The Golden Empire
The Lutheran reformation : Myths and realities
Exposing Muslims illusions
Science Comes of Age
PART V : MODERNITY (1750 - )
The industrial Revolution
Liberty and Prosperity
Globalization and Colonialism
INTRO
Rodney Stark’s positions :
Fall of Rome was the single most beneficial event in the rise of Western civilization
Dark Ages never happened : it was era of progress (invention of capitalism)
Dramatic changes in climate played a major role in the rise of the West (warm : 800-1250 / little Ice age : 1300-1850)
Europe did not get rich by draining wealth from its colonies : in fact, colonies drained wealth from Europe, and meanwhile gained the benefits of modernity.
He asks THE question. Why the West invented science and democracy ? Why the West invented modernity ? There have been many attempts to answer this question :
Favorable geography : but China, India and Africa are also blessed (growing seasons > to those of northern Europe)
Guns, sailing ships and steel : these causes need to be explained.
He gives primacy to ideas. Material and economic forces are not the original and sustaining causes of the modern rise.
It is ideas that explain why science arose only in the West. Only westerners thought that science was possible, that the universe functioned according to rational rules that could be discovered. “We owe the belief partly to the ancient Greeks and partly to the unique Judeo-Christian conception of God as a rational creator.”
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PART I : CLASSICAL BEGINNINGS (500 BC-AD 500)
1. Stagnant empires and the Greek miracle
At that time, tyrannical empires (Egypt, Chinese, Persia). Greeks : hundred of small independent city-states
Basic economic : all wealth derives from production. Property was insecure in the empires.
Greek miracle
6 areas of progress: warfare, democracy, economic progress, literacy, arts & technology. Ex: Greek sculpture => revolution of realism
Greek rationalism => Greeks proposed that the universe is orderly and governed by underlying principles that the human mind could discern through observation and reason. Ex : Thales correctly predicted a solar eclipse.
Pythagoras : insisted on the importance of maths in explaining the cosmos.
North Whitehead : “Western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Platon”. Plato is convinced that things are organized by a mind.
The biggest impact of Aristote : he develops rules for correct reasoning, formal logic.
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2. Jerusalem’s Rational God
Greek philosophy had a profound impact among jews.
Early christians : accepted that God is eternal and rational. Our knowledge of his laws is progressive. Reason and progress : essential to the rise of the West.
Early Christianity and Greek philosophy
The rational creator of the cosmos : Augustine, in City of God (book 8), explains the bonds between Greek philosophy and Christianity. He noted that Plato perfected philosophy by using reason to prove the existence of God.
Faith in Progress : it is profoundly Christian.Science arose because of the doctrine of a rational creator of a rational universe made scientific inquiry plausible. Augustine, Aquinas : “God’s revelations are always limited to the capacity of humans at that time to comprehend”
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3. The Roman interlude
“I regard the Roman Empire as at best a pause in the rise of the West, and more plausibly as a setback” ! :
No major innovation in road building. They were very narrow.
Like arts, so too Roman literature was fundamentally Greek
Edith Hamilton : “the brutal, bloody Roman games had nothing to do with the spirit of play. They were fathered by the Orient, not by Greece”
It was the Roman army that sustained a great empire for 500 years. Problem : une armée de long-service professionels, qui donnaient leur loyauté aux généraux plutôt qu’à Rome => instabilité politique.
The christianization of the empire was the most beneficial aspect of the Roman era.
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PART II : THE NOT-SO-DARK AGES (500-1200)
4. The blessing of disunity
“The fall of Rome was, in fact the most beneficial event in the rise of Western civilization, precisely because it unleashed so many substantial and progressive changes.”
“Europe was blessed with lasting disunity ; periodic efforts to reestablish empires failed. Disunity enabled extensive, small-scale social experimentation and unleashed creative competition among hundreds of independent political units, which, in turn resulted in rapid and profound progress”
The Greek miracle also arose from disunity
Hayek : “European civilization … owes its origins and raison d’être to political anarchy”
The myth of Dark Age :
it is true that Roman cities and towns declined greatly in number and size after the fall of Rome. Pop de Rome : passe de 500k à 50k entre 400 et 600
Mais ça ne veut pas dire que l’Occident a sombré dans l’obscurité : ces villes, qui étaient avant tout des nœuds administratifs, n'avaient plus de buts.
La nourriture n’était plus subventionnée, mais les études montrent que la population mangeait bien durant ce Dark Age.
Yes, intellectual life did declined. Because the wealthy leisure class inherent in the parasitic nature of the imperial system had fallen away (wealth was drained from the province of the empire). The leisure class (who had time for nonproductive work) disappeared.
Dark Ages : great innovative era. Ex : Roman and Greek : monophonic music. Medieval : developed polyphony
Société du Bazacle in Toulouse : the oldest capitalistic company in the world
Division de l’empire carolingien : “Europe’s precious disunity was restored”
Geography of disunity provided for creative competition
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5. Northern lights over Christendom
Vikings brought new energy and enthusiasm to continue the West’s glorious journey..
Vikings were brutal but their societies were as civilized as the more southern one.
First Crusade : 2/4 armies led by Norman Knight
Far too many historians have had a strong preference for empires. Charlemagne was a bloodthirsty tyrant : it is ignored because he was devoted to Christendom and Roman civilization.
In contrast, Vikings were dismissed as enemies of civilization. But they were as civilized as the Franks.
6. Freedom and Capitalism
One of the most important ideas facilitating the rise of the West is the belief in free will.
Most ancient societies believed in fate : westerners came to believe that humans are relatively free to follow their conscience, and to make their own fate.
Free will
Unlike Greeks and Roman whose gods lacked virtue and did not concern with human misbehavior (other than failures to propriate them in the appropriate manner), the judeo-christian god is a judge who rewards virtue and punishes sin. => This conception of God is incompatible with fatalism.
“Go and sin no more” : responsibility to determine action.
St Augustine insisted on the notion of free will.
Abolition of European slavery
Slavery has been universal. American Indians had slaves long before the arrival of Colombus.
Slavery ended in medieval Europe only because the Church extended its sacraments to all slaves
But at the beginning, the Church is ok with slavery.
New democracies
Christian theology also provided the moral basis for the establishment of responsive regimes. But political freedom did not emerge throughout Christendom. It appeared first in Italian city-states. Why ? “because as these city-states expanded foreign trade, they dispersed political power among a set of well-matched interest groups: aristocracy, military, clergy but also merchants,bankers, manufacturers and workers’guilds.”
Venice : probably the first society to live by trade alone. Pouvoir peu à peu ouvert aux guildes.
Genoa : established Podesteria, a non-genoese city manager.
Inventing Capitalism
Max Weber is wrong. The rise of capitalism preceded the Reformation by centuries.
Braudel : Weber’s theory is clearly false. Northern countries invented nothing, either in technology or in business management (it was in old capitalist center of the Mediterranean). Rapid perfection of banking in Italian city states : the developed double-entry bookkeeping.
“The proximate cause of the rise of Italian capitalism was freedom from the rapacious rulers who repressed and consumed economic progress in most of the world”
Stark : capitalism was invented in the great monastic estates back in the 9th century.
Def of capitalism : “Capitalism is an economic system wherein privately owned, relatively well-organized, and stable firms pursue complex commercial activities within a relatively free (unregulated) market, taking a systematic, long-term approach to investing and reinvesting wealth (directly or indirectly) in productive activities involving a hired workforce and guided by anticipated and actual returns”
Capitalism rests on free markets, secure property rights and free (uncoerced) labor.
Bible does not directly condemn commerce.
Peu à peu, expansion et spécialisation des monastères dans des activités commerciales (food, drink, clothes, sophisticated management). Invention du capitalisme.
Development of credit in monasteries : they become banks (Cluny for example) and lend to aristocracy. Mort-gage (literally : dead pledge). Règle de St Benoit.
Randall Collins : “religious capitalism” emerged
Theological evolution (not condemning commerce) because great monastic orders participated in free markets.
Change in attitudes towards work that Christianity inspired : dignity of labor is incomprehensible in ancient Roma or pre-capitalist society.
In China, mandarin grew their fingernail to make it evident they dont labor.
Weber is wrong, capitalism appeared before Reformation.
“If there is a single factor responsible for the rise of the West, it is freedom. Freedom to hope. Freedom to act. Freedom to invest. Freedom to enjoy the fruits of one’s dreams as well as one’s labor. So much of that freedom emerged during the so-called Dark-Ages. The ramification would be felts for centuries to come”
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PART III : MEDIEVAL TRANSFORMATIONS (1200 - 1500)
7. Climate, Plage and social change
Incredibly, historians dismissed the death of nearly half of the world population from the Black death (1346-1351).
2 fundamental catastrophes that have made several important positive contributions to the rise of modernity : Black death and Little Ice Age.
800-1250 : Medieval Warm period.
A good period for Europe.
Great gothic cathedral : Notre Dame (1163), Strasbourg (1190), Reims (1212). Les cathédrales sont une conséquence de cette Medieval Warm period.
The Little Ice Age
Famine spreads. 1317 : in all northern europe
1310 : Thames frozen
The black death
The horror of what took place is difficult to imagine. Petrarch : “empty houses, derelict cities, ruined estates, fields strewn with cadavers, a horrible and vast solitude encompassing the whole world”.
Ex, Givry en Bourgogne. 1200 hab en 1340 : 615 morts en 1348
Italian father in Siena : “I buried my 5 kids with my own hands”. Les chiens dévoraient les corps.
Immense lands without owners => surviving landowners expanded, shortage of labors => The end of serfdom. Competition for labor
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8. The pursuit of Knowledge
“The most fundamental key to the rise of Western civilization has been the dedication of so many of its most brilliant minds to pursuit of knowledge. Not to illumination. Not to enlightenment. Not to wisdom. But to knowledge. And the basis for this commitment to knowledge was the Christian commitment to thology”
Theology necessitates an image of God (one God, not many gods) as a conscious, rational, supernatural being of unlimited power and scope.
Confucianism : godless / Buddhism : denied existence of conscious God. No Muslim theology : dont apply human reason to questions about God
In contrast : Christian theologian have devoted centuries to reasoning about God's nature and about the very meaning of God’s teaching. Reason celebrated as the means to gain greater insight into divine intentions.
Invention of university. Cradle of learning : the university of Paris
The most important university of the Middle Age. Latin quarter
Start of the scientific revolution with Copernicus (1457-1543). The idea that the earth circles the sun didn't come out of the blue. 13 grands scientifiques ont préparé la découverte durant les 2 siècles précédents, peu à peu, en améliorant les connaissances existantes. 9/13 étaient issus de l'université de Paris.
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9. Industry, Trade and Technology
Medieval Europe saw the rise of banking, manufacturing, network of trading cities. C’est de ça qu’est issue la Révolution industrielle.
1900 : 409 western soldiers withstood Chinese imperial army during 55 days.
Political freedom in England fostered capitalism
Musketeers became the pride of European armies. European cannons made Europe’s warship invincible. 1509, Bataille de Diu : 18 Portuguese ships coulent 100 navires ottomans et mamelouks au large de l’Inde. Cette bataille revêt une importance majeure dans l'histoire, marquant le début de la domination européenne sur les mers d'Asie, corrélée à la défaite de la puissance dominante d'alors, l'Empire ottoman. Idem à Lepante
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10. Discovering the World
The first major achievement was the magnetic compass : generally attributed to China. => a magnetized needle in liquid points north.
Les européens ont été les premiers à placer une carte sous le compas
1498 : de Gama landed near Calicut, India. When he sailed back, his cargo was worth 60 times the cost of the expedition
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PART IV : THE DAWN OF MODERNITY (1500-1750)
11. New World conquests and colonies
The West discovers the extraordinary military superiority held over the rest of the world.
2 factors for the Spanish conquest of America
superior military technology and training
Aztec had such a numerical advantage, they should have easily won (Spanish were only 500). But Cortes was able to recruit local allies because the Aztecs were brutal tyrants who every year sacrificed tens of thousands of men, women and children seized from subordinated tribes (on arrachait le coeur des femmes vivantes).
L’arrivée des espagnols a permis d’en finir avec les sacrifices humains et le cannibalisme.
La chute de l'Empire aztèque s’est produite entre 1519 et 1521 lors du conflit qui a opposé l'Empire aztèque (composé des membres de la Triple Alliance qui dominait le centre du Mexique et des peuples mésoaméricains qui en étaient tributaires) aux troupes armées d'Hernán Cortés (composées au départ d'un demi-millier de conquistadors espagnols auxquels se sont alliés un nombre variable d'indigènes amérindiens finissant par regrouper plusieurs dizaines de milliers de combattants).
À l'arrivée des Espagnols, les Tlaxcaltèques s'allièrent à ceux-ci et leur fournirent une aide très précieuse sous forme de guerriers et de refuge dans leur cité après la Noche Triste.Comme ils avaient aidé les Espagnols lors de leur conquête du Mexique, les Tlaxcaltèques ont joui de privilèges par rapport aux autres peuples du Mexique. Ils pouvaient porter des armes à feu, posséder des chevaux, des fermes.
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12. The Golden Empire
Spain created the global society. Isabella and Ferdinand funded Colombus
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13. The Lutheran reformation : Myths and realities
Luther est choqué par l’impiété du clergé lors d’un voyage à Rome. Et par la vente d’indulgence
Reason of spread of Reformation :
in most Europe, decision to embrace Lutheranism or to remain steadfastly within the Catholic church was made by an autocratic ruler
=> Autocratic opted for Reformation in places where Catholic Church had the greatest local power and chose to remain catholic in places where the church was extremely weak.
Ex : en Suède, le roi Gustavus cherchait de l’argent. L'Église y était très riche donc il opta pour le protestantisme et confisca les possessions de l’Eglise.
La Réforme a été une immense opportunité for territorial lords of looting church property.
“Protestantism prevailed only where the local rulers or councils had not already imposed their rule over the church”
Consequences of Reformation
=> il réfute la undocumented thesis of Weber sur l’éthique protestante à l’origine du capitalisme. “The rise of capitalism in Europe preceded the Reformation by centuries”
Hugh Trevor : “The idea that large-scale industrial capitalism was ideologically impossible before the Reformation is exploded by the simple fact that it existed”
=> Capitalisme appeared in great Catholic monasteries in 9th century and Italian cities in 11th century
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14. Exposing Muslims illusions
Suleiman the Magnificent and its dream of conquering the West.
Knights of St John led by Philippe Villiers de l’isle d’adam : défendent Rhodes puis Malte.
En 1522, Philippe Villiers de l’isle d’adam défendit avec 600 chevaliers et 4 500 hommes l'île de Rhodes attaquée par 200 000 hommes de Soliman le Magnifique. héroïque résistance
Apprenant son décès, Soliman le Magnifique, qui avait toujours admiré les qualités de ce personnage exceptionnel, fit publier dans les mosquées de son empire un panégyrique en son honneur : « Croyants, apprenez d’un infidèle comment on accomplit son devoir jusqu’à être admiré et honoré de ses ennemis. »
Jean de Valette, né en 1494 à Parisot (actuel département de Tarn-et-Garonne) et mort en 1568 à Malte, est le 49e grand maître des Hospitaliers de l'ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem, particulièrement connu pour avoir soutenu face aux Ottomans le siège de Malte de 1565 et avoir fondé et donné son nom à l'actuelle capitale de la République de Malte, La Valette.
Le nom de la famille « Valette » trouve son origine « au bord de la rivière d'Aveyron, dont il est ainsi parlé dans les anciens actes latins, Castrum Vallatum, lingua celtica, Valleta dictum
P. : la capitale de Malte a donc le nom d’un occitan.
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15. Science Comes of Age
“Science did not suddenly erupt in a great intellectual revolution during Newton’s time; this era of superb achievements was the culmination of centuries of sustained, normal scientific progress”. There was no such thing as a scientific revolution in the 16th century
“Christianity was essential to the rise of science, which is why science was a purely Western phenomenon”.
Aristote n’était pas un scientifique, parce que ses explications n’étaient pas liées à des observations systématiques.
Science is best defined as a method used in organized efforts to formulate explanations of nature, always subject to modification and correction through systematic observations. Science is theory and research.
Il liste les 52 scientifiques stars de l’époque :
25% de ces scientifiques stars étaient membres du clergé.
60% of them were devout.
Newton a plus écrit sur la théologie que sur la physique - il a même calculé une date pour la parousie (retour de Christ) : 1948.
27% étaient anglais : si l'Angleterre a été à l’avant-garde de la révolution scientifique, c’est la même raison que pour la révolution industrielle. Greater political and economic liberty had produced a relatively open class system that enabled the emergence of an ambitious and creative upper middle class.
The Christian basis of science
“Science arose only in Christian Europe because only medieval Europans believed that science was possible and desirable. And the basis for their belief was their image of God and his creation.”
Explained by Alfred North Whithead, English philosopher and mathematician :
Europeans believed in God as intelligent designer of rational universe and pursued the secrets of the creation. Early scientists felt morally obliged to pursue these secrets. And the scientists found these laws!
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PART V : MODERNITY (1750 - )
16. The industrial Revolution
Even in the West, as recently as the 17th century, life was hard and short. Ne pas idéaliser le retour à des “temps plus simples” : la moitié nouveaux-nés mouraient durant leur enfance.
“The reason for this extraordinary increase in the quality of life was simple: suddenly people were able to produce far more goods, including food, for far less labor. This “miracle” took place because machines - tireless, accurate and uncomplaining - replaced humans as the primary means of production, resulting in extraordinary gains in speed, and performance.”
The Industrial revolution involved so many inventions and innovations in so many different industries
James Watt : the single individual who contributed the most to the Industrial Revolution. The Steam machine changed everything.
Better and stronger iron : made possible to build smaller and lighter steam machines. A revolution providing portable power : steam engines became small enough to move themselves => trains.
“The Industrial Revolution was the culmination of the rise of the Western civilization that began 27 centuries ago in Greece. It was the product of human freedom and the pursuit of knowledge, which is precisely why it happened where and when it did.”
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17. Liberty and Prosperity
“ Marx was correct to credit the bourgeoisie - that is, a newly respectable upper middle class- with the Industrial Revolution. The singular aspect of bourgeois societies is the belief that status and power should be achieved through merit rather than through inheritance. Innovation is valued and rewarded. Consequently, the 2 primary supports of bourgeois societies are education and liberty”
Compared with Britain, the continental nations lagged in liberty and education and achieved modernity later and less fully.
To fully explain why the Industrial revolution began in Britain, it is necessary to explain why it became a bourgeois society.
liberty and property rights. Adam Smith l’explique : "That security which the laws of Great Britain give to every man—that he shall enjoy the fruits of his own labour—is alone sufficient to make any country flourish (...).The natural effort of every individual to better his own condition, when suffered to exert itself with freedom and security, is so powerful a principle, that it is alone, without any assistance, not only capable of carrying on the society to wealth and prosperity, but of surmounting a hundred impertinent obstructions with which the folly of human laws too often encumber its operations, though the effect of these obscurities is always more or less either to encroach upon its freedom or to diminish its security. In Great Britain industry is perfectly secure, and though it is far from being perfectly free, it is as free or freer than in any other part of Europe.”
In France, taxes were so confiscatory that farmers avoided to have good horses or oxen, to appear poor to the tax collector.
cheap energy and high cost of labor in Britain
Embracing commerce in Great Britain. En Chine, les mandarins méprisaient les marchands.
American miracle : same reason than industrial revolution in Great Britain
political freedom, secure property rights, high wages, cheap energy, highly educated population
also, laws concerning bankruptcy facilitated industrial development. Laws limited legal liabilities sufficiently “to give debtors enough breathing space to survive their downfall and get back into the game”
From Freedom to Prosperity
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18. Globalization and Colonialism
“It is worth remembering that the American revolution was fought largely because the British Parliament, tired of losing money on the thirteen colonies, tried to impose taxes sufficient to cover the cost of administering theme and defending them”
Gunboats - a reason for Western conquests
Nemesis was the first British ocean-going iron warship. Launched in 1839, the Nemesis was deployed to China – arriving late 1840 – and used to great effect in the First Opium War by Captain William Hutcheon Hall and later in 1842 by Captain Richard Collinson. The Chinese referred to her as the "devil ship"
=> un seul bateau a détruit de nombreux forts chinois. Une flottille a permis aux anglais d’imposer un traité de paix aux chinois.
