What really intrigued me about this chapter was the vast increase of population in China 1685 to 1853. Because of the robust economy and american food crops the population rate went from 100 million people to some 430 million. That is insane! And the really crazy thing is there was no industrial revolution accompanied with this huge increase in people. It was growing so rapidly they could not keep up with the quickly increasing population, and that led to many problems. The state was unable to perform many of the functions like tax collection, flood control, social warfare, and public security. Overtime the central state lost power and local gentry. The combo of all these problems arose which caused the decline of the dynasty and resulted in more bandit gangs roaming the countryside and which even more terrible, a peasant rebellion.
To skip ahead, another section in this chapter was very interesting to me, "The Tokugawa". The Tokugawa were military rulers or also called shoguns. The most important task of a Tokugawa Shogunate was to prevent the return of a civil war. Based on their military and political skills, the shoguns gave Japan more than two centuries of internal peace. (1600-1850) As a result of these periods of peace contributed to a remarkable burst of economic growth, commercialism, and urban development.
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