Search Results: give and take

What gave you the upper hand were the Age of Exploration and the geographical discoveries. Before that, Turks dominated much of Eurasia. Extremely brave yet barbaric pirates discovered the American continent; the natives were devastated by diseases, and the survivors were forced to work under brutal conditions until they died. Then you turned your eyes toward Africa, exploited its underground resources, and imported countless slaves. India was not enough — you even brought the mighty Chinese Empire to its knees. In the lands you conquered, you gave places names like New Zealand, New York, New Hampshire, and New Jersey, as if the whole world revolved around England.

At the same time, you built the Enlightenment, positive science, and so-called universal values. You carried out the Industrial Revolution; production and technology revolved around you. The birth of capitalism was your creation, and modernization came to be seen as synonymous with Westernization. Your ideologies ending in “-ism” shape the lives of people all around the world, and I am writing this damned text in your language.

But in a dynamic world, the sun is no longer moving from east to west across the Atlantic — it is shifting toward the Pacific, and the Chinese are beginning to take your place.

Anyway, back to the point: yes, are you proud of it?