* From: "Perelman, Michael"
I hope that we can discuss this without acrimony. I understand that at the time of the British conquest of India, India was probably more advanced in England, which was a backwater of Europe. England had, however, extraordinarily good cannons -- may be the equivalent of our airplanes in Iraq. India had nothing to counter them. Unlike the US, understand that England was able to harness some of the traditional feudal government structures in India. ^^^^^ CB: I believe in one of the previous discussions of this it was pointed out that China invented gunpowder at a time when their pre-capitalist market relations were more developed than Europe's, but for cultural reasons the firepower was not used to conquer global colonies as Europe did. Partial explanation of European global conquest: Europe's culture and traditions did not inhibit use of guns to conquer slaves and colonies. One might _analogize_ to the absence chemical inhibitor in physiology. It wasn't the Prostestant Ethic and the Rise of Capitalism ,but rather the Protestant lack of Ethics and the Rise of Capitalism.
