| The power and influence of the United States is arguably rapidly decreasing as it struggles to find its role in a post-Cold War era. After two centuries of global Western dominance, the polarity of our world is shifting East. The fall of the U.S. will mark the end of the Age of the West. Yet a familiar, and ancient, hegemon is rising again: China. Over the last 30 years China has rapidly grown from a devastated Third World country to become the only state presently capable of picking up the pieces America has left behind, as a contender for the role of the next great superpower.;This thesis will analyse the rise of China within the context of its own history, as the longest surviving civilisation on earth and how its history and ancient philosophies are determining its contemporary actions. It will make the argument that as a result of its culture and history, it is uniquely qualified to successfully secure its position as a global leader. It is a position that China is historically very accustomed to. Up until the Industrial Revolution, China was nearly always a relative superpower, far out stripping the capabilities of other nations. Chapter 1 outlines the shifting of this Western paradigm by looking at the causes of America's decline, while making comparisons to the Western rise and China's Rise along with an analysis of what it means to be modern. Chapter 2 delves deep into China's ancient history and philosophies as a foundation for modern China, analysing how it behaved as an ancient superpower over millennia as a means to understand its current actions and where it is going. The third Chapter looks into the rise of the West through the Industrial Revolution and the effect such dominance had on Chinese civilisation. It continues on to focus on the rise of China itself and how after the devastating Century of Humiliation it was able to rise to its current state today. Its rise was based, not by drawing solely on influences from the West, but by looking back, into its own unique history. |
