It made Europe even wealthier, in some instances it did, momentarily. What Europeans realized at the time is that people inhabiting the land are more important than the land itself. This could only go so far as what the people there were capable of, unless you completely replaced the population to do everything yourself like in the US (slaves might apply there)
Im trying to project 200 years in your future when China will finally be that all round dominating power. Feels like our parents were already hearing about it, the imminence of it. For now it's still just a big factory country slaving to build our crap, with a backward authoritarian communist regime. It doesn't make it into anybody's wet dreams. Culturally and as a soft power they have a very long way ahead. Frankly i would bet more coins on Korea and Japan still.
Anyway again that wasn't my intent to say East Asians are inferior to Europeans or something that drastic, i personally have a lot of affection towards Japan and more recently Korea but false modesty is the worst especially when it goes as far as being historically untrue. Just it's a fact they lagged behind in the most important last era of humanity. I don't mind you disagreeing with the importance of it, but i think it obviously would be seen even that way from an extra terrestrial perspective. If somebody else detects us in the cosmos, they ll detect an European signal, probes, satellites, ships... invented by them. They might even witness us colonizing Mars soon. "The monkeys there have finally made it into a civilisation worth of note" I don't think they will care about who invented grafting or planted seeds first even if it may appear substantial to us.
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