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    a he ad start of 51 years over the west in the development of cannon120, the

    Orientals were still making their artillery from iron, while Europeans had

    figured out how to craft a more powerful version using brass.

    China regarded itself as literally the center of the world, the only

    country that counted.  And they had an easy way to remain number one in

    their own minds: they walled themselves off.  For two generations, the

    Chinese had built boats the size of apartment buildings with which they had

    plied the seas and exchanged information with the other countries of the

    eastern world.  The Chinese emperor's fleet of 317 giant vessels, staffed with

    a crew of 27,000, had shown up in the harbors of Viet Nam, Cambodia, India,

    the Arab Middle East, and even Eastern Africa.121  But just before Europe

    could reach out for contact, China's bureaucrats ordered that all such ships

    be outlawed and that interchange with other countries be stopped.  The

    functionaries actually forbade Chinese merchants from even dealing with

    outsiders--on pain of death.122   The Chinese spurned Western knowledge,

    discouraged the spirit of inquiry in their own country, and buried their heads

    in their ancient texts.123  Said one scholar, "The Truth has been made manifest

    to the world.  No more writing is needed."124  In 1839, Lin Tse-hsu wrote

    contemptuously to Britain's Queen Victoria: "Of all that China exports to for-

    eign countries there is not a single thing which is not beneficial to people....

    On the other hand, articles coming from outside China can only be used as

    toys."125

    For 400 years the Chinese maintained the illusion that they  were still

    untouchable, invincible and above challenge.126  Then in the 19th century the

    Europeans returned with advanced gunboats, marched troops into China's

    cities, and showed just what the Chinese had accomplished by wallowing in

    illusion.127 In the late 1890's, the Europeans began, in their words, "carving

    up the Chinese melon."  The French took Guang Zhou Bay, the Germans

    snatched the city of Ch'ing-tao, the Russians expropriated the Liao-tung

    Peninsula, the British expanded their hold on Hong Kong and seized the port

    of Wei-hai-wei, and even the Japanese snatched their share of the fruit.128

    Foreigners were capable of inflicting any form of atrocity they chose.

    Kaiser Wilhelm, in fact, claimed that he would deal with the Chinese so

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