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7/6/2025, 7:35:27 AM
>>63945263
>>63945268
Beating nomads comes down to effectively screening their cavalry, laying down high volume fire with archers/crossbows, and forcing engagements.
Pike-and-shot warfare gets you nowhere in the open steppe. It's designed to counter closed formations, as were common in Europe.
The very best way, as proven by the Ming Dynasty, is just providing material support to other nomads who are answerable to the state.
>>63945353
The industrial revolution was a product of internal politics and available technology. China had all of the necessary technology to kickstart the IR back in the 1100s, but their society was the issue.
The Chinese government actively opposed mercantile interests that could exist and act apart from the state, and didn't build up a proto-middle-class as England had. Moreover, whenever a law or ban was laid out to apply to all of China, there was no escaping it. Books could be completely purged, upstarts could be hunted down, and larger numbers of Chinese were totally illiterate anyway. There was too large a chasm separating the educated and affluent from their more numerous counterparts in the lower classes.
You can find more on the topic if you search for "The Needham Question".
>>63945268
Beating nomads comes down to effectively screening their cavalry, laying down high volume fire with archers/crossbows, and forcing engagements.
Pike-and-shot warfare gets you nowhere in the open steppe. It's designed to counter closed formations, as were common in Europe.
The very best way, as proven by the Ming Dynasty, is just providing material support to other nomads who are answerable to the state.
>>63945353
The industrial revolution was a product of internal politics and available technology. China had all of the necessary technology to kickstart the IR back in the 1100s, but their society was the issue.
The Chinese government actively opposed mercantile interests that could exist and act apart from the state, and didn't build up a proto-middle-class as England had. Moreover, whenever a law or ban was laid out to apply to all of China, there was no escaping it. Books could be completely purged, upstarts could be hunted down, and larger numbers of Chinese were totally illiterate anyway. There was too large a chasm separating the educated and affluent from their more numerous counterparts in the lower classes.
You can find more on the topic if you search for "The Needham Question".
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