The phrase "made in China" has taken on a radically different meaning in recent years. Relatively recent low-grade Chinese-made crafts have been replaced by high-quality and high-tech equipment, and China itself has again found itself in the cohort of great powers and dictates terms not to its region, but to the whole world.
World's first
Since the existence of human civilization, the name of this country has constantly popped up in connection with the achievements of this very civilization. If at some stage of development an invention arose, there was no doubt: the original sources of the invention should be sought in China. The American continent, judging by historical data, was settled by people from this region, who went to the northeast and either crossed the ice or the existing isthmus from Asia to America. When Europeans drew the first maps, not only did they not know what continent China was on, they did not even hear the name of such a country.
Persia acted as an intermediary between the prosperous eastern civilization and the emerging European one. So the Persians suggested that if you move towards sunrise, you can find out the answer to the question of what continent China is on.
The Great Silk Road
The conquests of Alexander the Great increased the knowledge of Europeans about the world of that time. They learned that Persia is not the end of the world, the Persians simply resell the silk to Europe, and the silk producer - China - is located in the east. The goals of the Macedonian conquests - India and China - were never achieved. But the foundations of the Silk Road (from the East to the Mediterranean Sea), which was not yet Great, but was only in its infancy, appeared in the second century BC. The "golden age" of this precious fabric transportation highway came from the period from the sixth to the ninth centuries of our era, when wars did not shake Asia. It would seem that with the establishment of the Mongol empire on the territory of the entire Great Silk Road, trade volumes should soar. This happened for some time, but with the collapse of the Mongol Empire, the mention of this highway also disappeared.
Before and after Genghis Khan
Chinese empires were built, collapsed, then again, like the legendary Phoenix bird, were restored from the ashes. They were conquered by external invaders, they exploded under the influence of internal tension, but again and again proved their worth. The great conqueror Genghis Khan understood that, no matter how vast territories he owned, the main gem of his empire would benamely China, fragmented at that time into two states. He conquered these states one by one and handed over these lands to the most worthy heir. Without the help of specialists from this country with a higher level of development, who formed entire engineering regiments, the brilliant conquests of the Mongols would have been impossible. But the empire of the greatest conqueror collapsed, and China, whose rulers assimilated with the local population, again began to rule in their region.
Already after the conquests of Genghis Khan, the Europeans not only realized that China was in Asia, but also decided to find a way to this country. Marco Polo visited the summer residence of the Mongol emperors and lived in this country for more than three years. But, apart from the certainty on which mainland China is located and new words (for example, tangerines) that easily entered the European lexicon, this journey of a Venetian merchant did nothing to develop relations between East and West.
Changing the name does not change the essence
After the fall of the Genghisid empire and until the twentieth century, China remained an empire. First, under the rule of the Ming dynasty, and after its overthrow by the next Mongols - the Manchu invaders - the Qing dynasty became the main one. After the first round-the-world trip, Europeans finally found out which mainland China is on. Since the sixteenth century, sea expeditions of Europeans to the east began, because the Ottoman Empire appeared at the confluence of Europe with Asia, which prevented possible contactsland routes. Parts of China were conquered by the Portuguese, the British, the whole country was occupied by Japan. From 1912, the country changed from an empire to a republic, and from 1949 to a people's republic. Under the leadership of the great helmsman Mao, in a country with a historical commitment to the imperial style, they tried to build communism. In our time, the name of the state has not changed - the People's Republic of China. But under this name, the same "Celestial Empire" is hidden.
Cartography
If you look at the map of the world familiar to us, you pay attention to the fact that Europe and the European part of Russia will be located in the center of the map. The rest of the countries are on the sidelines, as if they are insignificant. Maps created in America naturally choose America as the central axis. At the same time, Eurasia with such a projection often turns out to be torn into two parts. But the map of the world, published in the largest state of Asia, will never give doubt on which mainland China is located - on the largest, in Eurasia. And, although the territory of the country is significantly inferior in size to the Russian Federation, the maps published in the Celestial Empire remove all doubts about the main country of the world.
Moscow consonances
Don't search in the question "where is Kitay-gorod?" references to an ancient eastern civilization. Although the origin of the name of this Moscow region has not yet been established, it is known for sure that it has nothing to do with the eastern country, the Chineseat the time of the emergence of this area in Moscow did not yet live.
