Just finished another "evening" book, this time quite interesting analysis of why during the past 500 years the western civilization dominated the world and the rest eventually adopted (or in most cases are still trying) the same core principles. Niall Ferguson begins his story with a great example of ancient China. A powerful empire with an astonishing fleet that reached Africa a hundred years before Europeans started exploring the world. In the 1400s, China owned the greatest navy in the world, close to 3500 ships at its peak. Some were five times the size of the ships being built in Europe at the time.
