European colonial history in Asia -- from the British in India to the Dutch in Indonesia -- is often misunderstood. We're (incorrectly) taught that the East India Companies dominated Asia early, giving rise to more direct European control over their newfound colonies.

The truth is much more interesting. In this video, I focus on India to tell the story of the West vs. the East in the "Age of Discovery."

European dominance of imperial Asia really only began in the mid-1700s, and that too is a poorly explained phenomenon. In reality, the factors giving rise to European dominance were mostly luck-based, and were the inevitable result of late medieval military-social change in Europe: the Military Revolution.

Enjoy!

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Further reading:

"Empires of the Weak: the Real Story of European Expansion and the Creation of the New World Order," by J.C. Sharman
"Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not," by Prasannan Parthasarathi
"The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy," by Kenneth Pomeranz