the world's factory Back in old days, this part of the world used to be the economic super power of the planet. The dynasties discovered everything from compass, from printing to making paper, gunpowder. They would make huge expeditions around the globe. This is China, the middle kingdom, right next to India. Around the 1800's that's where it started changing. In Europe and the US, a major revolution started taking place(science, machines, weapons, industries). With the new power these countries started to expand to take over large parts of land. China remained a great civilisation, as the west started showing up, knocking on China’s door with their big guns. China couldn’t compete with the large fire power. So China compromised them with their lands(HONG KONG). The industrial revolution didn’t start in the same way as it did in the west. And in the middle of 1800, China stood in its massive decline. The situation got even worse when it’s neighbour Japan invaded. China’s ...