What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
If China is not unified, the princes will be divided and the consequences will be endless, and if they do not hit the Great Wall to the north, they will be bullied by the steppe peoples; if they do not take the Hexi Corridor to the west; they will cut off the Silk Road and lose their economic lifeline, so that the combination of Tibet and Mongolia will be surrounded; if they do not hit the seashore to the east, they will lose the granary of the money warehouse; and if they do not fight the Yangtze River to the south, they will lose half of the country.
Therefore, we must guard the surrounding strategic commanding heights in order to have a peaceful period of development. Most of Europe is a plain, the climate is suitable, they all want to dominate more plates, but there is a balance of power, because of the differences in religion, language, and values, the mutual conquest of European countries in the Middle Ages is more like mutual conquest, and the goal of the king is only to expand the territory, and there is no concept of unification at all. And a united Europe is not in Britain's interest, as long as anyone has the idea of a unified Europe, Britain will certainly come to spoil the situation. The unification of Europe will certainly target Russia, so Tsarist Russia will not agree.
The emperor of China always wants to unify China, and I think the most important thing is two points, one is that the Zhou Dynasty feudalism, the annihilation of too many foreign races, and the later states left are mostly of the same origin, otherwise they also nominally respect zhou tianzi. Although feudalism is divided, but what is different from Europe is that the division has always been Zong Zhou everyone and Chu Wu Yue Dongyi a few small families, Zong Zhou culture is too strong, the language and writing have the potential to unify, even the barbarians of the Wu kingdom also know to climb the Ji family, and the sense of Chinese identity is more universal than the current US emperor.
In contrast, in Europe, the Romans did not hold on, but the Anglo-Frankish Goths and Slavs survived, do you dare to expect Britain, France, Germany, Poland, and Russia to say that they are a family? inexistent.
The second is the two major river systems of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. And the importance is not in agriculture, but in water transportation. The two major water systems enabled the unified central dynasty to achieve practical control over the localities in the management of financial materials. The long-term confrontation between the north and the south in history is also because the two major river systems can ensure the long-term maintenance of the central governments in the north and the south. Of course, the military role is also very important, the yangtze river system defense force exploded, and during the east-west confrontation, HanguGuan was too unfavorable to the Shandong forces, and it was difficult to divide for a long time.
This is also the reason why the powerful unified dynasties in history like to dig ditches, or it is precisely because of digging trenches that they can achieve strong rule. The Qin Emperor dug the Spirit Canal, and the Sui Dynasty Grand Canal. In addition, the local government in the era of partition also had such behaviors out of the consideration of competing for hegemony, and also strengthened regional exchanges to facilitate the communication waterways of the later great unification dynasty, such as the Hangou of the State of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period. Without such a small canal, it would be unimaginable for Emperor Zhao to dig a Sui and Tang Grand Canal.
In addition to canals, the same is true for transportation construction such as post roads. Therefore, the Qin Emperor is an emperor of the ages, and what he did, his later colleagues had little more than the scope of his measures except for the imperial examination.
The core of China is the Huang-Huai-Hai Great Plain in the central and eastern regions, and later added Jianghuai and Jiangnan. This area has a strong population carrying capacity, and there is no danger to defend internally, it is very easy to form a unified civilization, and the language, customs, and habits are relatively unified, good integration (as is the case today), as long as the north integrates this great plain, the remaining corner areas can not compete with it, and it is convenient for unification. Because this great plain is unchanging, no matter who wins, as long as he wins the area, then the advantage is obvious.
Europe is not unified because Asia, the main continent of the earth, has been basically unified, which is equivalent to the main branch of human historical development and is the mainstream of history, which can be understood as the first stage of the evolution of human civilization consensus.
The second stage is actually from Genghis Khan to the beginning of enlightenment, in the later extreme climate stimulation to start is the Europeans began to look for survival opportunities from the sea to the world, this is the embryonic period of global integration, until the emergence of modern science, the Industrial Revolution, World War I and World War II so far, it can be said that it is only the early stage of global unification.
The third stage of global civilization consensus, will no longer be the first stage of the kind of military conquest, faith consensus, Genghis Khan's earliest start failure is doomed not to be the global unity of military conquest, faith consensus, but the later scientific consensus, and then evolved to the future of the machine consensus, the future of global integration is based on the global common recognition of mathematical rules based on the scientific theory of operation by machines, such as blockchain technology is a category.
The emperor and the emperor in Europe are separated, and the emperor deliberately creates a split in order not to let the emperor surpass himself, or that multiple emperors coexist, so that the emperor can be nominally the largest. This is similar to the Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Warring States have actually been divided for so many years, and there is a son of heaven on his head. The first emperor of China learned the lesson of Zhou to be the true son of heaven, merging the emperor and the emperor into one, coupled with Confucian culture, forming a unified people's desire and imperial heart.
Chinese all recognized themselves as descendants of Yan Huang, and even the Xiongnu considered themselves to be a branch of the emperor who had lost power and was forced to move to the bitter cold land in the west, which was the basis of great unification, while the European Vikings, Romans, Slavs, Germans, etc. each had their own myths and ancestors, and there was no unified culture, so they could only fight for themselves.