The world has become a place filled with a great diversity of cultures. Each country slowly developed into a somewhat dependent society, because of premodern events, even if these events did not contribute to each other. There are different types of religions and ideas that have spread and changed in all parts of the world, like the Silk Roads. If it hadn't been for this great divergence, we wouldn't have the society we have now. If it were not for Ming China and the centuries of xenophobia among its people and empire, our entire world today could have been dominated by China. In premodern times, Ming China was not as populous and geographically extensive as it is today, but it was still quite important in both aspects, especially compared to other empires of that era. About half of China's population worked for the government in one way or another. These people known as bureaucrats were highly educated and knew how to read and write. Education has helped the country to be smart about trade, foreign aspects and military tactics. Having most of the country educated in good political manners also meant that their powerful army would be intelligent enough to come up with techniques to defend territory as well as invade surrounding lands. Hung-Wu, the first emperor of Ming China, created a very different type of national government. guard which differed from traditional guards. This new type of army called Wei-So resembled today's U.S. National Guard. These men were trained to become soldiers in case they were needed at any time in combat. Pensions would be granted to them in exchange for their service. Heavy armies needed large quantities of weapons, but especially large ships to navigate around bodies of water. It's easy to... middle of paper ... China would most likely have spread beyond its borders and taken over every country. We see how other empires like the Roman Empire and the Mongol Empire also expanded, but experienced problems due to lack of population and availability. For the Ming, population was not a problem. Their main problem was that they simply didn't bother to deal with other countries that didn't pose a threat to them. All these examples can really show how mind-boggling it is that we are not under Chinese rule today. Everyone should be grateful for the phobia maintained by Ming China for centuries. It's hard to imagine how different the world would be if it were under Chinese rule. Luckily that didn't happen, otherwise we'd all be a boring, same-old society. Events such as the xhenophobic period in China may seem senseless and unimportant, but it is actually what influenced the way history unfolded..