In the list of armed interventions in the previous post, there should
have been a mention of: 1415, "Chinese troops intervened in the internal
affairs of Samudra-Pasai, in northwestern Sumatra." (Gernet, A History
of Chinese Civilization, p. 401.) Notice that, with the exception of the
Sri Lankan war, all the interventions occurred in the Indonesia-Malaysia
region, which was a Chinese trading partner for hundreds of years. So
was Sri Lanka, come to think about it. But as I said, 1405-1415 represented
the Slack Season.
Now, did Vasco da Gama, or even Alfonso de Albuquerque, do anything this
nasty?
This entire period, from 1331 (outbreak of Bubonic Plague in China) to
1431 (victory and death of Joan of Arc, ensuring language-based nation
states in Europe) was a wildly contingent conjuncture, such that nobody
could tell who, what, or where would become the core area of the world
system, for what reason, or whether, should there actually be capitalism,
what it would look like. One thing is clear. If there was to be capitalism,
it would not be in China after 1368, or even earlier. Where as of 1331,
the Chinese version was the leading contender among proto-capitalisms.
If, therefore, the core of the World System was not to be in East Asia,
it had to be somewhere else, since with capitalism, we no longer allow
polycentric world-systems. Is that right? Now, logically, if WS theory
is correct, *the core must be somewhere*, and *the core cannot be China
anymore*, so *the core has got to be elsewhere*, therefore *the core
must be European*. This allows for the core being a metaphysical entity,
too, of course.
If you don't see the point of this, call me.
Daniel A. Foss