The Fall and Rise of China

Malthus and Manchu Hubris, 1730–1800 (1x2)

Air date: Jan 01, 2010

Complex social and economic forces ended China's millennium of supremacy as an empire. Learn about the empire's era of global exploration, followed by long, complacent isolationism. Then chart the economic strain of the 18th-century population explosion and the effects of European economic expansion and the opium trade.