SNAPSHOTChinese Technological Achievements

Before the technological explosion of the European Industrial Revolution during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, China had long been the major center of global technological innovation.28 Many of those inventions spread to other civilizations, where they stimulated imitation or modification. Since Europe was located at the opposite end of the Eurasian continent from China, it often took considerable time for those innovations to give rise to something similar in the West. That lag is also a measure of the relative technological development of the two civilizations in premodern times.

InnovationFirst Used in China (approximate)Adoption/Recognition in the West: Time Lag in Years (approximate)
Iron plow6th–4th century B.C.E.2,000+
Cast iron4th century B.C.E.1,000–1,200
Efficient horse collar3rd–1st century B.C.E.1,000
Paper2nd century B.C.E.1,000
Wheelbarrow1st century B.C.E.900–1,000
Rudder for steering ships1st century C.E.1,100
Iron chain suspension bridge1st century C.E.1,000–1,300
Porcelain3rd century C.E.1,500
Magnetic compass for navigation9th–11th century C.E.400
Gunpowder9th century C.E.400
Chain drive for transmission of power976 C.E.800
Movable type printing1045 C.E.400