Conquest - Or Not

The European conquest of the New World was mostly just a matter of germs and technology. The conquest of much of Asia is harder to explain. Europeans had no germs that Asia hadn't already seen, and the technological differences were fairly small. China was constructing ships far larger and otherwise superior to those of Vasco da Gama and Columbus 100 years earlier. Japan saw European guns and a few decades later was making better ones itself, only to completely abandon the technology in a few decades more.

The failures of China and India to effectively resist are the biggest puzzle. Almost certainly the failure was one of social organization, in that they were unwilling or unable to reorganize themselves for effective resistance. Essentially, I am guessing, their civilizations had become too conservative and too set in their ways to recognize and face the threat.

In the case of India, I am counting on Arun to set me straight.

I see certain parallels to the modern situation. The US and Western Civilization generally face existential threats from the consequences of global warming and other ecodestruction, but they are nearly completely paralyzed in their response. I can imagine some advisor to the Chinese emperor advising him not to worry about the British because the real threat was some monks with radical ideas, or a new scheme of health care, or gay marriage...