An “old” friend spoke with arrogance when he said that the US would spank China if they didn’t behave, which is evidence that arrogance doesn’t infect only a nation’s leaders.
If America and China were in fact arrogant, it wouldn’t be the first time powerful countries acted that way. In fact, both nations could learn from history what happens when arrogance from too much power influences actions.
The Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911) was China’s last Imperial Dynasty, and during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736 – 1796), the borders of China were expanded to their greatest extent in more than two thousand years. His reign was also a time of great prosperity for China.
With such accomplishments and power, it should not come as a surprise when the Qianlong Emperor rejected King George III’s request to increase trade between Britain and China—an arrogant rejection which would return to haunt China within forty-six years when Britain, acting arrogant, forced China to comply.
See When the Generals Laughed or return to the Dangers of Arrogance – Part 1
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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