Dan Snow

How interesting that the voices are coming from that particular area.

there aren't the voices of people going, no, this is all nonsense.

Let's just go back.

Let's get back to, you know, let's get back to the 18th century.

We don't need any of this new stuff.

I guess the world in 1860, 1870, 1880, if you're just looking at the world, you think we are on the wrong side of history.

I mean, it looked like at that point.

Steam and electricity and life expectancy.

It just shows how powerful that must have been to any observer.

It just like, yeah, I think it looks to me like the Europeans and Americans have kind of cracked it here.

That was such a dominant narrative.

Where's the poetry?

You're listening to Dan Snow's History.

We'll be back after this break.

And continues potentially to do so.

But in strategic terms and power terms, Japan doesn't get invaded by Europeans.

It remains one of the very, very few places outside Europe to retain its own indigenous... I guess to have some agency in its future.

Nearly everywhere else is conquered.

And indeed, Japan will go on to...

conquer, and even eventually take on and defeat Europeans.