1500, unprecedented changes began to take place in the world. The so-called Ottoman Empire and Mughal Empire, with internal troubles and foreign invasion, are in danger and heading for decline. But those countries that dare to roll in the tide of the times, such as Portugal and Spain.

As a small marginal country, how can "Er Ya" stand out from all these disturbances and win western hegemony? Spain became the first empire not to fall. But why did the ancient oriental civilization with four great inventions step by step into a historical recession?

The success or failure of history has its own destiny. As latecomers, we only need a pair of exploring eyes and a thirst for knowledge. Then all mysteries can be solved through teacher Guo's crisis.

The book Crisis brings together the author's research achievements in the past 20 years and introduces a brief history of the world crisis of 1520-202 1. The author analyzes the political, economic and historical events related to the crisis in history, which makes us have evidence to check and rules to follow. So in my opinion, this is not only a brief history, but also a general history.

Let's take a look together.

1 Thinking changes, making the crisis a turning point.

From 1500, food preservation mainly depended on spices, but at this time the land fortress was controlled and spices were in short supply. Two teeth have to live in the cracks. Prince Henry of Portugal founded the Navigation School, started ocean voyage, expanded the territory, and gained a lot of spices and jewels.

During the same period, Portugal's arch-rival Spain was also seeking a breakthrough. With the support of the Spanish royal family, Columbus and Magellan embarked on a sea adventure. One discovered the new continent, and the other completed the voyage around the world. Successfully brought a lot of gold and silver wealth to the Spanish royal family.

As the book says: 1520' s great voyage and geographical discovery opened the curtain of great changes in the world. The land power was gradually replaced by the rising maritime power, and history turned a new page. Portuguese and Spanish are obviously deep-water bombs, and they are also the best in this period.

Arrogance is the main reason why a country goes from prosperity to depravity.

As the saying goes, if you become Xiao He, you lose. A large amount of gold and silver wealth made Portugal and Spain quickly become maritime hegemons, but these feudal monarchs were busy with pleasure and extravagance, did not use the money to develop industry and commerce, and even drove away foreigners who invested in their own countries. As a result, it flourished and declined, the industry shrank extremely and the currency depreciated sharply.

As the book says: this is not only the weakness of human nature, but also the law of historical replacement, and it is also the cycle of national rise and fall.

With the "two big teeth" going into decline due to arrogance and extravagance. Three other small countries in western Europe-Britain, France and the Netherlands-began to exert their strength and become emerging development forces. Then, another historical cycle began. If you are interested, you can browse it in detail.

Closing the country to the outside world will lead a country from prosperity to decline.

/kloc-in the 0 th and 6 th centuries, the western world vigorously carried out navigation activities and carried out various reforms and innovations. As the dragon of the East, the Ming Dynasty in the East did the opposite. After Zheng He's voyage to the West, the Ming government began to implement a sea ban throughout the country, and only a few periods of limited switches were implemented. And this undoubtedly quickly opened the gap with the western world.

In order to consolidate the border and prevent Japanese invaders from invading, the Qing government further implemented the policy of closing the country to the outside world. All foreign trade is completely banned, and even those who secretly do business with foreign countries will go to jail. Therefore, this oriental dragon is completely out of this great era.

It was not until later that the Qing government was knocked on the east gate by bandits from Britain, the United States and Japan that our Qing government woke up from a dream and regretted it too late.

To sum up, whether it is the rise and fall of "Er Ya" or the decline of national strength caused by the closed door of the Ming and Qing governments, it is telling us that "change is the truth of death". I think this is also one of the warnings that the book crisis tells us.

Of course, this book has spanned 500 years from 1520 to 202 1, with various political, economic and historical events criss-crossing, and various crises have emerged in the past 500 years. Seemingly irrelevant, in fact, one link is linked. Through this book, Mr. Guo made us understand the general situation of this historical development and the background of the crisis, as well as the countermeasures of various countries. This article is just a glimpse of a leopard in a tube.

The so-called history as a mirror, we can know the rise and fall, and people as a mirror, we can know the gains and losses. We understand the past in order to move forward better, whether for individuals or for the country.