ABSTRACT
The centralized bureaucratic state created by Emperor Qin Shihuang endured for 2,000 years. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the dynasty had begun to display some of the characteristic symptoms of a sunset regime. Imperialism is not a uniquely European or modern undertaking. Imperialism is "the extension of sovereignty or control, whether direct or indirect, political or economic, by one government, nation or society over another". To China's utter dismay and humiliation, the Imperial Japanese army quickly overran the Chinese forces, even the vaunted Beiyang naval fleet. Some maintain that without racism as its "base logic", imperialism would never have worked. The intellectual rationale that facilitated the West's subjugation and colonization of other peoples was predicated on the notion of race, in particular the belief in the innate superiority of the Caucasian race.
