[quote="dsj"]

Originally Posted by skywalker

A lot of europen military technology was from the east such as the trebeuchet and gunpowder and the swords in europe were awful compard to asian swords as the broadswords in europe more battered an opponent to death rather than cut them like the samurai etc.

but who developed them?
They developed them independently! Im not sure what your trying to say here, as if you are saying that europeans invented the weapons and then the asians took them then i cant see that being right as china had a civilized society with weapons before contact with europeans
Many U.S equipments were invented in britian like the radar but does that mean the united states is technologically inferior to britian? Europe was able to conquer large areas of islamic territories at the heart of the islamic world.
The ottoman turks controlled the balkans in europe for centuries and western nations did fight against them and could not drive them out!


That shows their military power that they were not weaker.
No they were not weaker but they were not stronger either as the muslims did drive them out after each crusade!

Europe was capable of armouring extremely large amounts of their soldiers which other cultures could not.
[color=blue]Other cultures might not needed to of! Maybe asian countries could equip large amounts of troops but they didnt have to! we dont know!

Doesn't matter who had it first. And europe did have many inventions too. You are pointing single facts that dose not reprsent their strength. Europe have large quantities of high quality troops and a strong stable economy as a back supporter for wars

You havent pointed out any things that show that europe was a stronger society! youve pointed out where europe won against asian armys but not the fact they did lose as well! Europe had large amounts of high quality troops because there have been wars in europe continuosly for the last 1000yrs and more! if china was constantly at war then they to would have large amounts of high quality troops because they would need them! The economy of european nations has always fluctuated the english civil war was partly started by the fact that the taxes were so high!

Truth be told, its probably a difficult comparison between the Middle East and Europe after you factor everything into it. But lets be straight about a few things. The Christian/European/Western dominance over everything the Meditteranean touched was brought to a crashing halt by Arabic armies who overwhelmed North Africa, Spain, Palestine/Israel and modern day Turkey. The Byzantine Empire was the impassable bottleneck in the East, and Charles Martel pulled off a brilliant victory at Tours to help stop the Arabic incursions into the Western European countries. So the West starts off by getting its butt kicked, but managing to slow down and finally stop the flood.

From there, things settled into a long stalemate. The Crusades worked briefly at taking back tiny portions of what the West had lost, but they couldn't hold them for long. Every Crusade after the First was a failure.

The momentum reverses direction as Spain pushes the Moors out. But on the other side of Europe, things were quite the opposite. The Ottomans hit the scene, what's left of the Byzantine Empire gets swallowed bit by bit until they take Constantinople in 1494. The Ottomans also get pretty far into Europe before their getting beaten near Vienna. Then things settle into another stalemate of sorts. So at that point, Europe loses one large penninsula and gains another.

As the Renaissance kicks in, Europe advances greatly and accomplishes big things. Their technology surpasses the Far East obviously, but the Middle East copies numerous advances and is by no means left in the dust. During this time period, the Ottomans and Russians go at it repeatedly, with the Russians eventually pushing the Turks southward.

The Industrial Revolution is the most obvious defining point at which West runs away with it. I don't see one side having dramatically outdone the other before then.

As for Europe "stopping" the Mongols, you need to do more research about that. There were reasons the Mongols left, and it had nothing to do with having been beaten.