s North China Campaign of 1860 was not unex- pected; most immediately, it followed, and was partly inspired by, wars in Algeria and India in the preceding decades. Yet, there might seem to be a contradiction between the liberal character of the leaders of the cam- pai gn and the ir T ali ban -li k e dem oli tio n of the pal ac es and gar den s a t Y uanmingyuan. Ringmar , how eve r , disputes tha t a contradiction exis ts . Liberalism in the mid-19th century championed free exchange. When the liberal ’ free-market policies met with resistance, s...
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51