And how did they do that?
- go full westoxified?
- go full desified?
Then we have the other case in modern times of a "non-white" country defeating European hegemony. Tha was Ataturk in 1919. What did he do?
- go full westoxified?
- go full desified?
Something to think about it.
Well in case of Japan they completely
whitified themselves in a matter of exactly 52 years. Not only they embraced Western rationalism, Western Evidence based thinking but they took in lock,stock and barrel Western culture as well. Even now Japanese are some of the greatest connossieurs of Western clothing and Western Classical Music. Yamaha is world's greatest producer of Western style grand pianos,guitars along with of course some very fine racing motorcycles. The bombing of their ports and bay in 1853 by Col Percy put them in an existential crisis. Interestingly China was also put in an existential crisis a few decades before by the West through its Opium Wars. Both China and Japan started to modernize.
China tried by lurching towards republicanism (devolving the power of the monarch)
Japan tried by strengthening absolute monarchy
May be there is some lesson in there for other non-white countries.
But in the end Japan succeeded and China failed. Why?
I have some strong opinions on this, and to borrow your term the
latent desification of 19th century China was an order of magnitude more than that was present in Japan. By latent
desification I mean absurd respect for the supernatural
1) Even in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion,the Chinese thought that their Taoist powers would make them impervious to Western weapons. One can very well imagine how the Rebellion fared against Western Powers
2) Japan had a better understanding of reality and progress of history. Almost Graeco-Roman in spirit. Case in point: By the 19th century ,Japan already had meticulous record keeping of Sumo tournaments in the order of a few hundred years
3) The supernatural element in Japanese religious texts (I have read a few translations) is extremely reduced.
4) Of course the West itself got
whitified when they shook off Christianity and embraced Modern secular rationalism in the 1700s........
from 300 AD to 1700 AD, West itself was reeling under an ideology that was foreign to their soul. Greek philosophy and Roman ingenuity is the true Inheritance of the West.
There is a reason why Aurangzeb could defeat the Europeans in the 1600s..But the Mughals,Marathas,Tipus,Sikhs and other powerful Muslim and Hindu dynasties could not do the same in the 1700s and 1800s. The change that the European soul was undergoing was rapid
5) But I would say all is not bad regarding Christianity. Christianity kept racism in check in the Christendom.Racial supremacist theories are more of a natural consequence of Graeco-Roman urge to slice and dice nature under the umbrella of taxonomy.Whereas St. Paul's and Islam's message is that of universalism. (no Jew,no Roman,no Ethiopian under Christ sermon....)
6) I feel Atatürk also violently pursued this same policy of rationalism and secularism and he remains an enigma. Even Germans to this day have quiet respect for him and make lavish documentaries regarding him on German state television stations (most probably to piss the more religious minded Turks off)...That modern-day Turkey managed over 700 years to keep itself from getting run over by invaders, inspite of not being an island,is something that needs close study from geo-politics enthusiasts (saving the 12 year interregnum at the hands of Timur, who tortured the Turkish sultan and reportedly raped his wife and daughter)