Quote Originally Posted by shlin28
During the 18th Century China was at the height of its power, even managing to defeat Russia in some border raids, I think...

If I remember my Chinese history from college right, the golden age of China was around the 11th century during the Song dynasty. They were arguably the strongest nation in the world during this time. They were the first to use gunpowder and paper currency.

During the early 18th century, the Qing dynasty was at its height. It's a foreign dynasty, however, and by this time, China was lagging in technology already. Its economic and political systems were antiquated. Also, since the Qing is a foreign dynasty, they had to deal with quite a few revolts from native Han Chinese.