EN
In the article, an attempt was made to identify the most important factors that contributed to the loss of dominant position of China in the South-East Asian region under the influence of the expansion of the European countries, which consisted inter alia of: competition – which revealed in the crushed medieval Europe; the scientific revolution, espe-cially in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology, to the transition to a capitalist and a highly industrial economy; the development of the rule of law and representative government based on the law of private property, liberating modern methods of economy and economics; modern medicine allowing to increase the quality and length of life; the development of the consumer society – releasing tech-nological progress in order to meet the growing demand; a high level of work ethic – revealing by the increase in productivity and the accumula-tion of capital; the influence of cultural civilization of ancient Greece, Rome and Christianity – acting in all of the areas of the socio-political and economic Europe.