We have to trade with the other 95 percent.

and it was making good money off of trade with its colonies, including the slave trade.

It's not actually recognized as an independent state and this has a lot to do with how and why Taiwan was settled by China and One of the most important things to remember in this story is that the island has been home to indigenous peoples for thousands of years These people are not directly related to the Chinese In fact, they are Austronesian speaking groups who arrived along the same migration patterns as New Zealand, Polynesia Hawaii and Indonesia these indigenous groups developed distinct cultures and lived in scattered communities Primarily in the mountainous interior and along the coasts their presence remains a significant part of Taiwan's identity today Though they make up only about 2% of the population or about 600,000 people So in a way Taiwan is as much of a colonized country as many parts of the Western Hemisphere But let's get back to how modern Taiwan was established the earliest mentions of Taiwan interacting with China begin around the year 230 when military troops from the Eastern Wu Kingdom of China's Three kingdoms period landed on its shores though There is some debate on whether this was actually Taiwan that they landed on or not Various reports would include some mention of Taiwan albeit under different names for the next 1,400 years During the 1600s Taiwan became a contested territory the Dutch established a colony in the south the Spanish briefly held territory in the north and Chinese settlers mostly from Fujian province Gradually moved on to the island the Dutch were eventually expelled by Koxinga a Ming loyalist who used Taiwan as a base of resistance against the Qing Dynasty however his rule was short-lived as Qing forces took control of Taiwan in 1683 and Incorporated it into their Empire for over two centuries Taiwan remained under Qing rule though its position on the Empire's periphery meant it was often overlooked this changed in 1895 when the Qing were forced to cede Taiwan to Japan after their defeat in the first Sino-Japanese war the Japanese brought Modernization to the island building infrastructure railways and industry while also implementing strict colonial rule Though resistance existed Japan's influence reshaped Taiwan leaving a legacy that persists in aspects of its architecture education and economy after Japan's defeat in World War two Taiwan was handed back to China in 1945 and this proved to be very lucky for the Taiwan that exists today While remaining as a backwater through much of China's history Taiwan would eventually occupy a prominent place in the Chinese Civil War which had begun in the late 1920s The Nationalist Republic of China government under Chiang Kai-shek fought against the communist forces led by Mao Zedong despite initial advantages the Nationalists suffered a series of devastating defeats due to poor leadership corruption and dwindling public support by 1949 the communists had gained control of mainland China Forcing the Nationalist government to retreat to Taiwan Chiang Kai-shek and his followers established their base on the island bringing with them millions of refugees military forces and much of China's cultural and financial wealth at the time though the Nationalist government continued to claim sovereignty over all of China its control was Effectively limited to Taiwan and a few offshore islands It was during this period that saw much of the Western world namely the United States Canada and Western Europe aligned with Taiwan and recognized it as a country leaving mainland China as a global outsider however between 1950 and 1971 this recognition gradually eroded as Western countries sought to recognize mainland China as the sole China in order to establish trade with the much larger economic base and Because mainland China still claimed ownership of Taiwan it mandated that no country could recognize Taiwan as an independent country Despite the fact that it is independent for all intents and purposes This isolated Taiwan from global diplomacy, but not from global trade despite its diplomatic isolation Taiwan's economy surged in the late 1900s transforming from an agrarian society into a global industrial and technological powerhouse Democratic reforms began in the late 1980s culminating in the first direct presidential election in 1996 since then Taiwan has functioned as a democratic society distinct from mainland China Despite Beijing's continued claims over the island which leads us to today's population divide Hey, sorry for the interruption.

The Renaissance started in Florence, Italy, which became very wealthy thanks to trade with the Ottoman Empire, the biggest economic power in the region.

If they don't want to trade with us anymore, that would be fine with me.

I really basically know nothing about the war, but my grandparents They are fighting in the war and now we can like look at the sky and see the plane and not scare at all Vietnam is a young country 70% of its people were born after 1975 they have no memory of the war What they do know is their country was once divided and occupied and now is united and independent That is something to celebrate Now relations between Vietnam and America have improved dramatically in the last decade or so and trade with America is Incredibly important for this young country which has export oriented industries They have been very shocked in the last month when President Trump announced his tariff table at the beginning of April Vietnam was slapped with 46% tariffs on exports to the United States that has been temporarily suspended But there is a fear here now They are being dragged back into another struggle between China and the United States this time over trade and who will dominate the world economy in the future Rupert, thank you very much Rupert Wingfield Hayes in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

So this really impacts, for example, trade with India and with Turkey because so far Russia has been im exporting oil to those countries.

But there's the rest of the world, and especially the rest of the world that is not at the same level of technological sophistication yet, so you can perhaps use your military in order to force them to trade with you.

And funnily enough, in a meeting today, Xi Jinping said that China has to increase its trade with, guess where, its neighbouring countries, those very same countries.

Boris Johnson claimed that this would establish better trade deals with the EU and open Britain for increased trade with the rest of the world.