The two main geographical characteristics that you need to consider with China are rivers and mountains. The rivers are nearly 2/3 of the current Chinese land mass. It gave the Chinese governments the advantage to control their territory just by controlling these rivers. Yes there are large rivers in Europe, but no single or two river stretch across Europe. You would have to control over nearly a dozen rivers to have the same kind of control over Europe that you have over the China. This made early Chinese governments far more effective than there European counterparts. Secondly you have a lack of large mountain ranges. In Europe the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathians, and Dinaric Mountain crisscross all of Europe. China lacks these natural barriers,
