Do a simple google of chinese blast furnace, you’ll see I’m right.
As far as technology not being the “deciding factor” of British conquest . . . it was . . . the Porteguese galleons cleared the seas of their Arab competitors or western nations would never have even gained a foothold.
“Do a simple google of chinese blast furnace, you’ll see I’m right.”
It’s quite clear that ancient Chinese blast furnaces(for the production of cast iron) was largely muscle powered and entirely fueled via charcoal from wood. The major limitations for industrialization and the real expansion of this technology was the lack of an exploitable, high energy fuel source and mechanical power(coal/coke and large scale water mills respectively).
Were there earlier designs for water powered furnaces? Sure, but they obviously did not become economically practical (along with the discovery of coal/coke in the 15th century) and regionally widespread until the late 17th/early 18th century. By your measure, just because the ancient Greeks had devised primitive toy steam engines and mechanical computers in the 2nd century BC, they should have industrialized first right?