History buff chiming in:
Education was not compulsory back then and only few could read.
Depending on where/when you are referring to, this could be very wrong. Education has been compulsory in the US since the 1800s, and America has had a high literacy rate since its founding. John T. Gatto wrote more on twisting historical literacy rates, and cites Stone et. al., but the source has been memory holed.
Back then, the Brits were much more intelligent than the malnourished Chinks.
Actually, the Chinese just had a woman for an Emperor. She sucked, and spent no money on military development, instead erecting massive gold statues every time she had a birthday. This is why she lost the Opium Wars, started by British jews smuggling Opium, the new drug of choice, into China. She continued to suck until the 8 nations sacked Beijing, and then jews propped up Mao and ended the dynasties entirely.
We were in the context of the distant past. Before the industrial revolution literacy was in general poor, except among the Jews.
China might have been mismanaged by that woman, but the British were at or about their peak, speaking of intelligence.
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