 China was the wealthiest part of the world from 1200 to the 1300s — aside from Italy until the European Renaissance took off during the late Middle Ages and the modern Western World and Japan overtook China it during the mid and late-19th century.China accounted for around one-quarter of the global GDP until the late 1700s and approximately one-third of the global GDP in 1820 as the Industrial Revolution was beginning in Great Britain.China's GDP in 1820 was six times as large as Britain’s, the largest economy in Europe — and almost 20 times the GDP of the nascent United States.