The Results of Zheng He’s Expeditions: Were They What He Had Hoped for?

    Emperor Gaozu unified China by doing many things.  He conquered regions near the Tang, expanding the Dynasty.  He also implemented rules put in place by Emperor Wen of Sui that were replaced when Emperor Yang came to power.  Under his ruling, a new coin was minted and trade was promoted. (Totally History)

Western imperialism in China was very significant, costed the lives of millions of people, but also helped shape China into a much stronger country than it was before, being ruled by the Qing Dynasty. Imperialism is a country extending its power and influence through the use of military force. There were two wars between the imperialists and China, the first and second Opium wars. The result of these wars was the weakening of the Qing Dynasty and led to a time of rebuilding, which was a great struggle, for China. The Europeans wanted to trade with China because of the great opportunity that they saw in the market. China’s population, which was 430 million, was seen as a fast and easy way for the Europeans to make a lot of money. The

Emperor Yongle intended to awe the rulers of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean into sending tribute to China (Dreyer, p. 27). Zheng He and his fleets needed to establish Chinese presence and influences in those countries in order to enforce the tributary system. Although China had no interest in imperial expansion through oceanic exploration like the Europeans did, navy power was traditionally associated with the strength of a nation. Therefore, the gigantic treasure ships, the significant scale of Zheng He’s crew as well as the Chinese goods he brought to the foreign countries all served the political needs to display wealth and power of the Middle Kingdom.

Zheng He and Ferdinand Magellan led two very different expeditions due to a number of factors including resources and the treatment of natives. Both men were strong leaders, although they both had different trust levels with their commanders. Zheng He had plentiful resources, although he was not as cautious with resources as he could be. Magellan started his journey with very little, probably leading to his demise. Overall, Zheng He and Magellan started with varying levels of resources and trust from the start of their expeditions leading to their outcomes.

T. S. Elliot once said “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” In a time before computers, internet, and satellites, if you wanted to see a place you had to sail there on a massive boat. Zheng He and Christopher Columbus wanted to see knew places with the help of their monarchs, their dream came true. Little did they know then, but their voyages would become legend. Not only were they adventurers, they were responsible for the lives of everyone who went with them on their treacherous journey. When they got where they were going they ran into the local indigenous people, but the people were treated differently based on who landed on their shore. While Columbus and He were both great explorers they did not always find what they were searching for, but usually something much better. They made great discoveries for someone so young. The main story of this time was China and Spain wanting to discover as much as possible during their explorations, so they could claim more of the world that the other. Columbus and Spain wanted to bypass normal trade routes and find new lands to make trading easier. He and China wanted to expand trade relations with new countries.

First, in the background essay, it says he was attacked by pirates and attacked by many other peoples and still made it back to China with his whole crew. Another reason is in Doc D. It says He brought tribute to foreign lands and people. This created an excellent trading opportunity. Finally, Zheng He was skillful in communication. In Doc E, it tells about how he communicated with the other countries by displaying China’s power while still showing kindness to the distant peoples. Zheng He’s skill affected how china communicated with the other peoples of the world. He showed kindness by bringing tribute, while still showing China’s power by bringing an army of soldiers with him. He also escaped many attacks and lived to take more

Exploration has been an important action to take part of since the beginning of time. We have to explore to find out what’s out there right? We could potentially obtain so much knowledge, and so many resources. You can only obtain the maximum potential of something if your motives and ideology are correct. A great example of someone who had the potential to do so much good, and obtain so much greatness was a Chinese admiral by the name of Zheng He. Zheng He watched his father die at the hand of the Ming Dynasty, along with being castrated himself. Zheng He was forced to join thousands of eunuchs, and then rose quickly through the ranks of the military. The emperor basically assigned Zheng He the task of leading a fleet of exploration

One extremely prosperous time of the trade in China was in the Ming Dynasty under the reign of Yonglo. This was because during this period, the explorer, Zheng He, was promoting the trade with China and showing off the Chinese culture through goods like silk or ceramic art. He went on seven voyages to places like Southeast Asia, the Indian Coast, the Arabian Peninsula, and East Africa (document 2). One effect of his voyages was the making of a port city called Canton where the Portuguese, Dutch, and English merchants all traded with China. Unfortunately, after the death of Zheng He, the explorations ended due to it being too costly and then came the end of external trade after limiting contact with other places.

The most well-known expeditions are those of European explorers such as Christopher Columbus, but there are many lesser known voyages from history, including the voyages of Chinese Muslim diplomat Zheng He.   After driving out the Mongol leaders who controlled China, the Chinese fell under the power of the Ming Dynasty in 1368.   In 1405, Yongle, the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty, appointed Zheng He to lead the first of seven voyages of exploration of the outside world.

The Chinese were greatly influenced because of trade. Marco Polo was a political influence because of trade. He left Venice, and crossed Persia and Central Asia to reach China. He then spent seventeen years in the emperor's service. Finally Marco Polo returned home and wrote an account of the splendor and wealth of China, which would not become popular until the printing press invention.

Zheng He may have journeyed far, but with little avail compared to competing captains. As the image in The Voyages of Zheng He: 1405-1433 depicts, his ships sailed to only populated areas with very little undiscovered territory (Document A). Unlike other famed explorers, who became popular off of their discovery of new land, Zheng He remained in an area within proximity of China and made no discoveries worth recognizing. In addition, the chart in When China Ruled the Sea shows Zheng He’s mileage compared to Columbus’s (Document B). He traveled nearly two days slower than his fellow explorer, and made far less progress.

Have you ever seen a treasure ship larger than a football field? Crazy right? But yet it was accomplish by a man with the name of Zheng He. Many people do not recognize him because all of his records were destroyed, but he was astonishing. If you ask me, I say we should celebrate the voyages of Zheng He. Why? He spent twenty-eight years of his life traveling and traveled one hundred five thousand, three hundred miles in total! He also had enormous ships, crew members, and seven voyages compared to others. Lastly he brought peace and people together from all places, also made sea trade safer.

The reason that we are reading, “When China Ruled the Seas” by Louise Levathes is in order to help us create a better understanding of the Chinese rule and how they became such a great dynasty. It helps us to see how China rose to become a great maritime power and also how it its navy disintegrated. “When China Ruled the Seas” shows us why the Chinese emperors decided to destroy its navy. It helps us learn more about China’s voyages of exploration, including how long they lasted, the reason for them, how far they extended and the impact they had on China itself and

Early Ming representations of merchants include the view, “…people too up trade because they couldn’t service by staying at home and tilling the fields as they were supposed to. Faced with starvation, they took to the roads as peddlers (Brook, p. 71). However, the allure of a mercantilist life instead of the typical agrarian existence would soon fall into favor.

Are many reasons why the voyages of Zheng He were very remarkable. One reason is the size of everything on the voyages, the distance he traveled, the fleet size, and the measurements and crew of the ship. His voyages consisted of sailing from port to port along the Indian Ocean. Also, everywhere he went he distributed gifts to show how superior China was, and as a result, over sixteen countries sent tribute to the Ming