The Voyage Of Zheng He Dbq

Accompanied by 27,000 men on 62 large and 255 small ships, the Chinese eunuch Zheng He, led 7 naval expeditions to Southeast Asia, Middle East and east coast of Africa in the span of 28 years during the Ming Dynasty. The scale of Zheng He’s fleet was unprecedented in world history. The large treasure ships used during the expeditions were purported to be 440 feet long and 180 feet wide (Dreyer, p. 102). Throughout his travels, Zheng He brought Chinese tea, porcelain and silk products to foreign countries and also brought back exotic goods to the Ming court such as spices, plants and leather. Although his voyages fostered commercial trades and cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, the goal of his expeditions stemmed from

The first reason for celebration of Zheng He's voyages is his distance and destination. In 7 voyages he traveled over 105,300 miles. Examples of some places and distance he traveled was

In the early 15th century, an explorer named Zheng He started his first of many voyages to India. He was appointed by Emperor Yongle from the Ming Dynasty. He was castrated and taken away from his family at a young age. As he got older, he gained more power and authority. Zheng He's excellent leading skills lead the exploration of new cultures for China, although they did not voyage the Americas, but had an effect on exploration thereafter.

Christopher Columbus did not do a single good action in any of his four voyages in the late 1400's. Christopher Columbus was not the founder of the Americas we live in today because he did not discover it, even if he did there were already the natives who inhabited the land. It was just luck that he discovered the Americas, because he wasn’t even coming here, he got here because his ships went the wrong way and “Oh Surprise!” “We got something here to bring to Spain”

There is a very high chance that China actually did travel to Bimini Island. It's said he knew how to get around because there was a map of the whole entire world. If this is true than it would be guaranteed that Zheng He traveled to Bimini Island. The Bimini Road is a rock formation of the coast of Bimini Island. Geologists say that it is just nature making a random path underwater. Historians say that the Chines made it and used it as a dry dock. China impacted the world greatly by having the biggest maritime fleet in the world at the time and possibly making the first map of the

Zheng He, a Chinese explorer, was born in 1371 in the Yunan Province of southwestern China (background essay). When Zheng He was ten years old, his father was killed right in front of him by the Ming Dynasty’s army (background essay). He was then taken prisoner, castrated, and forced to become part of the eunuchs (background essay). As he grew older, Emperor Yongle began to trust him more and more (background essay). The Emperor trusted him to travel by ship and lead a crew down the coast of China and across the ocean to eventually land in India in 1405 (background essay). This was one of the seven voyages he would take (background essay). When asked if Zheng He’s voyages should be celebrated, three factors must be taken into account: skill, scale and significance. Skill is the measure of one’s ability to do something. Scale is the measure of actions taken to preform something. Significance is the meaning of an event. The voyages of Zheng He should not be celebrated because there was no new land discovered, the cost of the trips were expensive and wasteful, and the reasons for the voyages mainly purposed Zheng He himself and Emperor Yongle.

It is thought by many that Christopher Columbus was a skilled sailor on a mission of greed. Many think that he in fact did it all for the money, honor and the status that comes with an explorer, but this is not the case entirely. Columbus was an adventurer and was enthused by the thrill of the quest of the unknown. “Columbus had a firm religious faith and a scientific curiosity, a zest for life, the felling for beauty and the striving for novelty that we associate with the advancement of learning”. He had heard of the legendary Atlantic voyages and sailors reports of land to the west of Madeira and the Azores. He believed that Japan was about 4,800 km to the west of Portugal. In 1484, Columbus wanted support for an exploratory

Using basic knowledge of geography Christopher Columbus proposed a voyage to Asian trading posts by traveling west. The Spanish monarchy decidedly financed this mission in hopes of expanding Spanish influence in the Asian trading community. Thus, in 1492 Columbus set off on his mission to the West Indies. However, his journey did not lead to the West Indies, but rather to the Americas. This is considered to be a blessing in disguise for the Spanish because, not only were they able to discover other tradable goods but also fertile land for the

The chart under the map on Document A shows that after every stop, they sailed all the way back to Nanjing, China. According to Document A, the two longest explorations consisted of 19,000 miles roundtrip. I feel that these incredibly long voyages were a waste of time and money; they should have just continued to sail through to the next city. Zheng He sailed to a city, gathered whatever he wanted to, and then sailed back only to pass the city he left. This is incredibly ineffective, and illogical in my opinion because this wasted time and money. Referring back to my thesis, Zheng He was definitely not utilizing the maximum potential of his opportunity.

Although Zheng He was great, Magellan was a better captain overall. Magellan was a Spanish explorer who was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. He set sail on a voyage that was supposed to go around the World, but Magellan was killed before he made it. Although he did not make it around the world, he had the skills to get all the way to the Philippines. Zheng He was a Chinese admiral who led seven voyages. He was also a great captain, but he did not almost make it around the world. Instead, he stayed in the same area and stopped in the same places multiple times.

Each explorer has contributed to their country advancing the society in multiple ways. Bartholomeu Dias was a Portuguese explorer that set sail in 1487 to sail northeast into the Indian Ocean. He set sail with “two small caravels and a slower supply ship.” As stated in the textbook American Journey. After Dias was overseas for a couple days, there was a huge storm lasting two weeks. Throwing Dias off his original course, the strong winds pushed him southward in sight of land. Dias had realized that he had sailed past the southernmost point of Africa called a Cape. In 1487, Bartholomeu Dias also found a direct water route to India providing the Portuguese with another way of trading food, for different goods. In the Primary Source Packet document 2, it states, “In 1487 Dias sailed to India, finding a direct water route to India forming another trading route for the

When his thoughts and actions throughout his voyages are considered, one can see that Columbus was never

Zheng He was described as strategic, sophisticated, yet horrid during his command of the Ming navy; he ventured from the Indian to the Pacific seas during his several voyages. Zheng He was born as a Central Asian Muslim; however, he was captured by the Chinese army in 1382. Subsequently, he became one of the first of China’s sea traders under the rule of Zhu Di the Yongle in the early 1400s; most authoritative captain in the early 1400s due to the fact that he controlled approximately over 30,000 sailors along with 300 ships. Despite the fact, during his voyages, He regarded foreigners as barbarians, He would also present gifts to leaders in foreign trades on behalf of the emperor, Zhu Di’s. Moreover, “The New York Times” online article written

Luojie tea was by no mean a typical tea in the late-Ming period, but it enjoyed outstanding popularity among literati and the price also showed how it was valued. Wen Zhenheng mentioned in his famous book Superfluous Things that “the price (of Luojie tea) is particularly high.” In the vignette titled “Record of travel to Dragon Spring,” Yuan Hongdao says, “Luojie leaves are quite coarse, and a catty of the real stuff can fetch more than 2,000 cash. It took me several years of searching before I finally got my hands a few ounces” Yuan’s statement not only provided us with the exact information about the prize, but also depicts an image that Luojie tea was not actually available in the market. Yuan’s description did not over-exaggerate what

Moreover, some explorers believed that a quicker route could be found by sailing west. One such explorer was Christopher Columbus. However, many of the scholars believed the distance traveling west was much further than Columbus predicted. Due to the scholars’ advice to the leaders of Portugal and England Columbus would be denied funding from those leaders. Nonetheless, Columbus would find support from Ferdinand and Isabella, the Monarchs of Spain. Columbus’ expedition happened in 1492, 5 years earlier than da Gama’s (“Christopher Columbus”). The expedition was not considered as successful, as da Gama’s, in the sense that the expedition came nowhere near the East Indies. In another way, it was considered successful because Columbus discovered new territory for Spain. The New World that Columbus discovered was in what we know as the Caribbean. During that period the islands of the region would become known as the West Indies.