Zheng He's Journeys

Zheng He was one of the greatest explorers in the Age of Exploration however, his fame is not widely celebrated today. Zheng He was the powerful and wealthy adviser for Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty. The Emperor sent Zheng He on a mission to travel to foreign lands ranging from the tip of India to the eastern parts of Africa to give them gifts to show China’s power and dominance. He started these voyages in 1405 and eventually captained seven of them before retiring. The Chinese felt that the cost of the expeditions outweighed the benefits.

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

During the age of exploration and colonization, Portuguese mariners first found success in establishing trade along the African coast. They set up trading posts on offshore island using a new ship design, planting a variety of crops and trading commodities with people along the coast. Additionally, Vasco da Gama travelled around the tip of Africa to trade with East Africa and India. While their most of their goods were seen as inferior, da Gama returned with fighting vessels and established trading posts in the Indian Ocean by using force.

The author also mentions that China-based their economy on the exchange of silver. Another important thing in this chapter was the role of the Chinese voyages in the history of China and the entire world. The voyages that were created around the 1400s were used for three reasons,

Asia was the center of trade, business and craft. Many countries tried to find a direct route to Asia, in order to increase trade. Whereas, China decided to uphold isolationism. Its population was one hundred million people in four million miles of square land. China did not want more land, nor more subjects to govern. In fact, China had more people than it can govern. Yongle Emperor sent Zheng He to purchase various spices, goods and conduct trade. Zheng He was a Muslim Chinese eunuch trusted by the

Both traded along the Indian Ocean using maritime trade. As the Ming traded along the Indian Ocean, they attained luxuries, for example silver, in exchange for Chinese exports such as cotton, silk and porcelain. The Ming Emperor, Zheng He, also sailed across the Indian Ocean. He is best known for the 7 sailing expeditions, which navigated across the Indian Ocean and the Southeast Asian archipelago. Zheng He's ships carried export goods; silks and porcelains, and he also brought back foreign luxuries such as spices and tropical woods. As for the Ottoman Empire, they also traded along the Indian Ocean; however, with items they had already attained. Armenians and Jews would often go to the port of Izmir, along the Ottoman Empire, and bring wool, beeswax, cotton and silk, causing great traffic. The Ottomans then traded these items in exchange for other luxurious items. Another similarity between the Ottoman and the Ming was why they traded along the Indian Ocean. Both traded along the Indian Ocean due to geography. The Ottomans were located closely to the Indian Ocean; they also had the right technology to trade along it, including ships and compasses. The Ming also traded along the Indian Ocean due to their geography. They were located nearest to the Indian Ocean, which then caused them to trade along it; also Zheng He had also laid out the groundwork for the Chinese to start trading

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 purpose of these voyages was to explore foreign lands unfamiliar to the Chinese.   In addition, China hoped to establish trade relationships with foreign countries and expand the Chinese tribute system.  The Changle Inscription, 1431, an inscription carved into a stone pillar in eastern China near the city of Changle shortly before Zheng He’s seventh voyage, stated that, “we captured alive and barbarian bandits who invaded and plundered we wiped out.  

Although Vasco da Gama sailed around the southern tip of Africa in 1488 to find a trade route to India, he was also looking for other Christian kings and spices. Da Gama was known as “captain-major” to his crew-mates, and he was an ambassador for Prince Henry. When he landed in India, he gave two letters to the king of Calicut. In a cultural misunderstanding, Vasco da Gama tried to give gifts to the king that were laughed at because the poorest merchant would give gifts better than the gift that da Gama gave. Although Vasco da Gama gave the wrong gift to the king, he still

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 voyages of the treasure fleet were not to inhabit foreign lands, but to open up foreign dealings and international relations. Zheng He managed this and even established trading posts in many of the places he stopped at. These trading posts were also used as warehouses to store goods until they could be sold. He also built a chain of dispatch stations the merchants could stop and rest at. The dispatch stations were spaced out so that overnight stays would be easier for travelers and traders. All of this also helped China?s economy by making trades easier for merchants. Chinese authority also spread around the world because many Chinese traders moved out of the country to work in the warehouses.

In the book, When China Ruled the Seas, Levathes tells us about seven voyages made by junk armadas during the Chinese emperor Zhu Di's reign. "Treasure ships" as they were called, were under the command of admiral Zheng He, these ships traded silk, porcelain, and many other fine objects of value. They sailed from India to East Africa, throughout Korea and Japan, and possibly as far as Australia. She believes that China might have been able to create a great colonial realm one hundred years before the Europeans explored and expanded, from China's navy of some three thousand ships.

In the overcoming of the obstacles to this advancement – including pervasive myths, uncharted nautical territory, jealous rivals, a comparatively small population, and very little agricultural wealth to capitalize on – Prince Henry became the creator of the legacy of the Asian arm of the Portuguese empire. By his death in 1460, Prince Henry had left Portugal as the top power of the seas and abroad with the best maritime knowledge and an abundant amount of forts allowing direct access to the riches of both Africa and India (Ames, 25-26). Further progress quickly followed, including the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope by Bartolomeu Dias; the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas, granting Portugal sole control over the land and sea to the east of the line of demarcation cutting through South America; and Vasco da Gama’s triumphant voyage to India and back via the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Taken together, these events prove that Portugal had found a successful route to the profitable Indian spice trade that cut out the middlemen. Furthermore, following da Gama’s return, the Portuguese monarch took his success as a sign from God that Portugal was meant to establish their control over those parts of Asia and spread the true faith to its inhabitants, inciting a second flurry of voyages

Emperor Yongle sponsored Captain Zheng He’s fleet of over 300 ships and a crew of upwards of 27,000 members, into the South China Sea for purposes of trading in the year 1405. “Zheng He’s expeditions served to establish Chinese power and prestige in the Indian Ocean and to exert Chinese control over foreign trade in the region. The Chinese, however, did not seek to conquer new territories, establish Chinese settle-ments, or spread their culture, though they did intervene in a number of local disputes, p 568” The Chinese took a completely non-militaristic approach to these expeditions. This being a very important factor supporting the thesis. There is strong evidence given here that suggests that Emperor Yongle was not interested in conquering new land and expanding their territories. He was more interested in impressing the rest of the region (being the South China Sea and the coasts of the Indian Ocean) and giving them a message that said China is on top of the economic ladder. This is a key component to why the Chinese empire did not find the New World

While Vasco de Gama proved to be the symbol of the early Portuguese Empire because of his achievements and voyage from South Africa to India in 1497-98, Camoes became the symbol of Portuguese identity by making known de Gama’s voyages and the empire in his epic, The Lusiads in 1572. In the Lusiads by Luis Vaz de Camoes, he depicts the Portuguese empire in a poem that narrates the explorer Vasco da Gama and what his voyage underwent through the Cape of Good Hope and into India. He explains Gama’s journey began to build the Portuguese empire by first forming a national identity through a correlation between colonization and new discoveries across the world in the sixteenth century. Creating the Portuguese empire into a national identity was a major impact to other empires that are geographically connected to the Portuguese because of their desire in expanding, which caused hostility by creating a common enemy through military forces that pushed towards territory and religious beliefs. Camoes experienced Gama’s voyage half-a-century later, which made him the first European artist to cross the equator. Through his experiences he illustrates how a regular man that has never been seen of nor heard of can become a common hero because of the Portuguese Empire being a small Empire. Camoes, the national poet of Portugal acknowledges the Portuguese empire in The Lusiads, by describing the identity of Portugal being a group achievement and not one-man’s achievement.