Compare And Contrast Prince Henry And Zheng He

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Prince Henry and Zheng He were the pioneers in the history of navigation, both of them had achieved their goals successfully by sailing to unexplored areas. Zheng He addressed a formal acknowledgment of Ming Dynasty to 37 countries located along seacoast such as India and Malidi. (Wolf, 2005, p. 7) Also, He brought gifts and money back into the imperial treasury and developed a channel for trading between Ming Dynasty, eastern Asia and eastern Africa. On the other hand, Prince Henry sponsored captains to explore the western Africa and the coast nearby the equator. The sailors captured African people as slaves and raided Muslim vessels. (Wolf, 2005, p. 6) Those actions brought prosperity to Portugal. Hence, Prince Henry started the first slave trading post in Europe. (Wolf, 2005, p. 7)

Although Prince Henry and Zheng He were the great explorers, their motivations and ambitions were fundamentally different that affected the approaches adopted by them. …show more content…

He decided to spread Catholicism and to fight the infidel Moors. Thus, his sailors treated unfamiliar cultures and religions as hostile as well as searching military allies in western Africa. One of the Muslim city was attacked by Prince Henry and his brother in 1437. (Wolf, 2005, p. 7) In contrast, Zheng He was a servant of Yongle Emperor. He was just executing the orders from the emperor that were showing Ming’s power to foreign countries, establishing diplomatic relations, trading and intelligence collection. (Wolf, 2005, p. 7) Therefore, Zheng He adopted a friendly approach (offering thanks to the gods of different religions) in order to build or consolidate healthy relationships with the countries that he encountered. To a large extent, ruler’s

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