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Long term significance of Zheng He and his voyages
Us and china trade
Zheng He- essay
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Who was Zheng He? Zheng He was a eunuch, explorer, admiral, and a trader. Zheng conducted a total of seven naval expeditions (1405-1433) across the Indian ocean. He died during his last expedition and was buried at sea. The Ming government financed He’s expedition for many reasons. The Chinese wanted to make their presence known and to take control over trade. During his explorations, he was known for his diplomacy. It is believed that He established trade relationship with 25 or more countries across the Indian ocean. Zheng He voyages promoted cooperation between countries, peace, and trade without conflict. Christopher Columbus’s first voyage was in 1492 and he oversaw three voyages. The three he had command over were the Nina, Pinta,
On reason we should celebrate is his fleet made incredible distances and destinations, especially for the period of time he traveled in. Zheng He traveled 105,300 total miles in his life. (DOC A) One round trip from Nanjing, his home port in China, to Calicut, one of many destinations he traveled to on his voyages, was a total of 11,600 miles. (DOC A) It took 18,500 total miles to take a round trip from Nanjing to the east of Africa, which was another one of the popular ports that he traveled to. (DOC A) The distance that was
His first voyage took place in 1598 with his uncle. He was on his own for his next trip which lasted 2 years. He was in France from 1603 until 1607. They then found some West Indians that
Zheng got government-outfitted fleets and fully sponsored resources from the Ming dynasty ruler Yongle. The same as Henry got monopolies and broad-based supports from the King Duarte I, Portuguese merchants, the Catholic Church and loyal peasants. However, the initiation behind them were different. On one hand, Zheng was a eunuch been ordered by the emperor to take voyages. He was just an official executor under the emperor’s will of consolidating his imperial power and displayed the great Chinese power. On the other hand, Henry was a prince who enjoyed more power. Unlike Zheng as a servant had lots of limitations on his actions and no independence in making decisions, Henry as a dominator had the domination to do anything he wanted. He was motivated by his own will that allowed him to do things in a more open-minded way. For example, he established navigational schools and funded private navigations, instead of personally lead those voyages as Zheng did. While Zheng have not religious reasons for sailing, Henry had strong religious aims of finding military allies to outflank the Moors by sea. In short, they had different motivations on began
Not only did he explore a variety of lands he also brought things back creating trade routes throughout Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. As Zheng He returned from his voyages he brought back goods and much tribute. We can see how Zheng He explored many lands as shown on the map in document A. We can also see that his voyages were long and did go up to 19000 miles’ roundtrip per voyage (doc A). This evidence proves that Zheng He must’ve been a good leader in order to successfully carry out 7 of these voyages and bringing back tributes like “local products, pepper, horses, and money” (doc D). This shows how the voyages actually benefited the emperor and proves that we would be celebrating something that included
Zheng He, an admiral of the 15th century, who sailed the Indian Ocean to make alliances for the Ming dynasty should not be celebrated because his actions were not essential to China. Although he did travel thousands of miles, he did not discover any new territory, so what makes him different from any other admiral? He had a crew of 27,500 people which was not necessary at all just for making alliances by giving gifts or repaying a gift. Also those 27,500 people could have been more resourceful in China than of those seven voyages. Since China was already the best out of the rest of the nations, there was no real reason to give gifts to foreign envoys especially since the Ming Dynasty became bankrupt because of these actions.
...aders usually offered tribute and emissaries to avoid conflict. This whole process preceded the colonialism practiced by the Europeans in years to come. The question begging to be answered here is, are Zheng He’s voyages deserving of celebration? In my opinion, I feel that we should acknowledge what he did, and continue to try to learn about the voyages. Just the fleet that he sailed across the world was remarkable; 255 huge ships, 27,500 people, and an astounding doctor-to-patient ratio of 1 to 151. Should Zheng He’s voyages be celebrated? Definitely not, he did not capitalize on the resources available to him. He cared too much about animals that weren't very beneficial, and essentially wasted precious time and money. We need to celebrate people that maximized the potential of their opportunities and actually got close, or achieved something truly great and useful.
Zheng He's first fleet included 27,870 men on 317 ships, including sailors, clerks, interpreters, soldiers, artisans, medical men and meteorologists. On board were large quantities of cargo including silk goods, porcelain, gold and silverware, copper utensils, iron implements and cotton goods. The fleet sailed along China's coast to Champa close to Vietnam and, after crossing the South China Sea, visited Java, Sumatra and reached Sri Lanka by passing through the Strait of Malacca. On the way back it sailed along the west coast of India and returned home in 1407. Envoys from Calicut in India and several countries in Asia and the Middle East also boarded the ships to pay visits to China. Zheng He's second and third voyages taken shortly after, followed roughly the same route.
Prince Henry of Portugal, more commonly known as Henry the Navigator, and Zheng He, a successful Chinese admiral, were both extremely accomplished men throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. During this era, many accomplished explorers ventured out into the ocean and discovered new lands, two of the most important men being Henry the Navigator and Zheng He. Although both men came from different backgrounds, their contrasting societies and structures affected the way in which they regarded economic and political expansion and also their contact with other cultures. Societies like the Chinese and Portuguese had many cultural differences such as their different religions. The Chinese practiced neo-Confucianism whereas the Portuguese were Christians which was one of the many purposes of their exploration, to spread Christianity. There were also many cultural similarities between the two societies such as their long lasting histories and their explorer’s curiosity to seek out to new lands, which resulted the two societies in having different views on economic and political expansion and contact with other cultures. Both Confucian and Christian ideologies favored those who worked over the wealthy. Thus, to a larger extent, the structures and values of a society have an extensive impact on the way people view economic and political expansion and contact with other cultures.
Zheng He worked his way up as eunuch to have high standing with the emperor. He traveled much of the Indian, Southeast Asian, Malaysian, and West African world. If it were not for Zheng He’s voyages, China would not have as large of a role in the history of oceanic travel and naval force. Zheng He’s fleet also is significant and makes one ponder how in that time they were able to produce such massive ships. Although Zheng He was not an explorer and his voyages were imperialistic, an intimidation tactic, and tributary relationship based, his expeditions were important to history, as is he. Our world would undoubtedly, be different if it were not for the voyages of Zheng
Francisco Pizarro served on an expedition, which he discovered the Pacific Ocean. Henry Hudson was an English Explorer born in 1565, he is known as one of the most famous explorers.
Christopher Columbus was a renaissance explorer in 1492. he was sent by queen Isabelle and king Ferdinand of Spain to look for a trade route to east Asia
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 political motivation to maintain the tributary system and his voyages had important political implication of causing Neo-Confucian opposition and suspension of the expedition.
Columbus was a very good speaker and very persuasive. He convinced the King and Queen of Spain to fund his expedition to “Asia” and he told about all the gold and spices that would be discovered there and how they would be wealthy.# Columbus told them his famous terms which stated that he would receive no less than one-tenth of all the wealth that would arrive from Asia through the new route, and not only wealth he had made on his expedition but for all the wealth made from all future expeditions.# Columbus did not want this to be limited to himself, but after he died the profits would continue on to his heir. He also wanted to have receive titles such of “viceroy” and “admiral of the ocean sea”. # This shows his amount of greed and how much he wanted to be known as someone with high power.
Zheng He is one of the biggest explorer of the world but unfortunately he is to one of the lesser known.
When he asked for the official records from the voyages of [Zheng He], the records were declared "lost" and his efforts were frustrated.” All records of these missions were suppressed in the Imperial Record in order to curb any other potential