When China Ruled The Seas Essay Research

When China Ruled The Seas Essay, Research Paper

The situation, technology and resourses of China all came together to help the Ming Dynasty to launch the seven voyages. The timing was perfact for the launch of the voyages. The Ming Dynasty was the responsible party for reclaiming the rule of China, under the Chinese people. The Chinese looked at the Mongol rule in China as an insult to the power and greatness of their land. China had a history, a culture and traditions that the Chinese felt were superior to the rest of the world. So when the Mongol s surpassed them by conquering China and making it part of its huge empire, China could only mend the past by securing the future. This was the job of Zheng He, a chinese admril appointed to command the fleet of ships that would make China s presense in the world respected again. He was appointed by Zhu Di, the grandson of the fifth ming emperor, to do this great job.

The collection of events and technology that came together at the right time made the explorations by sea seem like a perfect outlet for the re-establishment of Chinese superiorty on the world. China had the invention of the compass to their name and a device like this helped them to have full controll of the seas. The compass greatly changed the accuracy of navagation, hence the Chinese waisted less time getting to their destinations. Not only did the Chinese sail the seas well but they had the best ships for the job. Chinese ship building technology was years ahead of the closest european competitor. Their ships were bigger and more effecient for carring poeple and things to trade. The ships sizes stood alone as an acomplishment of technology, the closeset ship in size next to it was only one fifth the size of the Chinese ship. The resources for making the ships was also an abundant substance in China at the time, so the cost of the ships was not as expensive as it would be in later years once the resources were depleated. The economy was also taking a turn for the better in the because of the silver mining industry. Many of the oldd mines that were previously closed had been reopened and a flood of wealth cam into the Dynasty s possestion, they in turn spent a lot of it in order to let it run through the ecomony. A good portion of the money had been spent on the hsips required for the journey. In all Zheng He fleet consisted of 317 ships carring 28,000 armend men. This massive collection of power was ment to strike fear and more importantly respect into those that they came in contact with. Although Zheng He did not bring the army for any real uses he did use the army in Ceylon, to settle a political dispute in the region. This helped to build a reputation for the strenght of the Chinese army. The reputation was also established throughout the Indian Ocean for the new saftey that the Chinese navy established. Zheng he got rid of many of the pirates that were responsible for the loss of the merchants revenues. This was one of the main purposes for the launch of the expiditions, showing the world the glory and power of China.

The voyages were not ment for colonization of forgien lands, the motovations for the voyage was dipolmacy and forgine relations. Zheng He also established trading posts in many of the places he visited. These posts had wearhouses that merchants could use to store their goods untill they could sell them. Zheng He also setup a serires of courier stations that Chinese merchants could rest at, the stations were about one day s journey apart from each other so that over night stayes could be easier for traders and travlers. This helped to improve the economy of China by making trading easier for the merchants. It also helped to spread the Chinese influence on the world, because many Chinese moved abrod to work in the all of the newly established businesses and wearhouses. In fact whole communties of chinese moved to places like Java to help with the trade and traffic.

The publice relations that Zheng He did on this trip showed the world the power and benevolence of China and esspically the Emperor of China. When countries saw the power of China they paied their respect by giving presents to the Emperor that were not found in China. Zheng He took back presents like a giraffe for the for Emperor s collection od exotice things. Others paid hommage by giving him gifts of Value like gold or jewerly. These exotic things that Zheng He brought to China exploded on the luxury trade market. All the of the upper class of China wanted and animal, spice or plant not native to China. The luxury trade became a symbol for the upper class of China.

Dimplomacy was another reason fo the expeditions of Zheng He. Zheng He travled to many countries to create friendly ties with leaders of the other nations. In many of the countries Zheng He established such good relations that he opened up a embassy like office to repesent China in the region. In 1914 Persian decided to open up their own embassy in main land China. This is a good reflection of the inntentions of the Chinese government at the time. The Emperor wanted other countries to rever China as a center for trade and culture. Zheng He did not only want to display China s greatness but was also intressed int he cultures of other countries. He kept a journal of the things he saw and the traditions of other people. Just as Zheng He asked questions and tried to learn about the lands and ways