when china ruled the seas
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 nava
During all of the expedtions of Zheng He he made it his personal duty to collect records of the things he witnessed and things he saw. One of his greater acomplishments was the fact that he mapped out the routs and places he visted. This gave the world for the first time a picture of what the earth looked like. After the death of Zheng He China had already tried out their paitence with the expeditions. The Confucians were so happy to be rid of the burden of the expeditions that it wanted to get back to its former policy of isolationism. All the records with the excption of a few were destroyed at the same time Zhu Di the major supporter of the martime expedtions was replaced by another emperor who's main goal was to save the economyof China. Within China Zheg He did not make the lasting impact that he should have. All of his acomplishments and glory that he could have brought to the name of China was given up for the benifits of reform. 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 of the people he visited, others became intrested in the ways of China. This was the vision of Zhu Di the Emperor of China at the time. 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. The voyages were not ment for colonization of forgien lands, the motovations for the voyage was dipolmacy and forgine relations. Zheng He also e
Some common words found in the essay are:
Zhu Di, Indian Ocean, China Confucian, Zheng Zheng, Grand Cannal, China Zheg, China Chinese, China Zheng, China Instead, Zheng China, zhu di, money spent, power china, confucian community, upper class china, chinese ship, relations zheng, land china, world china, standard living, zheng established,
Approximate Word count = 1819
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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