Why we don’t Celebrate the Voyages of Zheng He.
Did you know that in 1381 of Ma He’s childhood, Ma He (Zheng He) was the only Mongol to be held in China before he was taken prisoner to the Ming Dynasty? This meant that he had to join the armies by thousands of eunuchs who were held in part by the government. Ma He as a young man gained high in rank with the trust of Emperor Yongle. Thus, Emperor Yongle gave him power, wealth, loyalty, with the noble name of “Zheng He.” One day the emperor told him to obtain an enormous mission. He was told to lead several ships from Nanjing, China to Mombasa crossing all the seas that follow. He chose to share the idea of the voyages to Zheng He because he wanted him to explore new acreage and to establish
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Dreyer)]. If the voyage sailed a long distance many times, what did they see? What were some of the accomplishments? We cannot figure out most of these questions because the records were destroyed (document A). The ships were also significantly big. If there were records, we could have imagined a day in the ships being a doctor, soldier, captain, etc. [document B(Illustration from When China Ruled, Zheng He’s treasure ship (440 ft) and Christopher Columbus’s Santa Maria (85 ft))]. Why were these valuable records destroyed? Was there a conflict with opposing lands? If there was a conflict I see no reason why the records were destroyed if there was huge space for the soldiers to settle to guard the ship with the records [document C (Chart of Zheng He’s Fleet By the Numbers Illustration of Zheng He’s ship from Edward L.
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 first reason for celebration of Zheng He's voyages is his distance and destination. In 7 voyages he traveled over 105,300 miles. Examples of some places and distance he traveled was
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,
In 1271, Marco Polo’s father and uncle, both merchants from Europe, were requested to return to China for the second time by the Mongol Emperor, Kublai Khan. The purpose of the request made by the Great Khan (Kublai) was to bring back to the Mongol court some holy oil from Jerusalem and “a hundred men of learning, thoroughly acquainted with the principles of the Christian religion” (Polo 7) to convince the Mongols to convert to Christianity. Marco Polo joined his father and uncle for this second journey to the East. As part of this journey, Polo traveled throughout regions of the Middle East and Central Asia before reaching the final destination. Further, while working for Kublai Khan in China, he was sent on many inspection tours which allowed him to explore most of the provinces of China. In all the regions that were visited along the way, and more so in the case of the Mongol Empire, there was a distinct disparity in the culture as compared to Polo’s native land. Moreover, Marco Polo’s religious disposition towards Christianity set him apart from the people of the region –the Tartars—who , according to the Kublai Khan, where worshippers of “evil spirits” (Polo 7). These factors placed Marco Polo in the position of an “outsider” as defined by Hage, i.e. “someone who does not experience either socio-cultural or political belonging. It is someone whose mental and bodily dispositions have evolved somewhere else and thus feels culturally ‘out of place’.
According to Doc A, he went 105,300 miles all together. His ship and crew were much larger than Columbus’s. Doc B says Zheng He’s ship was 315 feet bigger than the Santa Maria. Doc C states that there were many different types of people on the ship, such as doctors, soldiers, fortune tellers, sailors, servants, horse groomers, and many more. Zheng He has the largest fleet of wooden ships in the world. Finally, in Doc D, it shows that his voyages were a valuable trading opportunity.
My name is Noverod and I am a Mongol soldier under Genghis Khan. I have decided to write this journal to capture all my journeys and conquests in order to keep track of my achievements and success. The Khan has ordered us to make war against China in order to gain their wealth and power. Despite the great geographical obstacles of China, we have found ways around them. We will be using horse – borne ways of travel in order to go across large distances and many different terrains. We want to try to exploit and dominate all sedentary peoples, and we have the ambition to do so. Genghis Khan came up with this grand idea after we conquered the Tartars, and thought about the wealth and power we could gain as a tribe. At first, his conquests were an act of vengeance against the people that caused him great pain during his childhood, but then, he thought bigger and better. Ah. Atlas tis is the day Mongols make history. We shall start traveling in a week’s time. I feel as if I will miss being here in the steppe with my family; but at the same time I want to help conquer the great lands of China and expand the land for our people due to the great climate change that has occurred here. This caused many of our crops to fail, and it was harder to maintain all the living livestock in our region. If we shall conquer the great lands of China, imagine all the vast land and grazing animals we shall have once we overtake this pity region. I have heard the Yangtze River
In 1405, Zheng He was asked by his emperor, Zhu Di, to be commander on the Treasure fleet to set sail for Calicut to purchase spices, Throughout his career on the Treasure fleets he traveled to southern Vietnam, Thailand, Melaka, and Java. A Treasure fleet is a fleet of trading ships, warships, and support vessels that would travel across the South China Sea and Indian Ocean. These fleets were a big change because China’s isolationist policy had forbidden foreign trade and travel. The goal of these fleets was to demonstrate his glory to foreign countries and for people to recognize China as the one and only center of power and culture. His seven expeditions helped achieve this goal, so many of the states the he visited acknowledged China’s power by sending gifts and diplomats to the emperor’s court.
The mode of transportation was a huge outrigger canoe that was at the mercy of the ocean. The navigator, tracked time-honored information taken from the stars, from ocean swells, clouds, birds and other signs with only never-ending ocean surrounding the canoe.
Are many reasons why the voyages of Zheng He were very remarkable. One reason is the size of everything on the voyages, the distance he traveled, the fleet size, and the measurements and crew of the ship. His voyages consisted of sailing from port to port along the Indian Ocean. Also, everywhere he went he distributed gifts to show how superior China was, and as a result, over sixteen countries sent tribute to the Ming
Zheng He voyages were so remarkable due to the size of everything. Zheng traveled many miles, had a huge fleet, and the ships were massive. Zheng traveled from Southeast Asia to Eastern Africa. On each expedition there was between 40-300 ships including fighting ships, storage vessels, and "treasure" ships that could be up to 400 feet long! Zhengs crew was more than 27,000 people, including sailors, soliders, carpenters, interpreters, accountants, doctors, and religious leaders. All in all Zhengs voyages were so remarkable due to the size of everything needed for their
Zheng He was born in 1371 in Yunnan. Zheng was originally named Ma He, but his name was changed about 13 years later to Zheng He by the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di. Even though Zheng He’s father was of Persian Muslim ancestry, he was a minor official in the Mongol Empire (Brown). Since Zheng He’s father and grandfather made the pilgrimage to Mecca, it sparked Zheng’s interest in the outside world. In 1381, the Mongol Empire was defeated and the Ming Dynasty was established. During the battle between the Mongols and the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army invaded Yunnan and Zheng He was taken as a prisoner at ten years old. Zheng He was sent to the Imperial Palace in Nanjing, where he was castrated, as a eunuch, and forced to serve the emperor’s
The voyages of Zheng He were remarkable due to scale, effort, significance, and genius. His expeditions were remarkable for their size. Everything about them was large—distances traveled, fleet size, and ship measurements. From 40 to 300 ships sailed in each expedition. Zheng He's voyages were also remarkable for the distances he traveled. The voyages ranged from Southeast Asia to eastern Africa. In conclusion, those are some of the reasons why Zheng He's voyages were so remarkable.
Zheng He made seven voyages that were extremely remarkable in many ways. The most remarkable thing about Zheng He's expeditions was the size. Everything about his expeditions was gigantic. First, the distance they traveled was thousands of miles, ranging from Southwest Asia to Eastern Africa. Next, the fleet size was huge, that contained anywhere from 40 ships to 300 ships. Finally, the ship's size was humongous. Zheng He had some ships that were only 85 feet, but on the contrary, most of his ships were 400 feet long. In addition, ships this length also required a large crew. The crews numbered over 27,000 on some voyages. Crews included sailors, soldiers, carpenters, interpreters, accountants, doctors, and religious leaders. In conclusion,
Who was Zheng he was an explorer. And a great leader. In The next three paragraph I will be telling you why Zheng he’s voyages should be celebrated.
His father and uncle are well-known Far East traders, but also Catholics. They set out east in 1255 and did not want to go to China at the beginning. But all the way to war, in 1264 met the Yuan Dynasty sent to the West of the messenger, decided to China. In 1266, the two brothers arrived in Yuan Dadu, see Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan wrote a letter to the Pope, the Tuo Bo Luo brothers back to Rome, the Pope sent to the Yuan Dynasty, told the Yuan Dynasty about the European way of