Zheng He - His Travels
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A hundred years before Christopher Columbus or Vasco Da Gama sailed the high seas to discover new sea routes and new continents along the way, there was a most unique man who ventured from China to Africa in a fleet of vessels of incredible proportions.
Zheng He was not of Chinese origin but a Muslim Mongol born in the Central Asian province of Yunnan, far away from any port and any seafaring environment. In 1382 the Chinese overthrew the Mongols and Zheng He was abducted and brought to the imperial court of prince Zhu Di as an eunuch. He rose to one of the top advisors after he helped to topple Zhu Yunwenand. Zhu Di became the Yongle Emperor.
An era of knowledge, trade and discovery began. The Yongle emperor built a fleet of 300 wooden ships which dwarfed easily the kind of vessels Europeans had built to conquer the oceans. Apart from the huge treasure ships, there were water ships, that carried tanks with drinking water and fish. Ships with earth to grow vegetables as a provender for the up to 28′000 crewmen. Ships which held the horses for the military. Hospital ships, too.
Unlike the travels of the Conquistadores, who were sent out to rob the riches of the newly discovered continent America, the fleet of Zheng He was chiefly designed to establish trade relations with the regions they sailed to and were a very expensive endeavor for China. The Chinese vessels were treasure ships insofar as they held treasures to give away to the foreign countries to establish trade relations and to bring back whatever gifts were sent from those foreign countries. However, Zheng He never hesitated to use the overwhelming military force if he felt it was necessary. The sea-routes were infested with pirates and the impressive military prowess of Zheng He’s fleet soon put an end to that.
After a sequence of natural disasters the new emperor Hongxi felt China could no longer afford to keep this fleet and it swiftly fell to ruin. Only one new trip, the seventh, was made under Hongxi’s successor the Xuande emperor to reestablish peaceful relationships with Malacca and Thailand. But China ultimately lost its status as a world superpower and chose isolation instead. Zheng He’s logs were destroyed and until the 1930’s next to nothing was known about this fascinating Chapter in naval history.
Sources:
Wikipedia
Chinapage
Hyperhistory
And the following documentary
3 Comments
July 8, 2009 at 8:56 am
This is actually one of the options I offermy marine students as a research topic when we cover the historical oceanography stuff. I just hope I had been aboard in a past live and just can’t recall it. Cool adventures are cool….
July 8, 2009 at 9:02 am
Fantastic, EV! I love learning new things.
I’ll have to save the documentary for later, but I really look forward to seeing it!
July 8, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Thanks Zooey and db, I knew you’d like it. The documentary is lengthy, but fascinating.
Comments are closed.