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Zheng He

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Zheng He vs. Christopher Columbus When you hear the name Christopher Columbus the first thing that probably comes to your mind is that he was the one who founded America. However, if you actually do some research you will find out that he wasn’t the only one. Evidence shows that there was another man who discovered America seventy years before, Zheng He. He was a Chinese admiral during the Ming Dynasty, who also served as the Ming Dynasty Emperor and leader of seven voyages in the Indian Ocean. Christopher Columbus and Zheng He were both great travelers with great differences in their journey. Columbus’ story is one of great greed and domination while Zheng’s however one of a more noble cause. Very rarely, does the name Zheng He ever come up unless you’re in China. But he was a very important traveler in the world of discovery and he predates many of the more famous explorers. The purpose of his travel and explorations was to display the power of China while also creating better relations with other nations and setting up trade agreements in different parts of the world. One of the things that Zheng He’s voyages are known for is the size of the fleets that he commanded. In all, there were seven voyages headed up by Zheng He, including voyages to East Africa, India, and Arabia. Zheng He and his expedition exemplified the highest level of ancient Chinese propriety in terms of foreign trade. Zheng’s voyage stimulated and inspired the development of overseas trade. His journey had a double-edged effect as those who traveled and returned brought back their positive experiences from other nations and helped to positively influence the lives of a great number of people. The people that Zheng He met felt very comfortable with him. He gave gifts to the people in return the people gave him goods for his trip back to China. Not only was he an explorer but also an official ambassador with a powerful wealthy fleet, he met the leaders and merchants of these places. Zheng He used many different kinds of advanced technologies to make his great trips. One of the things he developed to help with navigation was celestial fixing, a system of navigation by looking at stars. Being Muslim and a eunuch in a Eurocentric Judeo-Christian world made Zheng He's revolutionary accomplishments invisible outside Asia. Zheng He had the most powerful navy force established. His great voyages are the magnificent landmarks not only in China’s political and diplomatic history but also in navigational channels of the world. Moreover, after discussing Zheng He and his travels and can see the differences he had from Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus was an explorer and navigator who was sent by King Ferdinand of Spain to find a shorter route to Asia. Columbus promised to bring back gold, spices, silk, spread Christianity, and explore China. He also has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization. After the success of finding this new land, Columbus set sail west again on September 23, 1493 with 17 ships and 1,200 men. The purpose of this journey was to establish colonies in the name of Spain, check on the crew at Navidad, and continue his search for riches in what he still thought was the Far East. He made four different voyages. Christopher Columbus met a lot of different people on his journey. The groups of native people incorrectly labeled “Indians” by Columbus were actually a diverse mix of different tribes which spanned the islands of the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The people Columbus encountered are known as the Tainos. After European colonization the Tainos people became slaves and eventually were forced to leave the lands. For years mariners determined their latitudinal direction by following the east to west advancement of the sun and by tracking the movement of the stars at night, until Christopher Columbus’s explorations. As the voyagers traveled farther distances, they relied on a variety of both new and existing navigational tools to help them reach their destinations safely like: the compass, the astrolabe, and the cross staff. By the time Christopher Columbus set sail in 1492, the Doctrine of Discovery was a well-established idea in the Christian world. When he reached the Americas, Columbus performed a ceremony to take possession of all lands discovered. Columbus and Zheng were both great explorers who travels helped to establish the world to what we know today. Their travels can be compared and ridiculed but there is no denying the impact they had on the world.

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