China's Treasure Fleets

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In Class Essay For the last 2000 years China has been one of the main world powers. They had a more sophisticated and developed government than all of the other world powers at the time. When it was so clear that they were the most developed for many years it is interesting why they didn’t “rule the waves” as the Europeans did. There are many arguments as to why China turned away from oceanic exploration, but I believe that it was an internal problem. Any historian would agree that the European were much more successful explores than the Chinese, but the same historians would disagree on the reason for China’s lack of expansion across the ocean. During the early 14th century China had a very strong and fast growing economy. Their economy was growing so fast that China had to create “…the world’s first paper money...”(Pomeranz/Topik). This raises the question…show more content…
It was because the Ming turned inward, but why did they? There are a couple reasons that contribute to the Ming’s isolation. The first would be the Mongolians in the North. The Ming was in a constant power struggle with the Mongolians, which required lots of manpower and military funding. The Treasure fleet cost lots of money for the Chinese government, and did not make any money. When it was deconstructed the Ming had more money to use internally on issues such as “agricultural production, internal stability, military buildup, and colonization at the edges of the Central Asian steppe, and the refurbishment of the Great wall..”(The Tactics of Transport). This was an important reason, but another was Chinas view towards the rest of the world. They saw themselves as sophisticates and self-dependent versus the rest of the world who were uncivilized barbarians. This made the Chinese more resistant towards funding the Treasure fleet, which had nothing to offer them from their point of
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