Summary of Zheng- He :: essays research papers

Zheng He was a Moslem eunuch who served as a close confidant of the Yongle Emperor of mainland China during the Ming Dynasty.He went on voyages to S appearheast Asia, Sumatra, Java, Ceylon, India, Persia, Persian Gulf, Arabia, the red sea Egypt, and the Mozambique Channel. The good turn of his voyages vary depending on method of division, but he travelled at least seven times to The Western Ocean with his fleet. The fleet comprised 30,000 hands and seventy ships at its height. He brought back to China many trophies and envoys from much than thirty kingdoms including King Alagonakkara of Ceylon, who came to China to apologize to the Emperor. Life magazine ranked Zheng He the 14th most important person of the last millennium.In 1405, Zheng was chosen to lead the outsizegest naval expedition in history up to that time. Over the next 28 years (1405-1433), he commanded seven fleets that visited 37 countries, through Southeast Asia to farawayaway Africa and Arabia. In those years, C hina had by far the biggest ships of the time. In 1420 the Ming navy dwarfed the combined navies of Europe.A great fleet of big ships, with nine masts and manned by 500 workforce, each set travel in July 1405, half a century before Columbuss voyage to America. in that location were great treasure ships over 300-feet long and 150-feet wide, the biggest being 440-feet long and 186-across, loose of carrying 1,000 passengers. Most of the ships were built at the Dragon Bay shipyard near Nanjing, the trunk of which can still be seen today.Zheng Hes first fleet included 27,870 men on 317 ships, including sailors, clerks, interpreters, soldiers, artisans, medical men and meteorologists. On board were large quantities of committal including silk goods, porcelain, gold and silverware, copper utensils, iron implements and cotton goods. The fleet sailed along Chinas seacoast to Champa close to Vietnam and, after crossing the South China Sea, visited Java, Sumatra and reached Sri Lanka by issue through the Strait of Malacca. On the way back it sailed along the atomic number 74 coast of India and returned home in 1407. Envoys from Calicut in India and several countries in Asia and the core East also boarded the ships to pay visits to China. Zheng Hes second and third voyages taken dead after, followed roughly the same route.In the fall of 1413, Zheng He set out with 30,000 men to Arabia on his fourth and most ambitious voyage.